Crop Circles - Mystery Quilt finished

At this year's  Patch n Peace, ( annual quilt retreat I go on) Betty, one of the organisers ran a Mystery quilt. Early on in the year she sent out a list of the fabric requirements for the quilt and I got mine organised really early.

The quilt had been featured in a magazine and was called Fooled By Thelma by Karen Cunningham

One of the steps involved making circles. There were collective moans when this was revealed. We had the choice to make them raw edge applique or to turn the edges. I went for raw edge as I wanted to get it finished as quickly as possible. Usually I use iron on stuff when doing applique and then button hole stitch around the fabric by hand but this time, in the interest of speed I glue basted the circles to the background fabric and then straight stitched around the edge. This was a new technique for me and worked well.

I was pleased to get all 9 blocks completed by the end of the weekend. I didn't get a lot else done but they were finished

The pattern didn't have borders with it. We could finish it off however we pleased. Betty had with her another quilt pattern which showed the half circle motif that we had on the edges of our quilts finished off in the border. I really liked this idea so back home I made more circles for the border and put them on. I wanted the quilt to be rectangular rather than square and to be a size to fit a single beds in the spare room.

I played around with the borders for a bit till I was happy with the result. An extra row of circles on the ends to give it length and using up the half square triangles down the side. These were from the flying geese units in the blocks. I can never just cut those suckers off and throw them away... I always make them into hst and this time I used them up in the same quilt... bonus.



For the backing I used some string blocks that I had foundation pieced a good few years ago. I had pieced them into a rectangular piece that I had never finished off. The colours went well with the leftover purple linen I had (left over from another backing I had made recently). I had some pieced circles, a few more hst and various other orphan blocks and scraps in the right hues.

Kym from PQS long armed it for me. After some messaging back and forth re appropriate motifs we chose Circle Swirl which continued the circle theme into the negative space with a bit of extra added interest. I loved how it came out. I was initially a bit concerned that the extra white at the top and bottom of the quilt was too much and sat oddly but Kym's work meant it wasn't at odds with the rest of the quilt and in fact added a bubbly mix to the whole thing.

I am not 100 percent sure that the binding I chose was the best I could have gone for - not sure if the mustardy yellow was quite right but I loved the pinky flower like circle motif on it and that ties it in. Sometimes I a a bit too matchy matchy so I have been adventurous in this quilt.

I used an old circular doily for the label. Initially this was because I couldn't find the commercial labels I have stashed somewhere but then I decided I really liked the look of it. Its circular with circular flowers on it. The doily is stained but that doesn't matter to me and in fact ties in with the name. Crop Circles. Crops grow in soil so its ok that the label is soiled.

The name came from the fact that the quilt was a mystery quilt involving circles. Crop circles are also a mystery... so Crop Circles it was.

Sunday Stash Report - some big finishes

Very excited to be able to report that I have had 3 BIG finishes since I did my last stash report - which was at the end of June.

My First Finish was a banner for church. I had been sifting through ideas for a few weeks on this one but once I started I was able to get it finished in a couple of days and it is hanging in church now. I wrote about it here. It used up 5m of fabric that all came from my stash - how cool was that (straight profit I say)

My Second Finish was my Scrap in a Box mystery quilts (run by Charlotte Hawks of Scrapitude Quilts) I called mine Scrappy Lattice because it was scrappy and the sashing of the on point blocks reminded me so much of a latticed trellis. (I chose a vine inspired quilting motif for it based on that). I managed to finish it off this week after it returned from the long armer - bound and labelled. I used a lovely doily for the label when I couldn't find my commercial labels in my cupboard and I love how they ended up looking. I have heaps of doilies - some inherited from my aunty, some from my mum and others acquired through op shops. A lovely use for them I thought. This quilt used 7.73m of fabric. (all fabric for the top came from my stash. The backing was made from fabric bought off the silent auction at PnP - plus scraps from my stash)

The Third Finish was Crop Circles,  my other mystery quilt, from the quilting retreat Patch n Peace that I went to on the 2nd weekend in June. It too came back from the longarmer this week (Both quilts were in the same parcel. What an exciting opening that was. My friend Kym Colgrave of Professional Quilting Service does an amazing job. She has an excellent eye for quilting design and whilst she insists that I need to choose the pattern she is great at guiding my choices. For this quilt Kym and I chose a pattern called CircleSwirl and it looks great. This quilt used 7.96m of fabric. (again all fabric for the quilt top came from my stash and the backing was made from fabric bought at the silent auction at PnP plus scraps from my stash)

I am going to do a more extensive blog post about these two quilts -soon.

