North Star Quilting

WIP Wednesday No. 14

2012-02-08T20:26:00.001Z

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the number of unfinished projects lying around the house? It's hard to write a blog when you feel like you're making absolutely no progress.

I had limited myself by saying that I'm not allowed to start a new project until I've finished all the ones in progress but there are so many there that I'm still making very little inroads. The new vow is that I will pick one project and work on it until it is complete. No mixing it up, no taking a break and doing something else, just a concerted effort to finish up this pile of WIPs.

I'm going to bring the projects out of the closet so I can see exactly what there is to do:

Mum's Sofa Quilt

This quilt has been finished, quilted on the Gammill, trimmed and waiting to be bound for weeks. Time to pull my finger out and get it done!

Strawberry Patch Quilt

I started quilting this quilt in August! August! It won't take much to get it finished and I can't wait to see it done. Hopefully it will be done before next summer!

Pear Tree Quilt

My Pear Tree fabrics by Thomas Knauer arrived and they are absolutely gorgeous! Although this isn't, technically, a WIP because it isn't yet started, it is high on the list of priorities. To enter the competition you had to promise to make a quilt for the charity Bumble Beans Basics.

I quickly drew up this design with a woven foreground. I didn't want to distract from the fabrics and some of them are quite large prints so I thought this would showcase them well. I'd like to get it done by the end of March so it's high on the list.

Block of the Month

The only odd-one-out on the list is my Block of the Month project. I won't be doing all of these at once but I will make sure to get them done at the beginning of every month.

Wedding Ring Quilt

Another quilt with a deadline. I received my save the date card (well, it was actually a save the date Facebook message - they're on a budget) so it needs to be done by August. At the moment I have 8 curves pieced. That's not good progress.

Hex-a-long Quilt

Eeek. I'm not sure my willpower will last out this long. If I get all the other projects done I might allow myself to do this in tandem with other things. I may get sewing machine withdrawal symptoms if I can only hand piece for months on end.

Vinatge Quilt Restoration

This is a silk heirloom quilt handed over by a friend of my mum's. There are patches where her naughty husband left a biro with the lid off. When the ink was cleaned off, the colour came out the silk so I've been commissioned to appliqué something on the top to hide the bleached patches.

And finally....

Here's the pile of pre-cuts I have to make pretty things out of. I'm not allowed to touch them until everything above is done. If that isn't motivation, I don't know what is!

Phew! That's a long list and it doesn't even include all the many knitted items I've started since I started at Woolaballoo. At least I can work on those at work. Hopefully I can post soon with some real progress.

Mum's home!

2012-01-09T19:38:00.000Z

Sewing has been put on the back-burner for a couple of days because we've moved mum home from the hospital. Queue hectic tidying of house and desperate stuffing of projects into bags so that the place looks fit to live in.

It's lovely to have her home but there's going to be a period of adjustment so we'll see how much I can get done.

Over at the forum the girls were wondering about doing a Block of the Month. After seeing the beautiful quilts made using the Skill Builder Sampler last year, I started thinking about skills that I'd like to learn or practice. There are so many techniques that I've always wanted to try so I came up with a sampler of my own.

If you'd like to join in we'll be helping each other out over at the MSQC forum. It's free to sign up and the ladies are lovely.

Iron Quilter finished just in time

2012-01-05T23:24:00.001Z

I haven't been well recently so this is a little delayed. I managed to finish a quilt for the Iron Quilter competition. It isn't what I hoped to make but that's what I get for leaving things to the last minute.

I only used 5 of the 9 blocks because I ran out of time to piece together the final 4. I have all the subsections made up, so I'm thinking I'll make some matching cushions.

I alternated the pieced bocks with some plain white-on-white blocks, quilted a motif in the centre of each one and echo quilted the Missouri stars. I think I managed to escape the 80s Laura Ashley look a little bit.

The finalists will be announced on the Missouri Star Quilt Company's blog sometime in the next couple of days. So fingers crossed...

With that complete my mind has turned back to tea cosies. I'm thinking squirrels!

Note to self...

2011-12-30T12:07:00.000Z

If I ever decide to enter a quilt competition again, can somebody remind me not to leave it until 3 days before the deadline...

And if I am stupid enough to leave it to the last minute, please can somebody remind me not to pick a pattern that requires the trimming of 108 half square triangles.

I only had 5" squares to work with and I needed 3.5" squares which means that my pile of trimmings is actually larger than the finished squares - what a waste!

Add those 108 HSTs to 36 nine-patches, 72 3.5" squares, and 36 rails and hopefully you will get a quilt. Hopefully.

Bloggers' Choice Competition

2011-12-28T18:26:00.002Z

You may have seen the Bloggers' Choice bundles popping up on the internet; Fat Quarter Shop ask famous bloggers to choose 12 prints and 3 coordinating solids and then they bundle a fat quarter of each of them for you to buy. Perfect for people who can't make decisions.

Quokka Quilts are running a fantastic competition. Make your own bundle up and link it to their blog and one super lucky person will win a half yard of each of the fabrics they chose!

I have spent hours trying to pick a collection and there is just too much choice. I snuck some of my favourite designers in there but there are also some ranges I'd never seen before.

First row
Domestic Bliss Teal Lattice
Palladium Gray Tear Drop
Palladium Clay Paisley
Bohemian Soul Pearl Lace
Free Spirit Designer Solids Light Jade

Second row
Prince Charming Honey Snail Scallop
Michael Miller Beige Dumb Dot
Bespoken Aqua Stitchery
Palladium Gray Peacock
Pure Elements Verve Violet Solid

Third Row
Michael Miller Baby Charcoal Feeling Groovy
Sophie Blue Fiesta Houndstooth
Palladium Sterling Cobblestone
Prince Charming Aqua Snail Scallop
Pure Elements Ash Solid

What do you think? Have a go yourself - it's much harder than you think.

A Christmas Present from Kim at The Fat Quarters

2011-12-23T22:16:00.000Z

Do you need some motivation to finish up all those WIPs? If you book in any quilt to be long-arm quilted between now and the end of January, you will get 10% off. You also get 10% off the backing and wadding.

Take a look at some of the patterns we have available here. There are lots of others in the shop so give us a call or drop us an email to have a chat about how we can finish your quilt.

Have you met Thomas Knauer?

2011-12-21T01:29:00.000Z

Thomas is a designer for Andover Fabrics and his first line is called Pear Tree.

It is bright, bold and graphical and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. I particularly like the loopy prints.

Thomas ran a give-away with a difference at the beginning of the month. He didn't want you to follow him or like his facebook page or answer a silly question. All he asked was that you pledge to make a quilt for Bumble Beans Basics.

It was such a lovely idea that I signed up at once and I won!!!!! I am so excited. I get to play with these lovely fabrics and do something nice for somebody who really needs the warm hug of a home made quilt. So now I have another quilt to add to the list. I may even use one of Thomas' patterns because I think they're as awesome as his fabrics.

If you get a chance, pop on over to ThomasKnauerSews to see what he's up to next. There are also some photos of his super cute daughter that are adorable.

Put down the mouse and step away from the computer

2011-12-11T23:06:00.001Z

I decided to use one of the Missouri puzzle blocks for my competition quilt:

It seems simple enough and eye catching. I thought I would use an unusual setting to give it a bit of a twist but I'm not sure if it might be a little bit too complicated.

There comes a time, however, when you just need to stop faffing on the computer and actually pick up the fabric. I hope it turns out ok.

Just between us, if somebody asked my to describe my taste in quilts I'd find it really difficult. I like traditional and modern, new and old, bold and subdued. The one thing I can definitively say is that I do not like this range. It reminds me of bed and breakfast dust ruffles - yuk!

Iron Quilter research

2011-12-06T19:14:00.001Z

I've been brainstorming ideas for the Iron Quilter competition. I'm still not sure if I have the time to join in but it's always best to be prepared just in case.

I have 3 charm packs of Moda's Summer breeze line and the rules state that I have to use at least one entire pack and any other fabric that I want.

I'm not really a fan of blue and yellow florals, they remind me too much of 1980s Laura Ashley interiors. I needed to be inspired so got out my giant book of 5500 Quilt Blocks and searched for Missouri. Since the competition is run by The Missouri Star Quilt Company, I thought that would be the best place to start. Here are the blocks I found:

Missouri Morning Star

Missouri Puzzle

Missouri Daisy

Missouri Star

Missouri Gateway Star

Missouri Windmills

Missouri Wonder

A lot of those can be ruled out because I either have no idea how to make them or it's not practical to make them with 5" squares.

Hmmm.... food for thought. I'm leaning towards one of the Missouri Puzzle blocks but I need to make a decision by Thursday evening so I can hit the late night opening of The Fat Quarters and buy up any supplies I need.

Quilt Aid

2011-12-02T10:13:00.001Z

Have you heard of Quilt Aid? 12 quilt designers from Australia have designed 12 blocks that go together to make a fabulous quilt. The blocks are available from 6 shops around Europe and each shop has a different finishing kit so you have 6 different finished quilts to choose from.

The blocks range from beautiful to adorable and, having seen them in person, I really want to give them a go.

Available from Paprika Cotton Store in Belgium:

Available from The Fat Quarters in the UK:

Available from Den Haan & Wagenmakers in The Netherlands:

Available from The Log Cabin in Germany:

Available from The Stitch Cottage in The Netherlands:

Available from Aztec Rose in The Netherlands:

A substantial amount from each sale goes to the Quilt Aid charity that funds The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. The hospital treats women who have had complications during childbirth and need long term care. They also promote maternal health and help to improve infant mortality. You can read more about the hospital on the Quilt Aid website.

The quilt is made in Bonnie and Camille's Ruby line which is one of my favourites so how can you resist a beautiful quilt for a fantastic cause.

WIP Wednesday No. 13

2011-12-01T01:00:00.001Z

Mum's Quilt Top - Complete
It feels good to get something finished, even if it is just the top.

The plan for this week is to get this quilted and bound. I can't decide whether to take it in to work and long-arm it or just do some straight line quilting at home. I'm still too scared to free-motion on my machine at home.

Hexalong

I picked another odd colour combination to tackle this week. Kaffe Fassett is known as the master of colour... Sienna and magenta? Really Kaffe?

A touch of violet seemed to work well. It's never going to be my favourite block but it looks nice with the others. I don't know whether I'm doing something wrong, it takes me all evening to do one block. I'm sure it should be quicker than that.

