QDAD and more FMQ

A few months ago, I joined the Quilt Design A Day aka QDAD Facebook group after reading about it at PlayCrafts. QDAD is encouraging you to spend at least 15-20 minutes everyday, creating a quilt design by getting inspired by that particular day's image and colour palette. Even though I am not the best contributor, I have designed a few quilts since I joined the group and whenever I get a chance I try to design at least a quilt block. If you are a member of MQG, I highly suggest that you listen to the webinar Quilt Design a Day: Discovering Your Creative Process presented by Anne Sullivan. It really opened my eyes and changed my view about myself and my creative side. (You can even see one of my designs in one of the slides. I squealed and did the happy dance when I saw it because it was totally unexpected!)

This is one of my QDAD designs. I was at work, looking at the inspiration image and trying to come up with a design. Instead, I got inspired by the paper plane sitting on my desk, quickly designed this block and named it the paper planes. I still ignore my husband's comment saying "this is Maltese Cross!" LOL. Anyways...Later, I decided to turn this design into a paper pieced block. Knowing nothing about paper piecing, I wasted so much some fabric but managed to make something nice.

I didn't have any solids so I used the fabric which had the most vibrant colours and a pink similar to the one in the design above. The finished size of the each square is 6" and the whole block is 12.5". As I didn't want to waste this block, I added borders and made it to 18" which is a nice pillow size.

And started quilting it.

I tried to reflect the swirls and the leafy shapes in the fabric. When you don't think about what your next move and shape are going to be, it goes very easily and smoothly and is so much fun.

This is the first time I did such a fancy quilting and am surprised how nice the result is. I am also secretly proud of myself that I developed my FMQ skills very quickly in just a few days.
I will be offering this paper piece pattern on my blog in the following days. I am just fine tuning it at the moment.
Happy quilting!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Monday Makers! #10

Hi!
What have you been up to? I continue having busy days at work-organising three meetings- and doing more yard work-I have no photos this time. I haven't done much sewing or quilting last week but started quilting the New Wave quilt and managed to quilt one line of white sashing.

I drew the design on a note pad and went straight to quilting. Even though I was quite nervous, it went really well and I am happy with the result.
I fed the quilt to the machine's throat vertically; so I pulled the quilt to myself as I quilted it rather than going from left to right. It made the quilting easy as the bulk was on my left on the table. Having said that, I am not sure if I could do the design I chose for the orange area- most probably it will be swirls-in the same way. For this, I need to practice definitely!
For the rest of the quilt; I am thinking about quilting each coloured and sashing area with a different design which will also compliment with the patterns on the fabric.

Idea for the spotty orange area

Practising and auditioning for the next sashing line. I think the design in the middle suits the best.  Yay or nay?

Before moving to Monday Makers!, I want to share a quilting tip with you. I am sure you have heard about people using different products like silicon spray or a slippery mat to help them slide the quilt on the machine more easily. I was thinking about how I could manage moving a large quilt on the machine without spending too much money, preferably no money, on such products. And the idea kicked in!

I had a large teflon sheet which I bought ages ago mainly for baking. I never used it for baking but utilised it when ironing interfacing on my fabrics. You put your fabric with interfacing in between the sheets and simply iron. Because it is teflon, nothing sticks to it. If the glue of the interfacing melts, you can either wipe it off or just rub it off with your finger tip very easily once it is dry. By this way, you protect your iron as well. I knew that those slippery mats are made of teflon...As you see in the photo, I covered the surface of my machine with the sheet, the width was perfect but had to cut it in half for my machine's size. Secured it with sticky tape all around. Cut the square which covered the needle and etc area off. Also trimmed the corners on the throat area and secured them with sticky tape as well; it was ready to use. I couldn't believe how much difference it made when moving the quilt! Gentle pulls and pushes were enough to slide the whole quilt! I felt terribly smart afterwards-mind you I still do LOL This certainly saved me at least a 100 bucks- the price of those mats.

I hope you can give this a go and find it useful too. 

Now to Monday Makers!

I am going to continue working on this quilt. What projects are you working on today? Did you manage to finish anything in the last week? Share the love and let more people connect with me and you!
1. Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!
2. Grab the button from the side bar- DONE!!- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.
3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!
6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?
You don't have to be a follower of my blog, however; I wouldn't say no if you wanted to become one :-) 

An InLinkz Link-up

Blogger's quilt festival-ROYGBIV Quilts

I haven't entered a quilt into any shows or competitions before. This is mainly because I either found the competition too late or basically just couldn't prioritise it. I heard about Blogger's Quilt Festival just the other day and decided to enter my Triangles quilt into the ROYGBIV category; so this time I didn't miss the chance LOL

You have seen it before; for those who are just visiting my blog, you can find the original blog post here and here.

I did straight line quilting alongside the triangles. I highlighted the big purple triangle by doing some pointy meandering with white Aurifil thread. ( I also love how perfectly my points match.)

 The backing fabric is from Ikea which compliments the modern look of the quilt.

I really love this quilt even though it caused me some grief at the beginning LOL.

