Starry night Quilt - progress

Starry night lay out & sizes here :)

Im still ploughing away with my hand quilting. I'm using lots of blues & pinks.

the flannel is nice and easy to quilt - very soft, and luckily for me Sydney is having a chilly spell. Its been very nice tucked up under the starry night quilt - sipping tea. Hopefully I'll get it done before the heat comes back!

Hope your day goes well

Xx Siobhan

Parting ways.....

What a lovely spring day in Sydney,

Perfect for finishing odd jobs

& thankfully I got quite a few jobs done today!

Bacon & Eggs to start the day :)

I posted my cushion off to its new home, hopefully my pillow swap partner likes it!

& took a million pictures of the said pillow - so I remember how to do it again.....

hmmm  & Home made Spinach pie for dinner

So far all Good

Xx Siobhan

When Life Smiles

Everything just fell into line today. 

House organised, kids happy, paper work done, computer work/emails done, deliveries turned up & Sewing Done!

Its when all the little stuff works out - Thats when I smile :)

all fabric from my BeaSpoke Spoonflower range

Xx Siobhan

How many hours in a quilt??

Alot more than I thought!

scrap quilts are a great way of using bits of material or mindlessly sewing away.

As an experiment I actually took note of how much time this scrappy quilt took to make.

I was most surprised

all up to this stage

7hrs!

thats not including making the back and binding.

I dont know about you, but that seemed a long time to me - no pattern, just straight sewing. I didn't even make any huge mistakes that I had to undo.

I'm not complaining - I really enjoyed it, I love making quilts no matter how long they take.

I just hadn't timed myself before

anyway this is my 7hr Quilt Top

Next to make - is the back 

and then off to the machine quilter

Xx Siobhan

More Fabric

I'm just back from a visit to Calico & Ivy Balmain,

Just Checking stuff for my one day workshop that starts next thursday.

 Room for one more! if your interested. 

We will be doing a zig zag quilt top.

whilst at Calico & Ivy I was looking for fabric to go around my lone star.

One of my fav fabrics designers Nani IRO is now being stocked at Calico & Ivy, I usually order it online through DuckCloth and even then I tend to miss out as it goes sooo fast!

I also got a chambray and pinkish shot cotton. Now to decide!

I also picked up the pre made binding :)

This Fabric (also Nani IRO) is destined to be a dress or skirt?

I bought this book a few weeks ago online at Tessuti 

I'm off to do some prep for my classes tonight & tomorrow morning at Hobby Sew Top Ryde

Has anyone seen the New Down Under Quilt's Magazine???

I'm in it!

Xx Siobhan

template making my way

Lone Star Quilt

lots of different ways to tackle this bit of the quilt - this is my way.

you need will need some baking/ tracing paper, sticky tape,your ruler and a maker.

with a ruler draw the lines to mark out your triangle space

add in a 1/4 inch seam allowance on the outside.

The template needs to be 1/4 inch bigger than the space don't forget the bottom as well! it also needs 1/4 for what ever is next -eg another boarder or even just binding

mark the middle and cut 

Voila! decide how long you want your template to be - I've made mine short in this picture(finishing at the end of the star - I will actually make it longer after thinking about it, I want more room for machine quilting)

next is your corner square - same process as above

auditioning fabrics

I've changed my mind about the fabric I had chosen 

- I'm off looking for a lighter fabric 

- maybe a chambray? or robert Kaufman shot cotton?? 

I will need around 1.5 - 2 meters of fabric, depends on the star size and how fussy you are at cutting etc.

I'm off!

Xx Siobhan

Continuing on

With the theme of little things 

(small projects)

This is actually a project that was cut from a magazine story (as does happen), so I thought I'd show you all.

These little place mats are so incredibly quick and easy to put together

I placed my sandwich together (back material - wadding- top material)adhesive sprayed it all together in a large rectangle.

I then found a plate the size I wanted and traced the plate onto the fabric. 

I then cut the shape out and machine quilted some straight lines - working from the middle out.

To finish off I used some pre made liberty binding.

Voila ! Done

I'm off to Melbourne this weekend for the Victorian Cancer Council Art Awards, Very excited to be going and seeing my work on display.

Any last minute tips on what to do or who to see???

Siobhan Xx