And I have had NO fabric purchases so its all straight profit for this past fortnight - SWEET

So my stats are

Weeks 27 and 28

         Fabric Used                     20.69m (I think this is a record for me)
         Fabric Added                   0.00m

Year To Date
         Fabric Used                    91.00m
         Fabric Added                  35.35m
         Net Used/Added             55.65m        

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

Updating July Goals

We are one third through this month so time to have a look at this month's goals.

Finish Scrap in a Box: DONE. I stitched the label on yesterday

Finish Crop Circles: DONE I stitched the label on today

Finish Gold cross banner: DONE Its hanging at church now

Make towels for Handmade Love stall. Started making some. I've got 13 in various stages of completion

Make zipper pouches for Handmade Love Stall. Nothing started here yet. Hopefully will get a few made before the stall.

Finish Community Quilt. This red black and white quilt now has a name ... Newspaper Mama (cause its black and white and red all over. Newspaper mama is also a kids song by Peter Coombes that my kids loved when younger) The top has been assembled and now working out what to put on the back.

Amy Gibson blocks. Haven't looked at this. Was hoping to do 6 this month... hmmm might end up being 8 for next month.

POD Blocks 27 - 30. Have patterns for 27 and 28 printed out but haven't made them yet... today maybe - or tomorrow

Complete Beasts beanie. DONE 

Make beanie for Kombi Boy. DONE

So I've made a fair start for the month. Must get a photo of those beanies on heads and the completed quilts......

WIP Wednesday Lots of Progress made

Another busy week.

I eventually got the mystery quilt from Patch n Peace finished off after I added another border to it, complete with yet more pieced circles to make it a good single bed sized quilt.



  I then made a pieced backing for it as well. It took ages cos I made some blocks out of left over bits and pieces. I had made more circles for the purple border than I needed so as to have some variety in the patches which meant I had a good few left over to put onto the back.  I also used 24 string blocks that I had joined together into one piece some years ago but had never done anything with. This was the perfect project to use it in.

I've come up with a name for the quilt - it was a mystery quilt and had circles in it.. mystery circles.. crop circles. So Crop Circles it is.



On Monday I parcelled it up along with Scrapitude Scrap in a Box which I also finished off recently and they are on their way to my friend Kym from Professional Quilting Service to be quilted. She does such a lovely job.



With Crop Circles done and out of the house I was able to at last get down to catching up on my POD blocks, from the Fandom In Stitches quilt along. I was 3 behind. With the blocks coming out every week it doesn't take much for a person to get well behind. Anyway - I was able to get all 3 of them made Monday afternoon/evening. I was pretty pleased with how they all came out. I didn't choose to do any of the variations - just stuck to the basic block. I am tempted to do the dragon egg variation for block 25 but we'll see.



Block 23



Block 24



Block 25

A recent discussion on a Facebook page dedicated to The Project of Doom Quilt along centred on what people were going to do  with their finished quilts. Most of the makers were planning in them being used. My daughter Fangirl has determined that its going to be hers... not sure if that is going to happen or not but we'll see

Charlotte, from Scrapitude Quilts, released a new quilt pattern Playing with Nine Patches. The lucky few of us who visited her website in time were given the PDF pattern free.

 It required 82 nine patches... thats 732 squares. The pattern gives 3 variations for 2", 2.5" and 3" squares. I worked with 2.5" squares and can tell you that I didn't have to cut any squares. I had that many (and more) already cut ready in my scrap usage system. (I sort of use Bonnie Hunter's system, adapted for my own use). I started working on it this week

 and have got all the nine patches made and pressed.

Next I have to cut the 6.5" pieces from the background fabric. The pattern called for the background fabric to be cut into 6.5" squares but some of the pieces are actually 3 squares together so wonder if I could just leave them as one piece. Seams a bit silly to cut them up and sew them together again.

