"April Six" My Seventeenth Quilt.

Most recently I finished my seventeenth quilt. Yes, last holidays I fell in a bit of a rut and pretty much completed a small quilt in one day. This quilt is not my design at all (however the quilting design I did change). This quilt was purchased as a kit at 'Spotlight' here in Australia and I had been waiting for a while to purchase it on sale. I simply loved the colours of the fabric and the fun butterfly designs. So during the school holidays, I cut the fabric out the night before and set out two to three days to complete this quilt. However, I completed the assembling of it in one day. I began at about 9am and continued to midnight with meal breaks in between. This was surprising to me. I will usually take more breaks and pace myself more. In this case, I just wanted to finish it. Of course, it helped that the design was already set for me and all I needed to do was follow instructions. Ultimately this was a fairly easy process and I would absolutely recommend this for beginners.

The only change I made to this quilt was the quilting design. The kit recommended a checkered design whereas I decided to quilt on the angle to create a diamond effect. This probably cut some of that time as there were fewer lines to sew.

The binding was different than what I have done in the past. This time I just folded the binding in half and sewed the raw edges in line with the edge of the quilt. This gave me a nice fold line to hand sew the binding to the back of the quilt. I liked this method but I didn't find it more efficient than my normal process. 

I enjoyed making this quilt. It was simple and fun. The colours just made me happy. As far as making it in one day, I didn't expect it. I felt that is was achievable about half way through the day so I just continued. I named it "April Six" as that was the day it was completed. I hope to sell this quilt one day. Overall I'm very proud of my work and excited I was able to make a decent sized quilt within a day. Quite an achievement. Let me know your thoughts.

Thank you for reading.

Miss Mae. 

Bible Journaling - My entries so far

This is a different post that is not related to my quilting, but rather my faith and how I hope to grow through craft and study of the Bible. If you would like to know more then keep reading, however if you are not interested your welcome to wait on my next post. Thank you. Miss Mae.

It has been a few months since I started this hobby, and I have enjoyed it very much. It feels so nice to express the teachings of the Bible through art and scrapbooking techniques. I've been trying new ideas and reading passages I haven't read in a while. Not only that it really does feel I'm creating an heirloom, something that can be passed on that displays my faith and my understanding of the Word.

I get really excited when I finished an entry and I get to stamp and make a tab in my Bible. I love completing a new entry, I really do. So far I have ten entries.

My supplies are bountiful - literally I have so much stuff I don't know what to do with. I did buy some things from the Illustrated Faith website, in particular their past subscription boxes. I really wanted certain stamps and inks because finding stamps that have to do with faith and the Bible are really hard to find in stores. It also came with some devotional booklets which are really helpful to take a guided path through a particular theme. I have used other stamps, as well as acrylic paint, watercolour paints, stickers, wash tape, dye cuts journaling cards, pens, pencils, and soft pastels. I like using pastels and watercolour the most, especially the way the colours blend together. I mark my pages with tabs and a date stamp, I also sometimes use paper clips to mark my pages. Adds a little more texture.

At the moment I found a really interesting website, The Bible Project, it provides resources such as videos, posters and Bible reading plans. They are a non for profit organisation, that works through donations. I am currently using their Bible reading program using their "Read Scripture" app. It is a real useful way to read the Bible with a particular purpose.

My entries so far don't really follow a theme, just what I have been reading in certain moments I needed encouragement with work, health, study. It has been good to have something to show for reading my Bible more regularly.

So the images are just a few of the entries, not all. I'm proud of what I have created.

Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks for reading.

Miss Mae.

Heirloom English Paper Piecing Quilt (Part Two)

So it has been a long while since my last post. I have been sewing most of the summer focusing mainly on my white diamond english paper piecing quilt. I have now got a date to finish it by so I need to devote all my free time to it.
I have progressed into connecting the blocks together which has been very encouraging to see how it may look when it's finished. The blocks are much larger than my one inch hexagons that I progress a little faster.
I enjoyed doing the placements of the blocks. It is one of my favourite part of quilting, this is where I can get creative. I love working with patterns. Hence why I chose to use several different white and cream toned fabrics.

Sewing these large blocks was actually really fun. However it was not all that comfortable sitting on the floor. Simply, I needed to lay the blocks on the floor for the layout. The placement had to stay on the floor until all the blocks were connected.
This could be much easier if I could use a machine, however there is something so satisfying about hand stitching these blocks together. There has been so much work put in this already and I am so excited to see the final product.
The goal was to make a double sized quilt, however I believe I could easily make it into a queen sized quilt. I will see how I go with it.
Below is what I have so far. To see more updates on this and other quilts, I update my Instagram more regularly (link below).

That is all so far. I'm making more blocks currently and will be start the next section soon I hope.

Thanks for reading and happy sewing.

Miss Mae.

https://www.instagram.com/miss.mae90/?hl=en