Christmas Quilt BOM

I recently pulled out my Christmas quilt to see if I could make some progress this year and get it finished before another Christmas goes past.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that the last post about this quilt was August 2017. That is like a life time ago! 

I have got my 2022 goals sorted and finishing some sewing projects is one of my intentions this year.

I looked in the box and found that I have blocks 1 to 5 completed. This is very encouraging.

Block 6 was well under way and that is the one I am working on now.

I fused the little applique circles on and hope to stitch them in the next few days. 

There are lots of other things on my goals list for this year so I just want to fit in the quilt when I feel like it.

I have been procrastinating on the star block because I don't like the idea of cutting all the little triangles. However, I was doing some tidying and found my special triangle cutting ruler. You end up with triangles that have their long side on the straight grain. 

I have just paused to think where I stashed the ruler after finding it. I'm hoping it's in the draw of my cutting table. Let's check before going on..... What a relief it was right where I thought it was!

This is a beautiful small quilt and I really want to get it done this year. At least then I will have room for starting another BOM kit. I love getting all the fabric and instructions on where it all goes. I can design my own colour scheme but sometimes it is nice just to have it all set out for you.

Although I don't allocate a lot of my time to regular sewing projects (not doll clothes) I hope to consistently make progress on my UFO's throughout the year.

Happy Sewing,

Val

2017 Christmas BOM from Gum Valley Patchwork

I got an ad on my Facebook newsfeed for this lovely Christmas BoM called Christmas Delights. It started in April and we are now up to block 5.
I have just finished Block 3.

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

My aim is to finish Block 4 before the end of August and then I will get blocks 5 and 6 done in September.
I am so proud of myself for keeping up so well. All of you who have started BoMs and got behind will know what I mean.

"The quilt was designed by Linda White and is exclusive to Gum Valley Patchwork. It uses Gail Pan's new 'All Things Christmas' fabric range along with some blenders."

Visit Gum Valley Patchwork online to see the finished quilt.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Creating some images for my blog header

I wanted to add some nice colour to my Doll Design blog so I played with inserting pretty fabric looking images inside the line drawings of my designs.

I normally use Fireworks for this type of thing. I find it easy to use without to many features that I don't need.

This is how they look. Pretty cute, I thought. In Fireworks you copy the floral image then 'paste inside' the drawing outline.

I figure a lot of people use Photoshop so I looked up how to do this in Photoshop. It is a whole new language for me! Not sure I want to swap to photoshop. My understanding is that it does do more than Fireworks but it is mainly for photo editing. I suppose if I want to make some nice marketing photos for my doll patterns I need to look at it.

Anyway, to do this in Photoshop you need to draw your vector shape on one layer. Get an image on another layer. With the image layer above the drawing layer, right click the image layer and select 'Create clipping mask'.

I haven't quite finished the blog header but I put up what I got done the other day because I really liked the look of it. Better than white space, anyway. I will finish soon.

I am still sewing lots of doll clothes. This time last year I was making a little Christmassy sewing things every day of December. I got 22 done. See my blog archive for Dec 2103. Scroll down to 23rd Dec where they start. I looked through them all and the gnomes are my favourite.

I made this bright little dress yesterday. The white bib is stitched on top of the bodice. I can see a lot of potential here for different shape front pieces sewn on rather than pieced. I am also playing with pleats so this skirt is pleated rather than gathered.

Why not visit my Doll Designs blog to see my latest pattern and check out my blog header.

Merry Christmas,
Val

Welcome to the North Pole SAL for July

After struggling along trying to work in the restricted space of my temporary sewing room combined with a lack of resources - some in storage and my pocket money going towards rent and storage costs - I have finally decided to put all my quilt making and general patchwork on hold until get into the new house, towards the end of the year.

Instead, I am going to concentrate on the doll clothes side of my sewing. It is small all round and it also means I can pack up some of my sewing stuff to get a bit more organised.

In keeping with the Welcome to the North Pole theme I have created a small scale Christmas applique scene as a border for a pinafore skirt. I forgot to put in something to show the scale but the drawing is on an A4 sheet with a bit more taped to the end to make it 15 inches. The houses are about 3 inches tall.