I now have 7 star blocks;

two striped blocks;

and a lonely mini hexagon block

At this rate it's going to take me years to finish this up. This week I'm going to concentrate on striped blocks because I can do those much quicker. Hopefully I can get at least two made up this week.

No progress projects

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Something completed - finally!

2011-11-28T22:21:00.001Z

It seems like months since I finished anything and, although I realise it isn't a complete finish, I'm happy to have finished the quilt top for the sofa.

To give you some context, here is a picture of our very beige living room with a dark plum sofa that sticks out like a sore thumb.

The quilt top has turned out a lot busier than I thought it would but I still think it does a good job at tying in the plum and beige.

I'm going to take it into work tomorrow and see if I can sneak it onto the long-arm and get it quilted. It would be a lovely surprise for mum. she's coming out of the hospital on Thursday evening for the knitting club Christmas dinner (sounds exciting, right?) so, if it could be done by then, that would be perfect.

Now on to a hexagon...

WIP Wednesday No. 12

2011-11-23T15:12:00.001Z

I'm having a re-jig of my WIPs because I realised that I've been scaring myself by listing projects that I haven't even started. They non-starters are going in their own separate section so hopefully I will be less overwhelmed and more able to get something done.

Quilt for mum
A brand new range of fabrics, Melrose by Red Rooster Fabrics, came into the shop where I work and they would look just perfect in our living room. I quickly snapped some up with the aim of making a throw sized quilt for one of the sofas.

Our living room was predominately beige and mum decided to inject some colour into it by buying a dark plum sofa. Needless to say it now sticks out like a sore thumb so I'm hoping to calm it down a bit with a throw.

I decided on the Hidden Wells pattern I used with Rouenneries fabric previously. Its quick, effective and makes use of the contrasting fabrics quite well. I've sliced and sewed and sliced again and it's well on its way.

This picture shows the balance of fabrics in the top, although these blocks have been re-sliced now. Fingers crossed mum will be coming out of the hospital next week and I'm determined to have this quilt done by then.

Hexalong

I didn't complete any hexagons this week but I slowly basted all my spotty fabrics, a couple at a time in front of the TV.

I can now see which odd colour combinations I'm going to deal with first. I think the brown and magenta at the bottom and the maroon and green at the top right are top of the list to match up with solids.

Other projects

Strawberry Patch - Echo quilted 3 blocks, not much but at least it's progress
Neutral jelly roll bear paws - Still waiting to be quilted
Shabby Wedding Rings - No progress

Plan for the week

Finish off mum's Melrose quilt
Piece 8 wedding ring curvy bits
Complete at least one hexagon

I think that should be manageable - baby steps. Check in next week to see if I made it.

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Big package, little package

2011-11-21T22:41:00.001Z

There was a scary moment this weekend when I thought that I must order fabric in my sleep. This package turned up at the door. That's a pretty big box, I don't remember ordering that much fabric...

Phew, I'm not sleep shopping. Inside the big package was a smaller package...

Fun! Pass the parcel! Inside the smaller parcel was a purchase worth wrapping twice. A Jelly roll and a layer cake of Echo by Lotta Jansdotter.

I hadn't even remembered buying this so maybe I do have a problem. I'm glad I did take the plunge because it's absolutely spectacular in person.

Now it's getting ridiculous. I'm writing another list and getting some jobs done. Surely if I keep myself really busy then I won't be able to do any more shopping.

Mug rugs for a good cause

2011-11-12T01:02:00.001Z

Next Friday is Children in Need night on the BBC. For those of you not based in the UK, Children in Need is a charity that helps children and young people in need all over the UK. Pretty self-explanatory really.

The mascot of the charity is a super cute bear called Pudsey who has one eye - awwwww. To raise money I have designed a mug rug with Pudsey on. Say hello....

The kits are available from The Fat Quarters. You can buy them online or pop in to the shop to pick one up and see what other fun is going on. They are £3.50 each, of which £1.75 goes straight to the charity.

Go on, it's for a very good cause.

Well there goes another good intention....

2011-11-11T22:43:00.001Z

When I looked at my WIP Wednesday this week, I realised that my WIPs are growing. I used to start a project and carry it through to the end but now it's been months since I actually finished anything. So I had all the intentions in the world not to start anything new, to concentrate on one thing at a time and to finish up some projects.

But then this arrived:

I just love the look of a USPS packet because I know straight away that it's going to have gorgeous fabric inside. This one had my charm packs for the "Iron Quilter" competition and this beautiful, if slightly crumpled, layer cake of Chrysalis by Sanae.

I know it's quite an old line now but I've been resisting it for so long, I finally gave in. One of the first quilts I made was this disappearing 9-patch using the Arcadia line, which is by the same designer, and I just adored it. I sold it and I know it went to a very good home but I miss it.

I'm hoping I can make something I will love just as much with this layer cake.

When we were at the "Knitter natter" last night in Woolaballoo it was late night opening at The Fat Quarters next door (it really is dangerous having these two shops next door to each other). My sister decided she wanted some Christmas bunting

Any excuse for fabric shopping is good for me so we ran next door and bought these cute Countdown to Christmas fabrics by Sweetwater. Another design team that I have admired from afar. At least that should be a quick project.

So, instead of finishing up a project this week, I have already added 3 new ones. Poop.

WIP Wednesday No. 11

2011-11-09T23:47:00.000Z

My mum was hospitalised on Friday so, between work and running backwards and forwards to the hospital, I haven't had much time for sewing. I was determined to make some progress this week so here's the little I managed to do.

Hexalong
So far, I have been picking out my favourite spots and favourite solids to make the hexagons but I started to worry that I would be left with the yucky colours and no way to brighten them up. The new plan is to take the spots I'm not keen on and find some way to make me fall in love with them.

This was the first challenge. I really didn't like the ~~diarrhoea coloured~~ mustardy brown spots with the violet but, when paired with a brighter yellow, the whole thing looks a lot more palatable to me.

Double Wedding Ring
I pieced another couple of curves which makes enough curves to piece my first full ring. I also traced out the templates for the "melon" (the tutorials term, not mine - I've never seen a melon that shape!) and the centres using template plastic. Using my new templates I cut 4 melons and 1 centre.

That's when the panic set in. Should I piece them together or should I make all the curves and play around with them first. I have a fear of getting the balance of colours wrong. A paralysing fear.

I'm learning that my brain does not do scrappy, it craves order and symmetry. It's an engineering brain and scrappy is hurting it. I will not be defeated! I will, however, chicken out of sewing them together until I have them all pieced and can spend hours and hours rearranging them.

New projects

They're running a competition over at Missouri Star Quilt Company called the iron quilter. Take up to three charm packs and create anything you want. The finished quilts will be judged in January and the winner gets $150 to spend in the shop.

Can I resist the chance to win $150 of fabric loveliness? - nope. Do I have time to design a quilt, make a quilt and post it to America by December 31st? - Do I ****!

I guess I'll have to make time because I've ordered the charm packs so now it would be rude not to.

No progress projects

Finishes

None :(

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday. It's the one year anniversary of Lee's Linky party and to celebrate she's featuring the original linkers and a giveaway.

The green eyed monster

2011-11-07T22:43:00.001Z

I adore my new job doing the long arm quilting at The Fat Quarters. I get to play with quilts all day and get paid for it, who could ask for anything more!

There are some drawbacks, however, the main one being major quilt envy. Every now and again (almost every time) I fall in love with the quilt that I'm working on and it's incredibly hard to hand them back to the owners. This week I'm basting a quilt so that it can be hand quilted at home.

Please excuse the bad picture quality - they were taken in a basement with my phone. Look at all those hundreds of perfectly pieced 1" squares and the panels are lovely little snowdrops.

It's been made by a really sweet 80 year old lady. She must have the patience of a saint because it's over 100" long. If you click on the image above you can just about see the marking lines where she's going to hand quilt. I hope she brings it in so that I can see it finished.

This is the back of a little cot quilt that I just adored. I was proud of my first attempt at stars.

I'm now going to attempt some sewing of my own. I am so short on time at the moment that it's really difficult to squeeze in my own projects. Hmmm, which to work on... hexagons or wedding rings....?

WIP Wednesday No. 10

2011-11-02T21:53:00.000Z

Shabby Wedding Rings
I have pieced 6 of the curved sections for my double wedding ring quilt.

The pattern I am using is made up of 4 rings by 4 rings but I think I'm going to expand it so it's more bed sized. In total I need to piece 60 curves so I'm 10% there. That doesn't seem so bad.

Hexalong

I've made one more hexagon, using fussy cut flowers from a Faffe Fassett fabric.

It took me a couple of evenings but I'm very proud of it. So proud, I think I'm going to order some fat quarters of the floral in a couple of different colourways so I can do some more. I think these three would give a good balance:

No progress projects

Finishes

None :(

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Serendipity

2011-11-01T17:22:00.000Z

Last Wednesday I asked "Is there anything more satisfying than neat piles of freshly cut fabric?". It turns out there is! I have had so much fun sorting my fabrics into colour groups:

and piecing them into perfect wedding ring curves (I am a total foundation convert!).

Add to that the serendipitous fact that, just as I started piecing a wedding ring quilt, 2 of my best friends announced they will be getting married next August. It must be fate.
So shabby wedding rings is to go to this gorgeous couple.

And now I have a deadline, I better get going...

This post is linked to Quiltstory's Fabric Tuesday. Why not pop over for some gorgeous fabric inspiration.

WIP Wednesday No. 9

2011-10-26T17:58:00.000+01:00

Shabby Wedding Rings
Is there anything more satisfying than neat piles of freshly cut fabric?

These are the former Frosted Window Pane fabrics which are now going to be made into a Double Wedding Ring quilt. I adore these fabrics and can't wait to see what they look like.

I am ~~a little~~ extremely scared about actually starting to piece this top. Scrappy is a step out of my comfort zone and curves make me shake in my shoes.

Hexalong

I don't think I've touched my hexagons in over a month but Tonya over at Hillbilly Handiworks has started a new hexagon project and it's spurred me into action.

So I've cut a pile of new diamond papers and cracked open the handy-hexagon box. Time to tack some new fabrics.

Other Projects

Strawberry Patch - No progress. The lesson here is that if you tidy something away, you will forget about it all together. It's now back on my desk and making me feel guilty.
Neutral jelly roll bear paws - waiting to be Long-arm quilted at work.
It's a hoot and Antique quilt - No progress.

