Better Late than Never

Ok, so I didn't manage to do my Friday Night Sew In on Friday night. My parents were visiting and I could hardly disappear out to the kitchen and sew for hours as I planned! I did it today instead. But that still counts, doesn't it?? Maybe I should clarify: - my plans for the FNSI when I signed up were to finish the inner and outer circle of my Dresden circle for the Lily's Quilts quiltalong.

I was a little nervous about piecing the circle but thanks to Lynne's great instructions, it was pretty straightforward. I had been procrastinating on doing this and now I know why - I wasn't happy with the blue background I had originally chosen.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, it works really nicely, it just didn't feel as.... well, as "fresh" as I wanted. So I went with with some Ivory white Kona cotton instead. I do love it and can't wait to quilt it now! And I'm pretty pleased that I've caught up with the QAL too, so I'm all proud of myself :-)

Even though I didn't manage to sew the Dresden on Friday night, I still did some hand-sewing while I sat on the sofa watching the new Harry Potter DVD. I had the bones of this tag comforter sewn up ages ago but it had gone into a pile of stuff waiting for me to do some hand embroidery on it to complete it. I finished off the seams and some decorative embroidery, including the name on the back and it turned out to be a cutey!

With no work this week I'm hoping to get seriously productive on the sewing front, children and life permitting...so watch this space!  I'm linking this up to Fabric Tuesday on Quiltstory and some other great blogs - check out the links in my sidebar!

WIP Wednesday #9

  

I can't believe we're at Wednesday again already! It seems like about 5 minutes since I was writing last week's WIP report. This week has been a dramatic improvement on last week (it wouldn't be hard!) and I'm feeling much more energised. Maybe the prospect of being on annual leave from work from Friday afternoon for 10 days is helping :-)

Completed this week:

I had one finish this week, my Floating Away mini quilt . I love this little one and it seems, from all the comment love in the last few days, that you all did too! Thanks so much for your lovely comments, I'm so inspired by them all and it gave me such a boost after a really exhausting few weeks to get such a great reaction to a truly improvised piece. I have now hung it on the wall over the staircase and even Himself approves!

Work in Progress:

My It's A Hoot quilt. I have all 20 blocks done now, some of them are a little off but I will be able to fix up any little errors when I join the sashing between the blocks. I constructed a makeshift design wall on my kitchen wall this evening with an old flannel cot sheet to lay it out and after playing with lots and lots of combinations of the blocks, this is what I think I'm going with:

I'm sorry the picture quality is rubbish, the only space I had to do this layout is under some spotlights and I had to use the flash to get any kind of focus (and it's still not good) - but still, it gives the idea of the layout. What do you think? I found it a bit tricky getting the colour balance right, this is the closest I've come. I'd love any feedback you might have!

I've been thinking about what colour to use for the sashing between blocks. I was tempted to use an Ash gray type colour, but I've finally decided to stick with white, I'm not sure how it would work in the gray and I'm not sure that my 8 year old goddaughter would like it! I might use up some of the scraps left over to do a little detail in the border, I need to measure it to see if I'll fit it in. And I need to order the backing fabric for it, and fabric for binding. I think I'll use one of the brown or gray dot fabrics for the binding, but still need to decide on the backing.

My Lily's Quilts QAL dresden block:

 

I was planning on piecing the inner and outer circles for this on Friday night as I've signed up for Friday Night Sew In over at Handmade by Heidi. But I now think that I'm not going to be able to do this as my mum and dad are visiting for the weekend. Hopefully I might do Friday night sew in on Sunday night instead!

Other Stuff:

I have a few projects hanging around waiting for some time - the Cosmo bag, the curtains, a 2nd matching mug rug for one I did a few weeks ago. I also have a few projects I need to get started. I'm hoping next week when I'm off work, I'll get some quality sewing time in to catch up :-)

And finally....my Sherbet Pips giveaway fabric arrived - over half a layer cake of it and its GORGEOUS!! Thanks so much to Kristie over at Obsessive Crafting Disorder. I'm thinking of using some of it to make this quilt in the hope that one of my pregnant friends will have a baby girl!

So, for this week, that's all folks! I'm linking up as always to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Just fooling around!