Today at Patchwork Group Lindy and I worked on the black,white and red blocks that we as a group had made. We had 9 blocks (supposedly 12.5" blocks but as with any block swap there was a bit of variation in size)

 8 of which were the design we were supposed to have made and one which was different... I made a up a different months block. Oops.

However we put it in the centre of our quilt and it looked fine.

 Last week Lindy and I had played around with some half square triangle units I had left over from my Sunburnt Zebras quilt made last year and worked out a border design. Today we sashed the 9 main blocks in white and then put together the square in a square design we had worked out with the hst. It looks good.

We had to leave it there and will work on it more next week. We have decided that we want to put  in a narrow red border next to the white border before the hst border. We are going to augment this border with some pinwheels made from hst units left over from the blocks. These are smaller than the ones we have made into the square in a square block and are black and red. Its a rather organic process designing this quilt as we are making it up as we go along, working with left over bits and pieces. We didn't have any red with us to do the borders. I've found some plain red in my stash that I think will do the job although there may not be enough to do the outer border and binding as we had planned. We will see!

Just to mix things up a little I have also been making Boyo a beanie on my knitting loom. I got it finished this afternoon and I don't think he's taken it off since!

  

Wip Wednesday

I've had a very busy week working on lots of different projects

I have finished off both the top and backing for Scraptitude - Scrap in a Box. I ended up adding an extra border to the top to make it big enough for a single bed. Then I pieced the backing using up  as many of the excess triangles I had accidentally cut for the top. I used up as many of the excess bits as I could. I had a lot of fun doing it and took far more time than I should have but ... well it was fun and the end result was pretty pleasing too.

Yeah a crap photo.. but I no longer have an outside line that I can hang things off so it has to get pinned to my design board. Yes... should close cupboard doors and use a camera not my phone

Our Patchwork group has decided to do a block swap - raggy hearts. It was my suggestion as I had missed out on doing it this swap at our retreat. The swap won't be till September but I decided to get a start on and have made over 60 of them already.

The mystery quilt from the Retreat weekend has also been under the needle. I made some more of the half circle units and extended the circle motif into the border. Its now 66" square. I didn't end up using the half square triangle units that were left over from the half square triangle units in top. The top is still on my design wall and I think its done... but we all know what happened to Scrapitude-Scrap in a Box.

I've started working on putting together some blocks at our Patchwork Group rooms. At the end of last year we did a black and white and red block. We only got 9 blocks and one of those was wrong but by putting the wrong one in the centre it becomes a feature. I have a heap of left over half square triangle blocks from Sunburnt Zebras - 80 of them. We also have a few small half square triangle blocks from the big blocks in the quilt. My friend Lindy and I are working on coming up with a design for the borders. It will be our project that we work on up at the rooms. After we do it there is a pink and white one we have to finish off too.

At Patchwork today one of our members guided me through cheneleing process. I'd bought a cutter and a brush several years ago but had never got around to using them. I made used a panel with daisies on it for the top and several pieces of old sheeting for the under layers. It worked well although when I brushed it up it worked too well... have heaps of threads and they are still coming off. I am not worried if I have totally wrecked because it was all old fabric I have had for ages. I am thinking of making it into a cushion if it works ok.

This is just a small bundle of what I brushed up

My last sewing efforts for this week has been to finish off a project for my daughter Fangirl. She is in a swap to do with super villains and she had designed and cross stitched a piece that she wanted me to make into a wall hanging. I framed it with a lovely blue and gold fabric and then did a very simple quilting design on it - just stitched in the ditch around the design and the a simple swirl on the border. If you are interested in the design then check out her Etsy shop... links in my sidebar

     

WIP Wednesday

Having trouble getting my photos off my phone. Not sure why I can't but once my daughter gets home she might be able to help me.

Anyway quick update with only a few  photos

Scrapitude
Have worked on this and over the last few days I have got the blocks together with the lattice like sashing. I think it looks great. Next I am going to add some other borders but haven't worked it out yet

Its the season for mystery quilts I was on a weekend retreat - 4 days worth and we had a mystery quilt there too. We had clues Friday Saturday and Sunday. I managed to get all my blocks made before The retreat ended Monday. Since getting home I've managed to get the blocks together. Now to work out borders for it too. I would like to continue the circles into the border - finish them off. I also have some hst fro the flying geese units I could incorporate some how too. Working on this one too

Linking up with