Friday 4 July 2014

The phenomenal Finish Along 2014 second quarter

I still cannot believe just how much I got finished this quarter!

Do pinch me, one of you, but not too hard!  Ouch!

The last month of the last quarter showed me the way as I sneaked four finishes into one month!

I thought what if I did that over the three months?

Well as you know from earlier today I didn't manage that in June but here is what I did do - just in case you have forgotten...

Farmer's Wife gets Pizza



Would you believe I used a (clean) pizza base to draw circles on my quilt and filled them in with quilting but only in the white sashing and setting squares?   

The quilting appears to go behind my quilt blocks - an idea picked up from a quilting Craftsy class with Cindy Needham - she insists you need to quilt in every ditch and by gritting my teeth I did just about every single one - no mean feat in those pieced blocks but after doing that the rest was made much easier....


Round and Round the Garden (an original design by me!)


Mama bear watches from above while baby bear wanders round the garden.  Great quilt for using up those bonus HSTs and fun to fussy cut the squares!  (note to self: write up a pattern before you forget how to make this one!)


Our House in the Middle of our Street - Wonky house quilt mainly put together from swap blocks and backed in a beautiful soft needlecord.  I went Quilt as you Go with this one thinking (rightly) that the cord would make it heavy to work with.



























Charm quilt - another I got help with, this time from my Scrappy? Sew Bee it mates!  I love all the colours and the spiral quilting worked out well!  






Moving Mountains - made using this tutorial on Bonnie Hunter's awesome Quiltville website.  (Loads of tutorials and information there!) 


I just used a different layout going for a more modern look and borrowing an idea from the lovely and creative Charlotte I added lots of tiny triangles to the background.  Then quilted it using ammonites as my inspiration.   



Konaville

Oh I could live here!  My Kona colour chart with background fabrics relating to school subjects



Vintage Squares - really need a better name for my favourite quilt ever! 

This began as a propeller block quilt but I got bored making those blocks and so I ended up using them as the background.  I added 12" vintage blocks from Jan Halgrimson's out of print books and added a skinny border to make it all fit!   The edges of my on point blocks are finished off with scrappy strippy setting triangles.

The backing - Vintage Happy Circles - was a gift from the lovely Fluffy Sheep that is Cindy - well part giveaway, part loyalty points! 

Did I tell you this is my favourite quilt I've made so far!??




Cosmic Flare - another bee quilt - my Modern Stitching Bee mates helped with this one.  The coloured pieced triangles are Arrowhead blocks by Wendy Hill from the Modern Blocks book compiled by Suzanne Woods.  I then added complimentary triangles and stars were born!  These make up very big hexagon blocks so my bee mates each made a half block!



I added extra wadding behind the stars for some machine trapunto and extra puff!  The background is more densely quilted to look like the cosmic wind ...well that's my story!


Books for Me! (not babies)

And last but by no means least - my precious Star of Africa
bee quilt - transforming my treasured bee blocks with the books for babies pattern from Ayumi's great book Patchwork Please!  



Nine quilts finished in one quarter!  And thirteen in the year so far...



I only have seven projects on my FAL list left! This is how they stand...

Friendship Garden - I've pieced the backing

Hexy Big Balls - I have the backing for this one - just needs to be pieced together

Oakshott Heart - no progress

Stingy Bee Plus - it's huge and I have lots to do to piece the back of this one - no progress yet

Dancing Tulips - all current blocks pieced together - just got to decide what next!  Looks like this at the moment...




Sewing words - Done quite a bit of paper piecing pictures to go with the words I received from my Sew & Bee Happy bee mates but still quite a bit to go ...just to get the top finished! 






Vintage Circles - good progress on this one - it's up on the wall at the moment but joining up the bits is not going to be a picnic. 

I seem to be enjoying making life difficult for myself ....oh well learning lots along the way...





And that's it for this quarter!  Phew!  

New quarter to look forward to and new list to come!  Bring it on Q3.

Linking up with Queen Katy!

Finish Along 2014

24 comments:

  1. Amazing finishes each and every one!

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  2. Wow! You really had the pedal to the metal on your sewing machine this quarter, Nicky, completing oodles of gorgeousness. Well done!

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  3. Please send some of those quilt finishing vibes over to Suffolk!
    I haven't got quite as many as you to finish though.......

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  4. Two words. Bloody and hell! The thing is, it's not just the sheer volume of work its the HIGH quality of what you produce that is so astounding. I take my hat off to you, I really do. Magic!!

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  5. I am in awe. So much beauty in all you make. You deserve to win multiple prizes in the FAL.

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  6. Totally inspiring! You deserve to win loads in the FAL draw for awesome finishing!

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  7. Oh my! You put me to shame!! So amazing all the work you did. Congrats on all the gorgeous finishes. Yea one day I will catch up on my work too.. it just won't be this year that's all LOL!

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  8. It really has been a phenomenal quarter for you! Yay for all the great finishes! I think the house quilt is one of my favorites. Reminds me a bit of one I've seen on the net from the 30's or so. I'm anticipating seeing your progress on the Vintage Circles! Keep up the great work.:) It might actually inspire me to finish something!

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  9. you could show those quilts every week and I would not tire of looking at all your loveliness!!
    well done.

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  10. What stunning quilts and all so different. I cannot decide which I like the best but might just plump for Moving Mountains!

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  11. I think I'll send a sexy fireman to put you out...... On fire girl keep it up, I suppose you will be showing all these off at the retreat?

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  12. Still speechless...................except I think you deserve a special award!

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  13. Actually this is a reason to either kick you of the Lazy bums or make you the queen to encourage us! you really rock! Amazing finishes! keep going,,, pinch

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  14. Wow. Those are some serious finishes and all beautiful. Well done!

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  15. hats off, caps doffed, three cheers and a hip hip hooray! you my dear, have amazed and sickened me in equal measure....sickened only cos omg it would take me a quarter to do half of just one of those!!! they are all really awesome. konaville is a particular fave of mine. ooooh and round and round the garden.... all wonderful missus, bloody well done!

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  16. Wow! What a list of fab finishes, they're all brilliant

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  17. Oh good, that less than gentle toe up your arse worked ;o) Or was that the incentive to be able to start new things I wonder... :oD

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  18. Well Smartypants............well done (very green over here!)

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  19. Amazing Nicky, well done!! I think my favourite is konaville but the are all fabulous

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  20. Well done!!!!! So that's seven projects left and then I can stop standing over you like a stern teacher and making you concentrate on your work, yes?!

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  21. Your photos of these finishes are all stunning, how busy you have been this quarter!

    I am with Cindy when it comes to quilting in every ditch ,,, and those bear paws are a great idea for HSTs ... must remember that for later. Well done on all your finishes Nicky!

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  22. I need to go and Kay down in a dark room - I'm exhausted just reading that lot !!! Fab finishes, and good luck with the next list!

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  23. Amazing all your finishes this year. I'm thinking 2013 was more of a starting new projects year, and 2015 will be too! I love your creative idea for drawing circles and quilting inside them but not on the pieced blocks. I would never think of that.

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