The Power of Three - A Finished Quilt

There I was, saying I was back into blogging and it takes me over a month to write my next post.  Oh well, I am true to my word in saying I am getting back into blogging, albeit if I am delayed doing so.

My quilt for triplet boys is finished and I call it The Power of Three.  It's a big quilt and will be used as a play mat and as the background for baby photos.  

As it's so big I found it difficult to photograph, so you will have to piece it together in your mind from the photos I've included to get a true feel for the quilt.

My favourite part of the quilt is the rainbow border, which was an unnecessary addition but which I think makes it more fun and frames the whole quilt.  I opted for a black binding so as not to imbalance the rainbow effect and I think it makes the whole quilt dramatic.

The backing is some lovely fabric by Robert Kaufman but I am not certain of its name.  It has astronauts, space shuttles, planets and stars on it and the bright colours and fun images are a happy backing.

More quilting posts coming up soon and this backing fabric will be making another appearance then.

Liberty Squares Quilt: A finished quilt

It is so great to show off a finished quilt, it has felt like a long time since I worked on a big project and could boast a finish.  This quilt has been a lot of work to cut, piece and quilt and has been hours in the making but I am thrilled with it now and I am never parting with it!

All the top fabrics are Liberty tana lawn.  It is so freeing to put so many different prints and colours together in this haphazard way.  Providing you avoid similar colours being adjacent to one another, I don't think you can go wrong.  I love the mixture of dark and light, pastels and brights, as well as large and small scale prints.  Most of these fabrics are florals, but I am glad to have sourced some Liberty prints with animals in them.  It wouldn't really be a very "me" quilt if there weren't critters in amongst the fabrics!

I decided to have a go at "stitch in the ditch" quilting for two reasons; firstly, I need to perfect this type of quilting and to "skill up", secondly (and more importantly) my usual choice for tramline quilting felt like just too much work.  Stitch in the ditch meant half the amount of quilting I would ordinarily do.  I know that it's not a great job, but I don't think it's too shabby and I am definitely going to practise this again in the future.

The backing fabric is not by Liberty, but is a cotton lawn and goes really well with the front fabrics.  I bought the fabric in a sale and don't know which company produced the fabric.  The only thing I can say is that I love both the pattern and the feel.

The binding is from stash -  a simple pink and white stripe which is sweet for the front and goes beautifully with the back.

I am so pleased that I cut up some of my most recent (and most limited) Liberty purchases.  Alice and the Mad Hatter both make an appearance in this quilt.

 Quilt Stats:

Finished dimensions: 57" x 75"
Number of 2½" squares: 1064
Over 100 different Liberty tana lawn prints included

This quilt is staying with us.  I love it and it seems to be a hit with Brutus, too!

Thank you for visiting!

Poppy's Rainbow Quilt: A finished quilt

This quilt feels like an achievement.  I imagined it on Sunday evening and by Tuesday evening it was finished, and everything (fabrics, wadding, backing, binding) came from my stash.  I didn't have to purchase anything extra.  Somehow (rather insanely) this makes me think that this quilt was free to make.  Who am I kidding?

Anyway, this quilt is following in the footsteps of my other rainbow quilt and other quilts made predominantly with 2½" squares.  But I added some 4" strips to make this quilt a bit different and also to reduce the amount of cutting and piecing I would have to do.

Pink has made an appearance in my rainbow again.  I think most girls will appreciate this addition.  I opted for a low volume backing with light grey flowers and mint green leaves.  I found a grey binding which I think makes the colours on the front really stand out.  The observant will have noticed that some of my new fabrics from the Festival of Quilts have made it into this quilt.  This one quilt now justifies all those purchases!

As this quilt is for a little girl called Poppy I included a couple of Liberty prints with Poppies on them.  You can see a couple of them in the photo below:

I opted for some straight line quilting again.  I quilted tramlines along all the width seams.  I changed the colour to match the rainbow them.  I can boast lots of Aurifil threads to make this possible.

Quilt Stats:

Finished dimensions: 41" x 52"
Number of 2½" squares: 140
Number of 4" strips: 7
Approximately 100 different fabrics included (Many thanks to my friend, Amy, who donated 50 or so squares from her stash.)

