12 quilts in 2019

I have decided to set myself a challenge to use up some of  my copious stash of quilting fabric and make 12 quilt tops this year.  Then I intend to do a 'free-motion machine quilting' class and learn how to do it properly before I set about quilting them.

I used to go to quilt shows and fabric sales and buy lots of stuff!  The fabric has been languishing in my stash for up to 10 years, so it is definitely time to do something with it.  Some of my purchases have been kits to make a quilt, and some have been odd fat quarters that I have liked.  For example, here's a picture I took of some fat quarter bundles I bought at a quilt show in 2012.  I used the Christmas fat quarters for Christmas bunting as gits for my friends a few years ago, but I still had the blue, pink and white fabrics!

The blue and pink fabric have become baby quilt tops.  I love these 2 quilts!  I found the triangle pattern online and it was so easy, I completed it in an afternoon.  I love that the large triangles make it look so modern despite the prints being a little old-fashioned.  I bought the sashing fabric sometime later to go with this set of fat quarters.  I have enough to do the backing too.  The blue one is a windmill pattern, again found online (Pinterest has been my friend here!).  The dotty fabric used as sashing was bought separately.

 

This next quilt is the first one I made this year, and it was during sewing this that I decided to challenge myself to at least 1 quilt per month.  I bought this kit at a class I went to at a local quilt shop.  The owner held the classes in her own home, and it was a lovely atmosphere.  She has sadly closed down now.  I made this 'disappearing 9-patch' quilt in the class, and bought this fabric to make another one exactly the same.  (Not sure why I wanted another one exactly the same but heho!)    I have to say that I am not in love with this one.  I don't really like the orange 'background'.  The patterned fabric has little cartoony dogs on it, which was why I was attracted to it.  It is by Basic Grey, and I had a charm pack (precut 5 inch squares).  I still have enough of the border print to do the backing.

Another quilt that I had wanted to make for a few years is made with some of my vintage embroidered linens.  I collected some vintage embroidered tablecloths sourced from eBay and local charity shops.  I sold some of the perfect linens on my Etsy shop, but kept back anything with holes or stains.  I managed to cut out some pretty embroideries to use in my quilt.  A friend had answered an advert for some vintage cotton lawn scraps, which she shared with me, and I also used up a few ditsy prints of my own.  Originally I was going to sew the blocks together without sashing in between, but decided to use up the scraps of linen.  I am really pleased with the final quilt, it is so pretty!  I bought a green ditsy flowery duvet cover from a charity shop that I will use for the backing.  So pleased to have made this quilt almost entirely from second- hand fabrics.

I am now working on a 'wonky star' quilt using some gorgeous plaids.  This pattern comes from a really old quilting magazine, Popular Patchwork, February 2003.  Each block is hand sewn, but I expect that I will machine sew the blocks together.  I am about half way through making the blocks at the moment, but may make the quilt bigger.  I have loads of plaid fabric!

What I made in January

All I want to do in January is hibernate.  It has been a cold, dreary month here.  Perfect weather for staying indoors and making!  So I thought I would write a blog post to show you what I made this month.  I am hoping to continue this as a series throughout the year.  Let's see if I can keep it up!

I made these jogging bottoms/lounge pants (I much prefer to call them lounge pants, there's not too much jogging goes on here!).   The fabric is a grey marl, which is so soft and comfortable,bought from Fabricland.  I will be definitely wearing these around the house lots.  I am calling this a stash buster, because although I bought this fabric with this pattern in mind, I have had it a while.

I crocheted the 'weekend bag' from Attic24 in the hot colourway.  I just love the colours!  I have lots of wool leftover too, so I might make some leg wamers seen on Jo's blog here.

And finally, here is a quilt I finished this month.  This is my Calendar Quilt.  It was a project that I did with my craft cabin friends Tash and Burnice.  (We meet once a month in Burnice's craft cabin in her garden).  We decided to do a 12 block quilt, each block representing a month of the year.  We tried to do as many 'techniques' as we could, eg, English paper piecing, applique, drunkards path, dresden plate etc.  My blocks are all inspired by blocks I have seen on Pinterest and in a magazine called 'Quiltmakers, 100 Blocks' .  I should probably do another blog post with details of each block.  Suffice to say, I spent quite a few long January evenings hand quilting these blocks.  

Baby quilt no. 6!

I’ve made quilts for our nephew’s and niece’s babies for their first Christmas.  I’ve just finished no 6!  This one is for my niece’s little boy.  I chose 2 brightly coloured  charm packs from www.craftsandquilts.net at Sandown Quilt Show back in June.  I decided to join them in groups of 4, and spent some time arranging them and rearranging them on the floor before sewing.  I bought the red for sashing and the monkey print for the back from More Sewing, my local fabric store.  I found the lovely stripe fabric for the binding at More Sewing too.  I’m really pleased with the final quilt, it looks very colourful which was the look I was after.

Quilting

As well as dressmaking I love quilting!  It was a goal of mine several years ago to learn to quilt, so I signed up for a local quilting drop-in class.  Val and Mary ran the classes from their homes after closing down their quilting shop for semi-retirement.  They taught hand quilting.  Here is my first ‘sampler’ quilt:

It sits on the back of my sofa, but is covered by another quilt now!  I have made 11 finished quilts so far.  I have 1 baby quilt in the making and a scrap quilt top that is ready to back and quilt.

 

Since then I have progressed to using my sewing machine for construction and quilting, as on these baby quilts I made for nephews’ and nieces’ babies.  The 2 on the left are from a pattern called Color in Motion from www.etsy.com/shop/sweetjane.  The quilt on the right features some very cute retro style fabric with little boy astronauts.  I made up the pattern myself. 

 

A flower garden quilt for Mum.  I can’t remember where the pattern came from, perhaps a Moda Bakeshop pattern, but I can’t find it there..

My favourite is this Block of the Month quilt from Antique Angel. (I don’t think they are in business anymore,can’t find a link)  I loved hand appliqueing all these little pictures, and the colours are just gorgeous!  The design is by Bunny Hill Designs

This one is my favourite, loads of gorgeous colours and applique here.  It is supposed to be a Tuscan scene.  The middle is appliqued with lots of embroidery and different quilting patterns.  This is one I started with Val and Mary, it was in a magazine years ago.  I don’t appear to have kept the magazine, so not sure who designed it.

 

 

And I have a rather eclectic collection of patchwork and quilted cushions in my lounge!