The green eyed monster

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....?

A little bit of progress

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!

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

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!

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!

Finally managed to complete something!

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!

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.

Solid bear paws

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

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!

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

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

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.