medallion quilt-a-long

medallion quilt-a-long: final round!

Who’d have thought it – I’ve completed the final round of my Medallion Quilt-A-Long!

Oh my goodness, this quilt top is BIG! I pieced the final round and attached it on the weekend at Sewjourn. It was one of my goals for the weekend, so I was really pleased to get it done on Friday afternoon. This was the “anything goes” round, thank goodness – I have now used up pretty much every teensy bit of my Australian fabric designer stash. There are bits of fabric from Aunty Cookie, Ink & Spindle, Pippijoe, Prints Charming, Kristen Doran, Saffron Craig and Yardage Design, most of which had been marinating in my stash for a few years now.

To give you an idea of just how big this is, here it is draped over a queen sized bed.

I have to be honest and state that the top isn’t actually quite finished. All those appliqued birds are fused in place, but not stitched. I plan on using the blanket stitch on my Mum’s fancy sewing machine to do that. I’d also like to do more embroidery on the centre panel. Yes, it would have been intelligent to do that before I sewed a whole lot of fabric around it, but I’m not always that intelligent. I’m planning on backing it in fabric from the coordinating Prints Charming Daisy Chain range, once GJs have their next sale on quilting fabric! Then I’ll send it off to be professionally basted. I just can’t see myself finding a large enough space to do that part myself. But I do plan on quilting it myself. So expect this to be finished and on a bed somewhere around, say, 2018…

I do have to add – I love this quilt top! It evolved quite organically, due to the nature of the quilt-a-long, and I’m glad that I stuck to my own brief of using stash fabrics. It was challenging, yet completely enjoyable. Thanks so much to Meredithe – without her prompting this quilt top would never have come into existence! You can check out the progress of the other quilt-a-long participants over on the flickr group.

Thursday, 24 May, 2012 by thornberry

medallion quilt-a-long, patchwork, quilting

medallion quiltalong – round 3: applique

Round 3 for the medallion quiltalong was applique. Applique is not usually my scene. It involves detailed design work and precision, not just sewing bits of fabric together according to another clever person’s pattern. So I decided on simple, large, bold, raw edge applique. Except I’ve only fused it in place and haven’t appliqued it yet. That will take my mother’s fancy schmancy sewing machine during the January holidays.

Birds! As you can see, this quilt is getting big. Fast. Those eight inch blocks will do that. Anyway, the applique round was for November, so I am up to date. Sort of – the December theme is circles. And I don’t have enough fabric left to do them justice, so I’m going to sit out December. But I’m loving how this is coming along!

Tuesday, 20 December, 2011 by thornberry

medallion quilt-a-long, patchwork

medallion quilt-a-long round 2

Round 2 of Meredithe’s medallion quilt-a-long is all about squares. I really did agonise about what to do for this round. The fabrics that I am using are mostly fat quarters or odd skinny shapes, so I really do have to think outside the square a little (ha ha!) to work out what will highlight the fabrics best while working with the overall (evolving) style of the quilt. It’s a challenge, but I like it! I get out my pencils and graph paper and draft a design out to get an idea of how the finished product might look.

For a while I considered doing simple large squares in as many fabrics from the blue/green colourway as possible. Then I changed my mind and ended up with a square in a square, and mixed up the border fabrics and the inside squares. No two are exactly the same. The next challenge – how best to balance the design in terms of value. I’m happy with the finished result.

Even though they are squares, the changing fabric combinations keep a sense of movement around the quilt. Here are some of my favourites:

Because there are only one or two colours in each fabric, I think each round needs to be kept simple. I’m not being especially challenged in terms of piecing (although it’s not perfect: don’t look too closely at those points) but I am being challenged in terms of design. Meredithe, this is loads of fun!

If you’re interested in joining in, you can! The next round will be announced in November. Just pop over and visit Meredithe’s blog and/or check out the flickr group.

Saturday, 22 October, 2011 by thornberry

medallion quilt-a-long, miscellaneous, musings, patchwork, work in progress

triangles

The finish line is in sight – this is my last week of almost full-time work. My little Stella has been in childcare four days per week rather than her usual two days for the last four weeks and she is exhausted! She actually ASKED to go to bed last night – unheard of! Clare has managed pretty well but is still pretty happy about the thought of Mummy being around for more school drop-offs and pick-ups. My husband is almost through four weeks of the Big Important Job and he is shifting into the settling in stage rather than the “oh my goodness there is so much to do in not enough time I’m feeling slightly panicked” stage.

And me? I actually have quite mixed emotions about changing my role from full-time bread-winner with partner at home looking after the house and kids to part-time earner also looking after the house and kids. I hadn’t realised how much I need to work outside the home. I need to use my education and skills and talents in an environment where they are in demand and where they validate my abilities by paying me! On the other hand I am really looking forward to more time with the girls – I have missed them so much – and hopefully not feeling as constantly rushed and pressured. Next year Stella will be going to childcare/kinder three days per week rather than two, so maybe I’ll add some contract work to the mix again then on top of my regular two days. Or maybe not. Who knows! This year has been such a big one for all of us in terms of change. We’ve all learned a great deal and I hope that we can take the best of those lessons as we move on into a new stage. I really hope that we can make choices that will work for everyone in the family, not just one or two. I think that we can do that.

But back to craft! The title of this post refers to the first round of Meredithe’s Medallion Quilt-A-Long. Over the past week or so I’ve gradually managed to cut out triangles and sew them together in little quarter hour bursts. Last night in between ironing shirts and jeans it was done!

I decided to keep the triangles large to show off the fabrics. The centre medallion is 16 inches square and the flying geese are 4×8 inches. I really didn’t want to waste any of my precious Aussie designer fabric so used speed piecing method B from Quilter’s Cache for the flying geese and quick pieced half square triangles for the corner blocks. There is still plenty more embroidery to be done on the bird. I’m thinking of incorporating some of the final quilting into the embroidery. I’m really enjoying this project – thinking about what might look good, choosing fabrics, drawing up a design, discarding it, drawing up another, then actually doing it! Small, manageable bursts – at this early stage anyway! I wonder what next month’s round will be.

And now the littlest is tucked into bed while the biggest is off on school camp. So it’s back to the sink then up to the ironing board for me – because if I can get the chores done quickly enough I might be able to cut out Vogue 1250 before it’s time to go to bed!

Wednesday, 14 September, 2011 by thornberry

medallion quilt-a-long, patchwork, planned projects, quilting

medallion quilt-a-long

It’s been a long time since I completed a quilt. I currently have one that is basted awaiting quilting, another that is awaiting basting, and three that need to have the tops finished. Oh, actually that might be four. But I’m starting another one.

Meridithe is hosting a medallion quilt-a-long to celebrate her 100th blog post. It’s a do it yourself type of quilt-a-long, where you start with a centre medallion, and Meredithe will suggest what to do with the next round on a regular basis. So everyone will come up with something quite different.

I’m using the Prints Charming bird that I started embroidering at SIT months ago as my centre panel, and will be using my stash of Australian designer prints for the rest, with some solids thrown in. It will be interesting to see how this evolves – and whether I have enough fabric or will be forced to purchase more!

The first round has a theme of triangles. I wonder what I’ll do? But while I’m wondering, I’d better get cracking on some more embroidery on that centre panel.

Sunday, 4 September, 2011 by thornberry