Thank you for visiting!

Scrappy Dresden Plate Scrappy Quilt: A finished quilt

School's out for summer!  This means I am going to get loads of sewing and quilting done and I'm hoping to do regular blog posts.

The Dresden Plate Scrappy Quilt is finally finished.  I've really enjoyed this quilt but it has taken a lot more time than I had anticipated.  As a result I decided not to put any small Dresdens on the quilt because I just needed a finish under my belt.

I love the scraps I pulled together for this quilt.  There's a really fresh feel about it and I think it could be for a boy or a girl.  I make a disproportionate number of girls' quilts, probably because my stash has many more girly fabrics.  It's nice to have worked with a different colour palette.

The backing and binding, as well as the centre circles, are Dimples by Makower UK.  I used the pink version on my Rainbow Scrappy Quilt and it's already a firm favourite of mine.  I love the lighter version on the backing next to the darker version of the binding.

Quilt Stats:

Finished dimensions: 41" x 50"
Number of Dresden Plate Petals: 80
Approximately 40 different fabrics included

Here's hoping you are having some happy holiday time! 

Rainbow Scrappy Quilt: A finished quilt

If you listen to the Chris Evans Breakfast show on BBC radio 2 you may have heard him invite people to share their Smug Zone stories.  I am definitely in the Smug Zone with this quilt because I am so pleased with how it has worked out.  This is definitely a quilt I am holding on to.

The backing fabric I've chosen is by Lewis and Irene and is called Without the Rain we wouldn't have Rainbows.  This is a gorgeous fabric in its own right, but I think it's perfect for this quilt on two levels; firstly, it has rainbows on it which is the theme of this quilt.  Secondly, the writing is in French and I love foreign languages, and as this quilt is staying with me, that feels rather apt.

I used lots of different coloured threads for the quilting, though they were all Aurifil.  I decided to make the most of the rainbow aspect and quilted in colour zones with matching threads.  I did not overly think the quilting.  I just decided to use the walking foot to follow the lines and sometimes just made a 90° turn as the squares met.  As a result lots of the quilting does resemble stairs, which I like because the backing has images of the Eiffel Tower.  I've been up the tower twice and on both occasions I remember there being a lot of stairs to climb.

After umming and ahhing about whether the pink squares belong in rainbow I decided to use a bright pink fabric for the binding.  I've decided that my rainbows definitely include pink and I think this particular pink goes beautifully next to all the different fabric colours.  The fabric is Dimples by Makower which they have in lots of different colours and which I think makes a beautiful binding choice.

Quilt Stats:

Finished dimensions: 41.5" x 62.5"
Number of 2½" squares: 520
Approximately 100 different fabrics included

I'm really pleased with the reception that this quilt has had both with friends and people online.  My next post will include a grid of where to place your own fabrics if you wish to make a similar quilt.

Crazy squares patchwork quilt: A finished quilt

It has been so long since I finished a quilt and it is so satisfying that this one has been made in a week.  Well done me and thank goodness for half term!  

There really is a lot going on with this quilt - there are 546 squares in total and by my reckoning I have used over 135 different fabrics.  Unfortunately this project has made no dent in the stash, but it has awakened my eyes to the beauty of such scrappy quilts and to the satisfaction of combining so many different fabrics.

The quilting is not my finest.  I could not find nearly enough quilter's safety pins and I think this explains some of the folds I just had to overlook.  (I've deliberately not taken photos of the worst parts.)

The binding is perfectly neutral - grey features on both the back and the front and it is such a great blender.  I particularly like the irregular stripe pattern because it mimics the zebra's hide on the back.



Let's hope I am showing off another quilt soon!

Locally grown finally finished

Today I am showing off a quilt which has taken me far too long to finish.  I started it in August 2013,  I pieced it but then was unsure what fabric to back it with so it was stuffed into a box and forgotten about.  It only saw the light of day when I was sorting out some stuff in my craft room and I realised that it was close to being finished and that it really needed to have its day in the sun.

The quilt has many imperfections and I think my piecing has improved considerably since I first worked on it, but it is quite nice to recognise my own progress in sewing and quilting.  The fabrics come from Locally Grown by Creative Thursday.  I love the patterns and colours.

