Multi-tasking...

So, it turns out that hand quilting is an activity that can be done very well while hanging out with people... which is what I did this weekend.

I've made great progress quilting my wonky stars - I've quilted around nearly all the stars. Once I've finished that I need to fill in the space in between them. I've been quilting with red perle 8, which means nice big stitches! I'm a big fan of this method, it makes the quilting go pretty quickly, making it enjoyable rather than a chore!

How-To: Improv Wonky Stars Layout

In my retreat recap post the other day I included a picture showing my finished wonky star quilt tops, the blocks for which were made by the "Oh Beehave" participants. Today I thought I would post some more information about how I pieced the tops. I would describe the way I pieced the tops as an "improv" method - especially since I made it up as I went along. I took a few pictures though, so I can explain some of my process.

First off I chose the layout of my stars. The design wall at craft retreat was incredibly handy for this, although a floor would have worked too. I marked the size I wanted the quilt to be with thread on the wall and then I chose the layout of both tops at the same time, so here you can see both sets of stars on the design wall at the same time:

I will now outline how I went about making the quilt top with red stars and a beige background.

First I looked at my layout and mentally split up the top into sections (photos of the finished top as they're a bit clearer). First two (the horizontal line in the below pictures), then three (the vertical line):

Next I split those three sections into smaller sections - to avoid y-seams my lines had to both start and finish either at the edge of the quilt top or a previously decided line:

I then carried on mentally splitting up my quilt top until I could see square or rectangular shapes filling in all the gaps between the stars:

Then I started sewing pieces of beige background fabric to the stars to fill in the negative space. Here you can see where I have pieced together the top into 7 large pieces:

Does that all make sense? Taking away all the lines can you see how I broke up the quilt top?

How about the top with the red background?

Here's how I broke it up:

Does that description make sense? It was actually very fun and freeing to do, especially since I was trying to use up the left over pieces of fabric sent back to me by the ladies in the Bee.

Tonight at the MMQG SASE I'm going to get some batting so I can start quilting this sucker!

Retreat Recap

A certain friend has told me off for not posting about the retreat last weekend yet, so I thought I'd better get on that this weekend!

The retreat was AMAZING. We were a little worried going up there because when it was being organised we had the pick of dates we wanted, so we were worried it would be too good to be true. However, a sneaky peek through the windows while we were waiting to be let in put our minds at ease - the place is beautiful! It turns out that Craft Retreat had only opened in March, which was when we were making our booking. It sounds like it's already filling up for the rest of the year.

We had Friday afternoon and evening, all day Saturday and Sunday morning to sew, and PLENTY got done!

Our Retreat Group. From left to right: Helene, Me, Bronwyn, Kirsty, MJ, Annabel, Marg and Andrea. (plus Louise, who arrived late so isn't pictured)

When we got there on Friday I got to working on my genome quilt, until dinnertime which was a delicious "planned pot-luck" dinner at the house. We then watched Murials Wedding and added green border hexys to a couple of hexagon flowers while watching the film.

Making use of the design wall

Saturday was dedicated to sewing together my wonky stars from the MMQG quilting bee into two tops (well technically a top and back, but the quilt is destined to be reversible). I did the last couple of seams on Sunday morning, but was very happy to have achieved the goal of getting them done. I'll post a more detailed post about how I went about putting the tops together at another date. (I took lots of in process photos on Helene's lovely camera).

My two finished wonky star tops

Saturday night we went out for a delicious and decadent meal at Mercato, after which some of the group watched another movie, and the rest (including me) chose to continue sewing.

All my genome quilt blocks so far

Sunday morning before leaving I chugged out a few more genome quilt blocks, bringing my total for the weekend to 16 blocks. 29 down, 20 to go, I'm getting there slowly.

The sheet I've been using to mark off the blocks as I've done them - the red crosses were from when I was rotating the HSTs, and now colouring them in means I've sewn the block together.

So all in all, an AMAZING weekend! We had such a good time we're planning to go back in November... hopefully I'll be able to go too.

