'Rise Up' - Modern Christmas Trees quilt

Days of rain and wet soil...finally things dried up. As soon as I came home from work today, I quickly got changed, sorted the boy out with his toys, put the meat on to the BBQ and ran across the street to take a few photos of my Modern Christmas Trees quilt which I finished a few days ago. I managed to take a few nice enough photos in ten minutes-ten minutes was enough to burn the meat. That's another story...
Here is the Modern Christmas Trees.

I like the scrappy binding a lot. The red piece is also pointing the right way up!

I really enjoyed quilting this quilt with pebbles. It looks simple; it is only making circles at the end of the day. Well, that's what I thought until I started quilting. Don't remember how many times I watched the pebbles section of Christina Cameli's FMQ Craftsy class LOL. I can't recommend it enough; it really helped me get the hang of stitching pebbles. Having said that, none of them are perfect; well, pebbles are not found in that perfect circle form in nature, are they? (Justification done.)
I didn't quilt the triangles; therefore they look puckered a little, especially the red triangles, but I am fine with it.
What do you think? Have you tried pebbling before? What was your experience?

Nurdan

Monday Makers! #19

Hi!
How was your Christmas? Some of you might still be on holidays; how is it going? We went to Sydney to visit my husband's family. It was a bitter sweet Christmas for everybody; the first Christmas without my brother-in-law. We still enjoyed it but missed him deeply too. We gave and received lots of gifts; especially my son. We can open up a toy shop very easily!
Crafty people; have you done much sewing, quilting, knitting, painting..? Before the holiday period started, I stocked up some fabric thinking that I would do looots of sewing/quilting and I would run out of fabric and all the shops would be closed. How silly I was..I haven't touched any of those fabrics; basically haven't done anything. I started quilting my "rise up" quilt only last night-mind you that it was going to be ready for Christmas. Life is busy with lots of other stuff and things don't go in the way you plan them. I find this frustrating sometimes. Anyways..
Now that Christmas is over and my quilt is still a WIP, the theme is no longer Xmas and it is going to be a wall hanging, not a table topper.

I decided to do straight stitch quilting and have only framed the triangles so far. I really wonder what it will look like when finally it is finished!
Now to Monday Makers!
Do you have any finishes to share with me? Have you started a new project? Here are the linky rules:

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?

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Makers! #18 and progress on the table topper

Hi all!
How was your week? How is the Christmas rush going? We have been quite busy with working in our backyard to make some sensible progress during this holiday period. We are going to Sydney on Christmas eve to spend Christmas with my husband's family. No pressies were wrapped up yet tho!!
I haven't made much progress with my table topper; I can only sew ten minutes here and there. I am still hopeful that I will finish it before Christmas!
After receiving comments on which version to choose, I decided to go ahead with the version 2, which was also the most liked version.

I sewed my triangles into the background fabric, placed them on my design wall, patched the empty spaces and did my best to maintain the design-it was a little difficult because the triangles were overlapping and separating them was going to increase the size of the table topper. So I had to really squeeze them in this frame.

This is how it looks and hopefully how it will look like if I don't mess it up when sewing. What do you think?

Even though this is a Christmas inspired table topper, I think I will call it "rise up". Sometimes your circumstances might drag you down but you should always find a reason to rise up.

Now to Monday Makers!
Have any finishes to share with me from last week? Maybe a new project you start today? Here are the linky rules:

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?

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Christmas trees table topper

I started my Christmas themed table topper last Monday and shared a photo with you. I want to tell you a little more about it.
I had a rough design idea about this table topper; triangles forming a modern version of Christmas trees. Just  when I was about to cut the fabric, I remembered that I enrolled in Jacquie Gering's Improvisational Piecing, Modern Design class at Craftsy a few weeks ago. (I must say that I love it; it is one of the classes I watch regularly, over and over again.) One of the lessons in her class is teaching you how to make her "To the Point" quilt (it is the cover image for her class). In this class, Jacquie is teaching how to cut big isosceles triangles and insert them into a background fabric. She is also using her crazy piecing technique to make one of the triangles. I really wanted to give this technique a go. Over all, this lesson was perfect for my project.
I quickly cut my triangles; just changed the size of them, sewed the sashing, placed them on my design wall to play around with the placement. Here are a few versions:

 V1: Two up, two down

 V2: One down, one up, two down

 V3: One down, one up

 V4: One down, one up-First solid triangle is placed slightly lower than in the V3

I really want to finish this before Christmas but just can't decide which version to choose-can you help me? Also, this will be quite a large table topper: 30"x35" like a mini quilt.

Love this scrappy triangle!

So, this is my WIP for this week.

Also, in case you missed it, Molli Sparkles is collecting hashtag quilt blocks to make quilts to the families of those who lost their lives in the recent Sydney siege. 

It was such a tragic, heartbreaking event. I have family members who live in Sydney and they could have easily been in that cafe on that morning. As Molli says "it will never be enough but it will be something" and I am joining in too to support. I have made two blocks today and cut some more fabric for another four.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Love,

Nurdan

Monday Makers! #17

Hi!
I hope you had a wonderful week. Mine was filled with happy pre-Christmas gatherings with friends and fellow quilty guild members.

My local modern quilt guild came together for Christmas drinks and some quilty chat last Monday. It was such a lovely and relaxing night. We ate, drank, chatted and exchanged some gifts too. Every guild member brought a gift to the value of $10 of quilty goods. We didn't allocate a person before hand; instead, each member had a lucky dip which made it even more fun. I received a super cute, super mini quilt and a spool of white Aurifil thread which I needed so much since I ran out of mine on the very same day!

Isn't it the cutest Christmas tree!

There was another surprise waiting for me...A few weeks ago, my guild had an exhibition and I joined the exhibition with three quilts. Apparently, there was a lucky door prize and I won it!!

I might have squeaked a bit when I was presented the box of 10 spools of Aurifil thread- Folk Story by Sarah Fielke! I love, love , love those colours!

Now to Monday Makers!

Today I have started working on my table runner which I hope I will finish before Christmas! You can see the table runner I made for the last Christmas here.

These will go on an ash coloured background. I didn't really plan how big I want it to be; I am playing by ear. Hopefully it will turn out something nice LOL.

Are you ready to show me your finishes from last week and the new projects you are starting today?

Here are the linky rules: 

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?

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Makers! #3

Hi all!
It is another Monday Makers! week. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the participants who linked up in the previous two weeks. Your support means a lot to me. I have visited your pages and collected lots of inspiration to be turned into beautiful projects!

It is time to show you my finished project from last Monday. (Apologies in advance for such crappy photos.)
Here is my modern but very retro table topper :-) It is 24.5"x18.5".

I love the colours and the patterns of the fabric!

This table topper is also the very first project which I proudly used my brand tag, so it is special :-)

It is a pity that my tag is displayed on the side where the binding stitches are horrible! Seriously, I think the stitching of the binding of this table topper is the worst I have ever done. I can see myself re-doing it very soon!

Unfortunately, I don't have a new project for this week. I came down with a very bad cold and the headache is making everything worse. 

Now, please link up your Monday project and your finishes from the previous weeks. I am looking forward to seeing them!

P.S The collection still shows the previous linkers. I found out that I need to upgrade my membership on Inlinkz, so will sort this out by the next week.

An InLinkz Link-up