Giveaway - My 100th Post!

Welcome One and All!

I am hosting a giveaway to celebrate my 100th post.

Anyone can enter (no you don't have to "follow" my blog, but I'd love it if you liked it enough to!).

I don't mind where you live (international entries welcome).

This is what's on offer:

Hope Valley Blues (Fat Eighths)

These Japanese beauties I picked up at the Craft and Quilt show in Brisbane recently (fat quarters)

And finally, because you all know how much I love them, and I want to share the love:

Liberty Scraps.

Please make sure you leave your email address in your comment if it's not in your blog contact details so I can get in touch with you if you win.

The Giveaway will close at midday on Sunday 8th April (Brisbane time).

The winner will be announced some time on Sunday night!

Cheers!

Mary and Me at the Melbourne Zoo :-)

Liberated scraps! Yum!

This is going to be a crib quilt for a dear friend of mine who's just given birth to a beautiful baby girl.

I couldn't get enough of this block, having recently made a table runner using the same one (see post below).  I have used scraps of Michael Miller, Denyse Schmidt and Liberty fabrics, with some Moda solid pink thrown in there for good measure.

It needs a border, because it's only a wee quilt top so far.  I just kept making blocks until I ran out of scraps and this is what I ended up with.

There is one problem, however....

CHUNKY!

BULKY!!

I am thinking that I will need to get a long-arm quilter to quilt in the ditch along these really bulky seams, so I can then go ahead and do my hand quilting inside the white stars.  There is no way my little Janome could handle these seams!  It could barely manage piecing them together!  I am hoping quilting in the ditch will help flatten it out a little.

Any other suggestions?

Hope Valley Pinwheels Finish!

Hope Valley Pinwheels

Well, I have to complete this one by Saturday, because it is going to be a gift for a friend who is having a baby soon, and her shower is on this Saturday!

I am very happy with how these blocks have turned out.  The pinwheel-within-a-pinwheel effect I achieved simply by rotating each individual pinwheel block by 90 degrees makes for an interesting visual effect, I think.  I will pin and hopefully quilt it today, then machine bind it tomorrow.  No fancy stuff here, just a beaut little crib quilt quick smart!

The Story So Far

So, I've got the hexagon quilt pieced.  To a point...

I just spoke to Barb Cowan at The Quilt Connection and enquired about custom longarm quilting of this quilt.  She suggested that binding uneven edges was "very ambitious" and that I should consider attaching a border to the quilt to make it more user friendly.  She also gave me a very fair quote to custom quilt this quilt in a traditional format. 

I was planning on handquilting this quilt.  I have put so much work into handpiecing it, and it is for my unborn daughter and I wanted it to be special, but my life circumstances have changed, and I no longer have the time to handquilt this quilt.  I know Barb will do a fantastic job!  But first, a border.

The Stars and Hexagon project (see most recent entry) has been scrapped.  I just wasn't happy with the combination of fabrics.  It was too busy.  So.... I have pieced the hexagons together and this will become the pram quilt. 

I need to add a border, but I don't know quite how I am going to do that.  Should I add some more diamonds in yellows / pinks, or should I applique what I have on to the back of a border, or should I cut the uneven edges off what I have to square up the quilt and make adding a border a lot easier (no appliquie required).  It's basically the same decision I am facing with the hexagon quilt above.

So now I have these left over...

I think they need a plain background to really make them pop. :-)

And finally, look what arrived from Fabricworm!

I suppose you all recognise this range of fabric by now!  Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt.  It's been VERY popular with other bloggers that I follow.  I only hope I can make something as beautiful with my fat quarters.