I hope everyone working on their Welcome to the North Pole quilt has made at least some progress through July. The months seem to go so fast! Please link up your post or photo in the Linky. There are always lots of lookers. It is such a great quilt.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole SAL for March

After flying to Sydney and spending time in the city I have caught a cold. I will never fly again without dosing up with immune boosting supplements. I took them when I went overseas for six weeks and I didn't get sick once.
That said, I did enjoy my time in Sydney. It is just such a pretty town in places. The Queen Mary 2 was in the harbour.

I returned home to some exciting mail. I won the charm and charm holder on Let's Book It at Vrooman's Quilts last month. Join in at the end of each month with a project you have made from one of the many books you own and be in the running for a quilt charm.

There are so many lovely pins and charms at Pin Peddlers.

I have done a little bit on my North Pole table runner. I sewed down two stars and the moon and put some rick rack on Santa's roof. I hope to do the other stars and maybe start some windows. The windows look very tiny and fiddly.

If you are sewing along this year please link up your march blog post below. It was great to see some lovely work from last year linked up last time. There are some new people this year and some picking up from last year. Soon there will be lots of finished quilts.

I posted a giveaway yesterday. The prize is a free Craftsy Class closing 2nd April. If you are not into Craftsy it is definitely worth a look.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole - 2014

Ho! Ho! Ho!
A whole year since I first got this book. I have made a good start on my version of the quilt but just had to lay it aside while I tried to move house without stressing too much.

There have been lots of people keen to be part of the SAL for 2014 so here we are again. I invite anyone who still has some work to do from last year to stay with us and anyone who wants to pick up a UFO or start new is welcome to join in.

On the 4th Wednesday of each month you will need to do a blog post or upload a photo to flickr. Since linkies are just a fabulous way to share and archive project progress I will set up a linky to show off what you have done on my 4th Wednesday post.

When I first found this book I looked around quite a lot and eventually found one or two quilts that people had made several years ago. I was quite excited to see that number 11 link on the 1st page for a google search was a valspierssews post about this pattern. No wonder more people are finding the SAL. It is such a great pattern it deserves to be found.

This year since my quilt is in storage for 6 months (I only brought Go Wild with me to the rental house) I am going to make the little wall hanging and because it is only small I am going to practice my needle turn applique. The wall hanging is on the back cover. I have started to cut out some freezer paper shapes in readiness. I am off to Spotlight on Tuesday to get some night sky background fabric.

You can read more about the quilt and how much you will need to complete each month to finish it in a year on the original Intro post.

It seems the book is still available from Piece o' Cake for $16.95 USD plus postage. Scroll down the book list until you see it.
It is also still available from UK Book Depository $17.87 AUD with free shipping.

I have made a button with some of my blocks since I don't think I can rightfully use the book cover. You can grab the code and put it on your blog.

<a href="http://valspierssews.blogspot.com.au/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCQ9_uRohDYzl0yvURZGN__SI627JWUBzEPuxlVXQ6Dgic7uEJscJxJonMbyXv2KoVX6kItECvuUYVtRoulfN3jULjgkCG-_CmNSdtv0o-Ynnf7d7amLxdh5kMUksTE1n_wJOTXeRl2M/s150-no/wtnp+sal.jpg" height="150" width="150"/></a>

Happy Quilting and Crafting,

Val

Christmas Little Bits 20

I can't believe I went a head with this one. Common sense kept telling me to stop and wait until I had suitable fabrics. I really wanted patterned background blocks but I don't have any plain looking patterns. It was either solid or busy. Maybe I could have used solid letters. Anyway, it is done now and the doll is not going to complain.

Mainly I am posting this doll quilt because of how well the wool backing worked. I had 5 yards of a loose weave pure wool from Pendleton Woollen Mills in Oregon that I bought for $20 a yard. It gives weight to the mini quilt without unusual bulk for its size. It folds up just like a life size quilt.

I do like this design with the letters on the blocks. I had to fit it onto 24 inches x 16 inches so I had to make them rectangular. The other blocks I have seen have been square.
I am thinking that 20 inches x 14 inches would be a good size for the next doll quilt.

