Quilts and Driving Holiday

I think I mentioned earlier that Mr Notjustnat and I are heading to Hokkaido for a driving holiday in November. November is almost here already! So we are off in less than two weeks. Can hardly wait!

But before we leave I will share with you what I did in the last couple of weeks. I have continued work on the yellow crumbs quilt. I've finished piecing all 230 blocks and started putting 4 blocks unit together. It looks quite amazing actually. I have also made a lil boro pincushion using the threads keeper filled with off-cut threads. It took me a couple years before I filled the keeper. Thanks to Deanna for a great idea to made it into a pincushion! 

Having stayed at home for two weeks after the surgery I've unearthed many long forgotten projects, one of which is the little 2" x 2" fan blocks I started long ago! To my surprise I actually made nearly enough for a nice small quilt. I only need about 50 more blocks. I'm really enjoying hand applique and hand piecing these fan blocks. I so love the vintage Japanese fabric I'm using too!

Please scroll down to the end of this post to read about our Hokkaido driving holiday...

Boro pincushion made from threads keeper

A tin full of little fan blocks ready for attention

Putting 4 little blocks into a unit

Stack of 230 blocks of yellow crumbs quilt

begin putting units of 4 blocks together

A driving holiday in Hokkaido! After a few trips to Japan Honshu island I thought we will visit Hokkaido the norther island in Japan. We decided to take a driving holiday by hire car. We won't be able to do the whole island, but I think we will see the most picturesque of the place.  

Hokkaido old map

Otaru Canal in Hokkaido

There will be plenty of photos to share on Instagram, FB and Twitter. For both of us this is also a photography holiday. I'm really excited to discover wonderful scenery in towns and villages. Another highlight for me is visiting onsens (Japanese baths). Hokkaido is famous for its natural hot spring onsens.

Will bring back lots of photos to share with you when I return,

Until then

Nat  

Yellow Crumb Quilt

September and October has been busy, fun and nervous time. It started when my friend Myra Dunn from Myfluffybag visited the end of September. I had a fun packed activities awaiting her. First was Quilts in the Barn's annual exhibition. The next day was Geelong Fibre Forum, a yearly event. The last day of Myra's visited I took her to ours favourite Niko Kafe in Oakleigh. What the little time we had left. We managed to play in the Treehouse Studio creating two quilts that we got inspired from Quilts in the Barn's exhibition the vintage crumb quilt. The evening before all these activities Myra mentioned the word "crumb quilting" which we looked up in Youtube, but it wasn't until we saw a vintage crumb quilt that we were in-loved with it!

You might also want to know about my nervous time? I had a small surgery on my back to removed infected cysts. I had that done a couple of days after Myra's left. I was a nervous lack for couple of weeks prior to the operation. I'm not a fan of hospital, doctor or pain! It was over in a couple of hours while I was knocked out, phew! I'm now home on sick-leave for 2 weeks. The pain had gone with the help of strong pain killers and a course of antibiotic. I'm up and about because sitting is not the most comfortable position when you have surgery on your back! I can walks and stand though! 

Now back to the Yellow Crumb Quilt. After returned from Quilts in the Barn exhibition both Myra and I were all inspired by 100 or so vintage quilts. One quilt in particular was a yellow Crumb quilt. With tone of scraps I've accumulated from quilts such as Rags to Riches and Handkerchief Corner quilt. We started to tackled our crumb quilts. I choose yellow base and Myra chooses red for hers.

The block to be 5" finished so I cut the 'F' fabric (feature fabric), which is yellow 3" wide strip, but instead of crumb piecing the whole length of strip as per YouTube's instruction I pre-cute my 3" strip into 3.5" pieces. I chain pieced all my blocks until I finished. If you are quilters you would be able to make this quilt by looking at my photos. I will try to explain under each photo what I'm doing. Enjoy!

I will need 230 block for a single size quilt.
I will not put them together until
I finished piecing all blocks.

Myra's Red Crumb Quilt

Crumb units. Very simple and not too
many pieces.

Attach 3.5" 'F' fabric onto crumb pieces.

Crumb blocks ready to trim.

Crumb units trimmed and ready to assemble. 

Block complete, now make 229 more blocks!

Imagine using Japanese fabric!

I'm using my beloved Singer Featherweight to
pieced this quilt. I love using it for
memorable quilt.

Here are the leftover crumbs. It's time to
discarded them.

Vintage crumb quilt.

Closed up of the vintage quilt.

Even closer look!

I can't see why you can't make larger blocks or make a modern looking quilt with it. I imagine using those bright and modern fabric in a quilt like this, but I love using vintage and recycled fabric so this version is perfect for me.

I hope to piece all the blocks by the time I return to work. It's a lot of fun piecing the blocks. There are so many variations of piecing I can do. With all the scraps I pre-cut for the previous quilts. It makes the process going faster than I have to cut everything from scratch.

Until next time
Nat