Postie Excitement

Look what I found on my doorstep- well they were in a little postage box!!



A gorgeous bundle of Oakshott fat eighths in the most wonderful colours. ( Judy's picture from her blog).

At the end of Dec Judy who blogs at Quilt Paradigm had a giveaway for her two year blogiversary.  I was one of three lucky winners of her giveaway and less than a week after she put the package in the post in USA it arrived on my doorstep in New Zealand so how efficient is that. If you have never visited Judy's blog then I urge you to go and check out her amazing quilting projects.
Thank you so much Judy and also congratulations to the two other winners.

First Finish for 2016

Happy to have my first completed finish for 2016-

A simple strip quilt that is cot size and I make using the pattern from www.maryquilts.com. It uses up stash fabric and I get the chance to practice FMQ designs.

Swirls, wishbone and ribbon meander. Glide thread top and bobbin.

I seldom use solid  backing as I don't feel confident having my quilting showing this much but have to say I am pleased with how this turned out.
The quilt does not have a home to go to as yet but it's a good finish to start a hopefully productive year.

OMG- One Monthly Goal

Here Again!!

I have come across this challenge on Heidi's blog Red Letter Quilts where she is hosting OMG.

The idea is to set yourself a goal at the beginning of the month and then share a post about it and then another post at the end of the month with the achievement.

I tend to start a lot of projects but not necessarily finish them-or get them to the point where you can really call them a UFO, so I thought I might join in.

This is a free pattern on the Windham Fabrics website called 'Paisley Splash" designed by Myiesha and Katie.
I have baby quilts I need to make so thought I would make a version of this pattern-maybe in greys and yellows.
My inspiration came from some quilts I admired on Ida's blog. Ida Rather Be Quilting
Lets see how I go.

Welcome to 2016.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Well we are nearly at the end of the first week now so it is time to finish this post and publish it.. I worked both New Years Eve day and New Years Day so not really a lot of celebrating went on-except of course the excitement of welcoming new babies into the world.

This photo and quote was shared to my facebook page and I just love it so thought I would it for my words for this year!! We say at work we are all a bit crazy and if we didn't laugh we would cry so I think this fits.

                                                                 AARP Illinois's Photo

So I know I haven't been here much, but I am hoping that 2016 sees me get motivated to blog on a regular basis.

Today I finished and loaded a baby quilt on the longarm- good practice and I have a few to make for colleagues at work.

                                                               Swirls in the orange strips

                                                             Figure eights in the blue strips

Liking the look of this so far.

In my absence I have been dipping my feet into quilting for others and am hopefully going to continue to do so.
First up were two quilts that Lynda made-she is a fairly new piecer and has a pile of tops at home waiting to be quilted.

She cannot remember the name of this quilt but thinks it came from a book she got out from the library.

She chose the Panto Square Spiral by Kerryn Emmerson and has a polyester batting that really gave it the puff she likes.

Quilted with Glide German Granit

Her second quilt was very different and made in a Craftsy Class. She said I could quilt this how I wanted so I angst over what I would do then went for it with a lot of ruler work. In the border I used a design from a tutorial on Kathy's blog-Tamarack Shack

                                                               (Not a good photo I know)

Again Glide thread in Aqua, purple and black.

Lynda was pleased with both quilts so that was a relief.

The next one I did I did not meet the lady but was given the quilt by a third person and I do not have permission to post any photos.

However Jenny was quite happy for me to share photos of her first quilt she has made-she made placemats for her grandchildren for Christmas but is a new quilter.
She chose the Ripple Panto by Lorien and a light blue thread.

A lot of the seams are not straight so it did pose a bit of a challenge but in the end it worked out ok.

The batting she bought felt like a cotton and was very thin so gave the quilt a flat look which Jenny did not really like the finished look of but liked the quilting I had done.
So that's it for now until the next post.

I don't know why the grey has appeared as a background on some of the writing????

Happy Quilting