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Wonky rings and frilly rings

2011-10-22T19:01:00.001+01:00

Having spent a week contemplating my pile of vintage style fabrics (you can see them here) I decided I needed to make them into a traditional quilt. I have always loved Double Wedding Ring quilts but the urge to make one has always been equally balanced by my fear of curves.

I decided to face my fears this week but I was nervous so I started with some scraps. I copied these templates from a book I own:

and set about cutting out all the little pieces to make one section. It took ages to trace around the templates and cut them out and here's what I ended up with:

As you can probably tell this was not a very successful experiment. no matter how much I press it, my curves are frilly and the squares on the ends don't match up at all.

Undeterred, I went back to the drawing board (otherwise known as google) and found this tutorial on the Frees Spirit Fabric website. It uses foundation piecing for the curves which makes it a lot more accurate.

I'm a lot happier with this version and I learned as I went along. When I was attaching the curves to the central eye shape, I sewed the top seam first and you can see it's a little wibbly. When it came to the second seam I went with a lot more pins and it's come out pretty close to perfect.

Now I'm off to cut up my lovely fabrics and get foundation piecing some curves.

Block swap complete

2011-10-18T00:43:00.001+01:00

I'm a couple of days late but I've finally finished up all 25 of my block swap blocks.

I just need to sign them all - not my favourite job - and then I can get them in the post tomorrow morning. Then I all I have to do is wait for my package of goodies to arrive back from America!

WIP Wednesday No. 8

2011-10-12T20:31:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post while I babysit for my sister. Brother-in-law has just had an accident on his bike so sister has had to rush him to the A&E, not sure of the details but I hope he's OK. I keep telling them exercise is bad for you but they never listen!

Block Swap
I'm very tight on time. I have a couple of days to turn these three piles..

...into 25 of these...

It's a race against time!

I'm working so much at the moment that there isn't much other sewing going on (or, at least, no sewing I'm allowed to keep). Most of my WIPs look like this

So pretty but it doesn't belong to me - boo!

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Brain fart

2011-10-09T22:05:00.000+01:00

I've missed making quilts so much but yesterday I finished the final small item for sale so I get to sew a great big quilt again! Have you ever wondered what was going on with the Frosted Window Panes quilt that's been on my sidebar for 2 years and is still at 0% progress? Me too. I figured it was about time I made a start.

I sprang out of bed this morning and pulled out my bag of fabric and started reading the instructions and matching up the fabrics to the ones in the pattern.

I found I have:

20" of 4 different blue prints

12" of 3 different cream prints

12" of 4 different pink prints

20" of 3 green prints, 12" of one of them and a yard of the bottom one in the picture (huh?)

They seem odd amounts and it's even odder when you compare them to the amounts in the instructions. They just don't match up at all. It asks for:

1 1/2 yards of assorted reds
1/3 + 5/8 yard of assorted blues
1 3/4 + 1/3 yard assorted greens
2 3/4 yards assorted creams
1/3 + 3/4 yard assorted browns

I really struggle with the weird imperial measurements but they don't even add up to the total amount I need. I'm about a yard of fabric short.

I love the fabrics but I really can't be bothered to figure out what my 2-year-ago self was planning to do so, after 2 years the Frosted Window Panes quilt is going out the window.

It is now being renamed the shabby chic quilt and will be designed this week.

Stuck for Christmas presents

2011-10-06T14:21:00.001+01:00

If you have a lot of quilty friends or relatives and are stuck for Christmas present ideas, take a look at this fantastic idea from Lily's Quilts.

She's running a series of posts that give small, medium and large gift ideas for quilters. With lots of great ideas and some fantastic sponsors it's a win-win situation. Actually, since there are lots of great giveaways included, it's really a win-win-win situation.

This post's giveaway is this amazing 14 FQ bundle from Sew Fresh Fabrics.

Who wouldn't want that in their hands?!?

The best laid plans

2011-10-03T22:33:00.002+01:00

All weekend I've had echoes of quotes about the futility of making plans going around my head. I watched the season premier of Private Practice which used the following quote a lot:

"Men plan, God laughs" - Yiddish Proverb

It seemed very fitting for my situation and then for some reason random quotes started coming into my head.

"The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go oft awry" - Robert Burns

and my personal favourite:

"Everybody's got plans... until they get hit." - Mike Tyson

My magic timetable went completely out of the window this week when one thing after another went pear shaped. I was on schedule up to and including Wednesday but then when I went to knitting club on Thursday night I didn't get home until after 10 which meant I couldn't finish my Ellie tea cosy.

Then, on Friday, I couldn't get drunk and fall over because I had to go to work on Saturday. The final disaster was when I discovered that mum had let a friend borrow the Tilda book so I couldn't make the elephant toy.

However...
I did manage to finish elephant version 2. He's a much better overall shape

and now he fits my tea pot perfectly

but I think that elephant version 1 is cuter. Proportionally the original elephant's head was larger which made him look more of a baby.

So I think I'll have to have another go at the design. It's not so much of a problem because I have a queue of people willing to give them homes.

I'm having quilt cravings now. I'm going to have to make something bigger than a tea cosy soon or I'll go mad.

WIP Wednesday No. 7

2011-09-29T00:51:00.001+01:00

I'm having a very productive week so far. Tiring but productive. By the end of the week I need to have made 3 stuffed toys, a tea cosy and finished up my block swap blocks. I've given myself a strict timetable and, so far, I've managed to stick to it.

This evening's progress

One completed goose

and

a redesigned heffalump

Block swap
It didn't occur to me that 25 blocks is actually equivalent to making a whole quilt. I'm slowly getting through the piecing in between other jobs. So far I have 108 pointy house shaped things, 108 HSTs and 108 plain 2.5" squares. I just need to dog ear 108 rectangles then I'm ready to put them together.

The blocks are supposed to be in the mail by 20th October but I want to get them posted ASAP because they always take so long to get to the US.

Time to sleep, work in the morning (I still like the sound of that, I wonder when that will wear off.

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Progress Report

2011-09-28T00:54:00.001+01:00

Day 2 of my self-imposed timetable and I'm still on track. Here's the proof:

108 half square triangles

and

A new pile of stuffed animal parts.

I sometimes think my desk looks like a kind of stuffed animal abattoir with bits of elephant, goose and fish spread all over it. I need to come up with a storage solution. I tried pinning them up but that just looked mean!

Jobs are like buses....

2011-09-27T01:23:00.001+01:00

... you wait 3 months for one and then three come along at once.

I'm struggling to get anywhere near my computer at the moment. My 4 days a week at work have turned into 6 days, the owner of my LQS is really pushing me for tea cosy patterns and my big sister thought she would help me out by taking orders for stuffed animals and tea cosies from the girls she works with.

Add to that my general lack of organisation and you end up with a scene like the one below (you may have to click on it to get the full force of the chaos)

Is there any wonder I can't get online to blog? A plan is needed and I figure if I write it down here then I'll have to follow through. So bear with me and I promise I'll post every day to prove that I'm on track.

Planned timetable

This evening: finish assembling random stuffed animal parts into a fully formed sheep
Tomorrow evening: press and trim 108 HST and start making a goose
Wednesday evening: finish constructing the goose and redesign tea cosy shape
Thursday evening: knitting club! Finish tea cosy shell
Friday evening: get drunk and fall over (Maria's birthday)
Saturday: nurse hangover, line tea cosy. make an elephant.
Sunday: finish quilting Strawberry Patch

It looks like I'm in for a busy week but I've made a start. Here's a picture of the finished sheep:

One animal down, two to go. Hopefully by next Monday I'll feel a lot less swamped.

Adventures in Long Arm Quilting

2011-09-20T23:16:00.000+01:00

I've had my first two days working at The Fat Quarters, learning how to use the Gammill. Unfortunately I have a stinking cold and the machine is in the basement which is quite chilly but the excitement is enough to keep me going.

Here's my new workstation. The other slight drawback is that my head actually touches the ceiling when I stand upright but, again, every cloud... my thighs are getting toned with the slight squat I have to do!

Yesterday I loaded on some calico, learned how to use the controls and practised, practised, practised. I'm very pleased with my progress. Here's my first pass on the pantograph - it looks like it's been pixelated!

And here's my last pass - much smoother, not bad for a couple of hours work.

Today I loaded and quilted one of the shop samples (a little slowly because my head cold meant I had to take a lot of breaks). Tomorrow I'm quilting one of my mum's tops that's been sitting at the shop for over 2 years waiting to be quilted and, if that goes well, I'll be let loose on paying customers' quilts!

What came first? The fabric or the design?

2011-09-19T01:58:00.000+01:00

When designing quilts I've tried it both ways. For the Hidden Wells quilts I drew up the design and then went shopping for the fabrics. For my Bear Paw quilts I bought jelly rolls and then figured out the design as I went along.

However, every now and then I buy fabric for no other reason than I love it and it's on sale (do you need a better reason?).

I bought this "It's a Hoot" jelly roll because it was the Daily Deal over at The Missouri Star Quilt Co. I've had it since November and I just can't decide what to do with it.

I started by drawing up this mixture of 9-patch and fence rails.

It's fun, but to my eyes it's a little too busy. Then I tried a friendship braid, mixing in a little bit of a white jelly roll that I also have lying around.

I have a Creative grids ruler that makes it really easy to cut the wedges but I'm just not happy with it. So I tried again with a very basic stacked coins design.

I think we have a winner! Sometimes simple is the way to go. As an added bonus, it should be super easy to piece together!

WIP Wednesday No. 6

2011-09-14T22:47:00.004+01:00

Here's a quick update before I hop into bed for a good night's sleep because it's my first day at Woolaballoo tomorrow!

Completed projects
I made these sweet little draw-string bags for my three nieces. They each have a little animal on the front that match the stuffed toys I made them along with their initials. They also have gorgeous floral linings but I forgot to photograph those - sorry!

Heffalump is all done and gorgeously, huggably cute. I think he's got a really smiley face.

I found some cotton yarn that was exactly the same colour as his ears. A quick plait and he has a beautiful tail.

Hexalong
Only a single lonely block this week but I think it's my favourite so far.

Something about that lime green and aqua together really makes me smile. It kind of reminds me of a sunny holiday somewhere.

Block swap
I went to my LQS this today for an afternoon of sewing with my mum. I did promise myself to stick to the sale rack but these Whimsy prints were calling out to me.

I decided on the Weathervane block (see yesterday's post for the other options) and set about making a test block.