Here are the rectangular letters as PDFs

CHR
IST
MA

and this is the layout.

Flickr Link

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Welcome to the North Pole June update

It is great to see everyone making progress on their blocks. With about 5 months to go there is still lots of time left to work on it but it is probably a good time to rethink or review your plan. I am determined to finish my quilt before this Christmas and may have to speed things up just a little. I need to make sure I have enough wadding and I will also need to purchase some backing and border fabric. I will be keeping my eye out for some discount fabric if possible but if I find the perfect cute fabric I am prepared to pay the price. Gingerbread men or snowmen might be nice for the back and snowflakes for the border.
Here is what it looks like so far. Still quite a lot to go but it is coming together. I changed my Santa and reindeer to a bit more traditional I suppose. The reindeer left on the ground just wasn't slick enough :)

I have been nursing my machine along a bit lately so I have put off applique sewing and put my efforts into cutting and sticking and some straight sewing.
I look forward to seeing what everyone is up to.

If you are not ready for Google+ you can comment from my Facebook or Flickr.

Val Spiers on Facebook

Val Spiers on Flickr

Happy Quilting,
Val

North Pole QAL - May update

I have made some progress but not a lot to show for it. I managed to get all but a few bits glued down for another house. This makes 6 blocks with just a bit to do to finish them off. I have put off doing any appliquing sewing until I get my machine serviced so this last block is not sewn on at all. I bought some blue homespun to make the sky blocks. I have 6 blocks in white at the bottom of the quilt and 9 blocks in blue at the top. The first blue blocks will have the barn on them on the horizon. I have reversed the barn ready to trace it onto the applique paper so that will be next. The top two rows of blocks will be for Santa's sleigh and the moon and stars. I have found a Santa and sleigh in another book that I will be using. It just looks a bit easier to applique.
I have seen some great blocks done for May already. Doing a bit each month makes the project much less formidable. I keep telling myself there is plenty of time before Christmas. Maybe in September I will have to pick up the pace a bit. I really want to get it finished this year.

If you have some progress posted please link up that post below.

Just sign up to google+ to comment but...
If you are not ready for Google+ you can comment from my Facebook or Flickr.

Val Spiers on Facebook

Val Spiers on Flickr

Happy Quilting,
Val

April North Pole QAL

I love the little houses in this quilt. They look a bit fiddly but most of them are quite straight forward. I hope everyone managed to do a bit this month. I have two more blocks nearly done. I still have to decide on a roof for the Chinese take away.

If you have made some progress put it in a blog post and link your post to this page.

Happy Quilting,
Val

February North Pole QAL

What a fun quilt this is. I worked hard on two more of my 12 inch blocks and now have three sewn together. I have a couple more trees to put on then I will put on the wadding and do a bit of outline quilting maybe and a few swirls in the snowy sky. I will also add some hand stitched simple snow flakes in Pearl cotton No 5.
I am feeling decidedly weary but every visible part of the house is clean all at the same moment in time. Even after all the days we have spent cleaning and tidying we both spent another 3 hours this morning. Anyway, I have just taken a few snaps with my iPad of the blocks on my sewing table.

I have decided that I will write the house and shop names on with fabric pen. I am not very good at small writing in embroidery.
I know some of the group have done a bit more this month. Please put a link to your post in the linky below. This makes it easier for everyone to check out our progress.
Happy Quilting,
Val

Posted with Blogsy

January North Pole QAL

Here we are at the end of January already but I know some of the quilt-alongers have already done some of the blocks. The schedule calls for getting your fabrics organised by the end of January but it never hurts to get a bit ahead of the schedule. If you are anything like me something new seems to pop up that has to be started :)

One of you I know has signed up for a very cute BOM called Dolly and Me. I am so tempted. There are several shops selling it as pattern or kit.

Where was I? That's right Welcome to the North Pole. 

I need to stay on track. 

I pulled out all my Christmas fabrics because I wanted to make it bright and colourful. Also instead of dark blue backgrounds I have planned white for the bottom section and night sky blue for the top section with Santa's sleigh so it will be much lighter than the one in the book.

