Compulsive Quilts

In Australia, we are not in total lockdown, except if you have just arrived in the country or have landed from a cruise ship. However, everyone is being as careful as they can and not go out. So.…. What do we do? WE QUILT!!!! I really wanted to finish a rainbow pinwheel quilt, but since the move I haven't been able to find it, so I had to start something new (to tell the truth I have started 3 new things, but we will get to that later. Bright colours with little houses one patch modern quilt Although I have loads of fabrics, I wanted to start with my scraps as they were overflowing out of the tidy scrap drawers that I had stored them in. I try to cut any scraps into 2 1/2" strips, so that I can easily make things from them. I pinned a quilt using Pinterest with little houses on it, and thought it was cute.It was a one patch quilt with the houses interlocking, upside down and right side up. The ones that I saw were in low volume fabrics, but I think...

A lovely parcel arrived from the courier today. My stash builder pack from Pink Castle Fabrics. It is lucky that I get the parcels at all as the courier driver is terrified of the dog. As he rings the doorbell, our fat old golden labrador takes on a much younger and meaner persona, by barking in a deep angry bark and frightens the life out of Manu the Pakistani driver. He hurls the parcel at the front porch and then takes off back to his van as fast as he can. We have tried to tell him that the dog is 90 in dog years, and a complete pussy, but it makes no difference. Anyway I got my parcel, it was full of lovely aqua fabrics. I only just joined this group, and seem to have an obsession with this blue green colour as my stash collection is at least 1/4 of this colour. I have a queen quilt on the go for my bed, but I keep thinking of other things to make as well.  That is the affliction of a compulsive quilter.

I completed the OLL quilt over the weekend, but have been too busy in the garden to show you pictures. This quilt was great to make as it came together quickly, as the drunkard's path piece was easy to piece, then combined to make nice large blocks. As I did the quilting as you go method too, the quilting was simple and was not bulky under the arm of the machine. This was enjoyable. My Bento Box quilt is pieced but I can't seem to get around to quilting that one, as the thought of moving the queen quilt under the machine is enough to put me off.

The orange, lemon and lime quilt is almost done, but first it has to be road tested.....by the cat. She doesn't look happy here. I don't have a design wall, I have a design bed, which is why Zali the cat loves it so much.  I tried to make it so that the bright orange quarter circles were distributed evenly, and the greys, where they meet are all different pattern. I nearly succeeded. There is one spot where there are the same pattern, but I'm not going to tell you where. This quilt is even too big to lie flat on this bed. That is why I have used a QAYG method and  quilted the spirals separately. See my QAYG tutorial here.  I think it is a good trade off, as the back is not as perfect as I would like.

Today we had our first swim of the season. It is early spring here, but the weather is warm, it is 28 degrees and sunny. Perfect beach weather. We only live 500m from the beach, 100m above it. With the ocean only at the bottom of the hill, there is really no excuse not to swim. We were pretty warm by the time we got to the beach, we stripped off and stood with our waves lapping our toes. My husband, went in first, he called me from beyond the breakers, "Come on in, it's fine", so trusting him, I waded out, it was cold, but I thought it was the temperature differential. I dived under, my breath was taken away, it was cold! I came out of the water with a shocked look on my face. "I lied", he laughed. I laughed too, it was wonderful, it makes me feel alive. We should all count our blessings every day.

I have now pieced all the drunkards path squares for the quilt. Each drunkard path square is 8 1/2. inches, then 4 of these are sewn together to form a big circle, 17 inches square. The quilt is 5 x 5 big circles, making it big enough for a queen bed. Because it is this big, I. Have chosen to quilt the squares as I go. This means I cut a piece of backing, a bit bigger say 1/2 inch larger than the 17 inch square. I cut some batting the same size. Then I pin the sandwich together. This size piece is really easy to quilt on the machine, as you don't have to manipulate the whole quilt around the machine.  I have chosen a simple spiral, starting in the centre. I use the darning foot, with the stitch length turned to 0. I have to change the tension to make the stitches correct. It isn't perfect, but I am getting better. After this is done, I get two squares, trim the wadding, pin them together, and stitch just through the top layer and the wadding. On the back I hand stitch t...

I know I shouldn't have started another quilt with so many on the go, but I had some beautiful orange and grey fabric and had a Drunkard's Path template that needed to be used. So I thought it wouldn't hurt to make just one square. I ordered a Curvemaster foot to try make the process easier, and it arrived today. I put the Curvemaster foot together, along with the special shank to attach to my Bernina 440. What a mess, it puckered everywhere, and did not work at all like the video showed. Then I looked carefully a the pack. It was for a 5/8" seam, not a 1/4 of an inch. What was I to do, I had already cut out a whole lot of pieces. Never mind, I found a video link of sewing a curve with my 1/4" foot. I did it just like the video, the trick is to hold the top piece up and line the edges up with the edge of the foot. I didn't need the Curvemaster at all. Check out how it looks. The finished block is 18 and1/2 inches wide. I'm planning on making a...