Amazingly my maths was right first time so, when I came home, I had a marathon slicing session. I have all the pieces ready to go for the other blocks. Next step: draw diagonal lines on 168 squares - definitely a sitting in front of the telly job!

Other Projects

Strawberry Patch - Quilted around a couple more blocks. I've set myself the target of finishing all the echo quilting by the weekend so I can concentrate on the motifs.
Neutral jelly roll bear paws, It's a hoot, Frosted window panes and Antique quilt - No progress.

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Block swap dilemma

2011-09-13T05:13:00.000+01:00

I signed up to the latest block swap over at the Missouri Star Quilt Forum. The idea is to make your favourite block using any floral fabric as a focus. I don't really have a favourite block so I dug out the book I bought at the Festival of Quilts thinking that I would choose one from there:

I don't know how anyone can pick from 5500 blocks. It's virtually impossible! I ended up riffling the pages, closing my eyes and pointing at random blocks. After ignoring the ones that looked way too difficult, the plain bizarre (really? A swastika block? Is that absolutely necessary?) I narrowed it down to four.

1) Annie's Choice 2) Flying Dutchman

3) Japanese Lantern 4) Weathervane

I think I'm erring towards the Japanese lantern. My LQS has some lovely Japanese fabrics. I think that if I choose some jewel colours with a dark background, they will look like they're really glowing. But then I think the weathervane would look lovely also.

What do you think?

WIP Wednesday No. 5

2011-09-08T00:44:00.000+01:00

Well I've drilled, painted, weeded and planted until all my jobs are done around the house and, since I now have a job lined up, I no longer need to spend hours every day filling in application forms which means much more sewing time coming up! So not much progress this week but I expect leaps forward in the next fortnight.

Tea cosies
Fishy Fish Fish mark 2 is all finished up. The new version is on the left with his clone on the right. I made the scales much larger which made it quicker and easier to assemble.

I think the larger scales are still effective so they'll be making it to the final pattern. I'm not so sure about the polka dot eye though. So say goodbye to him because he's going to be put to one side for a bit while I work on the rest of the menagerie.

Next up is Heffalump. I couldn't resist using the French General blues for him which means he's a lot more subdued than Fishy but cute in his own adorable way. His sections are all cut out and ready to assemble.

To add the 3D element he's going to have flappy ears and a dangly tail.

New projects
I was just saying yesterday that I couldn't think about quilts because I couldn't afford any new fabric but - TA DA! - the quilting fairy (AKA my lovely mother) brought me these gorgeous Cath Kidston fat quarters home from her shopping spree.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with them but I'm going to have fun playing.

Big sister has also commissioned me to make 3 drawstring bags for the little nieces so I need to get my head around those this week.

Other Projects

Neutral jelly roll bear paws - Going to be my "practice" quilt when I start learning on the Gammill soon
Strawberry Patch - Slowly quilting around the blocks. Check the side bar for progress.
Frosted window panes - I have found the pattern and it's hanging above my desk where can't lose it again. Can't wait to get started:

It's a hoot, Hexalong and Antique quilt - No progress at all

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Horses, elephants and an upcoming give-away!

2011-09-06T12:29:00.000+01:00

I wish I had more to show you but I've been so busy this past week. On Monday I went to see my friend, Tamara, compete at a dressage competition. I'm terrified of horses so this was a big step for me but I did get to drive the horse box home which was super fun.

The rest of the week was spent painting the kitchen, weeding the garden, erecting curtain poles and attending interviews. I thought I would get all the little jobs done before I started work next week so that mum doesn't have to worry. I also learned to knit!

I call it my scarf of many stitches. I don't think it's bad for a first attempt. There are a couple of holes at the beginning but I'm mostly hole free now.

In sewing land, I finished off my sketch for the elephant tea cosy and I think he's going to be very cute. I'm trying not to think about quilts until I can afford to buy fabric but it's very difficult.

I spent opening day in Woolaballoo getting used to the shop and learning how to use the till. It was fun, the shop is really welcoming and the customers were lovely. However, I couldn't resist running next door to buy some fabric for heffalump there. I figured I deserved a metre of fabric for working so hard.

I went with French General and got half a metre of the Faded Denim solid from the La Petite Ecole range for the background and half a metre of the Rural Jardin Blue Clair Woven for the elephant. Let's see how he turns out...

This is my 98th post! I've set myself a deadline of my 100th post to finish up some of my patterns to give away to some lucky winners so check back later in the week to be in with a chance of winning some fabulous prizes.

A plan... finally

2011-09-01T18:26:00.001+01:00

Apologies for the long, wordy post. I promise I'll be back to normal for the next one.

When I was 10 I decided I wanted to be a structural engineer (this might seem young but I grew up with A LOT of Lego). This past year I was attempting my final year of an Engineering degree at Durham University but, unfortunately, I was unable to sit my final exams in May due to a recurring health problem. At the end of June I found out that I would not be able to resit my exams and so would have to leave without a complete degree.

Two days after I got this news, my partner of 9 years left me because he saw no future in our relationship without my degree. Having lost the two defining things in my life I have, probably understandably, been feeling a little adrift. To top it all off, the last two months of job hunting have resulted in many replies of either "I'm sorry you're not qualified to be an engineer" or "I'm sorry you're over qualified to be a receptionist/administrator/shop assistant/client services person/data inputter/call centre phone answerer".... Poop.

Kym and Lucy to the rescue! Kym is the owner of my LQS, The Fat Quarters, and Lucy is the owner of Woolaballoo, a local knitting and yarn shop. Woolaballoo used to be situated in Crawcrook, just along the road from where I live, and my sister and mother used to go there regularly on a Thursday evening for "Stitch and Bitch" (knitting and gossip) session.

Inside The Fat Quarters

The shop in Crawcrook closed down a year ago because the rent was too high but it is reopening right, slap bang, next door to The Fat Quarters in Blackhall Mill. Kym and Lucy have made me an offer I can't refuse; from next week I will be working 2 days a week in Woolaballoo, while Lucy is away doing trade shows, and 3 or 4 days in The Fat Quarters, learning and operating the Gammill long-arm quilt machine. How exciting is that!

Inside the new Woolablloo - click on the picture to go to Lucy's facebook page and see more pictures of the new shop

The best thing about the arrangement is that neither shop is open on a Monday so, after I save up some money, I may be able to squeeze in some modules and finish my degree via The Open University. The scariest thing is that I have never knitted in my life! I'm going along to "Stitch and Bitch" tonight with a ball of wool so hopefully I'll be a fast learner.

If you are around in the Newcastle/County Durham area this weekend, pop into Woolaballoo for the grand opening on Saturday. There's 10% off everything all day and if you bring a friend you'll be entered in a prize draw.

WIP Wednesday No. 4

2011-09-01T00:13:00.000+01:00

There hasn't been much sewing going on this week but there has been some major decision making. Sewing first:

Tea cosies
Fishy Fish Fish mark 2 (really need to think of a better name) is almost done. I'm just finishing hand sewing the binding on the front.

There are a couple of differences from the first Fishy Fish Fish:

The scales are 1 1/2 times the size, which means it no longer takes 90+ scales to make him up. Definitely an improvement.
I fussy cut a large polka dot for his eye.
The lining is fitted inside and then a binding sewn around the bottom. The original version had the lining folded around the outside. The new version is much neater but was very fussy to do so I'm not sure which version to go for in the final pattern.

I've also started my monkey tea cosy and drawn up a new design for an elephant. This was a request from big sister who is absolutely elephant addicted.

Hexalong

Only two hexies this week; a blue and green spot and a magenta pink stripe.

Other projects

Neutral jelly roll bear paws - Still waiting to be basted and quilted (come back tomorrow for exciting news about this)
It's a hoot - Finally made a decision (I think) to make a friendship braid
Strawberry Patch - Slowly quilting around the blocks. Check the side bar for progress.
Frosted window panes - It's a mystery where that pattern has gone!
Antique quilt - No progress at all

Jill - a work in progress?

Pop back tomorrow to hear about some big decisions and some exciting news.

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday?

A little bit of progress

2011-08-28T18:25:00.002+01:00

I've begun to quilt my Strawberry Patch Quilt. I started by echoing around the anvil blocks with I think really helps to accentuate the pattern.

I think it needs something in the centre of the blocks to finish it off. Otherwise there's a clear 9" across the middle without quilting which I think is a little too much. I bought this stencil from The Fat Quarters but I'm struggling to quilt it.

It's only 3" big so the curves are very tight and I can't seem to get them right. I'll have another couple of tries before I give up. This week I've also completed a long over due task. I made these two cuties for my twin nieces for Christmas 2009.

Last year they were given back to me in desperate need of some TLC. I've patched them up and they're ready for round two. I didn't want the twins' big sister to feel left out when I gave them back so I made her a little friend too.

He's from the latest Tilda book and I think he turned out super cute. I hope they last a little longer this time!

WIP Wednesday No. 3

2011-08-17T18:03:00.001+01:00

I'm getting back to normal after the crazy 30th birthday and The Festival of Quilts. I had an job interview yesterday that I am very hopeful about so I'm treating myself to a couple of sewing days.

Strawberry Patch
The top is all finished and it's in the process of being layered over the kitchen table. Need to think of a quilting plan now. I might try and do a nice motif in the centre squares of the anvils. It turned out well on my Verna quilt.

Hexalong
I picked out the shot cottons I wanted to use to go with my dots and I mixed in a couple of Amy Butler solids that I had in my stash because there were no greens. I think this is a good balance now.

I'm enjoying matching the colours to the spots and so far I've made 3 spotty hexagons. They take me hours because I only seem to be able to do tiny little stitches. When I try larger ones they just go wonky!

At the Festival of Quilts I got tempted by these stripes and bought half a yard of each to make some different hexagons to break up the stars.

I made one up to see if I could manage to match the stripes and I think it turned out really well

When I was rooting around in the tool box the other day I found a clamp and decided that this would be a great place to store my hexagons. Keeps my desk clear and gives me a bit of eye candy when I'm working at my computer.

Other projects

Neutral jelly roll bear paws - Still waiting to be basted and quilted.
It's a hoot - After seeing some of the lovely quilts Rita at Red Pepper Quilts has been making with this line I think I'm just going to jump in rather than dithering.
Tea cosies - I've drafted a larger template for the fish scales so Fishy Fish Fish mark II is on his way. I have also bought monkey fabric so watch out for his face soon.
Frosted window panes - It's a mystery where that pattern has gone!
Antique quilt - Found the silk, does that count as starting?

