Scrappy Snowballs and Squares: A quilt in progress 2

The piecing of my current quilt is finished!  I cannot express how relieved I am to tell you that.  This quilt is turning into a mammoth project where my ambition has been running ahead of me and I have only just managed to catch up.  This quilt was originally going to be for a single bed for one of my nieces, but as I enjoyed working with so many different fabrics I decided to make it much bigger and to keep it for me and the husband.  Worry not - my niece'll get another quilt at a later date.

I have used so many different fabrics in this and it has been great to raid my stash.  Some of the first fabrics I ever purchased have been included, as well as some of my all time favourites, a handful of Liberty prints and donations from my sewing friends.  It's such a hotchpotch of colours, styles and images but I think it works.  I am getting much better at using up my stash and mixing it all up.

The low volume snowballs are a revelation.  Initially I had thought these would just be plain white but I am glad I mixed it up because it makes the quilt more interesting and a lot less predictable.

The quilt is made from 1388 2½" squares.  I must be crazy!  There are also 196 half square triangles.  That means there are 1584 pieces that I have sewn together.  And, just to confirm my craziness I am now wondering whether to add a chequerboard border to frame the quilt.  I need to think about that and see if I can face more cutting and piecing.  If not, the quilt top is already plenty big enough and will look amazing on our bed.

Have a lovely weekend!

Scrappy Snowballs and Squares: A quilt in progress 1

This week I am working on another scrappy quilt and I have chosen to work with my current favourite sized square again - 2½".  This quilt will alternate between patchwork blocks and snowball blocks.  It's a very simple design but I hope it will have visual impact as I have picked out some of my brightest and boldest fabrics from stash.

There are some pastel shades in amongst these blocks but by and large the fabrics I've picked out are bright in colour and bold in pattern.  Many of the fabrics also have white backgrounds or patterns.  I have also included lots of fabrics with black backgrounds, which is not common for me, but I think they complement the bright fabrics.  Some of these fabrics have also come from friends, who have seen what I am making and donated a suitable fabric.  This is the joy of the 2½" square - other quilters will gladly share some of their stash with you!

I have not been exacting in how these fabrics are sewn together.  I have done lots of chain-piecing and hoped for the best!  This has made it quicker to sew together and also more "random" in composition, which I think works well in this scrappy quilt.

The snowball blocks are not yet made.  I have cut many of the low volume fabrics, but there are still many more to cut.  I decided against having a pure white contrast.  Instead I have used different cream and lightly patterned fabrics as well as white fabric.  Hopefully this will make the quilt more interesting and less predictable.

I have made a start on piecing the half square triangles for the snowball corners, but there remains still more to do.

Thank you for visiting!

Quick Quilted Heart Pillow

Sometimes there just isn't the time to do as much sewing and quilting as you would like.  The past couple of weeks have been like that, but I'm pleased to show off my quick quilted heart pillow.  All the fabrics here are from stash, and most of them have been used in previous projects, so I'm still persevering with my attempt to Sew My Stash 2015.

The heart has one of my all time favourite fabrics - the Liberty lamps.  I bought this fabric on eBay a couple of years ago.  It was not even a fat eighth, so I have had to use it sparingly.  I've never seen it again; I think it was a limited edition and from a few years ago.  I'm pleased I've used a small square of it here in a place I get to see it, even though it is minute.

Look carefully and you will see that the threads need sewing in - that's the story of this blog these days.  There are so many threads because I did so much quilting.  I quilted the hell out of it, but I just could not resist.  I love the texture the quilting provides and once that walking foot is on, I want to get my work out of it before I change it to its ordinary foot.  I decided to put a pink zip in the side, which I think looks rather cute.

I've taken the photos with my other recent quilted pillows.  I think they look nice together.

Thanks for visiting.  Have a nice weekend!

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.

Work and Sewing Life Balance

This week marked the end of summer for me because since Monday I have been back at work.  Having six weeks off in the summer is the best perk of my job and I like to make the most of all that glorious time.  This summer I was really fortunate to be able to spend time with friends sewing, usually two days in the week.  I love sewing with others.  I get to admire other people's fabric choices, take a look at their ideas, share and learn tricks and tips and it's always good fun (we do have a world to put to rights as well as all this sewing).  I find that sewing with my friends increases my creativity and improves my sewing.  

I'm already missing the luxury of time.  Today is the first day since being back at work that I have touched the sewing machine and I felt that I just had to sneak in a couple of hours and plod on with an ongoing project, rather than get my creative juices flowing and start some new ambitious project.  Work is already reducing the time I can devote to my creativity.  I know time with my sewing has done me good today so I am determined to find the time tomorrow to do the same.  For me, my work life balance has to feature sewing.

I learned to make Cathedral Windows in June.  Since then I've seen two of my friends finish adorable Cathedral Windows quilts, whilst mine has been a "dip in and out" kind of project.  I love the look of these quilts; I think they are as charming as a quilt can be, but there is just so much preparation and the progress is slow!

In July I started my quilt.  I chose a simple and cheap pink with white dot fabric for the "lead" and low volume fabrics for the "glass".  I like the way these look together, and I am pleased I made the lead in a colour because I think it makes a change from the typical white fabric I see all over Pinterest.  I am certainly pleased I used a cheap fabric for the lead.  I have two metres of this dedicated to this project, yet you see very little.  It easily uses twice your normal amount of fabric.  Now I understand why people tend to make Cathedral Window cushions; cushions don't eat up lots of fabric and are a lot less time-consuming.  

