Sea Breeze Mini QAL

Welcome to the last few days of the Sea Breeze Mini QAL hosted by the lovely Angie at Gnome Angel.  This is such a fabulous wee pattern from Canoe Ridge Creations and stitches up really quickly. It has been fun seeing all the interpretations of this mini so far.  

I really wanted to use solids for this mini as they are not something I sew with frequently, but I love the effect of them in small quilts.  I initially thought I would go with autumn colours (think oranges and berry), and as I was searching through my solids,  I found some shot cottons which I thought would be perfect.  Not very autumny at all, but I bought these ages ago and have been wanting a small project to use them on.

Shot cottons have a beautiful sheen to them, almost irridescent in some lights. They are different to normal quilting cottons, in that 2 different solid colours are woven together to form the cloth...one going in one direction and one going in the other. The raw edges of the fabric will show what the 2 colours used are.  The word shot refers to the weaving process where the weft  (horizontal element) is often referred to as a shot  as in shot with colour. (Source: http://spiritcloth.typepad.com)

I was lucky enough to win a Fat Quarter shop voucher last year (thanks Sharon) and had bought some flying geese and HST Bloc Loc rulers with it. These are the best rulers EVER!!!! Seriously, I will never trim HSTs the traditional way again.  This was invaluable in trimming up all the blocks for this quilt. 

I always have to sew just one block together first to see how it goes then I chain pieced all the rest. So much quicker.

Once I had all my blocks made I played around with them to make sure they had enough value in them which is how light or dark they are. Being the Type A personality I am I wanted the value spread evenly through the quilt. There are several ways to check value. I always use my Ruby Beholder which I got from Elisa at Sewing Summit. It lets you see the value of all colours except red. You can also take a black and white photo which is what I have done in this case! It's good to have a range of values in a quilt to give it life otherwise it can be a bit flat.

I chose to put all my blocks facing the same way (that darn Type A personality again!!)  rather than as Megan had arranged them.  Unfortunately shot cottons never photograph that well. It is far more vibrant in real life.  I will quilt this tomorrow and reveal the finished quilt at the link party.

If you are joining along be sure to hashtag your creations on Instagram with the hashtag #seabreezemqal or you can join the Facebook group. This quilt along ends on August 2nd, so be sure to link up your mini (even if it's not finished) on Angie's blog and you will be in with a chance to win some fabulous prizes.  Thanks again Angie for hosting this QAL.

Finish Along 2014 - Quarter 3 goals

Well, since I didn't have much joy with my goals for Quarter 2 so I am going to reset the same goals for Quarter 3 and add in a couple more. It's winter here in New Zealand and dreary, so I can see a lot more sewing time in the next couple of months. However, I am off to New York on my own in September for 10 days then meeting my hubby in Hawaii for a week. I am meeting up with some girls I met at Sewing Summit last year, so best I don't be too ambitious with my goals this quarter.

Ok first finish for this quarter will be my equilateral triangle quilt. I just need to piece the back and get a wriggle on.

The next goal is to finish my Star Surround quilt that I started with Melissa ages ago. It deserves a finish this quarter.

I would like to piece one of my bee quilts and actually get it finished.

So those are the goals for this quarter. Fingers crossed I get them done this time.

Linking up with Katy at 

AYOLF - July goal

Last year I decided I wanted to make an Aeroplane bag from Sew Sweetness. It has long been on bucket list and with my impending trip to New York City coming up in a couple of months, I thought I had better get a wriggle on with it.

Source: http://sewsweetness.com/2013/03/aeroplane-bags.html

The hardest thing was deciding on the fabric, but I had some Melody Miller fabric that I really wanted to use, so this seemed perfect for me to use. I didn't want anything too busy for the base or handles so chose a Kona purple for the base and I am using a green from V and Co that matches the coffee pot handle and the outside of the flowers perfectly.

So my goal for July is to get this finished.  I don't want to be putting the last stitches in it the night before I fly out!!

Linking up with 

Finish Along - Quarter 2

Well I only achieved 1 out of 3 goals that I had set myself this quarter.  I didn't take into account that I  had swap commitments as well, but my WIP list is a lot less than it was 6 months ago! This St Louis 16 patch quilt is made entirely with Denyse Schmidt fabrics, using a base of Chicopee and then adding in other fabrics from Hope Valley and Spotlight ranges to complement the Chicopee colours. I just love the depth and the colours in the Chicopee range.

 I posted about the finish here.

Linking up with Katy at