I was particular about the squares being the right way up, but not with the "framing" fabrics.  I remember that my brain couldn't take the calculating to get everything the right way up.

The backing was made from left over fabric and I think it works well.  These were fabrics I would otherwise have been holding on to without a project in mind.  I think it was a good idea to get them used and out of my stash.

The binding was some plain fabric I found in stash which I think brings both the back and front together.  There are a lot of busy fabrics in this quilt so a simple red makes them stand out and does not compete with them.

This quilt will be given to my niece, Ava, who got a knitted blanket when she was born, a quilt when she was one and who is due a bigger quilt now she is three.  She's quite a character with a big and busy personality - this quilt should suit her perfectly.

Thank you for visiting.

Scrapisfaction Quilt - Four Star Quilt

My obsession interest in scrappy quilts continues!  I enjoyed making my large scrappy star so much that I decided to make a quilt with four scrappy stars, though on a smaller scale.

I used the same technique as before, making a slab of fabric and then cutting it to make half square triangles and then doing piecing as you would in any other quilt.  It really is scrapisfying!

I have a lot of pink fabrics in my stash and use it regularly, which creates lots of lovely scraps.  I have seen other scrappy quilts which are very strict in their use of colour, but I like to put lots of different pinks side by side and even have plenty of white backgrounds as well.  The great thing about working with scraps is that it is much less controlled and the finished quilt a lot less predictable.

The quilting was easy and looks particularly good on the back.  I quilted the stars a couple of times and then quilted each of the eight points in each star individually.  This did create plenty of ends and the finishing off was tedious, but I can do that and justify watching tv.  On the front I quilted in a deep pink, but on the back I quilted with a variegated thread which goes from light baby pink to deep crimson.  I've used it plenty of times before and I think it makes the back that little more interesting.

Last month I linked up with Mrs Sew and Sow and who hosts a Scraptastic Tuesday along with She Can Quilt and I got lots of visitors and lovely comments.  I'm linking this blog post to Scraptastica Tuesday (yes, I do know it's Friday.)  Here's hoping the fellow scraptastic quilters like this quilt.  As it's also a Friday Finish, I am also linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Thank you for visiting.

Ribbons Quilt: my pattern!

I seem to have been slack with my blogging recently, not because I haven't been sewing much, but because I have been doing so much sewing.  There is so much going on right now that it is going to take a few posts to explain everything.

Today's blog post is especially exciting for me because I get to show off my Ribbons Quilt and direct you to the pattern and tutorial I wrote.  I have mentioned this quilt pattern in a couple of previous blog posts but this week it was posted on The Village Haberdashery's blog The Daily Stitch.



It's called "Ribbons" because I used three colours and pieced them in such a way as to create ribbons of colour.  I was really keen to use the unicorns from Far Far Away in the blue, green and lilac colourways but the rest of the fabrics were picked out by the ladies at The Village Haberdashery and they did a great job!  The colours look fantastic together and in this pattern they all seem to shine.  This is the top pieced but not finished, but you get to see the pattern.



The Half Rectangle Triangles took some working out.  I have previously used a Bloc Loc ruler to create them but I had to work out a different technique in order that anyone could make them without expensive equipment.  I made all of the HRTs using my own tutorial so I knew it could be done.

I really am proud of this quilt - I hope you like my efforts too.  Thank you for visiting.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

In my last post I mentioned entering the Blogger's Quilt Festival with a new quilt.  I put myself under a lot of pressure to start a new scrappy quilt and have it finished for today, only to realise by about Wednesday that it does not have to be a new or previously unseen quilt!  Once I made this realisation it was clear what my entry would be and that I would ease off the new scrappy quilt (which was unlikely to get finished in any case.)

My entry is the Scrappy Star Quilt which made its debut here three weeks ago and received a lot of positive comments, which I was thrilled about.

The quilt was a spontaneous creation.  I started organising my scraps into colours and suddenly the idea for the quilt came into my mind.  I made slabs of fabric in distinct colour groups, then turned these into half square triangles and then pieced the quilt.  It was both fast and satisfying!  I think it's my favourite quilt for a while.

