January's "All people quilt" UFO challenge

This year I decided to sign up for the All people quilt UFO challenge in an attempt to try and catch up on some of my quilts in progress. Admittedly I did add a couple of new quilts on that list because they were ones I really wanted to get finished this year even though I had more than enough to fill the 12 spaces. How it works is at the end of December they listed there free download for the UFO challenge which has 12 lines on it like in the picture. Then you fill out a quilt you want to finish on each of those lines. At the 1st of every month  they list a number and then that is the UFO you attempt to work on for that month.

January's lucky number was "2". Which for me was my red and white star quilt. This quilt is such a huge task with 2870 square in a squares  so I knew I wouldn't get it finished all in that month but I figured that as much as I could knock off of  the better. I started out the month with only about 50 blocks done but I ended the month with 724 blocks done which I feel was a pretty good effort. Some of these blocks are only 2 inches square. Actually most of them are. The 2 inch size block makes up for over 2000 of the blocks. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this through the month of January and glad that it came up as first off the list so I have plenty more months to work on it.

I decided that while I knew I wasn't going to finish the red and white stars quilt in the month of January  I would try and finish another quilt that was on my list so that it would free the month up that, that quilt fell in to do some more work the red and white stars quilt. For January I decided to quilt my "tilt a whirl" quilt from Amy Gibson from stitchery dickory dock. I already had a completed quilt top so all I needed to do was baste it and get it quilted. Then add the binding. So I also got that quilt completed for the month of January and I was so pleased at how it turned out and that I am keeping a good pace with my quilting and finishes this year.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and thanks for reading.

Aussie modern quilt guild zipper pouch swap

I am part of the Sydney modern quilt guild and back at the end of last  year all the Australia modern quilt guilds came together and we did a zipper pouch swap. It was so much fun to participate in and it was fun getting to know some of the ladies from other guilds around Australia. I was lucky to get the most amazing partner ever Sue who I already knew from Instagram. So I will share with you the amazing talent of Sue's with the goodies that she made for me.

The swap item that we were to make  a zipper pouch. The pouch is gorgeous and she nailed it to a tee with what I like.

Sue didn't stop there though. She also made this fabulous sewing machine mat in one of my favourite designer fabrics. Bonnie and Camille.

Then she also included some extra's in my parcel of goodies for me too. Some chocolate, Lori holt fabric (another designer that I love) and some stickers.

I also had sue as my swap partner and I had so much fun making her pouch for her. I made her pouch using a natural toned linen with an accent of a lime check strawberry print fabric. I then set to work and did a hand embroidered design on both the front and back of the pouch using perle 8 thread. I added some crochet flowers and butterflies and some sparkly gems for some bling.

I also included some extra's for sue. Some fabric, hand cream and these fantastic bobbin holders.

This swap was so fun and getting to know Sue a little better was the best part. All in all it was a great swap and I am becoming more and more of a swap addict every day.

The rope bowl craze - Round rope bowls

Well it's been a long time with no blogity blog. This year has been crazy so far and my blog posting schedule has gone way off track. The year has been filled with many, many doctors appointments and hasn't left much time for anything else but hopefully things are on there way to getting back to a sort of normal routine and I will be able to get back on  some sort of a posting schedule again.

Putting all that aside, I have been bitten by the rope bowl craze. They are so much fun to make and pretty quick too. So I thought I would post a little bit of the process of how to make these cute baskets.

 

 

 

In these baskets I have used between a 15mt and 25mt roll of polyester rope. The thickest you will want is about 6mm. I also used polyester thread on mine because I used polyester rope,  and you will also want to change your sewing machine needle to a 90 or 100 size needle. Also set your sewing machine on zigzag stitch and change your stitch length to about a 6 or bigger if you can. That's as big as mine will go.

Start by coiling your rope only a small section like so and place 2 straight pins to hold that in place while you get started. Getting it started off is the hardest part. Take your pins out once you have done a few stitches.

Then place it under your presser foot and lower it. put your needle down and start slowly zigzag stitching. Turning your oil of rope as you go.

Continue with this process until you have your base the desired size that you want. Once your base starts getting bigger it will get easier to stitch.

Once your base is as big as you want it hold the coiled part of rope in your left hand and tilt it up towards your machine like so.

Then keep stitching around and around until you are almost out of rope.

 

 

 

Once you get near the end of your rope length you can choose to do handles. This one I have just done a simple loop handle. To do that with your last piece of rope loop it around like so.

Then continue to stitch to join it to the rest of the basket.

These are so fun and addictive to make I am sure you wont stop at one. I know I didn't and they are great for storing all sorts of things.

Thanks for reading.