Yikes! I feel like I haven't been very good to blog this last couple of weeks, which is reflective of my whirlwind life at the moment. But I **think** we are finally out of the woods on the family sickness front - its been one thing after the other here. All that stress has had its effect and I've been lacking a little creative energy lately. But last night I decided to try to work out an idea that has been in my head for quite a while and I finished it this evening - a little tiny mini quilt that I'm calling Floating Away. Isn't it pretty?

I love to doodle when I'm in meetings or on the phone and lately all I've been doodling was bunches of balloons. Plus, I have a great pic on my "Inspiration" board on Pinterest that I love looking at and return to time and again:

Source: wetbehindthears.com via Sarah on Pinterest

So I decided to try to do a ballon inspired fabric picture type and completely improvised as I went along. I saw a picture somewhere recently - a magazine? a blog? a pattern? I can't remember where - where there were circles emphasised with lines of quilting around them and I really loved the effect. I had some lovely embroidery threads in my sewing box that have a slight sheen - they're called Sulky and I thought they would be perfect. So I marked some circles on some scrap pieces using various glasses of different widths and cut them out and sewed around to give a raw edge applique, and sewed in the ribbon/string trailing from them. Then I started quilting the circles around the balloons. I deliberately went for a very "freehand" look in these quilting lines, crossing over lines, varying the widths - I wanted it to look light, breezy, unstructured and to have a bit of movement.

I used a poly batting which is a good deal thicker (width wise) than my normal cotton one but much lighter and airier in texture, it was interesting to quilt with. I was surprised by the cool raised effect it created under the balloons when I quilted the lines which makes it a little 3 dimensional. Isn't the thread nice too?

I also used it as an opportunity to practice FMQ on the white solid - my technique is getting better but very slowly - I still need to do lots of practice before I'd tackle a quilt. I like the effect though, it looks like the balloons are floating through clouds, even if its uneven in lots of places!

Please don't look too closely at the binding - I was too lazy and too anxious to finish to iron it so I finger pressed it and did it super quick so its not the best. But I don't really care, this little mini quilt makes me smile, its so cheerful! I'm going to hang it on the wall over the stairs so that I see it when I'm rushing downstairs in the morning when I always need a smile!

I'll be linking this up to some great blogs including www.todayscreativeblog.net and

WIP Wednesday #8

 

This is going to be a short one! My little man was very sick all week and I don't have much to show! Plus, a lot of the work I did get done was prep stuff, cutting, layouts etc. So I'm abandoning my usual format.

I had no finishes this week, but did make progress on some baby blankets for my friends (sorry, I have no pics because I know they read this and I want them to be a surprise! I'll post them once they receive them, but I'm really happy with them, I've used some lovely new fabric).

 

The other major progress I made was with my Its a Hoot quilt. I got all the fabric laid out and decided on each block composition, which took quite a while on Saturday afternoon. I've sewn a few blocks here and there and realised this evening I have 10 of my 20 blocks done.

They need sashing etc in between them, but they're done :-) I absolutely love this fabric, the colours, the design, its just gorgeous! So lovely to work with and I'm having fun with the blocks. Can't wait till I have the rest done and can figure out how to place them.

That's it for today! I'll be linking up to Freshly Pieced as always, I love seeing what everyone is working on each week :-)

Gifts from Afar

 

This has been my lucky week! Not only has someone made my PictureBox quilt (which has me completely and totally chuffed!) but, on top of that, a host of packages arrived from around the world and I just had to share with you. Better still, I only paid for one of them, and that one even had free postage!

First up - the quilt. After I wrote my tutorial, I was a little nervous about the thoughts of someone making it and it all going horribly wrong. But then, I got an email last weekend from the lovely Beverly all the way out in Oklahoma with a picture of the quilt top she had just finished and it completely made my day. Here it is, isn't it lovely? I love how the different fabrics give it a different look and can't wait to see it when she's finished quilting it. Thanks so much Beverly for making it :-)

I think my most eagerly anticipated moment this week was opening my package from Australia to find this scrummy Saffron Craig fabric.

