Six bushfire quilts

Really love to see these 6 quilts stacked before they were posted to Jan Mac for the Oz Comfort Quilts group. They have a target primary school, but weren't able to hand them out to every child yet, as there weren't enough boy quilts. 

I had a brainwave that we could use green and black squares to make minecraft quilts for boys aged 8-13. That should be right up their alley, and simple to make also.

Freshly snapped out of my garden, this wonderful tree is flowering all over, and I can't wait to collect some gumnuts.

The Cars quilt

And then suddenly it's a week later, but the cars quilt is completely finished!

Quilt number 6 for the bushfires, and my last for a little while as it's time to get these sent off and ready to be hand distributed.

When I see the entire quilt, it's amazing to think that it started with a car print as inspiration!

Easier to see it up close, I love the orange sashing.

And even more striking is the back, made from $5 cotton doona covers and strips of solids I had on hand. I have been using up lots of old fabrics I had hanging around!

Bushfire quilt for Oz Comfort Quilts.

The car quilt is going together

Just starting to join this next set of blocks for a boys quilt - using the feature fabric of cars,  I wanted this one to appeal to young boys.

So many of us have pretty fabric in our stashes that we are using to make bushfire quilts, I bought 40cm of the car fabric, and pulled other pieces from the scrap bags to go with it.

Just starting to join the blocks

And $5 cotton doona cover fabric for the backing again.

I love the way these go together so quickly!

The Kiwi Bushfire Quilt

I am absolutely chuffed with the way this Kiwi Quilt turned out. I used almost every skerrick of fabric (3.5 metres). I bought the Kiwi prints from a lady on buy swap sell....

The batting was mostly reclaimed from the cot bumpers I had made for my son's bed a few years ago.

This is all that's left, ready for another bushfire scrap quilt!

I made the back from pieces of a cotton doona cover from H&M for $5.

It's so amazing to have created something beautiful from something that wasn't wanted. I hope this one goes to someone who feels connected to the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Kiwi quilt update

I am (im)patiently awaiting the arrival of my next batch of batting in the mail... the centre of the Kiwi quilt is made, but I still need to add the borders.

I really hope it arrives tomorrow (Friday) or I can dash away hopes of finishing 8 quilts before posting out to Oz Comfort Quilts for the bushfire quilt drive.

Fingers crossed!!

Witches Gathering

Every now and then it's great to insert a fast finish.. like one of my altar cloths. These are about 40cm square and help to create a sacred space for contemplation, reflection or ritual in the home.

 This one is the Witches Gathering. I do love freemotion quilting. It's great to get my own time to do create in the cool. 

It's been a huge start to the year with our young man at kindergarden. So many changes.

I have cut 6.5 inch squares to make four patches with the kiwi fabrics to make the next bushfire comfort quilt. This keeps the details in the fabric at a size to appreciate.

QAYG cupcakes and allsorts

Well, doesn't this look smashing when you step back to take a look?

It's the cupcakes quilt as you go (QAYG) quilt.

I used a charcoal fabric for the sashing and binding, and boy, does it make the colour scheme ping!

Now I see the blocks like this, I see licorice allsorts. Anyone else?

And the back is also interesting. 

I've been using a wool/cotton blend batting from Matilda's Own and it's my new favourite. Not too lofty, feels soft, and doesn't beard.

Most of the blocks feature the cupcake fabric, and the others are all scraps. What a great design it is for using up scraps.

This is my #4 quilt for Oz Comfort Quilts bushfire quilt drive (find the group on facebook). Jan will want to distribute these soon, I just hope I can make some more quilts before she needs them.

The satisfying bit

Without a doubt, I am enjoying machine stitching down this part on the quilts. This, and machine stitching the binding are the most satisfying bits!

The bobbin winder on my Janome 6500 shown in this image still needs to be fixed, but I am not quite prepared to be without it.... I will have to check that the second hand machine I bought as a backup works first.

As I have almost finished the cupcake quilt, I have pulled out the next fabrics. Some gorgeous Kiwi prints.

I bought 3.5 metres of fabric from a lady on Buy Swap Sell for AUD$30, which is a bargain! And I have calculated how to make it into a quilt as you go maximising the use of the prints and not losing a lot of fabric in the seams.

It's fun to be excited about the next quilt as well!

22 cupcake blocks

Well, I worked hard at quilting group this morning and now have a total of 22 cupcake blocks completed for the 4th bushfire comfort quilt.

Yesterday I went to the local H & M shop to buy single doona covers at $5 and $10. This soft cotton fabric is perfect for backings, sashings, bindings and it works out at $1.25 per metre or $2.50 per metre. 

This is how the first pieces joined, and I don't normally use black, but it works really well with these blocks.

And this pretty print arrived in the mail. It was a preorder fabric, and now I have time to make something in time for Easter.

And lastly, here is our second kinder painting. What do you see?

Busy week!

It's been my son's first week in kindergarden, and what does a mother do to distract herself from the separation, especially when he is the one with separation anxiety at morning dropoff?