Enjoy the Festival and good luck to all participants!

Monday Makers! #9 and Cherish Bee blocks

Hi everyone! Hope you had a fantastic week and a good start to your Monday.

I had a quite busy week at work and at home.
We have been trying to finish preparing our backyard for the summer. Most of the job was done by my husband. My only part is giving him moral support. Last weekend, we had a bobcat digging up all the dirt, flattening the surface, fill it with top soil, etc. Hopefully, we will be able to build the veggie patches we have been looking for and lay the turf next weekend.

The wall you see in this picture, a 22 metre long wall, was built by my hubby. (Correction: The wall in the photo runs down the side of the house and is 22 metres in length. So, the bit you see here is of course not 22 metres LOL)  He is my hero. Love him..
And here are the after shots.

One of the apple trees is growing lots of apples!
Now the Monday Makers!
Here is what I managed to sew last week; do. Good stitches September blocks. We were asked to make two log cabin blocks for young children quilts; one in pink tones and one in blue tones. I have used my friend's scraps and made these. 

Now it is your turn to show me your finishes from last week and new projects you are starting today.

1. Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!
2. Grab the button from the side bar- DONE!!- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.
3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!
6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?
You don't have to be a follower of my blog, however; I wouldn't say no if you wanted to become one :-)

An InLinkz Link-up

Stepping out of my comfort zone

I finally dread quilting (thinking about quilting) my New Wave quilt!!!!

I basted it yesterday afternoon. My plan was to buy a darker colour backing; maybe a purple or green like in the quilt and piece it together with the left over fabrics from the quilt. Unfortunately, I am so broke these days so I used the last piece of the Ikea numbers.

I asked a fellow quilter from my local MQG whose work I love a lot:
- How do you think I should quilt this quilt? Maybe straight lines on the area in between the white sashing and something fancy (you guys know what I mean by fancy LOL) on the purple and yellow bits?
She gave me the answer I needed(!):
- I would quilt the daylights outta that baby!
And sent me the link to Christa Wither's blog (which has a similar quilt, same pattern with different colours, which was quilted so beautifully with various FMQ patterns. If you haven't already visited the link, please do so!)
I totally freaked out. (Again, visit the link, you will understand what I am saying!)
I have waited for so long to start quilting this quilt just because I am so scared of ruining it. I love it like this. Do I have to quilt it? Yes, I have done free motion quilting before; meander and pointy meander. That's it. I said to my friend "Are you gonna kill me?"

Well, after some thinking, I decided to go for it. It will definitely make me step out of my comfort zone but I will do it. Now, I am auditioning some of the designs on Christa's blog on a piece of paper. Hopefully, I will start quilting it at the end of this week. Wish me good luck!!

What is the one thing in quilting that made you step out of your comfort zone? Would love to hear your stories.

Thank you for dropping by,
Nurdan

(Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday)

Monday Makers! #8 and a lovely finish!!!

Hi there!
How was your week? I hope you are having a good Monday with full of inspiration; I am! But as always, all this inspiration is getting me confused and overwhelmed all at the same time. I have lots of pattern ideas; some sketched and some still lingering in my head, some quilt ideas which are already alive in my inkscape folders and waiting to be purchased fabric for...I think I need to start keeping a creative journal to calm my mind. Even though I can't spend much time on making quilts, it would still make me happy to see my designs on a piece of paper or on a computer screen.

Today is the eighth week of Monday Makers! How fast the time is going by. Talking about the time, my boy is almost 2.5 years old now and growing too fast for my liking. I want to keep cuddling him forever. Wish he could just stay at this age. (I take no responsibility for how terrible my hair looks; I am trying to return to my natural hair colour and it is so difficult to fight the urge to go blond again! LOL)

I have a finish to show you today before moving to Monday Makers; how amazing is this!!
Here is the Triangles quilt.

It rained all night last night; currently it is overcast and windy. I took the risk of getting caught in a possible rain and hung my quilt outside on the fence in our front yard. Actually, overcast days are perfect for photo shoots.

It is already a busy quilt with lots of colours so I kept the quilting pretty simple and did straight line quilting.

I can also call the binding of this quilt as "best machine-stitched binding" in my quilting history.

Remember me saying I wanted to do something fancy in the big purple triangle? This is the fanciest I could get :-)
Quilty facts:
Size: 41"x55"

Fabrics: Solids-Robert Kauffman Kona Cottons, Prints-Power Pop from Jenean Morrison for Westminster Fabrics, Backing: Ikea numbers, Binding: Don't know the exact name of the orange but it is Kona

Thread: Aurifil white

So, overall, not to bad ey?
Over to Monday Makers now.
I will use my energy today to catch up with my do. Good Stitches Cherish bee blocks. I am two months behind!! I might even try to put together this quilt top, which consists of the Cherish blocks of my month. I laid them on my design wall randomly to show you.

Now it is your turn to show me your finishes from last week and new projects you are starting today.

1. Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!
2. Grab the button from the side bar- this is still a WIP- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.
3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!
6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?
You don't have to be a follower of my blog, however; I wouldn't say no if you wanted to become one      :-) Join and share as often as you want.

