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.

Back to blogging

Was it really October 2015 when I last blogged?  The difference 19 months can make...
The reason I stopped blogging was because I wasn't doing nearly as much sewing and quilting.  The reason I wasn't doing as much sewing and quilting was because I was pregnant and I now have a lovely baby.

I did manage to do some sewing during my pregnancy and I am doing the odd bit of sewing now and then, but now that baby is in more of a routine I am finally getting a little time to myself on an evening and can get my beloved sewing machine out on a more regular basis.  Hurrah!

I can't possibly mention the many different things I have worked on and finished between my last blog post and now, but I will tell you about a big quilt I am currently working on.

I got a request from a family member to make a huge baby quilt for a friend having boy triplets.  The triplets' mum had seen other quilts I had made and was desperate to own one and use it as a backdrop to the many future photos of the triplets.

I am calling this quilt The Power of Three because I have based much of it around the concept of three.  I have pieced three different shapes in the three primary colours.  I have shadow-quilted these shapes three times.  I have quilted numbers 1, 2 and 3 as well as the letters G, H and J, which are the boys' initials.  The rainbow border also has three colour coordinated three shadow-quilted lines.

I like this quilt because it has all been made from stash fabrics.  I am further on with it than these photos suggest.  I have put a black binding on it to make the rainbow border stand out.  The backing fabric is a fun Space fabric which I think is vibrant enough to match the primary colours on the front.

Here's hoping you come back and see the finished item.

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!

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.

Rainbow Scrappy Quilt: A pieced quilt

The rainbow scrap quilt is now pieced.  I had spent ages putting the fabrics in the correct order, but in the end I moved some fabrics around and I am pleased with the final placement.  I am very short-sighted, but this ended up being an advantage with this quilt because I kept taking my glasses off and even my blurred vision could make out the rainbow effect.  If it looks like a rainbow when I'm not wearing my glasses, I must have got the placement right!

This quilt is fast becoming a favourite of mine and I am savouring the time I spend on this project.  I loved how I could see the rainbow coming together with each row that were pieced together.  

This quilt has lots of different fabric prints in it, which is a reflection of my stash: solids, near solids, stash builders, florals.  But there are still lots of novelty prints, especially with animals which I always seem unable to resist.  Some favourites to mention here are: Socks the Fox by Patty Sloniger, Chicken Party by Creative Thursday, some Briar Rose prints by Heather Ross and Wee Wander by Sarah Jane Studios.  Is there anything nicer than combining your favourite fabrics together in a quilt? 

I think not!

 

I made a mid-week visit to Craft Den for the backing and binding and I love my choices.  I'll share them with you when the quilt is finished.  Tomorrow I'm going to baste and begin the quilting.  A lovely sewing weekend awaits me!

Rainbow Scrappy Quilt: A quilt in progress

Not so long ago I made one of my zippy pouches in rainbow scraps.  I found putting the rainbow order together really satisfying, so it was only a matter of time before I would be inspired to make a baby quilt with rainbow colours.

It took two days to cut out all of the 520 2½" squares but by Sunday evening I was ready to start piecing the squares together.  It took me quite a while to arrange the fabrics into the correct rainbow order and I decided to take poetic quilting licence and include pinks in the rainbow, even though technically pink is not present in a rainbow.  (That does make me wonder whether pink is a colour or not, but I digress.)

My husband rarely comments on my quilts until they are completed.  He says he cannot imagine what they will turn out like until they are finished, but he commented on this quilt off his own bat when he saw the squares on the bedroom floor and he says he can tell it will be lovely when it is finished!  High praise, indeed.

Better photos to follow later in the week.  Have a happy sewing week!

A Friday Finish - 2015's first quilt

I love a Friday finish.  I always feel I've met a deadline, even though the deadline is imaginary.  I think I like it because it means the weekend is ahead of me to let my creativity go wild and to devote time to a new project.

Today's Friday finish is my rainbow quilt which I only started last weekend.  It's not been as quick to make as I had hoped.  There was so much quilting of those tramlines, and then I quilted a fold (probably because I had not basted it properly) so I had to undo lots of quilting and re-quilt it.  It was a little frustrating.  I think my sewing machine got frustrated as well - the needle kept falling out and the tension went off.  I was panicking a bit because my warranty ran out last month, and isn't it always the case that electrical things break just after your cover runs out?  Anyway, I did some troubleshooting and I think I have solved the problem.  Here's hoping!

This is a big quilt (81" x 43"), but I wanted to include all the colours in the jelly roll.  I quilted using matching threads.  Some were exact matches, some less exact.  I know I have a lack of orange threads in my collection, so the orange strip was quilted with more of a golden brown colour.  It seemed to work.

I love the backing fabric and binding I chose.  I think a delicate grey works wonderfully against every single colour and is worth remembering for the future with other bright combinations.

This quilt will eventually be in my craft room.  There is a rainbow theme being developed in there.  We still don't have the storage from Ikea (grrr!) but when we do I will take photos of the room and this quilt in situ.

Keeping with the rainbow theme, my next project is going to use these fabrics:

As I mentioned on a previous blog post I am taking part in Project Leesa's Sew My Stash 2015 and there is a Weekend Challenge taking place now.  In summary, you have to make a project by Sunday from at least 75% stash and it has to have a "heart" theme for upcoming Valentine's Day.  I'm going to use all stash (promise!) and make a rainbow heart mini quilt to hang in my craft room.  I'm sure there are people making things for loved ones, but I've just made my fella a quilt so this project is going to be for my lovely craft room and is a homage to my beloved hobby.

I'll be posting updates on Instagram (I'm @stitchandpieces) but pop by on Sunday to see the finished piece.

Enjoy your weekend!