Find the Narwhals

Today I have a finished quilt to show off, although I started it close to two years ago, and finished it midway through last year. (At this rate I'm never going to get through my stash!)

My inspiration came from a triangle quilt I stumbled across somewhere on teh intarwebs (top left). I absolutely loved the colours: black, white, peach, pink, and watermelon. I was captivated (read: borderline obsessed); it certainly hit my dopamine receptors. I started seeing some similar triangle quilts, in mint and coral, which I also love.

1. modern ombre + b/w triangle quilt tutorial + pattern 2. mint and licorice :: a baby quilt
3. a coral and mint isosceles quilt 4. Isosceles on Point

In short course I started working on my own monochromatic(ish) triangle quilt, using solids in pink, peach, black, and white. I went with equilateral triangles instead of isosceles, leaving me future scope to work another variation on this theme. ;)

Instead of using all solids, I substituted the light pink with "Find The Narwhal in Bloom" from Sarah Jane's collection "Out to Sea". It had all the right colours in it that I wanted for my triangle quilt, and cute little whales and narwhals!

It turns out I struggle to work with mostly solids, so I added a few geometrics in black and white during the many hours of fiddling with my layout.

I pieced the back with "Mermaid Play in Blossom" (also from "Out to Sea") bordered by solids and whatever I had in my stash.

I used solid black for the binding, but added scrappy strips of hot pink, and black and white polka dots.

Upcoming posts:

• I already have another lap quilt finished just after New Years. Based on historical trends I suppose it will be a few months until I get around to photographing and blogging it... :P
• There's a baby quilt currently in progress for another pending human, estimated time to complete about 10 weeks from now.

Cow Quilt

Back in March I posted about a cow quilt I was piecing for my husband. I actually finished it by May (I think that's some kind of record for me) so he had it in time for Winter, but I never got around to getting photos of it. Since we actually had a holiday this week, I thought I'd get a few shots while I had the free time and the nice back drop.

Trent holding his quilt up for me. :) This was take from our balcony, which overlooked the pool bar and the ocean. Sadly we didn't spot any whales (apparently a common sight for this location).

This was the first quilting I did using my new sewing machine, it made such a difference! Nice even stitches...

For the back I made some little cow "paddocks" based on Elizabeth Hartman's Picture Day pattern. I think it's maybe a bit too bright but it's the back of the quilt so meh...

And finally here's Trent back in May enjoying his new quilt while we watch BSG. :3 (You might also notice a bunch of other cow patterned things in the background... Hehe)

A quick update on the garden, first sugar snap pea spotted before going on holidays on Monday, and some jalapeños that have been happily growing in our absence.

Flying Geese

I'd been wanting to make a flying geese quilt for a while after having seen one of Rita's (I think she's made a few!), and then Jeni's pink monochrome mini quilt gave me the idea to make it black and white.

For the back I tried my hand at paper piecing and made a large circle of flying geese for the centre. Typically these blocks measure about 12.5" square when complete, I enlarged the template to finish with a 16.5" square.

I quilted some diagonal lines inspired by this flying geese quilt I stumbled across, and added the old infallible black and white striped binding.

It's become a favourite and now lives on our couch. I'm actually snuggled under it right now... :3

Quilt Zero

Big apology to my follower bros (yes, both of you!) for neglecting my blog. In the past year I've holidayed in Japan, bought and moved into a house, and continued to work stupid hours at my day job.

I know all that is terribly interesting, but I thought I might show you what else I managed to produce last year. The quilt I'm blogging about today is kind of the quilt that started this downward spiral -- quilt zero, if you will.

I found Heather Ross' Far Far Away II collection for sale, depicting various princesses and fairy tale characters. The Sleeping Beauty was especially laden with childhood nostalgia and musical heartache for me, and so my stash began. Over time I collected pieces from her other collections to make a quilt for myself.

Most people who know me would say my colour is black, but I must confess, I do love girly pink, peach, and cream colours too. So although the modern quilting modus operandi is typically white or cream sashing, I had to go with black. It works for me. :3

The Princess and the Pea, and the unicorns are from Far Far Away. I used a bit of the selvaging from the unicorns in peach from Far Far Away, just in case you were in doubt of the theme.

For the back I went with a "piano key" pieced strip of Heather Ross scraps. (It was pretty impossible to get a good picture of it with my appalling photography skills.)

Although I only finished up (I'm going to guess) about June last year, the fabrics featured in this quilt were the first I bought online in early 2011. So the elapsed time from inception to completion is a bit silly, but that's what happens when you code by day and craft by night...