She joins quilt group for the second day in a row. A different store today, I cut out batting, and basted backing onto the back of 22 blocks (need backing for another 13 squares).

It was raining hard, and I needed to stay in town in case the road was cut off from home to the kinder. At least I could pick up my 4yo, even if we couldn't get back home.

But no worries, it did not turn into the monsoon we had last year.

These were the first 2 blocks. Finished and trimmed, and then suddenly it was time to pack up. Unbeknownst to me, the shop was closing at 12 noon, Dang it! I was settling into a full day of sewing!

So i sat down in a shopping centre coffee shop with some hand stitching working on this Raven block.

The first one is not quite finished yet. It just needs berries. These blocks are huge, about 50cm square, so they are coming together quite quickly because they are so large.

And at night I sat and stitched a whack of cupcake blocks. This is what they look like untrimmed.

The cupcake fabric is being used in most blocks (if not all), and is the one that will tie these scrappy blocks together.

And finally, here is my boy's first kinder painting. What do you see?

Flower Fairy children's quilt

Quilt number three for the year, and number three for the bushfire quilts drive is complete.

 Oh! These blocks were so fast to make! Now I understand why they are so popular for making quilts to be donated! Quilting them at the same time as constructing means less stitching to do.

And they are strong, pretty, and use up your scrappy pieces because the strips are diagonal, so you can always find something the right size, even for a small corner.

This is my 3rd completed quilt for the bushfire recovery quilt drive.

I am particularly making children's quilts, because I feel the trauma of the bushfires will impact their lives significantly, and these quilts may bring comfort for an entire lifetime. I recently heard of a 6 year old boy overly concerned with having the wrong shoes or clothes on when the bushfire returns, and I don't think a child should have to be thinking that constantly.

You can join the Oz Comfort Quits bushfire quilt drive. You can join the facebook group at this page here. 

Another large quilt finished

Ah, this Dick and Jane quilt is so magical! I have placed the motifs in multi directions so it doesn't matter which way it is placed on a bed or couch, it will be just right.

This is what I got when I asked the beloved to turn it around for a photo of the back. Hahahaha. He cracks me up!

And the label for the quilts has bene provided following Jan's directions.

To join these blocks, you can see a strip on the back also, I used a 2 inch strip folded in half on the front and a 1 inch strip on the back using quarter inch seams to join the blocks.

No reduction in size of the blocks, they are all butted against each other.


And what's this?

Well, it turns out that those strips really are the absolute fastest way to get a quilt together, and i have been doing rounds, and basting all these blocks and centring them. Gah.

The first 2 rows of the flower fairy QAYG are also made, and with a panel in the centre of this one, it shouldn't be too long until its finished.

Oops

Oops! That's the word I use when I go to the quilt shop to buy 2 cans of spray baste for the next Oz Comfort Quilt drive, and I come away with these fabrics. 

Yess... they were a bargain... and oh so pretty! But goodness, really did I have to buy enough for a QAYG quilt and one for us as well? I do love them so much... 2 panels, and what a stunning quilt they will make!

Ssssshhhh.. I will make the rest out of scraps, I promise!

Another little finish

Progressing on the Dick and Jane QAYG as my second quilt for bushfire recovery... it's taking quite a long time to baste, quilt, and trim these blocks... But I have about half the quilt assembled now...

So I took a break to make these gorrgeous magickal creature altar cloth

There is so much to love, from it's Egyptian eye, and horn on the 3rd eye, to the mushroom type plants in the picture.

The heat strikes

It's full on Summer here in the far north of Queensland, and I have been handling lots of batting and holding quilted bits.

My sewing space is outside under a verandah, and it was so hot, I kept hosing the concrete floor, and hosing me down too, then i would sit at the sewing machine and keep sewing with the fan supposedly cooling me off.

Well, my body doesn't like it, and I have broken out in hives all over my body, but especially on parts of my hands that are swollen and sore.

So I have moved onto a foldup table inside in the air con, which is inconvenient for everyone, but bless them all for supporting me and my stitching, and are working around me. I've even given up doing the dishes for a couple of days, because even wearing dish gloves my hands were getting too hot.

I started to cut up the panel pieces adding frames in different prints, including this cherry scrap I had in my stash.

These look so cute!

They should be relatively easy to quilt in a star and cross before trimming to size. This time I will try a different method of joining, as I didn't like the bulk in the seams last time.

First big finish for the year!

 Ta-da! The yoga frog quilt is not only finished, but it looks magical! Watch it hover in the air! Hahahah...

35 blocks in a 7 x 5 configuration make quite a good sized quilt!

This quilt is joined in the suggested way on the Oz Comfort Quilts page, by putting back sides of the blocks together and making the seam on the front, then covering the bulky seam.

I don't like the bulky seam so much. But they are strong service quilts that will be used and loved.

The back is made from a cotton doona cover I picked up at H & M for only $5. Great value. And of course a label.

Next fabrics include these Dick and Jane panels I bought for a rockbottom bargain - only $1 each (originally would've been at least $20 each), and I found these prints at another shop on sale for $10 a metre so I thought, let's do it!