Ride 'em Cowboy

The second Wonky Star and Cowboy quilt is progressing nicely.  I think I'm on track for the delivery date of first week of October as the hand quilting is going better than expected, partly because I am trying the more customary practice of 'rocking' the needle through the quilt and picking up more than one stitch at a time.  The result is faster and more even than sewing with a 'running stitch' style.  I really do like the chunky look of the Perle 8 cotton and there's more incentive to do this now I know it isn't going to take forever like the first Wonky Star Quilt did.

I'm quite happy with the back as well.  This colour family is not one that comes to me naturally so I was scratching my head on what to put on the back.  However, a rummage around Spotlight resulted in finding a jungle print that is really cute.

The brown strip is just to make the back up the required width; I wish I had more time to do more interesting piecing, but I've only got a couple of weeks to finish this.

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Starry eyed

I don't know what it is about star quilt blocks but I just love them.  So when I was thinking about making a gift for a work mate's on the way baby boy, I thought that the best way to feature a cute cowboy print was to make another Wonky Star quilt, placing the print in the centre.  With fabric that didn't work for the Hot Spot Quilt as the background and some bibs and bobs I had around the place, I've made  multicoloured stars that I think make a nice change from baby pastels.  So while I might be using and old favourite, at least I am putting a new twist on it.  Now I am worried that I am developing a cowboy obsession.

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Wonky stars quilt finished!

It has taken over six months, countless hours and a involved a bit of swearing on the way, but the Wonky Stars quilt is finished.  After finishing the hand quilting a couple of weeks ago,  Louise helped me trim it up at the last Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild SASE, then last weekend I finished the binding during a Downton Abbey marathon session.  So it will now be passed onto the recipient some four months late, but hopefully she will think it is worth it.  The problem is that is looks so good on my red couch that I wish I could keep it.

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My Creative Space

The Creative Space at Kootooyoo is on holidays but to keep up the habit, I thought I'd post on things that I have been working on anyway.  I have two projects on the go; the Wonky Star Quilt, which is taking ever so long to hand quilt, and a cowboy quilt for a baby boy due to make his entrance later this month.  Starting on the second before I had finished the first is not a good habit to get into but is the result of what I have learned over the last few weeks, which is that hand quilting is definitely a winter craft.  It is no fun hand sewing a quilt when the weather is hot and in fact it is pointless as your hands slip when trying to get the needle through the three layers of the quilt, resulting in even more wonky stitches than normal and frayed nerves.  I definitely do not need to spend more time correcting mistakes, so I gave it away when the mercury was in the high 30s at the beginning of last week.  At that stage I started work on cutting and machine piecing the cowboy quilt.  It has come together nicely so far, despite a cutting error which necessitated inclusion of a red inner border that is definitely not in the pattern!  I'm really happy with my progress since Monday night;  just the bottom border to join before sewing the top together.  The fabric was quite tricky to put into the design - even though I liked the range, the large scale of most of the prints meant that a lot of thought had to go into the composition.  I reluctantly decided that  my favourite of the lot couldn't be used for the top, but will make a great backing.

The next decision is what to use for the binding.   A darkish blue print from the same range (Wrangler's Ranch from South Sea Imports) is looking like the front runner, but I'll finish the top before making a decision.

Our Creative Space

The Wonky Star throw is finally coming together.  Despite the fact that hand quilting is a very slow process for me (probably because I am not using the right technique), I am really happy with the effect on the reverse side:

It's quite tricky getting the stitches even and I do spend a lot of time pulling stitches out and looking at the reverse side as that is where the real effect of the hand quilting is supposed to be seen.  Maybe if I used the "rocking" technique it would make my life easier.  Perhaps there is something to be said for machine quilting.

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Oh Beehave

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Layout of the Small Plates quilt, a photo by AndreaAMM on Flickr.

I have been a bit slack with the blocks that some of the lovely lades from the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild made for our "Oh Beehave" quilting bee. I asked them to make me blocks to construct Elizabeth Harman's Small Plates quilt from her gorgeous book "The Practical Guide to Patchwork". However I gave out mainly print borders and squares so when I was asked to take a picture of the project as part of the wrap up, I had to whip up some of the white bordered squares to alternate with the print blocks but still don't have enough to put together one of the two quilts I am making. So while this layout is a bit rough and not the right size as yet, I am thrilled with the combination of  happy colours from a very eclectic mix of fabrics. But before doing any more work on this, I must get back to work on the Wonky Stars throw; currently on hold due to a nasty cold.

Twinkle, twinkle

As pleased as I am with my revsible Wonky Stars throw, it turned out to be a beast to baste.  I knew it would be challenging to line up an identically sized top and back but I did not think it would be that hard.  I spent a good three hours trying to get it right at the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Sit and Sew Evening (in my case Stand and Baste) but all I did was pin it together and undo it four times. On the Sunday I decided I  needed to anchor four seam joins and go from there rather than try to line up the edges (yes Rachel, I should have taken your advice the first time around!).  So it is done now and the red outline  quilting is under way, but it's a slow process and there is no way it will be finished for the birthday next weekend.  But then again, it's no fun getting all your presents at once, is it?

Our Creative Space

After lots of hard work, the top and back of my reversable Wonky Star throw are done!  I finished the black side last night but haven't taken a picture of this yet.  Doing my first real pieced quilt has been an experience and I have come to a few conclusions:
- No one could ever make a living out of making quilts - well, your average sewer at least.  Not only are supplies relatively expensive but the charge for the labour component would be astromonical. It's not just the sewing but the cutting of fabric, trimming and pressing the blocks (and, in my case, the unpicking and rework) takes an awfully long time.  And there's the basting, quilting and binding to go.
- Cutting fabric perfectly straight, let alone sewing the perfect quarter inch seam is really hard.  In fact, impossible!
- Despite the above this has been a lot of fun and theraputic.

I hope to baste and start quilting on Friday night.  There is going to have to be a lot of quilting done between now and 10 December to meet the deadline.  Sounds like a good excuse to get out the "Downtown Abbey" DVDs.

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Our Creative Space

Wonky star quilt blocks, a photo by AndreaAMM on Flickr.

All the madness of the day job is officially over today. Well, the half yearly madness is at an end. Now I have to get through things that have been put on hold over the last 8 weeks. Sigh.
But the upside is that I get my evenings and weekends back so will now have  more time for projects. This one has a deadline for early December as a birthday gift. I mentioned a few weeks ago to Stos that I would make a gift by this date and his question was "Do you have time?" Quite reasonable, in the circumstances but it has turned into an unintended challenge that has spurred me on to squeeze in some sewing at a time of year that involves lots of late nights and weekend work. 
Two of the blocks are shown above.  This is going to be a Wonky Star throw, inspired by Rachel's Wonky Star blocks for the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild "Oh Beehave" swap. You can see Rachel's fabulous finished product over here. She had a irregular sized blocks arranged as a reversible quilt in red/cream and cream/red with the quilting around the stars showing through on the lighter side.    My plan is to have 12.5 in blocks, with star blocks interspesed with plain squares, set out alternately on the reverse side so a blank block will have a quilted star pattern from the work on the other side. I'll do the quilting in red so that it show both on the black and white blocks.  I hope to get a lot more done on this over the next few days and I'm dying to see if it looks like my vision.  If so, I'm not sure I will be able to give it away.
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