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday?

Festival of Quilts: Part 2

2011-08-14T18:02:00.000+01:00

I remembered my camera for day two at The Festival of Quilts so be ready for a very picture heavy post. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view. After all the shopping on day one we decided to concentrate on the exhibited quilts on day two. I was surprised by which quilts I was drawn to but I think the overall theme is: I love symmetry.

In the Traditional Quilt section, it wasn't the pieced quilts but the appliqué that really caught my attention. The first quilt didn't win a prize but was commended. I thought the simple colour scheme made a terrific impact and the quilting was fantastic. The appliqué was done by machine using a zig-zag stitch in an invisible thread. I think it would have definitely got a prize if it had been hand done.

The second was the winner of the category. This was all hand appliquéd, hand quilted and hand beaded. I dread to think how long it took but it was absolutely beautiful in person. Makes me think I should really try appliqué.

The other section that I found intriguing was the pictorial quilts. Previously, I would have walked straight through this section but some of the quilts were so beautiful you just had to stop and marvel.

This is a small section of the winning quilt, can't you just feel the heat of that sun?

This one reminded me of holidays on the Isle of Wight; crabbing off the dock and drinking gin and tonic at sunset - bliss!

There were a couple of exhibitions that weren't part of the competition. These quilts were from the "Arabic Inspiration" stall. They really call out to my love of symmetry.

This was the "Tentmakers of Cairo" stall. There were some absolutely beautiful quilts that were all hand appliquéd. There were two Egyptian men in there sewing panels all day long and they were amazing to watch. So quick!

My camera ran out of batteries there so all the rest of my photos were taken on my phone. I took some fantastic Hexagon inspiration pictures so I'll try and get those up on Flickr,

Festival of Quilts: Part 1

2011-08-11T19:09:00.000+01:00

I am back in the hotel after a heavy day of shopping at The Festival of Quilts. Note to self: when you're going to be on your feet shopping for 7 hours, don't go to the bookshop first!

I very stupidly forgot to take my camera so settled for shopping today, quilt ogling tomorrow. Here's a run down of my ~~splurges~~ tactical purchases.

For the hex-a-long I decided on shot cottons instead of solids to frame my spots. I thought they would give the quilt a little bit more interest. I got both of these fat-eighth stacks from Oakshott Fabrics and have just spent a fun half hour in the hotel bar matching up fabrics to spots. I guess that doesn't happen often because the waiter moseyed on over to ask what I was doing (I wonder what he'll think when I start basting my diamonds!).

I also fell in love with this large scale floral by Kaffe Fassett. I thought I could fussy cut the large flowers for the odd non-pieced hexie. They will probably have other flowers poking in the edges but I'll see how it works. I bought a half yard which should give me about 8 big flowers. This beauty came from Doughty's.

I didn't plan on buying it but mum was inspired after getting her book signed by Kaffe himself and spent 45 mins picking 21 different prints for a quilt. I had to buy at least one. It would be rude not to!

For non-hex-a-long quilting I bought this book:

Seriously! There really are 5500 quilt blocks in there. Do I just start at number 1 and keep going?

I promise I'll have my camera tomorrow so you can see some of the beautiful quilts in the exhibition, including the hysterical winner of the group quilt section which has a lot of meerkats.

WIP Wednesday No. 2

2011-08-10T12:33:00.003+01:00

My English paper pieces are all packed up ready to get on the train to The Festival of Quilts. Hopefully I will be buying some solids using the 10% discount voucher I just printed off over at Lilys Quilts so I can start putting these together into hexagons.

I sashed my Strawberry patch quilt.

There is a 4" border of the background fabric to go on still but I've noticed a bit of a boo boo. The background fabric is so pale that it is hard to tell the difference between the front and the back.

This square in the corner of the anvil is actually pieced in upside down. That's the wrong side of the fabric on the top. I'm going to have to do some tactical unpicking to swap it round.

I have a new challenge. A friend of my mother's has this heirloom quilt. It's entirely hand-quilted on silk with a pale mint colour on the top and a mustard colour on the back. It was given to her by the best friend of her mother and is at least 70 years old.

You may be able to make out some spots of discolouration in the centre of the quilt. Her husband left a pen on it and the ink leaked all over. When she tried to clean it off she's lost some of the colour. There are also some patches of wear where the batting is showing through.

The plan is to use some of the ivory silk left over from the wedding quilt to make a Dresden plate for the centre and some appliqué shapes to cover the worn bits. Hopefully we can keep this beautiful quilt going a little longer.

Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday?

And the whole world goes mad

2011-08-09T03:15:00.001+01:00

It's been a busy weekend. My friends came from all over the country to celebrate my turning 30 and we had a fantastic night (I'm in the middle hugging my big sister).

Unfortunately, while we were out partying the country went mad. There are riots all over London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. I feel a little strange sitting in my little room sewing away while buildings are being burnt, shops are being looted and the police are fighting battles in the street. Not sure what else to do though so sewing it is!

I've been working on basting my spotty diamonds. The good thing about hand sewing these is that I can do it while watching the news and they're so pretty they make me feel a little bit more light hearted. I also found a use for all the empty Ferrero Rocher boxes.

They're as snug as a bug in a rug. I hope things calm down soon. I have a lot of friends in London and I can't sleep for worry.

WIP Wednesday

2011-08-03T21:31:00.003+01:00

There hasn't been much sewing going on this week. Lots of job applications and interviews (unfortunately no jobs) and a lot of organisation for my 30th birthday on Saturday.

Fishy Fish Fish tea cosy got finished. This is what happens when you ask 3 year old twins to name a fish.

Both sides are the same so he looks like a 3D fish when he's sat on his tea pot. I absolutely adore him.

The only snag is that I sewed his pupils on when the sides were separate and when I sewed it all together it turns out that he's quite cock-eyed.

Never mind. Back to the WIPs, or should that be WsIP?

Hex-a-long - Solid fabric still hasn't arrived but I've printed out lots of sheets of triangular grids from incompetech. These polka dots are just too tempting so I'm going to start sewing my flower centres and add the solid outsides when they arrive.

Strawberry Patch - I spent most of this afternoon trying to figure out if I'd bought enough fabric to sash the blocks. I've come to the conclusion that I have but looking back on my calculations I'm not sure how I've worked that out. I appear to have underlined 37 several times but I'm not sure why!

Neutral jelly roll bear paws - Still waiting to be basted and quilted.
It's a hoot - Still debating layout. Maybe I'll have to come up with something completely different
Frosted window panes - Lost the pattern again. This quilt is destined not to be made.

Phew! I'm glad that week's over!

2011-07-28T16:47:00.000+01:00

I have had such a busy week and it's been coupled with an awful virus that I, my sister and my brother-in-law have all caught. I am so glad it's over and I can get back to normal.

Last weekend we threw a hen night at big sister's house for one of her best friends. It was going to be Bollywood themed so we went to a Sari shop and bought some fabric to decorate the house. Who would have thought that a few yards of fabric and some printer paper are all you need to turn a conservatory into the Taj Mahal!

It was a fabulous evening but it took a day to recover - much too much tequila!

Today is another friend's wedding and my mum has been working on making her a quilt for a wedding present for the past 6 months. Unfortunately a couple of stints in hospital and a terribly bad back prevented her from finishing it so I promised I would get it done. There were 6 blocks left to finish but I've managed to get it all sewn together and quilted in 3 days!

Colette and Damien (the lucky couple) live in New Zealand by the beach and mum designed this using beautiful batiks to go on their porch swing. I hope they enjoy it and spend plenty of evenings snuggled under it watching the sunset.

So between hen nights, weddings, viruses and job interviews I am pretty exhausted and ready for a nap. But you know what they say about idle hands... I'm going to get started on my fishy tea cosy!

I gave in to temptation

2011-07-23T16:03:00.002+01:00

I've been digging through my stash, pulling out fabrics to attempt my fish and monkey but this afternoon I had to drive my mum to the LQS to buy some batting for a rush job (that's another story!). I just couldn't resist rifling through the fabrics and found these beauties:

The scale fabric jumped out at me as being perfect for the fish's body and most of the others are from the same range. I just had to buy them. I hope it turns out as well as it looks in my head.

WIP Wednesday

2011-07-20T17:07:00.002+01:00

All the little half-square triangles have been matched up with their central squares to make 42 beautiful anvil blocks.

I'm just debating how to put them together now. I spent a good hour laying them out on the living room floor last night and playing around with them. I originally planned to sash them and seeing them all together like this shows me that they're a little busy to be next to each other.

Due to the wonders of modern technology I've come up with a couple of layouts. The first is the above layout with 2" sashing between all the blocks. This was the original plan but I'm still not entirely happy. I think it's the lack of symmetry in the design. The second layout shows the same sashing but rotating every other block. For some reason this is a lot more pleasing to my eye so I think this is the one I'll go for. What do you think?

Other projects:

Neutral jelly roll bear paws - Still waiting to be basted and quilted.
It's a hoot - Debating layout. Maybe I'll have to come up with something completely different
Hex-a-long - Fabric ordered, can't wait to start
Frosted window panes - Found the pattern, more to come!

Do fish have lips?

2011-07-20T00:44:00.001+01:00

Another day, another 5 CVs sent out. Job hunting really is mind numbingly boring. I'm glad I have my quilting to keep me sane.

I finished all the blocks for the Strawberry Patch quilt this afternoon. It turns out the pressing wasn't so bad. The trimming, however, was an absolute nightmare! I spent hours and hours bent over the cutting board as you can probably tell by the large pile of trimmings left over.

I've laid all the blocks out on the floor (I really wish I had a design wall) and balanced all the different values of the prints but I'm going to have a little play on the computer to make some final decisions. Sashing or no? All blocks in the same direction or alternating? Border or no border?

On a completely different theme, I've had tea cosies on my mind for a while now. Remember this one I made for my mum for Christmas?

I kind of copied this one from a cosy I saw in a shop window but it got me thinking about other animals that might work. I did a little doodling in front of the TV, which leads me back to my random blog title: Do fish have lips?

Because that doesn't look quite right!

My first keeper!

2011-07-17T23:56:00.003+01:00

I am so happy to finally have a quilt of my own. Don't get me wrong, I love giving away my quilts but there's something thrilling about making one just for yourself. I finished my Verna quilt a week ago but I was delaying unpacking my uni boxes as long as possible and I didn't want to put in my room until I was done.

