Panda (third finish)

Finished in time for my niece's 9th birthday (Monday after next)

Not easy to photograph - it's just a bit larger than the mattress of my California Superking 

...and from the other side....

I was tempted to name him - I think it's a him - but I better leave this to Miss soon 9

Faux Piped binding sped up the process of attaching binding considerably - though the piping is barely visible (I'll have to rethink choice of pattern next time)

And from the back: Fmq giant bamboo stalks in 'organic' rows on a dyed sheet

Yay for project number three completed! Time to check my Quilt Planner for the year :)


Always easily led astray (aye, Suzanne) I have added a new project to the yet to start list, Converging Corners:

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Ok it’s official I want one for myself and I can almost guarantee I’ll be pulling scraps this afternoon 😳🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ curse you awesome fabrics and clever pattern makers 😆 @melanie.hastings . . . . @filminthefridge #dogoodstitches #dogoodstitchescarecircle #gammillquilting #gammillstatlerstitcher #beeblock #convergingcorners #logcabin #filminthefridge #scrapquilt #scrapblock #modernquiltinglove

A post shared by Rebecca Bird (@oneweebird) on Jan 18, 2019 at 12:10pm PST

 Youngest DS has requested I replace the disintegrating "very hungry caterpillar" cushion covers with elephant silhouettes, most likely fpp, and then I almost forgot about the Tui, the pattern is already cut out waiting for me to pull fabrics. I somehow think I won't get bored any time soon?

Waitangi Day on Wednesday means mayhem at work and then back in the classroom from Thursday - I'll come up for air sewing every now and then!

Happy Sewing!

Anniversary Weekend

So I fell down the rabbit hole went back to work - loved it but as expected there was no time for sewing. TG for a long weekend, Northland (and Auckland and Bay of Plenty) Anniversary weekend, and I got both some piecing and some quilting done:

Week 12

Week 13

Bonus Block 3: Crosswalk, Waterfront and balcony

I meant to do this in peach, but accidentally started in the next purples on the pile - duh! I'll have to check carefully what blocks are included in week 14, I try to avoid putting same blocks next to each other...

Weeks 1-13 plus the three bonus blocks - I can see a few more yellow, pink and red blocks are in order

The Giant Panda quilt needs approx. 3 more rows of quilting...

Only space large enough to lay it out is the deck now :)

closer up

I better get back to it!

Happy Sewing!

Giant Panda - I can almost see the finish line

Of course (...) I ended up with plenty of aqua and green leftovers... I didn't want to go backing-shopping, and I had some nice white cotton sheets of the right size for backing. But even little 9 year old girls will get white things grubby, so with the help of mum I dyed the sheet (and my hands) aqua!

Take some aqua procion dye, a large microwave and a large plastic container as well as some Soda Ash (I used the instructions from LuAnn Kessi which I had blogged about here) and your white sheet becomes an aqua backing:

I put an IG filter on to get the pic closer to the true colour 

- oh yes, you can get blue hands, too, if you're not diligent about wearing gloves lol

Since we put a big fluffy mat in the lounge, I unsuccessfully tried table basting before I made enough space on the floor by the breakfast island 

I had asked on IG if people thought I needed to add leaves to the aqua lines in the wide white border, there were mixed responses, but to be honest I couldn't really get myself motivated, so instead I quilted giant bamboo stalks:

I found no easy way to photograph this...

... visible a little better from the back

There are still a few more projects from 2018 I want to blog about, but as I'm going back to work next week, we'll just have to see how that works out. Until then I will just enjoy the beautiful summer in the Far North of New Zealand!

Happy Sewing!

Progress on Giant Panda Quilt

On Tuesday Suzanne & I went for a little shopping trip, and now I can continue the Giant Panda Quilt:

Completed fpp inner...

... with first border

Auditioning border options...

...neither seem right

An IG conversation helped...

Giant Panda Quilt in the wild lol (on the washing line last night)...

62” square so far - another (2x) 11” to go :)

Happy Sewing!!!

Progress on Giant Panda Quilt

Some more progress:

  

I bought just a few more FQs and I’m confident I have enough material for the background now though the borders will need some sort of scrappy feel to go with the background. I can see a roadtrip to Whangarei in the near future to get my borders sorted...

Happy Sewing!

Giant Panda Quilt

Like most years, my niece is planning a themed birthday party, this year the theme will be 'panda'. At almost 9 years old she had outgrown her previous little girl's bedroom and my sister recently refurbished and painted her room, using Dulux Waiwera and Oakura:

   

You know those conversations that start with "If you have nothing better to do..." so there is now the beginning of a Giant Panda quilt. I used the Giant Panda pattern from Animal Quilts by @tartankiwi, enlarged to 200% to give me a 40" square centre:

I place the background pretty much at random, but as I ended up with a noticeable green strip by Panda's ear, I'll think carefully what I will place into the blank areas top left.

Despite wrangling such large pieces, this is really lots of fun, and it goes together really easily - actually quite addictive. The one downside about enlarging the pieces is that you end up with needing large (aqua) triangles for the background and I'm using a variety of leftovers, FQs, charm squares etc. I have now decided I will divide some of the triangles and leave just some of them in the original size - allowing me to work with what I have got rather than travelling to my LQS 100km away or to any of the other fabric stores in Whangarei, the only larger town in Northland.

Once the Panda block is done, I plan to border it all around to give the quilt enough width to cover up the storage under my niece's bed. Suzanne recommended I look at some of the numerours popular medallion quilts all over Instagram, e.g. Aviatrix Medallion, or Marcelle Medallion for some ideas. The easiest would of course be to find some suitable material and just add 20+" around all sides, but four patches, pluses, or appliquéd melon shapes might be more realistic - keeping in mind I need this pieced before I get back to work so I can have it quilted, labeled and bound by her birthday mid February... Wish me luck!

Happy Sewing!