I am a massive fan of scrappy quilts because they become like a memory quilt of previous quilts.  I love playing "remember that project" with this quilt.

I did lots of quilting with my walking foot.  I quilted the star shape many times and then quilted the eight points of the star individually.  It has given the quilt a lovely feel and texture.

I really hope that other people like my scrappy quilt.  Now it's time for me to peruse other people's quilts and start voting.  What fun!  A massive thanks to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for hosting a great festival!

Back to blogging

It's been a whole week since I blogged.  That's quite a while for me, but that's because I have been busy working on my pattern, which is now written and the quilt is now finished.  It shouldn't be too long until I can show you it in full.

In the meantime I have still been working on other things.  At last weekend's quilting class we began preparing for Christmas and made adorable Christmas stockings.  I like making Christmas things with untraditional colour combinations, hence the zingy blue and green in my stocking.  As ever, a good time was had by all and we all made lovely things.  I will definitely be making more of these, though I am going to wait until November (I know it's only next week) before I start thinking about Christmas in earnest.

I have finished a girly quilt in pinks and low volume fabrics.  This is very simple, but I think it works well.  The backing is from my trip to Ikea and I love how this quilt is grown-up and traditional on the back but young and frivolous on the front.  Ikea has clearly gone for the "Cath Kidston" factor with this fabric and I think it's a winner.

The other great thing about this quilt is that it has generated lovely scraps!  I loved making my scrappy star quilt recently so I am now going about making smaller scrappy stars and piecing them together.  I like how it looks so far.  This should definitely be ready for next week's Friday Finish post.

Thanks for visiting.

Elephant and Spots: a finished quilt

I've taken a bit of a detour from my recent scrappy quilts to make this elephants and spots quilt for a friend's baby boy, but as I used fabrics which I've had in my stash for about a year I feel good about not making new purchases.

I started off making ten log cabin blocks but then I felt that it was just too similar to a recent quilt so  I then added the Battenberg blocks.  This means that I will be putting those four remaining log cabin blocks into another quilt soon, and there are still a lot of the elephant fabrics left to add to them as well.

For the quilting I kept it simple - tramlines.  They're just so speedy, but look good.  The binding is a red and white houndstooth, which I think goes really well with some of the elephant red and white check ears.  It goes nicely with the red dots on the backing.  I acquired this houndstooth fabric only this week.  A friend of a friend was getting rid of some fabrics (much of it scraps) and I took a lot of it off her hands (I'm good like that!)

Now I cannot wait to give it to my friend.  I meet her little boy on Sunday and I am really excited.  I hope she likes the gift.

Thanks for visiting.

Two Scrapisfaction Friday Finishes!

I have sewed and quilted like a demon this week and both finished projects are from scraps, my favourite thing of the moment!  I said I was going to sew a "scrapisfaction" project once a month, but at the moment all I work with are scraps, so that makes me feel like an overachiever!

First up is the quilt I started at the weekend.  I put together the remnants from other quilts and stitched them together.  I wanted to make something for a boy and was pleasantly surprised by the quilt I made because the fabrics seem to belong together.  There's definitely a theme with this quilt because the only images belong to transport, and in a bizarre twist for me, there are no critters on this quilt!  I backed it with some cotton from last week's Ikea trip and found a nice navy blue spot to finish off the quilt; I think it works well.

This quilt was quilted on the front with a red thread to complement the many reds in the quilt.  The back was quilted in a light grey, which blended nicely with the blue backing.

Once this quilt was finished I quickly started the next.  I don't know what came over me, but I decided to sort the scraps into colours and then started working on ideas.

I suddenly had a brainwave to make some large half square triangle slabs of fabric and then to put them together in an eight star formation (not unlike my recent tablemats).

.

I am really thrilled with this quilt.  I love how the colours all stand out so clearly, although there are many different variations within each colour point.  I love the scale.  I think it looks wonderful laid on top of a bed.

I am pleased with the large amount of quilting I did to emphasise the star shape and I think the cute backing works well because it comprises the four colours I used on the front.  I used remnants from the transport quilt's backing for the binding, which made this quilt even more scrapisfying!  When I look at the scraps it's hard to imagine that you can create something so coherent from them.  It blows my mind!

Thank you for popping by.