Bonnie's Quilt

I feel this sewing project has been my nemesis these past few years but at last I have defeated it and completed it. May I introduce "Bonnie's Quilt."

I began thinking about this quilt in 2013 and then started working on it in 2014.  At last it is finished and gifted in 2016!

I wrote about my original plans for this quilt in March 2014 here.  That post includes her answers to my questions that provided the inspiration and direction for this quilt. It is mostly done using a fabric line called "Color Me Happy" by V&Co.

The hardest part for me was to keep the work random.  I struggled a lot with fitting blocks together and there was A LOT of unpicking involved!  I took lots of photos during the process, thinking that I would want to write a "how to" blog post, but now that it is finally finished I would rather just leave it as it is.  An entire random quilt.

AND NOW my brother has requested a quilt !!!!

Bonnie's Quilt

Green is my favourite colour.  All shades and tones.  I just love green.  And so does my sister Bonnie.    When I asked her if she'd appreciate a quilt made for her new home and she replied with a very enthusiastic YES PLEASE, I knew it would have to revolve around the colour green.  So I started a Pinterest board for her to approve any fabric choices and designs.  She's a lot more modern and much more of a 'cool chick' than I am, and her tastes can be quite different to mine.
Then Vanessa Christenson showed off her lovely new "Color Me Happy" fabric range and I was smitten.  All the lush and rich colour coordinating was done for me and all I had to do was wait until March for these gorgeous colours and prints to be available.  Visit her website here if you want to see professional photos of her fabric range.  Wait till you see her gradient Ombre collection!!!!
 Meanwhile, here are my photos:

She wasn't too keen on the little flowers (pictured in the front) nor the teal so I took them out of the mix.  Here are some other fabrics that she (and I) approved of:

I really love these bright colours, but the navy with large red and grey roses (top left) doesn't have any green in them so I am saving them for a future use for myself!  I also bought these greens and greys:

   

 So here is the entire collection of fabrics I am going to use for her quilt:

The extra few fabrics along the bottom I received in the Instagram #greatukfabricdestash

What Design?

The next step was to ask her feelings on design, as I didn't want to just guess which shapes she preferred, or if she liked random over symmetrical designs.  So I gave her a quick "this or this?" ten questions, which helped give me some direction.

Do you still love owls? - I do, but i love Elk antlers more

Curved lines or straight lines? curved

Random pattern or repeat pattern? random

Green with white or Green with grey? green with grey (I am loving grey at the moment - still LOVE white though)

Cute or quirky? erm - i'v been into cabbage roses and awesome florals lately

swirly or jagged? swirly

Contrast colour or complementary colour? contrast

Favourite/preferred 2D shape - triangle/square/rectangle/circle/hexagon/diamond? triangle

I wonder what designs come into your mind when you read her answers?  Please share any ideas you have!
Here is what I have come up with so far, starting with her preferred 2D shape, the triangle.

This guy is 10.5" square

The big brother is 24" and the little brother is 4"

I've also turned my hand to some paper piecing for the first time ever and come up with a lovely circle of flying geese, with a few trying to escape!

The background fabric is just PERFECT for this design!

Then I added a string of flying geese triangles that had escaped from the circle:

And to make this a solid rectangle shape I enclosed the little 4" star with more of this background print, but in gorgeous grey, and added some rectangle patches:

So that is the progress so far on Bonnie's Quilt!  

Feel free to add any suggestions of what you think might be a design or pattern that would suit this quilt too.  I think my next step is to try drunkard's path blocks.

The Great Instagram Destash

Two weekends ago, I got involved with a little thing called an Instagram Destash.  Let me explain:  A whole lot of patchwork and quilting people who live in the UK and Europe all decided that on Friday night, starting at 7pm they would post photos of fabric from their stash that they'd like to part with, onto Instagram, along with the price they'd like for it.  If you followed the hashtagged group and you saw anything you liked, all you had to do was comment under the photograph with your PayPal affiliated email address!  The first to comment was the successful buyer!

Well, I am fairly new to Instagram, so I decided to plan ahead.  I typed my email address along with the words 'Yes Please' then copied it (by holding my finger down on the words until they were selected and a command box popped up asking me what I wanted to do with the words - of course I chose COPY)  Whenever I refreshed my photo stream, if there was anything that I liked all I had to do was put my finger in the space where you add a comment and hold it down for a couple of seconds to paste in my comment.  I was so pleased to have been the first to comment on eight lovely things and have been happily receiving fabric pieces in the post all week!

The Americans had one first, the previous weekend under #greatfabricdestash, but unfortunately most of the people who posted photos said shipping to US only, so the next weekend we were lucky enough to have one over here under the group name of #greatukfabricdestash.  This then made all the Australian patchworkers feel left out, as postage costs can sometimes be prohibitive, so they had their own Instagram fun last weekend under the tag #greataussiefabricdestash.  If you happen to share photos on Instagram, there are still a few things up for grabs, if you're interested.

Here are some pictures of the things I was able to buy, mostly for a green quilt I am hoping to make for my sister, the others were just because I liked them!

Hunky Dory Jelly roll from Trudi Wood  

Padstow 5" charm squares from Emma

Leafy fat quarter from Emily

ikea fat quarter from feefeefifi

Green scrap bundle from hannlib

Mendocino mermaid small pieces from Fiona

Etchings jelly roll and charm pack from Katy

I am still waiting on just one more to arrive, it is half a yard of grey with white flowers, from Sarah at duck egg threads.










This Destash was a lot of frantic fun!  Every time I clicked the refresh button, 6 or 7 photos had been added that I had to examine and see if it was something I'd like, and then the mad rush to try and be the first to add your email address in the comments.  Sometimes it looked like nobody had commented, so I thought I was the first, but then once you send the comment, the photo refreshes itself and you actually see that your comment was third in line instead of first!

It was also lovely to see some people who have big collections of fabric be prepared to part with some of their special and rare pieces.  Sometimes someone would comment that they were disappointed to miss out on something, and then another commenter would offer up a piece that they had at home!  Some people would even feel sorry for others missing out, and so offered to have their winning piece cut in half in order to share the good fortune.  It really was an experience, an outpouring of the shared love for fabric.

If you'd like to know about anymore that I hear of, I'll post a newsflash blog post to provide some advanced notice.  It seems the people with large fabric collections found it cathartic and those - like me - who have a small stash enjoyed finding new treasures and new blogs to read too!  If you joined in with one of these Instagram Destashings, what did you think of it?