I adore her beautiful designs but her fabric is a little on the pricey side for me, and postage from Australia to Ireland is not cheap. So when I got an email update from her website late one night with a special free international postage offer, I just had to jump at it! (The fact that I was the far side of a couple of glasses of wine certainly helped my decision making process ;-) Note to self: browsing fabric shops while enjoying a tipple does not make for a healthy bank balance!) I think I'm going to use the little bird fabric for one of my Amy Butler Style Stitches bags, and the Beetle Bugs will go into my baby boys blankets and quilts. But I don't quite know what I'm planning for the Magical Lands fabric (the very top pic) - isn't it gorgeous? Its very large scale so it will definitely be something special!

Next up - my scrap swap arrived and my lovely partner, Tracy, was SO generous in the scraps she sent. 

I asked her for yellows, oranges and purples as I'm very light on these shades and she totally obliged, sending a huge quantity! Plus, she sent me chocolate. Do you see the one that's left? That's because I already ate the rest. Thanks so much Tracy, I'm so delighted with everything I got!

She also sent some fab little goodies too - I love the buttons and the little bag and have about a billion different uses for it!

I also won a few things lately - a lovely giveaway for these pins/clips over at Sugar and Dots - aren't they gorgeous? They'll brighten up my wardrobe!

And I was delighted to win a crafting competition over at Hungry Hippie - and received my prize today. I was blown away by all the stuff I won - I couldn't even get all of it in the picture.

I was thrilled to see there were lots of essentials included like premade bias bindings, ric rac, ribbon, buttons, zips, a really lovely book of little purse patterns, some great fat quarters and - jackpot - 2 Moda Charmpacks in Arcadia, which I have seen online - they're even nicer in real life and totally my taste. Can't wait to make up a quilt with them. Natalie also included a precut quilt kit and even though the pattern is not totally my taste, the fabrics in the kit are great so I'll be stashing them too. Better still they include lots of colours that I don't have a lot of!

So far, so good, right? I was pretty happy with my lot this week and was just uploading the photos this evening to blog when an email popped up in my inbox from Kristie over at OCD saying....wait for it........I'd won her Sherbet Pips giveaway!!!! Yes, that's right, Sherbet Pips - it seems like its the hottest fabric in the quilting world right now and is sold out anywhere I've looked for it in the last few days. I'm totally excited about this one and can't wait to get my hands on it, I'll be watching that post from Canada every day now! Thanks so much Kristie!

 

P.S. I'm off down to the shop to do the Lottery now seeing as my luck has never been so good!

2011: First Quarter gone already

I saw a lovely post by Elizabeth over at Don't Call Me Betsy which got me thinking; she was looking back on her progress against her crafty goals for the first quarter. So I decided I'd jump on the bandwagon and do the same, and maybe get thinking about what I want to get done by the end of June.

Back at the start of the year, I was still too much in recovery from Christmas to write out any goals. But I did have quite a few actually - mostly short term focused. Here's a little summary:

1. To finish my Bliss Charm quilt. This was the first quilt I ever made, I started it over Christmas and completely fell in love with quilting while I worked on it.

2. To make more from my own designs and I definitely have done this with lovely quilts I made.

PictureBox quilt

I loved how they turned out, and even wrote up a tutorial for the PictureBox quilt, and at the weekend I got an email from Beverly who has made it - I'll post her version over the weekend. That totally made my day, as you can imagine!

Sophie's Dreams quilt

I also designed this handbag and must get working on more bags.

3. To take part in a Quiltalong....I had been reading about these all over, and was hoping one would come along that I felt experienced enough to take part in. Of course, like the proverbial bus, none came for ages and then 3 came at once. In recent weeks I joined up in the Lily's Quilt quiltalong. I'm loving doing the Dresden mini block, its so much fun!

Also, this week I decided that I'm going to take part in the Bottled Rainbows Quiltalong on a small scale. But sadly, I just couldn't commit to the Supernova quiltalong over at Freshly Pieced even though I'd love to do it - I just don't have the time.

4. To take part in the Amy Butler Style Stitches sewalongs over at My Crafty Crap and JemJam. I'm making pretty patchy progress with this one - the Cosmo bag (January) is half done, I didn't do the February bag (the big shopper) at all and I did one small Origami bag for March, although I'd like to do a few more. I'm looking forward to the next one for April, the chequebook cover, I badly need a pretty one.

