Scraptastic Tuesday January Linkup

Today is the first Scraptastic Tuesday linkup of 2015!

We still need help in using up those scraps and hope you do too!  So here we are to encourage you in your efforts and indeed my favourite part of this is looking at all the inspiration you provide and the huge range of projects you are working on in a scrappy way!

My own project this week has been to make more progress on my clamshell quilt which has been cut from my healthy collection of charm squares.  

My quilts used to be made from scraps only and I had difficulty cutting into my larger cuts of fabrics.  So I decided to cut charms squares from each new piece of fabric - the balance might have tipped in the other direction now!?

It would be great if I could get the balance just right....

Anyway here is what I started with 

You saw my 'curtains' last week!

And here they are attached to the main panel.....one corner first

And now two

Not that exciting I guess to anyone but me but I have now cut and sorted out the remaining two corners - so who knows next week might have a ta da moment!?

Anyway here are our fantastic sponsors!   

A huge thank you to each of them for the following prizes, which will be awarded randomly:

• Sew me a Song - a $20 gift certificate

• Massdrop - assorted fat quarter pack

• Mad About Patchwork - a $30 gift certificate

• Oakshott Fabrics - pack of fat eights of Scandinavia

• Sew Sisters Quilt Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Green Fairy Quilts - $25 gift certificate

• Fat Quarter Shop - a $25 gift certificate

And here is where you want to add your links!

An InLinkz Link-up


Now I wonder what Leanne has been up to.....

I have been keeping a little secret....

But as it is out of the bag now I can show you what it is -  my quilt pattern Lavender Knots published - yes published in Quilt Now! magazine.   I'm in print!

These are my pics taken in the garden before it went for it's photo shoot at the magazine

It will be no surprise if I tell you that I love both Liberty lawn and Oakshott in equal measure, so the chance to work with both sent me over the moon.  I just about bit Katy Jones's arm off at the NEC Quilt Exhibition when we were talking about it!

I thought about the Liberty fabrics I had - lots of blue, grey, pinks and with the theme of English Gardens it didn't take long to draw up a pattern on EQ with a lavender knot garden inspiration.

The gorgeous Oakshott Amalfi (grey), Lilac and Sweet Pea (purple) are the hedges, holding back the abundance of summer Liberty flowers !

Plus there are a few suprises in this garden....golfers, exotic birds, high heeled shoes and even a tiger or two!  

The lovely Michael Oakshott had run out of Amalfi in the UK but had it sent over from India specially!    Can't thank him enough as I think that grey is the perfect choice for this quilt.I quilted it all in  Aurifil#50 with a small floral design and backed it in some Liberty fabric I found in an antique/bric-a-brac shop!   To keep to the luxurious feel the wadding is Dream Orient - a mixture of bamboo, silk, Tencel and cotton - extremely light and would I guess be lovely to quilt by hand though I machine quilted this one.  

A bit more expensive but I would be happy to use it again!

So subscribers are seeing it in the magazine now but others can buy it in the shop from the 15th!   Thanks Katy for the opportunity! 

Flying Squares!

For some reason I just love the name of this block!  Sounds a bit like a circus trapeze troupe perhaps all dolled up in sequined lycra!  Ok my imagination is working overtime and without any illegal substances I swear!

Here is the block 

And here are the blocks made by yours truly and my wonderful Siblings Together Quilts bee during November and December.

There were no problems in stitching these blocks together into a top.


Indeed I have been waiting for FAL2015 to start up so I could add this quilt to my list and have my first official finish off 2015!

So after going round in organic circles for a while ....

I have finished quilting this one!  Design suggested by backing fabric 

And now to bind it!

Edit  - all finished now 

Another FAL15 finish to be linked at the end of the quarter

Finish Along 2015

We have a new host for 2015 Adrianne of On the Windy Side and a new button of course!   I don't know Adrianne yet but am looking forward to getting to know her.   I certainly love her button!

I had a really successful year of finishing in 2014 so am hoping for equal success in 2015.   My only worry is that I only have nine projects to work on! 

 Hahaha - but I did start with twice that many last year!

There are these nine 

• chevron KLT quilt;
• sewing words;
• tulip dance
• flying squares
• Nordik
• clamshell
• Scraptastic sampler
• Big hexy balls
• vintage circles

I have one more in the planning stage a row on row quilt that I'm making with help from my wonderful Stingy Bee mates!   But I'm sure there will be time to tell you about that one later...

Tulips are dancing!

An old partial quilt top has been dragged into the light!

I have a purpose at last in finishing this quilt as my cousin's daughter is expecting a baby in February.  No better excuse I thought and it has really spurred me on to finish it!  

I have also had some inspiration in how to finish it which was also holding this one up.

This is what it looked like before I got going again

I was a little bit stumped as to how I should fill in those crescent shaped holes!

And this is a photo of it now

The coloured four pointed stars in the middle have been swapped for white ones.   The coloured stars are all on the border with some four patches which will go all the way around ....eventually!  I have started filling in the half diamond shape on the edge with white.   
I can see how it will finish so it's only a matter of getting it done.

Scraptastic Tuesday - Scrappy Clamshells

For a change I have been working on my Clamshell quilt - it has been cut from a whole heap of charm squares with my Sizzix: a fairly random selection of lights and darks, prints and solids.

I have a central panel of 256 clamshells already finished.

And I am wanting to make it bigger so I have turned it on point and am adding four corner triangles.

Yesterday I stitched the diagonal rows for the top two corners - that is another 112 clamshells by hand....

I stitched them like this...

A few people on IG didn't seem to realise how to stitch them this way....nice and quick!

Next step : I need to stitch the rows together ....not such a quick job.

Please remember it is link up time next Tuesday !   Get ready with your scrappy projects - it doesn't need to be a big project.   And I think Leanne has been working on a scrappy quilt too - I think you had better go and have a look...!

FAL - last of this year!

It is the end of this wonderful year of the Finish Along 2014, superbly led by Katy Bear aka the Littlest Thistle and I have managed to squeeze one more finish from my list in the period of time I call No-Man's-Land!

With only five quilts from this quarter finished I am lagging behind my usual standards for this year.  

I did not finish all my UFOs this year but I have finished sixteen out of twenty, plus a few other quilts, started this year.   My Q4FAL post is here.

So about that last minute finish....here it is along with it's scalloped knife edge...

Close up of the quilting which was all by hand...

The quilting from the back where it shows up better...

It is made out of Oakshott and I was inspired to make it by my lovely online friend Mary Dugan aka Molly Flanders and the Flowering Snowball Quiltalong she ran.  I am very late in finishing but I made it in the end.

I am thinking of calling it Trinity as I wanted to make three different Flowering Snowball quilts but combined them in one!  Such a new move for me and one that could save me making a whole host of quilts if I can keep it going.

According to my rules all unfinished quilts from 2014 become UFOs in 2015 - for some reason that makes me quite happy as I can legitimately work on any of them!

It also means I have eight UFOs to finish and that is less than half the number I started the year with in January 2014.  To me that sounds promising....

Linking up to :