Oldest UFO finished!

This is the oldest quilt I have started and not finished!  

Well to be more accurate part of it is!

I started making the EPP rosestar blocks way back in March 2012, using the EPP tutorial by Clare aka selfsewn.   I made about fourteen and Lucy made one for me too!

Then I decided I could not make a whole quilt of them!  I just don't enjoy EPP enough and then there would be the boring bits inbetween too. It just wasn't going to happen.

So I started combining them with these blocks.    These are two of my favourites ...

When I added them to the background fabric I spaced them out more and added these - which I took from Jen Kingwell's Georgetown on my mind pattern.

And ended up with this huge top!  

It seems to have stayed at this stage for a long while.   I couldn't decide how to quilt it!

But now I am quilting in the ditch for the blocks and doing random FMQ in the background!

It is a huge and heavy quilt for me to quilt on my domestic machine so thank goodness for that Horn table I got last year!  It makes such a difference having my machine set in!

I have been doing a little bit of quilting everday for over a week now and I'm pleased to say....

....it is finished!  

I should have tidied up a bit!

and a panoramic slice across the quilt - playing with the things my camera can do...

Sigh!  I'm really quite pleased with this!  Not quite sure what to call it - working title was Vintage Circles - anybody think of something better?

I'll be linking this up to FAL2016 when the time comes!  

This one is on my FAL2016 list here

Fruity Polo Quilt Finished

I love this quilt.


It has many of my favourite things.


It has bright colours.


It has hand pieced hexies.


It has FMQ - lots of it!

The hexagons have a variety of FMQ patterns in them, which I extended and enlarged in the border!

The whole thing....

A beauty shot....

The back of the quilt

And that rolled up shot with a pink dotty binding...

I started this quilt after a workshop with Carolyn Forster using her Kaleidoscope Hexagon pattern.  It is made from scraps, with a border in Moda Cerise, backing in Klona, and quilted using Aurifil thread.  It is 74" x 78".


I'd like to end there but the truth is there are a few problems with the back of this quilt...

Boo hoo!


This is my final project in the FAL list!  All done and on time!  Third quarter here we come!

Last of the FAL projects round 2!

I stuck my hand up to complete 4 projects for this round of Rhonda's Finish-along!

I have completed three but think one doesn't really count as it is only a finished top and not a finished quilt but that will be sorted out in the next round I hope!


So I have less than a week and one project to finish!


I have been putting this one off a bit ....shall I tell you why?


I love this quilt and really didn't want to spoil it with awful quilting!   


I started quilting it a couple of days ago....




I am FMQing it - to death !  Or what some poeple might call custom quilting it...!


Now I looked in my gorgeous case of Aurifil threads and bravely  foolhardishly chose one that would show up - a lot!  Still it didn't seem too bad at the start on the dark coloured hexagons

But I don't like the look on these!

So a change of top thread colour gave me this

Which I am happy with ....pity I quilted seven hexies in the dark colour before I decided on the colour change!  Oh well my unpicker and I will become good friends soon but not till I quilt the rest of it!


Here is the back

Will I finish by Staurday?  Well that remains to be seen....


Wish me luck then!

Just in Time!

Here is my entry to the fabulous Blogger's Quilt Festival run by Amy of amyscreativeside !

This is my first entry and it is just hot of the sewing machine!


For those of you new to my blog I posted about this quilt yesterday but I still had borders to quilt and the binding to put on!  I didn't believe I could finish in time ....but this is the lesson this quilt has taught me - believe you can and you will!

It started with a workshop in November 2009 with Carolyn Forster!


I finished the top but was daunted by it's size - how was I ever going to quilt something that big??

It sat on a shelf until I got stuck into it this month - working from the middle to the outside edge - machine quilting it. 


I am fairly new to Free Motion Machine Quilting and just started back in September 2011 - practicing over six weeks with Cindy at Fluffy Sheep  on a virtual meet up for FMQ Friday!  To begin with my FMQ was pretty dire....

But with practice I got more confident and tried bigger and bigger things to quilt - so this is the biggest thing I have quilted and also the most complicated quilting I have done!  I didn't believe I could!  But you never know whether you can do something until you try can you?


So here are the borders and binding I finished this morning....

And here is the quilt back.....

Front

Plus some close ups of the quilting

And here is the obligatory photo of the rolled up quilt 

And one final shot just to show you how close I was to not entering this quilt...

I am so pleased it is finished and it has exceeded my expectations.  And what's more it is destined for my bed! 


(just in case you are voting - I am number 520!  Nomination form here! and it is all quilted on a domestic sewing machine - hint, hint - teehee!)

Pretending to Longarm quilt!

I have had this quilt top finished for such a long time!

It started out as a workshop with Carolyn Forster way back in November 2009.


I then decided it would be good to make it into a quilt for our king size bed - so I put my blocks on point and added a plain alternate square, then added one border, then another...as you do!  Finally it was big enough for our bed!

But at the time it was too big to quilt !  I ran away like the chicken I am and left it on the shelf waiting!  Now for some crazy reason I decided it was time to get it done and put it in the list of quilts to complete in this quarter's Finish-along list!  Well that was the easy part!




But getting over my block on how to quilt it and my dislike of basting I suddenly launched myself into it....you have seen one post about my quilting it.  

Well since then I have been beavering away and quilted all the pieced blocks....and all the alternate squares....and now all the triangles!  

All the blocks quilted!

The folded quilt shot!

Getting more challenging in the quilting...

And here's a close up!

Outside enjoying some fresh air!  And showing those quilted triangles!

Bottom left corner!

The whole thing!

The whole thing from the back!

Yes I am going mad but this time in a good way as this long neglected quilt is getting closer to being finished!  Prepare those trumpets girls as I soon hope to be able to request a fanfare...but not quite yet - still those two borders to quilt!




But soon, I am hoping it will be soon!