Edited: Linking up with another Monday Makers at ayliN-Nilya :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Makers! #7

Hi all!

What a busy week it had been for me! I totally forgot that today is Monday Makers!
Remember the small jewellery business, Aegean Treasures, I set up? Yes? The Old Bus Depot Markets yesterday (Sunday) was a test run for the business! It was a big success but all the preps at home got me quite exhausted.

So, I applied to become a stall holder at this market a week before the actual market day and got accepted last Wednesday. This gave me plenty of time to prepare all my packaging, finish all the bits and pieces like buying a table cover, jewellery displays, a mirror, etc. Well, only if I didn't have the habit of leaving everything till the last moment. Having said that, I did lots for my business before I came to this stage of actually making boxes, placing the jewellery inside, attaching the price tags, etc. All the calculations, coming up with a sensible price, and calculating again..I did all these one hour every night or at least the nights I didn't fall asleep next to my son while putting him to bed- quite rare.
Here is how my rush began. I started assembling the boxes and their lids on Saturday thinking I could do everything in an hour or so-noo! I never thought it would take hours! Then, an hour before all the shops closed, I realised I didn't organise a table cover, nor a mirror, nor price tags...Gahh, off we went to do some shopping, rush rush rush, come home, continue assembling. To cut it short, it was past midnight and I was still writing prices on the tags and attaching them to the jewellery and boxing them. Oh, that night, we switched to summer day light saving and I was automatically one more hour late. Anyway, I managed to finish everything and squeezed in some sleep too. We loaded the car in the morning and went to the markets to set up my stall. I was so excited by the look of my stall in the end; it made me forget about all the rush and exhaustion. I must say that I will take my husband's advice from now on- he had warned me all about this rush earlier but I was too proud to listen-doh!

All this beautiful jewellery is handmade and the name of the technique is called “Igne Oyasi” means “needle lace embroidery” in Turkish. It is one of the most beautiful and ancient lace forms in existence. Traditionally, the lace was made by Turkish women to adorn the linens for their daughter’s wedding gowns, but today it is used as an embellishment for knitwear, clothing and household goods, as well as for earrings, necklaces, and belts. I will give you more information about Igne Oyasi in future.

I am so proud to be introducing a part of my culture to the world!

I will have more time to do some quilting this week. I promise I will have a project for the next Monday Makers! too!
Now, time to link up your projects and finishes.

Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!
2. Grab the button from the side bar- this is still a WIP- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.
3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!
6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?
You don't have to be a follower of my blog, however; I wouldn't say no if you wanted to become one   :-) Join and share as often as you want.

An InLinkz Link-up

The lovely Dubbo holiday

(I warn you that this is a long post LOL)
Last Saturday, we went to Dubbo for a short holiday since it was a long weekend here in the ACT. We packed our bags, loaded our bikes to the car and off we went.
The main reason why we chose Dubbo as our holiday destination is because Dubbo is the home for Taronga Western Plains Zoo which we wanted to take our son to.
It is five hours from Canberra. At first, this scared me; but once we left Canberra and made our way into the country side, the whole trip felt like a couple of hours.

I must say that I love the Australian country side. The rugged hills, beautiful trees, vast green lands, lots of animals, blue skies...Before I came to Australia, the sky never felt this big...
I fell in love with these beautiful yellow fields. We reckon they are oil seed flowers. I took lots of photos of this scene which continued on and off for kilometres on either side of the road.

                                                         Isn't it just beautiful?
We arrived in Dubbo around 1pm. After hanging around in the town a little, we went to visit the Old Dubbo Gaol which began as a courthouse lock up in 1847 and became a gaol in 1859.  If you are interested in history and want to find out more about the Old Dubbo Gail, visit here. There are some interesting stories there.

      Kuzey is trying to figure out what that stiff guy is doing. LOL (Cutting a huge piece of log.)

Cat-o-nine-tails. A punishment whip.

These dummies look like zombies!

If you live close by or don't mind travelling a little, I recommend you visit it. It will be an interesting experience. 
Then we let the little beast free!

And the next day, we headed off to the zoo early in the morning.

I have never been good at cycling, hence my hubby is riding Kuzey. Having said that, I am proud of myself because I could finish the day without falling off the bike, not-even-once! LOL 

Taronga Zoo is designed in such a way that all the animals live in their natural environment. They are not restricted by a metal hash all around them or a cage. (I am totally against the animals being kept in such cages under poor conditions.) For this reason, the zoo is covering quite a large area. We cycled around it for five or six hours; stopped on and off to have a look at the animals and take photos. 

There are so many beautiful photos; I struggled to choose among them!

 He was so happy to ride the rhino. Look at his face :-)

The whole zoo experience was so much fun. I was the photographer for this trip so I don't have any photos of me. We finished the day with a yummy lunch. While we were waiting for daddy to bring some food, I finally managed to capture some lovely moments with my son :-)

:-)

When did you have a holiday last and where did you go?

Hope you all had a lovely week!

Nurdan