Oh-Beehave - First Blocks Back

Las week I got back the first blocks for my month of Oh Beehave. Anna made these two blocks, and they're absolutely perfect:

And then yesterday I received blocks back from Shirley, aren't they great:

Thanks Anna and Shirley!

Oh Beehave - Block instructions

This post is for my fellow participants in the MMQG quilting bee "oh beehave". My month is March, so I'm due to post requests/instructions for my block as the fabrics went out this week.

First off, here are the instructions that went out with the fabrics:

‘Feel’ of the quilt
Simple, Non-uniform, Reversible

Colour Palette:
“Sand” and “Ruby” Kona solids only

Block size:
An assortment of different sizes with the biggest up to approx 12” and the smallest 4” square

Block type:
Wonky Stars – here is a good tutorial: http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/2009/02/wonky-star-tutorial.html

Scrap
Please return all useable scraps. Larger scraps will be used when making the quilt top, decent size triangle scraps may be used to make some more (small) stars if necessary.

Adding fabric:
Please do not add any fabric; I only want to have Kona “sand” and “ruby” in this quilt.

Intended purpose of quilt:
My quilt is for my friend Alex and her Fiancé as a wedding present in November

Specific construction requests:
I plan to make this a reversible quilt, with one side all sand stars on a ruby background and the other all ruby stars on a sand background.
Please can you construct two blocks – one of a ruby star with a sand background and one of a sand star with a ruby background (If you think I am being too cheeky with this request please send back the extra fabric and only one block and I will make the other.)
To try and make sure that I end up with a mixture of sizes of both types of blocks, I have included a post- it in your envelope that specifies which colour star should be bigger, please use this as a guideline.
Please use the same colour for the centre square as the points of the stars, so that the stars are all the same colour.
Some key points to think about when constructing the blocks:

• Please make sure that the points of the stars are at least ¼ inch away from the edge of the block so that points aren’t lost when I sew the blocks together (This is particularly important)
• Blocks do not have to be exactly square or in 1/3 proportions, but please don’t make them too exaggeratedly rectangular/disproportionate
• Please try to make the triangles meet or overlap where they’re attached to the centre square.
• Please try and give your stars “balanced wonk”.

First off, here is a flickr gallery with some inspiration photos that will hopefully show you what I'm going for (and what I'm not going for). I've put my comments next to the photos for you to read:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maiestia/galleries/72157625987600392/

Also for some more information, here's a diagram I made up to describe some of the points listed above and in the gallery:

1- This Star is an example of a 1/3 proportioned wonky block and if you made me one like this it'd be great. It has no gaps between the triangular points where they meet the edge of the block, none of the points go right up to the edge of the block (and thus won't be lost when sewing them together), and it has "balanced wonk"

2- This is an example of how you can play around with the proportions a bit if you like. This one has the star not centered in the block but off to the top left hand side. It's still good because it hasn't moved the proportions too much so still looks balanced.

3- This is an example of how you can make a block that isn't square. This rectangular block is still good is it doesn't look too stretched out.

4- This is another example of how you can play with the proportion of the block by making the centre square smaller. However I do not really like this block as the proportions are too extreme. You can make the centre square smaller, but please do not make it as extreme as this

5- Similarly, this block plays with proportion again, this time by making the centre square larger. Again, I don't like this block as the proportions are too extreme. You can't make the centre square bigger, but please do not make it as extreme as this.

6- This block shows you an example of "unbalanced wonk" As you can see, there is a HUGE difference in the widths of the points, particularly at the top and bottom of the block. There is also no balance of the different sides, with the much larger points all on the bottom left of the block. I definitely want wonk, but not as extreme as in this block. This block also shows you an example of having a gap between the points (on the right hand side of the block). I don't want that either

7- This is a "star block" rather than a "wonky star block". I do not want beautifully precise and symmetrical stars, I want wonky ones.

Apologies if that's all a bit thorough and it sounds like I'm being really really picky, I promise you I'm not, and I'm positive that whatever you make will be fantastic, I just figured the more information I show you all the better.

And lastly, here's an example block that I made up:

I can't wait to see the blocks that you guys make!!