I have had to add low volume fabrics to my stash for this project because I didn't have too many of those before.  As someone who loves novelty fabrics, this is a great project for showcasing them by making them the centre of the circle.  (Incidentally, this is just a small section.  I have done way more of this since July than you see here.)

As I am now back at work, progress with this quilt will probably be slow but at least I have taken back some control today and asserted that sewing time is important.  Regardless of my work commitments, I have to spend time at the machine to feel balanced again.

Thank you for visiting.

Sunday Stash #2

Today I have had such a great day sewing and being with my sewing friends that it seems strange to be going further back in time to the Festival of Quilts again to share some of my fabric purchases.  But, seeing as I have taken the photos and mentioned previously that I would do a Sunday Stash post, it makes sense to stick to the plan.

It is impossible for me to go to the Festival of Quilts and not buy Liberty fabric.  I am a major fan and can boast a significant stash of Liberty fabrics.  I treated myself to some lovely bits and pieces but was then really pleased that two of my friends bought me Liberty fabrics as well.  Margaret bought me a Liberty Lucky Bag which was great because there were some amazing little gems in there, many of which I do not already own.  I am working (on and off) on two Liberty quilts and the Lucky Bag fabrics are perfect for the hexagons I am making in one of these quilts.  Amy bought me a great print which I don't even know the name of but which has really zingy greens, pinks and oranges in it and will be a real feature fabric in a future project.  Aren't I lucky to have friends with great taste?

I love fabric and I love cats, so these cat prints Tiger Stripe by Cotton and Steel were always going to be purchased by me.  I love "critter" fabrics in any case, but these are so beautifully stylised that I already count them amongst my favourite animal fabrics.  The smiling food below has to be my most random purchase.  I bought it on its own and have nothing even remotely similar to it in my stash but I just felt I wanted it.  I think I want to turn it into some oven mitts at some point, but who knows when or what its other fabric friends will be?  At this point, who cares?  I love it, that's enough to justify having it!

This little bundle was put together randomly when I got home.  Many of these were bought to join a low volume quilt I have on the go.  My friend, Lorraine, bought me the shamrock fabric in pink and orange here (which is actually tricky to see in this bundle) but when I added it to other purchases it created a little set which is possibly the start of a funky quilt.  I love the shamrocks being in unconventional colours like pink and orange and I always love these bright colours together.  I've already joined them to some red lobsters I purchased and love the craziness already.

Lorraine pointed me in the direction of a stall called The Shuttle, which sold really good fabrics at fantastic prices.  I now discover it is near to my home town (and so also my family!) so I suspect I will be visiting it again in the not so distant future.  Here are some good stash builders I bought from there:

I see so many quilts with the pearl bracelet pattern, but I think it is just so dependable.  I like the bike path fabrics for the same reason.  Later in the week you will see these fabrics in a quilt I have already pieced.

These aren't my only purchases, I also bought much of the Far Far Away range by Heather Ross, but I won't bother showing you these fabrics as they are already cut and pieced and no longer in my stash.

When I use the phrase "a good time was had by all" to describe our day at the NEC it is no exaggeration.  If anything, it is probably an understatement.  Today's sewing day was not just about making; we all shared our stories of the day and showed off our purchases.  A couple of us remarked how rubbish Friday felt because it was such a comedown from such a day of visual treats and creative inspiration.  I know I certainly felt that.  But, we're all agreed that next year it's going to be a two day affair with an overnight stay so we can be there early doors and see even more.  I'm already counting down the days.

Crafting Saturday

Today really has been all about crafting and it's only tea time!  I'm really tired out.  Crafting is relaxing but it can also be tiring.  I feel exhausted right now so I'm not sure I will spend any more time on the sewing machine today.

This morning I went to pick up a parcel of fabric which I purchased on Thursday from Fabritastic.  It was the first time I had bought anything from there.  I'm impressed with the service - I put the order in on Thursday and the following day there was a parcel note from Royal Mail when I came home from work.  The fabrics and postage were also both reasonably priced.

The first lot of fabric is all by Aneela Hoey by Moda.  Most are from the Hello Petal range and a couple from the Posy range.  I should have bought the cats ages ago when I first saw them in January but I didn't and since then it's been difficult to source them.  I love cats and most cat fabrics so these are a great addition to my stash.  I keep pinning quilts with low volume fabrics so I am starting to collect some of these as I anticipate using low volume fabrics against bright coloured fabrics soon.

The elephant fabrics are by Michael Miller.  I've had them before in the robin's egg blue and in limeade (not pictured here).  I'm now adding orchid and sky blue.  I think these will end up in children's quilts and are good staples to have in.  The fabric on the left is also by Michael Miller, it's Ant Maze and will go perfectly in a boy's quilt I have in mind to make soonish.  I like to put boxes of fabric together to marinade so I can see them together; this helps me to figure out the patterns and style I want to pursue.

Now today's fatigue hasn't come from just collecting fabrics and putting them together for photographs.  Today I've been on a free motion embroidery course at a local craft shop, Craft Den.  I had a great time and was pleased to come away with a canvas which is ready to put on the wall.  I didn't find free motion embroidery easy but it was enjoyable and I feel that I did some "skilling up" and that with practice I would get better at this.  I'm not usually a fan of applique but I actually enjoyed this style of sewing over the top.  As a new sewer I know there is plenty for me to learn and today's class certainly got me using new techniques.  I'm feeling rather pleased with myself.  My husband is going to paint my craft room tomorrow so I think this canvas will find a home on the walls there this week.