Sunday 1 June 2014

My May in Fabric

I have been on a mission of late!   To finish all my UFOs and in March and April I managed to finish four quilts in each month!  I was happy with that.  I was well on my way to achieving my goal!

But this month I have beaten even this target!

Fifth month of the year and five finishes to share with you this fine Fresh Sewing Day!


Lily's Quilts



This one is Moving Mountains, made from a Bonnie Hunter tutorial and has ammonite inspired quilting.  The backing is one of my favourite prints Mystic Traveller




Meet Konaville, my Kona colour chart of schoolhouse blocks. All the background fabrics are school subject based - my favourite being the chemistry lab!  The backing is Just My Type Letterpress.



This quilt is my so far favourite quilt - I love the complexity of all the blocks in the background and the large blocks edged in a mini sashing.  Put your blocks on point and it always looks so much more complicated.  The edges are finished with strip pieced setting triangles and the quilt is backed in Happy Vintage White Circles. Quilted simply in the ditch because I reckoned it didn't need anything more!   

The blocks are propeller blocks as background and the large 12" blocks are taken from books by Jan Halgrimson - now out of print but great resources for something a bit different if you can cope with templates and minimal or no instructions.  I sort of like puzzling it out myself!




The next quilt is a bee quilt made with the help of my Modern Stitches bee.  This is my first attempt at trapunto - I added an extra layer of wadding behind my stars and lightly quilted those and did cosmic quilting in the background.  The backing I used on this quilt is an Echino linen/cotton mix and one that picks up the colours in my top.  I used my #Aurifil 28 in lots of colours to match the stars and different greys in the background and had invisible thread in the bobbin.

Really pleased with how it turned out both front and back!


  

And here is my fifth finish...another bee quilt.  My bee mates in the Star of Africa bee excelled themselves in making their blocks for me - based on a book character from their country.  I set them using Ayumi's Books for Baby pattern from her book Patchwork Please!  This gives my books a bit of a 3D feel and the background relates in some way to the books as if something has escaped ....!  Maybe I've channeled Cornelia Funke's Inkheart too much here!?



  
I really love all the different personalities of block and maker that I see in this small quilt.  My block is Long John Silver representing Scotland of course.  I added a few more books with reading related quotes inked on them as titles: 

A child who reads grows up to be an adult who thinks! (Helen gave me this one but doesn't claim to be the originator)
Reading gives us somewhere to go when we have to stay where we are (Mason Cooley)
To learn to read is to light a fire (Victor Hugo)
There is no friend as loyal as a book ( E Hemmingway)


For backing I didn't have any piece of fabric set aside so decided to piece a back and then to embellish it with machine appliqued letters: 

read lots read more! 

Okay less eloquent than the others but you get my meaning and you can quote me on that!





Enjoy visiting a few new blogs and a few familiar ones and I hope you find time for a bit of stitching too!


Finish Along 2014

34 comments:

  1. I honestly don't know how you do it? I need to have some of whatever you are taking, even if it is lots of coffee and little sleep! Tell me- do you keep all your quilts?

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  2. Amazing work Nicky! They are all so fantastic :)

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  3. WOW!!! So many finishes. LOVE your school house blocks.

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  4. Are you under your limit yet? :oD

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  5. AMAZING!!! Your vintage block quilt is so incredible and I think my favourite ever! What a month :)

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  6. You are a whirlwind! They are all fantastic.

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  7. Incredible how much you've got done this month, and all so thought through and beautifully finished.

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  8. another magnificent month!!
    Love your book quilt and the backing is perfect.

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  9. Wow Nicky! What an amazing output and all so wonderful

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  10. What stunning finishes!! I love them all, but your Konaville is my favourite, I've loved seeing them made on ig and they have become such a perfect quilt!

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  11. All those lovely quilts! How do you manage that????

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  12. Nicky, seriously, how do you do this?! Hang on, you don't have a 5 year old and a 1 year old do you???? That must help with the sewing time! Awesome work. Just astounding. Have you seen auriful have featured you on their fb page today?

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  13. You are amazing, I know I read about most of these as you went but somehow I missed that they all finished in May. Each one is wonderful too.

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  14. Five finishes is an amazing achievement - well done!

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  15. wow Nicky, every month is even better !!! bravo

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  16. How many left then? Please say you got permission from the boss up north to start new stuff. You are wonderwoman!

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  17. It's great to see the finished quilts after bits and flashes on Instagram

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  18. Oh well done! I really love the star of Africa blocks x

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  19. Great to have so many finishes. I bet you feel like a superstar!! Love the schoolhouse one.:)

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  20. Ridiculous amount of quilts, but all amazing. My favourite has to be the trapunto quilt but they are all so clever in their own way. BTW, I would have spun these out in to 5 blog posts!

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  21. I think I might be speechless.

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  22. You're a machine I tell 'ya, a machine! Jxo

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  23. Stunning quilts. My favourite has to be the schoolhouse though. I think that one can go on my to do list xxx

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  24. all fabulous and you are the whisper (or shout) in my ear to remind me I should be doing the same ;-)

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  25. What beautiful Fabulous work ! New follower from Texas USA, Hopping over from the Small Blog meet, Please stop by my blog, I have a giveaway going on,

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  26. So many beautiful quilts. I reckon you don't sleep........!!!!!

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  27. Fabulous......go girl!! (Does this mean six finishes in June???)

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  28. Stunning! Each and every one. Fantastic month for you - great job!

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  29. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  30. Such a productive month for you! Well done.

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  31. I think you need to take a bow and you surely deserve an award for all this WIP finishing!!

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  32. I have so enjoyed seeing your progress on IG-- and now I get to see all of your quilts together :) These are wonderful -- You've been working hard!!

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