It came to the point when I realised I had to bite the bullet before Tiger claimed it for good.

A good 6 hours of tidying later and I felt I had a room fit for my lovely new quilt so here it is in all it's bed-adorning beauty.

I'm really glad that I went with the quilted motif instead of attempting FMQ. I need a lot more practice and I think I would have ruined my little pretty.

I can't wait to climb into bed tonight but I have 100 more half-square triangles to trim before that's allowed :( Back to the cutting board!

2011-07-15T23:49:00.000+01:00

I've finally succumbed to the beautiful hexagon craze. I don't know whether I'll have the patience to do it all by myself so I'm joining in with Lily's Quilt's HEX-A-LONG.

I don't know which fabrics I'll use yet. I have this palette of Kaffe Fassett spots that I'm tempted to crack open.

I think I'll need some solids to go with them though otherwise it will be pretty migraine-tastic and that's the last thing I need at the moment! Hope you join in, the more the merrier.

Work In Progress Wednesday

2011-07-13T12:57:00.001+01:00

My plan for doing a colour way every evening didn't work out. Once I'd started cutting and piecing I just couldn't stop. It seems to be ages since I cut fabric, I've been so busy quilting tops I had lying around. So on Monday evening I finished the red colour way (apart from trimming)

And then last night I sat down to do the next batch... First I thought, well I might as well cut them all out so that I can just piece a few every night:

Then when I started sewing and I kept telling myself just a few more, just a couple more, oooh I wonder what the checks look like:

So now they're all done and chopped up and I now have an epic pressing session ahead of me. Time to find something good on the TV to watch while I do it:

Strawberry Fields Forever

2011-07-12T00:36:00.001+01:00

I have finally decided on a pattern for my Strawberry Fields quilt. It's another traditional block called Anvil. There seem to be a lot of different blocks going by this name here are a few that I've come across:

The block I'm going for is the first one. It requires lots of half square triangles so I guess I'm going to be an expert by the time I'm done. 10 triangles per block x 42 blocks = 420 half square triangles! I used some scraps to mock up a test block before I dared hack into my layer cake and I think it's turned out pretty well.

I've sliced into my layer cake and started with my triangles but I'm going to have to do a few at a time or I'll go insane. One of the nice things about working with Fig Tree Quilts lines is that they come in a number of different colour ways so I can do one colour per evening. Here go the reds!

Free motion failure

2011-07-09T01:53:00.000+01:00

I think we can safely say I need a lot more practice at free motion before I attempt a quilt (and maybe some lessons from somebody who knows what on earth they are doing!). Here's my attempt in all it's crazy glory:

Some explanation may help. I was trying to follow Leah's fantastic fee motion videos at freemotionquilting.blogspot.com but I'm obviously doing something wrong. This was my attempt at pebble quilting. Compare it to Leah's (mine's on the left as if you couldn't tell)

That was after a good couple of hours so that wasn't going anywhere quickly. Then I tried the paisley pattern:

She makes it look so easy but it really isn't! In the end I pulled out my trusty quilting templates and went with a basic flower motif in the centre of each block

I was chugging along well and then I found it more and more difficult to rotate the quilt at the points. I looked up and realised it was 2am and assumed my body must be telling me it was time for bed. However, when I stood up I discovered the real culprit:

Not helpful Tiger! It's all quilted up and I got half the binding done in front of the TV this evening. I'm going shopping tomorrow for interview outfits and then out to the cinema with some of the guys so maybe I'll get it finished on Sunday.

Backing choices

2011-07-02T12:11:00.001+01:00

I'm pretty much unpacked now and everything that isn't is hidden in my room where no-one can see it so, therefore, doesn't count. While unpacking I pulled out my Verna quilt top. It's the first quilt I've made for myself and I think it's also the largest I've made at a whopping 7'8" x 6'4".

The only way I could take a picture of the whole thing is by hanging it from the curtain pole and doesn't it look beautiful with the light streaming through those lovely bright colours.

Here it is draped over the sofa so you can see what it really looks like. I can't find any Verna online to back it with, it all seems to be sold out. So I took a trip to The Fat Quarters to see if I could find anything to fall in love with.

Tanya Whelan's new line, Darla, was on display just as I walked in the door and I fell straight in love with it. I really wanted to use this blue floral but it wasn't quite the right blue:

I do love it though so it may be making an appearance in a later quilt. I went with a coordinating check in blue and lime which is an almost perfect colour match.

Time to get that bad boy layered up and quilted. I think I'm going to try pebble quilting in the cream boxes to contrast with the angular piecing.

I've also been working on more jobs for my niece's 5th birthday tomorrow. Big sister wanted me to make some cupcakes but I suggested cake pops á la Bakerella. Mine won't be anywhere near as fancy as hers (I adore her Mr Potato Head ones!) but they will be very pink and sparkly.

Step 1: bake a cake - done!

Step 2: crumble it up, mix it with icing and form it into cake balls - done but very messy!

They're chilling in the fridge overnight ready for their pink candy coating and sparkles sometime today. I hope they turn out OK otherwise I'll be baking a lot of cupcakes overnight!

Hi honey, I'm home......

2011-06-30T00:20:00.000+01:00

A lot of packing and 3 trips in the car means that I am now officially home from university. My mum's away visiting my Aunt which means I've been able to just dump everything for now. So the house looks a bit like this everywhere

(note: bewildered looking cat!) I know I should be unpacking but it's such a lovely day outside and big sister has presented me with a large pile of fabric triangles,

It's the nieces' birthday party on Sunday and big sister wanted a lot of bunting to decorate the garden with. She got as far as buying the fabric, cutting out the triangles and then realised a) she has a full time job and three kids under 5 to look after, and b) she doesn't own a sewing machine.

Since it was a lovely day I set up a little sewing station at the end of the garden. A short time and a little sunburn later (when sewing outside you must remember sunblock!) I have 35 metres of bunting.

This was only half the fabric so I need to go on a ribbon hunt tomorrow to finish up. I'll try and take some pictures of the party at the weekend so you can see it in all its glory.

Finally managed to complete something!

2011-06-16T00:08:00.000+01:00

Exams are over (kind of). I was too ill to attend them so I have no idea what's going to happen. Since there's no work left to do I've been catching up on some sewing. I finally finished quilting the Rural Jardin bear paw quilt and I love the way it turned out.

I was unsure about the thread choice when I started but I'm glad I stuck with it because, once I'd quilted all the "paws", it all blended really well.

I echo quilted a quarter inch inside each paw and then repeated another quarter inch. I love the way that it has brought the bear paw pattern through to the back.

I still love the woven fabric I used for the back. It is so silky I'd love to make a quilt using all these woven fabrics, I'm sure it would drape beautifully. I used a bamboo/cotton blended batting and it has given it a gorgeous weight.

It's taken me an awfully long time to finish this quilt but it was worth it (many threads to bury when you do each paw separately). I think I'm going to free-motion quilt the second bear paw to see how different it looks.

I want to play!

2011-05-24T20:52:00.000+01:00

Well, I am half way through my final exams and I think I'm going through sewing withdrawal. I simply don't have the time at the moment but it doesn't stop me from buying fabric or browsing blogs. My first new purchase is a layer cake of the new Fig Tree Quilts line, Strawberry Fields. I was given a gift certificate by the lovely people at the Missouri Star Quilt Company for helping out on their forum and I couldn't resist it.

The colours are really bright and summery and I love the strawberries, they make my mouth water just to look at them. There are also lots of dots and checks which contrast brilliantly with the busier prints. I couldn't help myself and had to play around with them (on my computer at least).

I recently stumbled upon a website with a list of traditional geometric patterns and fell in love with a pattern called Arabic lattice. It's traditionally made in two colours but I thought I could adapt it to be used with this lovely range of fabrics. What do you think?

The second splurge was on some Parisville fabric I found in a sale. I was mesmerised by these ladies when I first saw them on the Tula Pink blog. I have no idea what I'll do with it, the prints are large so it will have to be something to showcase them. I just couldn't resist those hairstyles!

I think I could definitely pull off the ship look. I bought some coordinating prints as well so I'll have a play with them when the dreaded exams are over.

Bye Bye lovely fabrics, see you in a couple of weeks.

So bright and cheerful!

2011-04-18T17:00:00.002+01:00

Pop over to Jaybird Quilts for a chance to win this yummy fabric by Piece O' Cake Designs. Both of these fat quarter bundles are up for grabs and they're just delightful.

The colours are really vibrant and the patterns are really cute. My mind is just reeling with the thoughts of all the amazing things I could make with these.

Aren't they inspiring? And look at the gorgeous quilt Julie designed using them. The pattern is available on her website so go check it out.

Solid bear paws

2011-04-16T00:25:00.000+01:00

I thought that using a solid jelly roll would make the bear paws look more modern but now it's done I think it has a traditional look about it too.

We had a fluke window of gorgeous sunshine this week so I took the time to get some outside pictures.

The subtle differences in the creams show up a lot better in natural light.

I made a quick trip to The Fat Quarters to buy some batting and have a natter with Kim so now I just need to decide how to quilt this one. I think I might try free motion for the first time but I think I'll need to practice on something smaller first!

Chain piecing production line

2011-04-04T07:35:00.000+01:00

I think I got a bit carried away with my chain piecing. There I was laying out my pieces and then wizzing them through the machine ...

... when I suddenly realised there was a pile-up. Turns out sewing 320 squares onto 320 rectangles make a large tangle of fabric

Still, you've got to love how quickly you can get through those blocks. A bit of slicing, a lot of pressing, a little bit more sewing and voilà! The first 5 blocks of my second bear paw quilt:

It's quite hard to tell in the photo but they are 5 different shades of cream and beige from the oatmeal jelly roll. They pick out the bits of confetti in the background fabric perfectly. Here's a close up of the lightest and darkest so you can see better

Hope it turns out as well as I think it will. I'm off to meet my mum for lunch. Happy Mother's Day to all those mums out there x

I must focus!

2011-03-29T09:34:00.000+01:00

I never seem to manage to focus on one thing at a time. My Verna blocks are still in a pile waiting to be sewn together, my Rural Jardin bear paws are draped over the kitchen table in mid quilt, I have a ton of coursework I should be doing but I'm still starting new projects!

I was so pleased with how my bear paws were turning out that I started slicing up my solid jelly roll to make the second version.

