So happy with myself right now!

My Central Park Sampler Quilt is finished! *happy dance*

 

You know me, i'm a plodder, quilt finishes aren't a weekly or even monthly occurrence, and these blocks have been hanging around my dining room walls for what seems like forever, so it's great to see them where they were destined to be.

After making the first block back in June 2011 when I joined Leila's Skills Builder Sampler QAL and then picking out blocks from other sampler QAL's and from around the blogosphere I finally had the number I needed.

This quilt has been a bit of a journey, some of the earlier blocks were a little baggy and undersized which reflects my quilting ability at the time and rather than redo them I decided to work with it and size them up so that they are a reminder of how far I've come, see the thin white inserts on the blocks above and below. Cheesy I know but this quilt was about learning, practising, and honing the skills and I think it has achieved that!

After making Bella's Quillow I knew I wanted to make a couple to double up as cushions for our sofa, so that's exactly what I did, and why I needed those last 2 extra blocks!

I chose my favourite blocks for the outer visible cushion sides, the granny block which was a bit small got sized up with these trees - this print makes me so happy! Is there a fabric that makes you happy just to look at it?

I used my bargain £2.25 red oversized check duvet cover from Asda for the backing, and the great thing is that I still have half of it left to utilise again another day!

As previously encountered with making quillows as per this tutorial I found that less is more where the quilting is concerned, so I have very simply highlighted some of the square and triangle designs in the blocks.

This quilt also represented a first in spray basting for me, the contruction is such that you baste the quilt top to the batting and then place the quilt back right side down over the quilt top and sew nearly all the way around the edges and then turn it through (no binding! yay!) so pinning is a pain because they all end up on the inside!  I was nervous of ruining my lovely fabrics or gumming up my needle but it worked pretty well and I only used 1 can!

The quilt measures 43"x57" and folded into the Quillow it is 16" square.

And now while it's washing and crinkling I shall be offering some well earned TLC to my machine; clean, oil, new needle, replace that rotary blade and then onto another project from the WIP pile or something new? :-)

I'm showing off at the following linky parties:
Link a finish Friday
Can I get a whoop whoop
Lets Get Acquainted
Fabric Tuesday
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Create & Share - The Trendy Treehouse
Made By Me at Jaqs Studio
We Did It! Wednesday at Sew Much Ado

P.S. If you'd like to follow me in more of a pictorial way with less of the rambling you can also find me on Facebook, my page is Quilty Creations and on Instagram as Kazwee
Thanks :-)

Sashing In Progress Wednesday

I'm making it my March Mission to finish my Central Park Sampler Quilt. I looked back through my old blog posts to see when I started this and it was way back in June 2011 when I joined up for Leila's Skill Builder Sampler QAL, so it way beyond the time it should be finished!

 

Today I've been squaring up blocks and sashing, and have 9 blocks joined together so far. The boys have after-school clubs tomorrow and Friday afternoons, so that's extra sewing time I'm allocating myself!

Super Mario Quilt:
I have taken delivery of the green solids I needed and have drawn out 3 green-ish coloured blocks but just can't face all the 1.5" pieces right now so it'll be on hold until I finish the sampler quilt I think.
So far I've made 7 of the required 14 blocks.

Stats:
No progress this week year on the;
Solids HST Diamond Quilt - needs re-basting as I've changed my mind about the backing fabric!
Black and White King Size Bed Quilt - completed quilt top, partial quilt back
Dresden Plate - partial quilt top
Kaleidoscope - one block made, lots of cut pieces in a drawer!
Kids T-shirt Memory Quilt - some t shirts cut....

Finishes this week: 0
New Projects this week: 0
In Progress: 7

I'm linking up with Lee over at Freshly Pieced for todays post and Quiltsy.

A couple more...

...Sampler blocks.

This is the Flying Geese pinwheel Block and the tutorial can be found over at Sew Happy Geek (here).

And this block, which I don't know the name of, has become one of my favourites overall.  The  tutorial can be found as part of the In Color Order HST Block of the Month QAL here.

Although it was bitterly cold today, the sun was at least shining so I popped outside for a photo for a change :)

I've been squaring up my blocks and have found that a couple are coming up short of the required 12.5" - humph!

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Nothing is ever easy

Oh dear, I cut, I pieced, I pressed, I hung it up to admire... Whoops

The aqua squares are supposed to fill in the opposite spaces to the pink ones so that the negative spaces aren't next to each other. What was I thinking?  Obviously I wasn't thinking at all, just sewing. Well I'm not unpicking it again!

So this block takes me to 12/12 but I have seen a couple more sampler blocks that I'd like to make so perhaps a pieced back with a couple more blocks is in order!

Here is a slightly brighter picture than yesterday's attempt, although it still seems a bit blurry.

Therapy

I've been feeling very stressed out the past few days, what with a 5 year old acting out and the bathroom overhaul experiencing a few delays (hopefully it will be finished on Wednesday) - the dust from plastering and tile cutting gets EVERYWHERE!!! Here's a preview of the shower area.

I made another block for my Central Park Sampler Quilt, this one is a QST Pinwheel and comes from the Sew Happy Geek Mixed Sampler QAL, the tutorial for the block can be found here. This block takes me to 11/12 blocks.
 

I have a 9 patch block that I made eons ago which I'm not happy with, I was going to just throw it in the scrap bin but then I thought that a bit of quiet time with the unpicker could be just the therapy I need... So here comes a redo and hopefully block No 12!

And here are all the blocks hung on my dining room wall, it's a grey old day and as usual my photography skills and lighting are terrible, but you get the gist...

Linking up with The Lets Get Acquainted Link Up over at Plum and June

Exhausted!!!

Well we wished for a snow day and we've had nearly a week! Three days were spent sledging and snowballing then it was back to school (where I also work), then I helped evacuate nearly 200 children to the local community centre after a suspected gas leak - which now turns out to be the stupid French gas cloud! But there was some sewing time in there somewhere as I managed to:-

Put together a crib sized quilt top, for which I'm now awaiting backing decisions.

I made a couple more sampler blocks for my own quilt. This brings the total to 11 blocks and I only need 14 so the end could be in sight!

 

There were so many of these Granny Square blocks around last year and whilst looking at peoples 2012 roundups I saw them all again and realised I hadn't made one - and I know they are probably so last year but hey, now I can say I did one! And it was so quick and easy and looks so cute too.

 

I also put together another block for the Super Mario quilt, it's supposed to be a black bomb...

but it looks weird to me. It is not pressed or sashed yet so maybe it will look okay in the grand scheme of things, I'll have to wait and see...

And it's Wednesday so I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced as well :-)

P.S. I apologise for the poor picture quality, my iphone seems to be taking very dark photos...

Sampler Blocks

My machine is back! Yay! All serviced and repaired, so on Saturday I cracked on with some more sampler blocks.  I started the Skills Builder Sampler last year but when they moved on to applique and curved blocks I wasn't feeling the love, so now I'm pulling blocks from the Summer Sampler Series.
This Greek Cross block is probably my favourite so far, it's so pretty in the flesh.

 Mosaic Block

 Pinwheel Parade.

 Bow Ties

 Star of Virginia. This block is really growing me, I'm not usually a fan of green...

I'm really pleased with how these blocks are coming along, especially seeing as oranges, pinks and greens are out of my comfort zone!

I'm trawling all the linky parties looking for more block designs and tutorials, there's some amazing quilts out there right now, why not hop over and have a look?

Sew Happy Geek Manic Monday Linky Party
Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations
Quilt Story Fabric Tuesday