Because I wanted a quilt to go on a bed I had to make it a bit bigger. I also wanted a scenic look rather than disjointed blocks. I pulled out my 12 inch scrapbooking papers (the ones I have had for 15 years and have been eaten round the edges by silverfish) and started drawing up some blocks.

This is what I came up with. 

Rows 1 and 2

Rows 2 and 3

Rows 4 and 5 will be sky  with stars and Santa

Santa and his sleigh will probably be straight off the pattern because it is a bit hard to redraw it.

I wanted snow flake fabric but I didn't have any and I couldn't see just what I wanted on the internet so I settled for white. I think I will hand stitch some snowflakes on each block.

I started Mr and Mrs Clause's house and almost have it finished. The reason it is not finished is I found a wall hanging kit that I planned to make for my mum and just started it. It is cute sandpipers on a beach. I will show that one another time.

Almost finished

If you are quilting along add your name to the linky and link it up to your post about the quilt. 

If you are not in the QAL but you have some blocks or have made this quilt you are welcome to link to your post about them. Only link up if you have a post about the quilt Welcome to the North Pole.

Please leave a comment if you visit even if it is just Hi Val, just looking. If you have a blog I always like to look back. Also make sure you have an email connected to your profile so I can reply to your comments.

Happy Quilting,

Val

12 Days of Christmas Quilt

I have greatly enjoyed trying to design and make some new blocks to complete this runner. Because all the blocks had to be 6 1/2 inch unfinished I had to do a bit of trial and error with some of the triangles and I now have a better understanding of the various sized triangle or squares required for half square triangles.

Classic ribbon block
This tutorial is for a 12 1/2 inch unfinished block
Required sizes for a 6 1/2 unfinished block:

Bear paw tutorial
One paw in this tutorial is a 6 1/2 inch unfinished block. It shows 4 put together.

Log Cabin Flower block
Another favourite was the flower log cabin block. I can't find a tutorial for this one so here are some basic piece measurements.

I cross cut  2 1/2 inch squares to make the triangles then sewed as in the picture. The lengths of the strips that I have written in include enough for that extra bit on the right hand end.

The flower block and ribbon blocks on the end.

My latest bit of fun has been exploring google plus a bit more than last time. I wanted a way for the North Pole QALers to communicate without having to write a blog post. We can start a thread and all have a say or just make an update report to everyone in the group with a few clicks.

Happy Quilting,
Val

North Pole Quilt a long - 2013 and now 2014

2014 update:
Lots of interest again so the SAL continues.
It seems the book is still available from Piece o' Cake for $16.95 USD plus postage. Scroll down the book list until you see it.
It is also still available from UK Book Depository $17.87 AUD with free shipping.

It is always more fun to work on a project together. Though we can't actually share the sewing we can show off what we have completed and encourage each other to do a bit each month.
Welcome to the North Pole is quite a large quilt with lots of applique. I am going to make mine with fusible webbing and machine outlining. I have never tried needle turn applique so I don't really know if it is harder to do.
If you want to complete the quilt for next Christmas it will mean two blocks a month but making a quilt is meant to be fun so there is no real need to do it in one year. It would make quite a comfortable two year project.

Here is a possible one year timetable.

February - Mr and Mrs Clause house and Trees & Reindeer
March - Elves' Recreation Centre and Sprinkles Ice Cream Shoppe
April - Elves' Bunkhouse and North Pole Carryout
May - Carl's Trucks / Delilah's Doll Shoppe and Three Trees
June - North Pole pole and The Marble Shop.
July - Royal Toy Works etc
August - Slick's Sleds and North Pole Bakery
September - Reindeer Barn and Stars at Night
October - Santa Delivers on Christmas Eve
November/December - border and finishing.

Having said all this I have changed the design quite a lot to suit myself so my quilt will be made of fifteen 12 inch blocks with more of a scenic feel like the table runner. I made the houses a bit bigger and have left out a couple. I found some pictures of polar bears and penguins that I will add too.
Depending on how I am going for time I would like to make the table runner as it is on the back cover using needle turn applique. Though I still might do the long straight bits with invisible hem stitch on the sewing machine. I have set myself a lot of cross stitch to do this year so I am thinking that will be enough hand sewing for me.
I am very excited to get started on this quilt. I bought a few more pretty Christmas fabrics for half price the other day. My quilt will be quite bright. I can't do any sewing til I get the background whites but I will start some house cutting out this month.