This version will have solid paws on a patterned background. The piles of neutral solids kind of look like tasty layered pastries - yummy! I also cut 240 of the 400 squares needed to go with them but got rotary fatigue at that point.

When I was rooting around in the box for the solid jelly roll I found my It's a Hoot jelly roll (I think I may have a jelly addiction). I'd completely forgotten about that and it's discovery led to a couple of hours of fun messing around on the computer.

This quilt is going to be a lot busier than my normal quilts but I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone. It took me a while to get here because this range has some large prints which you can't really see in a jelly roll. I may try and get one of them for the back so I can showcase the fabrics properly.

Now if I can focus and get some real work done I will have had a very productive day.

A Quilting Conundrum

2011-03-27T15:18:00.000+01:00

I started quilting my bear paw quilt 3 months ago but I put it on pause because I wasn't happy with the way it was turning out. I started by quilting on every vertical and horizontal 2" strip but once I'd done them all (which was no easy feat on my little machine!) I didn't like the way it was looking.

I like the grid effect itself, which looks great from a distance, but when you look closer I'm not happy with the cream coloured thread that I've used.

I ordered some darker thread which has finally arrived but now I can't decide whether to unpick it all and try again with the new thread or just go with it and see how it turns out.

There are 14 lines which are 78" long and 18 lines which are 62" long giving a grand total of 2208" or 61 feet of quilting to be unpicked!!!

When you put it that way I think I'll just grit my teeth and go with it.

Getting close to the end

2011-03-21T23:59:00.000Z

It's taken a really long time to squeeze in these blocks between lectures, coursework and the general craziness of university life but I finally have a finished pile!

I hadn't realised how large this quilt was going to be until I saw the finished pile of blocks. I couldn't find the space to lay them out until I moved all the furniture in the kitchen to the outside of the room and started playing around on the floor. This attracted the attention of my flatmates so we spent a fun afternoon bonding over arrangements. It took a while, there is a lot of blue and green to disperse throughout the top but we go there in the end.

Look how excited Maria was:

I also found out that my maths isn't as good as it should be or, alternatively, I thought there were 40 squares in a layer cake instead of 42. Either way it turns out I made 4 too many blocks which worked out well because I didn't really like these ones, a little to 70s for my liking.

Now to find the time to zip them together and then I can move on to something else. As much as I love this top it seems to have been going on for ages!

Spring time is coming!

2011-03-03T02:02:00.000Z

It was a beautiful day today with bright blue skies so I thought it would be the perfect time to work on my Verna quilt.

One of the things I love about a quilt in progress is the piles. For a very disorganised person I find great satisfaction in neat piles. Neat piles of rotary cut fabric:

Neat piles after the first seam:

and neat piles of finished blocks:

I managed to get all of the blocks with the cream outside finished today so there are only the inverse ones to go. Fingers crossed I'll get a bunch of sewing done again tomorrow. I'm so much more productive when there's sunshine and birdsong outside my window.

Tidying my room (aka playing with my blocks)

2011-02-10T19:50:00.000Z

I realised today that I couldn't get to my computer because of the various quilt blocks and pieces of ball dress that are scattered around my room. It's not an ideal working condition so I decided to have a tidy up. Unfortunately, a constructive idea led to me spending quite a while playing with my blocks on my pinboard.

They are off my desk so I think it counts as tidying. However, when I then started slicing up fabric I knew the procrastination had gotten out of hand.

I cut up the rest of my layer cake ready to be made into blocks but now they look so tempting in their neat little piles that I really want to scrap the work and start sewing. No! Must work on boring project about mud .... must not play with pretty fabric .... must not start cutting solid layer cake .... Nooooo!

They way I've cut these blocks has left me with 1" strips which seem too small to be of any use but they just look too cute to throw away. Does anyone have any ideas?

Something more important than quilting?!?

2011-01-25T00:36:00.000Z

Today I found out that the annual college ball is being moved forward 5 weeks which may not seem like a big problem to most but when you take into account that I'm too tall to buy a dress and I need to make it, it's made me panic a little.

So the cotton is being put to one side and I'm attempting to make this:

Not in white (I don't want to scare the boyfriend!) but in a lovely teal colour:

Pattern ordered, fabric ordered. Fingers crossed I can make it in time!

The first cut is always the hardest

2011-01-20T14:10:00.000Z

I've been hanging on to this Verna Layer Cake for a while now. I love the colours and the patterns, they really make me smile just to look at them. Sometimes when I buy a fabric I get scared of cutting into it in case I ruin it!

I suddenly realised that it would be so much nicer to snuggle under a quilt made out of them than to just get them out and flick through them. I had a play around with Photoshop and came up with a couple layouts. I like the Bento Box but I think it'll be a bit busy with all the different prints (or that might be the migraine talking).

I muddled the blocks around and came up with this second layout. I think it showcases the prints better and doesn't hurt my eyes as much.

Since they're both made out of the same blocks I thought I would just go for it and I can decide when the blocks are all made. I'm using two layer cakes - the Verna and a Bella solid in snow. A 10" square of each makes two blocks, one with a coloured outside and one with a solid.

A little bit of cutting, some essay avoidance and here are my first blocks:

I'm glad I took the plunge, these are giving me an even bigger grin than the fabrics on their own.

Back to school

2011-01-13T07:55:00.000Z

I moved back to Durham this weekend to get some work done before term starts next week. Being a university town means that it's eerily quiet around here out of term time but the peace does mean that you end up getting a lot done (the peace and the fact that the bar isn't open!).

I've redesigned my banner (do you like it?) and I've managed to make a start on the quilting of my bear paw quilt.

It's larger than I'm used to (86"x70") and it takes a lot of effort to get it through my little machine but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.

I'm the only one in the flat so I've commandeered the kitchen for sewing purposes.

The positives are that I have more space, there's wifi, it's festively decorated with a mixture of Alice in Wonderland and Halloween bunting and the tea and biscuits are only a couple of steps away. On the downside, we live on the ground floor so I have the bored porter lurking outside my window giving me "helpful" advice.

Just before I came back I went to The Fat Quarters and they had 20% off everything! I picked up a jelly roll in Bella neutral colours and started wondering what this quilt would look like with plain paws and a patterned background. It was just too tempting so I bought the jelly roll and some coordinating fabric to have a go.

The fabric is from the Zippity Doo Dah range by Sandy Gervais. Two of the neutrals match the cream and tan confetti pieces perfectly so I can't wait to see how it comes together.

Hiding from the babies

2010-12-30T16:26:00.000Z

It's amazing what you can do if you set your mind to it (and ignore the fact that you have 2 essays to write!). In the last couple of days I've managed to finish off my bear paw quilt top and piece the back together.

It's all folded up over the banister upstairs while the kids rampage downstairs. Hopefully I'll be able to get it layered up and quilted this evening after they've gone home. The back is made form one of the French General woven fabrics, which is absolutely lovely to touch. It's soft and gloriously silky.

I've also managed to piece together these blocks:

They may look familiar. They're an exact mirror image of the blocks for this quilt. I made a bit of a boo boo while cutting so I ended up with twice as many pieces. The other quilt was sold so I hope I can sell this one on too.

Mad rush over, time to settle in to some sewing

2010-12-27T01:28:00.001Z

It's been a mad couple of weeks. I've been ill this term so missed a lot of work at university, which I had to get extensions for. That meant that I was working right up until the 23rd December which left very little time to get the Christmas presents all sewn up!

Two straight days at the sewing machine and I managed:

Six coasters on a tea and coffee theme for my dad and step-mum. Dad's a big coffee drinker and Barbara's a big tea drinker so they can have three each.

Two sets of these lovely bright squishy cubes for my step-sister Jenny's new baby and Clare from Clarebears new baby. They are both adorable cuddly boys and I had a lot of fun playing with them.

and - last but not least - Owly the tea cosy made for my mum. Although, he's so adorable I think I'm going to have to make a matching one for myself!

It just goes to show how much you can do if you put your mind to it and now all that's over with I can settle in for some proper quilting. I hope to get my bear paw quilt finished and layered up and start on my "It's a hoot" jelly roll quilt tomorrow.

Snow day! (or possibly week)

2010-11-28T03:20:00.000Z

It's snowed heavily here for 4 days so far which means that I can't work on my research project. In hindsight doing a project on soil treatment over the winter in the North of England may not have been the best plan.

It's left me with a lot of time on my hands which has been spent on my laptop in the college bar. I check the Daily Deal on the Missouri Star Quilt Company's site regularly and the other day they had an offer I couldn't turn down:

It's a Jelly roll of It's a Hoot fabrics by MoMo for Moda. The colours are so fun, they really cheered up my grey miserable snow day so I had a play around with my coloured pencils...

...and ordered it, along with a solid white jelly roll. I think it will make a really great quilt! My coloured scribbles attracted a bit of attention in the bar (the American Football players were particularly nosy) and when I explained what I was doing they all wanted a go. This was Ryan's design

Apparently the red block at the bottom has to have pictures of all of us. Not sure he's quite got the hang of quilt design.

Rural Jardin coming together

2010-11-23T23:34:00.000Z

I finally got a chance to squeeze in a bit of sewing between lectures and coursework and have managed to get all my bear paw blocks stitched together in rows. Here are 4 out of the 5 rows pinned up on my notice board (the fifth didn't fit)

I really like the neutral plain in the background, it goes a long way to offset the busyness of some of the prints. These strips will be sashed together with the same width sashing as the separate blocks and then bordered with a double width strip.

I think the "paws" themselves have come out quite well. They look a little disjointed with the large prints:

But I think they work really well with the smaller, more even prints:

I'm going to leave these up on the board so that I see them constantly, Hopefully that will encourage me to get them finished sooner!

Cramped sewing

2010-11-04T16:00:00.000Z

One of the problems of living in college accommodation has always been that you have very little space. You have to live, sleep, work and have fun in one tiny little room. It gets a whole lot worse when you try to sew in there as well!

Please excuse the picture quality - mum took the camera on holiday with her to ..... Houston quilt market! I am so incredibly jealous but I couldn't take the time out during term to make the trip with her. At least I'm starting to be able to squeeze some sewing in finally.

To make up for my lack of quilting output, I thought I would start to share some pictures of Durham. This is my view on the way to lectures this morning. I'm studying civil engineering and I think that it's a real shame that I won't ever get to work on a building as beautiful as this:

Durham Cathedral in the Autumn light

Finally... I can sew again!

