Chevron Quilt with Jenny Doan

I love watching Missouri Star Quilting tutorials, Jenny Doan is so personable, and makes everything look so easy. I saw her Chevron quilt on Facebook and then came across the tutorial, it's made from 2 layer cakes sewn into big blocks and with borders added it's a queen size quilt or there abouts.  

 

Now that Oliver's in a queen size bed, he has outgrown his single bed orange quilt, so I have pulled out all the oranges from my stash and cut 48 orange squares all 10" (two from each print and a few singles). Some of these prints were in his first orange quilt, some from my stash and some I bought in Melbourne knowing he still likes orange. I've used the last of my ribbon flowers from my flea market fancy stash (sob). Each block when sewn together nets 4 HST, i have 186 to work with. 

 

My first thought was this could easily be sewn as weekend project, and it totally could be, but I've given myself 2 weeks to get it completed and off to a quilter, hopefully back in time for his birthday in October (because what boy wouldn't love a quilt for their 18th birthday??) He is going on camp tomorrow and back Friday afternoon so i will try and get it pieced out wihout him seeing it. Video tutorial here or a pattern can be purchased here but you don't really need it, just watch the video, its less than 5 minutes long. Oh and she has an app too which is a lovely read.  

Blogging is hard on an iPad

It appears that sometime in May 2016, they took away the add photo feature on Blogger. So to get around this, I have to write my post on safari or chrome, then flip to a wordpress compatible with blogger app, insert photos from the ipad, save, flip back to safari or chrome, whichever is working on the day and not freezing my posts. Then I can resize photos, run the spell check and hit publish. Oh and move photos from my phone to the ipad before I start. So what used to take 10 minutes, can literally take an hour + pending internet connection also.

There is an app for $4.49 I considered, but it has no reviews so I'm not sure it will do what it says it will. How do other ipad bloggers manage? Should i change sites totally?

Two University's in one day.

Up early and off to Deakin University in Geelong, Cate was participating in a Tournament of Minds (TOM) challenge. She didn't want us to come and spectate, so Oliver and I went and did some shopping for his camp, $100 later he's sorted and has yet another Coke t-shirt.

Cate was finished by 10.30am, we were going to go to the beach but she's still recovering from an ear infection and it was just so cold and I could see a massive rain cloud coming, so we got some hot chocolate and hopped back in the car. We did want to explore the Uni grounds, the landscaping was beautiful with gardens and ponds, lots of footpaths. Oliver did comment Kevin would love it, and then was saw a wild rabbit running up the path so yeah, Kev would love it all right.

Fed Uni had its Ambition Day on so we came home via the Mount Helen campus. Oliver met with the IT tutors and had a bit of a chat, he will go back in October for a class tour and then enrol in hCert III. We had a discussion about classes, times, dates, fees, so he feels a little more prepared now. Cate wanted to see the Arts facility but that was being held at Camp St.

It was so cold, and starting to hail so we went to the Hands On Alley. Oliver got given a marigold by the Horticultural tutor and chatted with all the other trades like plumbing, electrical, ag, rural science...we did suggest he take advantage of the mobile hairdressing display and offer himself up as a model but alas no.

Non stop hail now, but it melts before i can get a pic. No snow yet.

Allison Glass quilt top

I'm not sure if I love this one. I bought it as a kit back in April from the Quilters Convention, was a really great day out. My sister is coming next year so I won't have to go alone, none of my friends here like to sew or quilt and there's no local groups about, I really should do something about that.

Anyway, I bought the kit for $75 from FiFi's Fabricology. I loved the one on display, and this ones the same, so I'm not sure why I don't love it? I'll source some matching binding and backing then put it in my gift pile. 

It's been really cold here, the watering can is used every morning to tip over the icy windsheild. We're going to Geelong tomorrow for Cate's Tournament of Minds competition, leaving home at 7am so hopefully no black ice and a smooth drive down.

National Jelly Roll day

I have 3 jelly rolls designers to choose from; Kate Spain, Denyse Schdmit or Bonnie and Camille. To but one they are about $66 each, plus post. I did buy a layer lake and a jelly roll for $105 including post on a destash site, I thought that was a good deal, lovely seller too. I am leaning towards Cuzco by Kate Spain but I have no extra fabric so won't be able to add sashings and the backing would have to be generic as this range is out of print now.

I've been googling "free jelly roll patterns" for inspiration and browsing both Insta and Pintrest. I don't want a pattern that involves a lot of cutting and I'm not a fan of the Jelly Roll race, so something in between. I like the herringbone patterns and I'm still fond of the bento box.  Either way, a few more weeks to get sorted. 

Is blogging still a thing?

I still read blogs, when I remember too. I have my favourite reads and occasionally think to search for new ones. I think Instagram is the fave app for quilters now, and cat lovers. Everyone's so busy, a quick photo compared to writing, layout, editing photos... It seriously took me 20 minutes to figure out how to save this photo from my ipad and get it to stick here, I'm outta touch.

Aunty Jenny's caravan quilt

About 3 years ago my My Aunty Jenny requested a brown, fawn and a smidge of blue quilt for her birthday. I had  some fabrics in my stash that suited, mostly from a Moda Chocolat' fat 8th bundle. After some googling using the keywords Moda, Chocolat and quilt, not a lot of inspiration came up which is a little interesting as a second Chocloat' line was printed. Anywho, I came across this pattern which was based on a quilt called Rectangle Reverie by Happy Zombie and I actually have that magazine so with a few modifications* I made this quilt top.

Fast forward a year or so, and I sandwiched it and did some loopy quilting. I wasn't sold on the quilting, had a few tension issues, and put it aside. Many discussions have been had about the quilts progress, and with my #12quiltsin12months goal, I thought it would be an easy finish. So I've pulled it out, given it a shake, found the matching thread and gotten back into it.

Plan is to quilt, bind, wash, and gift it by Thursday, as my Aunt and Uncle are caravanning over now, and despite it being summer, it's about 20 degrees. So they may want to use it.

* modifications - I had to tweak the pattern to fit the fabrics I had, my rectangles are 5.5" x 16.5" (1" smaller width) and I added a whole other row to fit her caravan bed.