If anyone has the book and just wants to make some of the blocks we would love you to join in.

If you join in plan to do a blog post about your progress on the last Wednesday of each month.
For January we can share some pictures of fabrics we have chosen and any individual plans.

Happy Quilting,
Val

12 blocks - day 2

I am making a 12 days of Christmas table runner with blocks that have increasing numbers of parts to match the day number. The 12 days of Christmas starts on Dec 25th but there was no way I was going to find time to get into the sewing room yesterday so I am starting on day 2 with two blocks.
I chose a collection of Christmas fabrics that seemed to go together pretty well and decided on 6 inch finished blocks. I cut one square for block one then made a half square triangle block for block 2.
Not sure what I will do for a three piece block yet but that is tomorrow's block.

I also did some cross stitch today and finished my first needle book cover that will be part of my gift collection for the quilting group members next Christmas.

I have been thinking about my Welcome to the North Pole quilt. I will be using bright modern Christmas fabrics to make the houses. Probably the same ones I am using for the 12 days table runner. I will have to buy more for final borders and binding but there is plenty of time to sort that out. I will need to buy quite a bit of white for the backgrounds and soon. Probably a set of self patterned white fat quarters.

Several of you showed an interest in working on this quilt pattern next year. You might want to start choosing some fabrics and decide if you want to make the pattern exactly as in the book or make a few adjustments. I am working on a plan of action that we can all follow. Suggestions are welcome.

Happy Quilting,
Val

A Year of MIni Quilts

I am so going to have to make a set of mini quilts next year after seeing these sets at Patchability .

I was so excited I had to start with December. Besides, I had to make something with the fabric I bought on special last year.

I had a bit of trouble with the writing but I know I can improve it.

The pattern is not quite ready to go up but I will tidy it up for later. I have changed the flower head arrangement a bit so it looks more compact.

Christmas Bells are an Australian plant that flowers in the summer. I was intrigued by the powers attributed to it on this bushflower site

Happy Quilting and Merry Christmas,

Val

WIP: Cat Quilt

Such a flurry of activity since last Wednesday. I did a bit more on Nanna's Farm but great progress was made on the cat quilt. I now have some of the rows sewn together and when I make a note of what has been doe so far I feel like it is under control.

Bug Fabric had a great sale last week so I bought some cute cat fabric for the backing and cat words fabric for the 1st and 3rd borders. I probably should have bought another yard of the backing fabric but I so wanted the bird fabrics and I had to get a yard of each. Seven yards is the limit in the post pack before the postage jumps and I couldn't afford to add another seven yards. It worked out at about $7.55 per metre (since we talk in metres) even with postage. The bird fabrics are Nature's Walk Journal and Nature's Walk Birds by Clothworks. I will post pictures when I make something with them.

So far I have sewn two of the sides of 4 1/4 inch squares for the 2nd border and have the other two piles ready to sew. Ages ago I pieced the binding and ran it through my Simplicity binding and bias machine to fold it.

I have been doing quilt as you go by putting wadding on every block and quilting around the applique. It is quite easy to sew the blocks together and press the seam open. I will do the borders in strips with wadding and quilt them before sewing them on. I will then spray baste the backing on in one piece and stitch in the ditch down and across the blocks to hold the backing on place. The quilting is not as glamorous as long arm quilting but I like to do it myself.

I was looking at Pinterest and found a lovely Christmas quilt that comes in a book. With practiced ease I clicked over to The Book Depository UK and bought the book with Paypal. I didn't even have to move. I so love internet buying. I paid $15.39 and free postage.It's called Welcome to the North Pole. The picture will take you to their site.

I was wondering if anyone else had this design and would like to work on it during 2013. It is now my latest WIP . The pages are nearly all stuck together with drool. Not really. I like to keep my books like new. But I just love all the little houses.

This week I am linking up with:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

and Applique Thursday at A Quilting Reader's Garden