2010-10-15T00:16:00.000+01:00

The move to university is done and the first week of lectures is done. I haven't been able to do any sewing since the move because as I was packing I realised that all my equipment is actually my mothers. I have my own sewing machine but that's pretty much it. So I hit the internet and this pile was delivered to me recently:

A starter pack from creative grids which includes an industrial strength cutting mat, an Olfa rotary cutter and a Creative Grids non-slip ruler. I couldn't let it sit around so I ran to the market and picked up some supplies to decorate or flat for an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party.

A pile of felt and bias binding was quickly chopped up with my new board into....

...neat pile of bunting triangles. A little more snipping and an hour at the sewing machine gave me 8 metres of "Queen of hearts" bunting. I had a whole load more little flags but didn't buy enough binding so I'll have to think of something to do with them.

A quick way to liven up a dull student corridor!

Decisions, decisions...

2010-10-01T00:55:00.000+01:00

I think I may have been a little too optimistic in thinking that I could get this top finished in 2 days. The sashing is taking a lot longer than I expected.

I've been stitching away like a maniac but have completely neglected to do any laundry, organizing or packing for my move this weekend. Now the question is do I carry on sewing and throw all my dirty washing into bin bags to move or do I do the sensible thing and pack up the machine?

But I love my little machine so much .....

The last leg of a sewing marathon

2010-09-29T01:22:00.000+01:00

I'm determined to get this quilt layered up before I have to move back into the university accommodation on Saturday. I won't have the space to do any layering there unless I sweet talk the staff into letting me use the dining room tables.

So, marathon sewing sessions it is. I've been sewing non stop every night after work and I've turned my lovely pile of dog eared strips into 80 beautiful bear paws. Here's a selection of them:

Whites and reds

Reds

Blues

Light blues

I'm not sure which group I like best but they've all exceeded my expectations. The background colour is Moda's Bella Solid in Stone and it seems to be doing a fantastic job of setting off the Rural Jardin fabrics. Sashing tomorrow night and then I'm getting close to the finish line.

The wounded return

2010-09-25T16:53:00.000+01:00

Last Christmas I made some stuffed toys for my twin nieces. They were as adorable as the girls and I was sad to let them go - you can see them here.

This week I was handed them back by my sister and they look like they've been through a war!

Here's "Quack Quack" returned to me minus both wings and with a footprint on his back. Bunny faired a little better with only an exploding arm to show for his battles with the terrible two.

At least I know they've been well loved, the twins took them everywhere (which explains the variety of stains). Time for some emergency surgery!

Jelly teddy bear paws

2010-09-23T21:37:00.000+01:00

This week I've started work on my Rural Jardin quilt. I thought I would share a bit of my process so you could see what's going on between posts.

I knew I wanted to do a bear paw style block so first I figured out how to split it up into strips.

Then I drew up the pattern in Photoshop to see if it was going to work with this fabric. This step can be a bit of a faff but I'm still a bit too new to this to jump right in. The photoshop version can be seen in one of my previous posts.

I cut all my strips and started dog earing them all to get the points.

I'm almost done with my points, only the 2 1/2" squares left to do. I just love how they look all stacked up together.

Mill House Inn finish

2010-09-19T16:49:00.000+01:00

I enjoyed making this quilt tremendously. There is something lovely about the balance of patterns, colours and values in the Mill House Inn line. Quilt number one is quilted, bound and ready to go.

Due to a slip of the mind and a silly cutting error I now have the blocks for a twin for this baby which is why the progress bar still isn't full. It will be a mirror image with the same backing and binding.

I think they would look adorable in a room with twin beds or draped over two sofas in a living room. I just need to get some of the marks off that I used for the quilting and then I can find them a nice home.

Nine tenths preparation

2010-09-17T16:45:00.000+01:00

For a lot of things in life it seems like the work is nine tenths preparation and a tenth actually getting done. Since I managed to get home from work a couple of hours early today I thought I would put the time into getting some prep done.

To prepare for my return to university work I've given myself a much larger desk. The great thing about the mix and match table tops and legs from Ikea is that I just needed to buy a new top and recycle my legs which works out a whole lot cheaper.

So here's my brand new desk with the old table top on top so you can see I've pretty much doubled my work space. Very handy for textbooks.

In preparation for quilting at university (I'm determined to squeeze it in somehow!) I've bought some new feet for my sewing machine. I've been using my mum's very swish quilting machine for the past year and when I got my basic machine out I realised that it wasn't that well equipped.

On the left is a quarter inch foot so that I don't have to stick a mark on my metric machine and on the right is a free motion foot. As a bonus my machine is designed for dress making so has dual feed as standard which meant that I didn't need to buy a walking foot.

Time to break them in on my block swap stars!

Christmas block swap

2010-09-14T00:29:00.000+01:00

The strip twist quilt is halfway through the binding process and I think I'll take it to work to finish off in my lunch break. Next project is my second block swap from the Missouri Star Quilt forum. I finished all my cutting out this evening and I am ready to piece:

As you can probably tell the swap is Christmas themed this time using white or cream fabrics and contrasting coloured fabrics. We're going to be making simple star blocks using Jenny's fantastic jelly roll tutorial:

If you want to join us you can sign up until September15th on the forum and then you have until November 1st to get your blocks done. We have an international bunch of people joining in this time with large chunks of the US covered, Australia, Canada and me flying the flag for the UK. I'm excited to see what I get!

Verna quilt plan

2010-09-09T18:44:00.000+01:00

I haven't been at work for the last couple of days because I've been a little ill so I've been trying to get some things crossed off the to do list. I didn't want to go near any actual quilts due to the unpredictable bouts of vomiting so I've been working at my computer.

Here's the plan for the Bella Snow and Verna layer cakes I've got stashed away.

It should be quick and simple so hopefully another quilt I'll get done before I have to leave it all behind.

Harrogate Quilt Show

2010-09-09T02:49:00.000+01:00

This weekend I took my mum to the quilt show at Harrogate. We found some bargains, ogled and some gorgeous quilts and took a class in Trapunto and Italian quilting which was interesting but a little rushed. Here's a pick of the quilts from the competition:

I love the 3D effect of the shelf in the quilt on the left and the quilt on the right got me into the Christmas mood so I bought a pile of Christmas fabric.

The quilt above shows that you don't need fancy patterns or bright colours to make an impact.

The class we took was only an hour and a quarter long so we didn't get to finish our blocks but we were sent away with all of the bits and pieces to finish off our butterflies.

I'm kind of liking how it's turning out but I have no idea what I'm going to do with him. Maybe a cushion cover?

USPS excitement

2010-09-03T17:42:00.000+01:00

I came home from work to a big pile of USPS flat rate envelopes. They're fairly hefty when they're stuffed to the gills - I could barely get through the door!

After some frantic ripping and excited bobbing around (I can't sit still when I'm excited) I discovered my lovely fabric purchases from Missouri Star Quilt Company and Fat Quarter Shop.

This is what happens when you're bored at work and have an active internet connection! First up is the lovely yardage from Fat Quarter Shop.

The top two are from the Rural Jardin range by French General and the bottom is a Bella Solid in Stone (both from Moda). I bought the jelly roll at my LQS a couple of weeks ago but I was too late to get enough yardage for backing and she doesn't stock any of the plains which is why I went on an internet spree.

I came up with an idea and - with some fancy photoshop jiggery pokery - this is what my quilt will look like:

Well, at least this is what it SHOULD look like. There's no way my points will line up that cleanly! Next was the package from the Missouri Star girls. I love their packages because they always have handwritten notes in them.

It's a layer cake of Bella solid in Snow which is going to be put with a Verna layer cake that I've had sitting around for ages. I'll wave my photoshop wand and try and give you a preview of that quilt too.

Laying out the Strip Twist

2010-09-01T23:43:00.000+01:00

I stitched all my jelly roll strips into sets of 4 ordering them dark-light-dark-light in each set. These were then cut into 8.5" squares and then cut in half diagonally to make the half square triangles.

A couple of hours on the living room floor in front of the Great British Bake Off and a lot of rearranging got me this layout. I think it's just about balanced but the dark red is very dominant so it a long time to get it evenly spread through the pattern.

What do you think? Are there any dark or light patches that stand out for you?

Baby quilt finished and handed over

2010-08-31T01:19:00.000+01:00

I finished the baby quilt in plenty of time and mum-to-be Jenny loved it. Apparently the blue in it is almost identical to the colour she's painted the nursery walls so I'd call that a win!

I love the way the pieced binding looks, I will definitely be using it again in the future.

I'm moving on to a quilt using a Mill House Inn jelly roll. The pattern is Strip twist from the Quiltville website which is a wonderful resource for scrappy quilt patterns. I'm not very good at scrappy but I thought this would work well with these fabrics.

Only 5 weeks til I go back to uni. I have a lot of sewing to fit in before then...

How to sew a pieced binding

2010-08-26T00:26:00.000+01:00

While ~~staring into space~~ concentrating at work today I decided to go for the pieced binding because I wasn't sure how I would be able to accurately measure the sides so that the binding changed colour at the corners. I know that's a little obsessive but it's my engineering side creeping back in.

I pieced the strips together staggering them each by 2" to minimise wastage when they are cut at 45 degrees. The seams were pressed open to make less bulk when sewn to the quilt sandwich.

I used the 45 degree line on my ruler to trim off the staggered ends and then measured the width I wanted my binding. I use a 2 1/4" doubled binding so I cut as many 2 1/4" strips as I could. You should get 13 out of a width of fabric.

The short strips were sewn end to end and the seams pressed open. The binding was then pressed in half and voila! A gorgeous pile of pieced double binding ready to be sewn to my quilt tomorrow.

Be careful when you're pressing the binding in half because it is now cut on the bias so it's quite easy to distort the strips. Make sure to press straight down rather than pushing the fabric along the ironing board.

Binding dilemma

2010-08-24T21:54:00.000+01:00

I've been sewing like a demon for the last couple of nights and managed to get the top finished, layered up and quilted. Now I'm stuck with the problem of binding.

I have six jelly roll strips left. They are all the same pattern but 2 each of 3 different colour ways. I don't know whether to pick four and use one on each side or to cut them up and piece them together somehow to get a scrappy binding. Maybe sewing them in a diagonal would set off the braid.

I'm pleased with the piecing and quilting so far. My braid ruler from creative grids was wonderful and made everything very simple and quick. I'll definitely be using it again.