Free motion failure

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

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!

Getting close to the end

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!

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)

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?

The first cut is always the hardest

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.

Verna quilt plan

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.