 

 5.  To make a Charm Bracelets quilt using Kate Conklin's lovely pattern. I even have the Fandango charm pack. But I haven't even come close to starting it.

6.  To make the Alice quilt from Red Pepper Quilts - I just love this one and reckon I have enough scraps for it but again, no time (yet).

7. To take part for the first time in some Flickr swaps. I joined up for the Scrappy Pincushion one and loved taking part, in particular the lovely pinnie I received.  I'll definitely be looking forward to participating in more!

8.  To grow my blog and to take part more in the crafty blogging community - and I've really pleased I've done this. I'm really thrilled and flattered to have lots of new readers this year and I've made loads of new bloggy "friends" all over the world who have given me great advice and lots of inspiration. I love visiting their blogs every week to see what they're up to!


9.  To learn, learn, learn!! I'm new to quilting and this last 3 months has been a challenging and wonderful time for me as I learned new techniques, got to grips with quilting basics and browsed online resources, tutorials, patterns and blogs voraciously. I'm now completely addicted to and in love with the process and end result - roll on the rest of the year!!

I have lots of goals for the remainder of the year but think I will spend a little time thinking about them and maybe post them next week! In the meantime I'll be linking this up to Elizabeth's post and checking out everyone else's progress.

WIP Wedesday #7

I've spent a lot of the last week in the car! Visiting my parents, away at a work conference, its been all go here. I still found some sewing time however, so here is my little progress report for the week.

Completed this week:

Actually, its been a pretty good week, in terms of finishes. I sewed like a woman possessed on Thursday night to get gifts finished for my little niece for her birthday:

  

 

I also managed to get a few small scappy pincushions done - this one with my Its a Hoot scraps:

 

 And this one with some nice Amy Butler scraps I had in my stash, both for some friends:

I also finished this cute little mug rug, after being inspired by all the lovely tutorials for Mug Rug Madness over at the lovely blog Two More Seconds.

 

Its not dissimilar to the wonky stripes one I made a few weeks ago, but I kept the strips quite straight and wonked up the quilting after seeing Jeni's tutorial. I'm really pleased with how it turned out apart from my mitred corners which did not go well (I might pick them back and redo, or I might just leave them!). I've had this fabric in my stash for a while now and it works really nicely as the backing.

  

I have another identical set of strips pieced that I might cut back a little in size and make a complimentary smaller one. I'm thinking that these might work nicely as a Mother's Day present for one of the kids' nanas!

Work in Progress:

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment. I'm still at fabric layout stage for my Its A Hoot quilt blocks. Nothing to show you yet there, its packed up at the moment but I'm hoping to do more work on it tonight and get piecing the blocks.

I have some baby girl patchwork pram blankets to get done for some friends who had babies in the last few weeks - hopefully will get to finish them this weekend.

I'm working (slowly) at my Dresden plate block for the Lily's Quilts quiltalong. I have the blades pieced and pressed.

I read Lynne's post on piecing the inner circle yesterday and want to do this later in the week. But I want to add an additional inner circle in the brown fabric (like this)

and am not sure how I'm going to do it. I could piece it. But I'm more inclined to applique it on using a nice small zigzag stitch. Much easier and less work. Will it work nicely though or just look weird against the rest of it? I'd love some opinions on this one as I'm really not sure what to do. If its not going to look good, I will (maybe not very enthusiastically) go ahead and piece it - I'll have to do a bit of tutorial searching as piecing circles is not something I've done at all. But I do want it to have a nice finish so I'd appreciate advice from all of you experienced quilters out there :-)

On Hold:

The curtains have gone back in the box to my dismay. Must, must get them moving again!

The Cosmo bag is on a little break, I intend picking it up in a week or 2 again.

Thinking about:

I can't get the Bottled Rainbows QAL out of my head this last two weeks. Really, I so want to do this one but I don't have a) the time or b) the fabric to do it, and I can't justify going buying another FQ bundle for it. Any ideas? Maybe I could size up the blocks and do a few single blocks as placemats / mug rugs in the colours that I do have in my stash? What do you think?

I'm linking this up to Work In Progress Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced, go check out the great projects linked up there, I love seeing what everyone is working on each week! I'm also linking it to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day: