selvedge madness at the art gallery

my quilting group holds an exhibition every second year and we are very lucky that our local art gallery hosts the exhibition - we choose a theme, then make the quilts and drop them off at the art gallery.  the curator then decides which quilts will go in the exhibition, hangs them beautifully and does all the necessary signage.  this year the exhibition has gone for around a month, from mid December to mid January, and from all accounts it has been very popular

our theme was "from scraps to heirlooms", a nod to the origins of quilts.

i had my quilt in planning and was working on it in the 12 months leading up to the exhibition... but being the procrastinator that i am, i finished burying the last of the threads in my selvedge quilt the evening before i had to drop it off at our local art gallery!

i cant tell you how excited i am to have my quilt hanging in an art gallery! i took this photo on my phone...

the quilt is actually quite bright in person and there are a lot more selvedges on the back of it, but obviously i cant get a photo of the back until the exhibition is finished.  i will post more photos when it get my quilt back.

i plan on hanging it in my newly redecorated sewing room, and call me crazy but i think i am going to do a lot more selvedge projects to go in there... recovering my computer chair, recovering my sewing chair, a new ironing board cover and probably some curtains!

2012 new years eve mystery quilt

yippee its new years eve mystery quilt time again!!  i am doing one from Delaware quilts.

my fabric is chosen - a variety of pinks, the finished quilt will hopefully be used to raise funds for breast cancer research...

the strips are cut...

and i am ready to sew when the rest of the clues are posted!

quick strippie quilt

one of my last minute sewing projects this christmas was a quick strippie quilt (a free pattern from Mary quilts), i made it as a gift for a friend's daughter... i LOVE the fabrics and it is so quick to whip up a quilt using this pattern!  (edited to add - my friend and her daughter LOVE the quilt too!!)

my dad was kind enough to hold it while i snapped some photos (dont you love his socks!)...

FRONT

the back was pieced together using left-overs from making the front, and i added the pink at the top/bottom so that it would be big enough

BACK

and a close up that shows the gorgeous owl print (fabrics were from spotlight and must have been printed for them because the selvedges didn't have much info from the manufacturer)

i used 1m of each of the owl print, stripey fabric and blue floral fabric, then added approx 1/2m of the pink fabric.

i used hobbs heirloom fusible wadding (it only fuses temporarily so the finished quilt is nice and soft) to minimise pinning and save time (i still like to put a couple of pins along the edges) and then quilt using a variegated thread, my open-toe walking foot and a snake/curve stitch on each seamline

unfortunately my walking foot broke mid-way through the quilting process, but i am very lucky that my mum lives 5mins away from me and she had a walking foot that i could use to finish the quilt

see the 2 white brackets that hold the foot to the machine?  the top one snapped off (circled in red), the foot moved out of alignment, then broke the needle and caused the machine to shudder around and make all sorts of horrible noises.  thankfully, it doesn't seem to have caused any damage to the machine.

love it!

i have been meaning to post these photos for a few days but i keep getting distracted!  the baby quilt (which i am totally in love with!!) is finished and has been given to a friend who is expecting a little boy in a couple of months.

this photo shows the gorgeous colors...

and this one shows the design - please excuse the rays of sunlight on the quilt, it was a difficult day to take photos!

i ended up needing to join some batting to make it big enough for this quilt.  i simply butted the straight edges together and stitched using a 3 step zig-zag... it is nearly invisible when done and the joins cant be felt when the quilt is finished.  i ensured that the joins in the batting go from side-to-side on the quilt because i knew that my quilting lines would go from top to bottom (which will strengthen the joins)

ahhh, i love the look of the back of this quilt too... the pattern makes me smile!

i attached the binding in my usual style (completely by machine)

in progress

my latest project is a baby quilt for a friend who is having a little boy at the end of August.

i am making a smaller version of "welcome spring" from moda bakeshop using the blue/beige strips from a bali pop (cotton candy) with a gorgeous fossil fern fabric as the background - i am aiming for a neutral beachy look.

i have used a double-sided Hobbs fusible batting and am making this a quilt-as-you-go project