Quilt as you go Whirlygig

I received a request last night from Glenice in QLD who I met at the Dec SCQuilters meeting at Carrum Downs. She was admiring my 'quilt as you go' Whirlygig quilt that I am making using scraps of cotton fabric and chenille (old bedspreads, that is another story). I sent her the pattern of the Whirlygig pattern which was in an old issue of an APQ magazine, which I based this quilt on. I adapted it to 'quilt as you go' as it is easy to pick up and take it places to work on.

This quilt is a work in progress with no known finish date. The plan is to just keep adding hexagons until it is the right size or I get sick of it, which ever comes first. Each hexagon is approx. 8" across. So Glenice, her are some pictures of the quilt as it was this morning.
Here are some close up's of the individual hexagons so that you can see the detail. I quilted in the ditch, so there is no visible quilting on the front, except for those odd stray stitches which went of course. I started using the chenille in the centre as a feature, which wasn't to bad with the thinner chenille, however with six points meeting in the centre it was still a little bulky. After doing about five or six I changed my method and started only using cotton fabric in the centre. This was much better, less bulk and easier to handle.


The chenille adds texture to the blocks, especially the shaggy style.

I have used Hobbs Heirloom batting which is fusible on both sides. This makes sandwiching the three pieces together and the hand quilting easier as no pins required. Which is a good thing as it means less holes in my fingers and hands.
The quilting detail is only visible on the reverse as the light thread contrasts well against the plain backing colours. You can see a bit of the reverse in the third block pictured in the bottom right hand side of the pic.

Where has the year gone.........

Goodness me, where has the year gone. It is already March (my birthday month) and I haven't posted since before Christmas. I have been a busy girl since Christmas, doing I don't know what as I do not have much to show for it. We had a lovely Christmas and I received lots of pressie's from DH.....several quilting books & a Tom Tom GPS. These also account for birthday gifts and any other occassions which come up during the year. I'll add some pics of the books when I get the camera out next. I should have done them this morning when I was snapping quilts in progress. My Christams pressie to DH was a 4 day ticket to the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park later this month, which includes entry to the KISS concert on the Sunday night after the race.




I love the applique on the cover of this book. Absolutely gorgeous. It is one which is going on my wish list of quilts to make.