Summer Dreams Quilt

The Summer Dreams quilt is finished! Another summer sewing list item done :-)


This is a commissioned quilt for a Christening gift for a baby girl. It is based on my Sophie's Dreams quilt, using the same simple square pattern but with a slightly different selection of fabrics. I did stick with a similar colour palette though. I think for little girls the red and green combo is a good one. It avoids too much pink but is still girlie and pretty - but I did get some pink in there (of course!), especially some stronger pink values.


The backing is a pretty cream fabric with a small floral print with reds, pinks, and greens which I found in my local fabric shop. (They stock it in a number of colours and I love it, its a great backing/lining fabric). I appliqued the baby's name on the centre of the backing using raw edge applique - you can see the first few letters here. I like to make the letters a little wonky to match the wonky lines of the quilting.


Its quilted using the same wonky straight line method I used for the original Sophie's Dreams quilt, but I spaced the lines a little further apart this time. I do like the texture they give. This quilt fought me all the way when I was quilting it. I originally tried to do alternate straight & wavy lines but 5 lines in, it really wasn't working and I had to unpick all the rows :-( Even on the straight lines, nothing really flowed, I don't know why! Maybe because I took so long to baste it - it was on the floor for 3 nights because of my work schedule and I think that the fabric loosened out - the masking tape I used to hold the backing taut on the floor had come away in a few places but because I was almost done I didn't think much of it at the time, but I could feel it when it came to quilting.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this one and I hope that it is well received by baby's mammy and J who ordered it.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Summer Dreams
Made For: Commissioned quilt for J - a Christening gift for her niece M
Fabric: A mix from my stash including Riley Blake's Rainy Days & Mondays and Bloom & Grow, Michael Miller Ta Dot, Ann Kelle Remix & Urban Zoologie, Alexander Henry Willow Wren. Momo's Freebird, Laurie Wisbrun's Tufted Tweets, Amy Schimler's On A Whim II (Owls & Cats) and lots more
Batting: Warm & White
Size: 59" x 51" approx
Quilting: Wonky straight lines
Pattern: Simple 7.5" squares

I'm officially on my holidays now so I think that posting might be very sporadic for the next couple of weeks as I spend a little quality time with the kids :-) But I will be posting an update on my Summer Sewing project the first week of July so if you linked up in May, get your posts ready for the mid-term review!! I can't wait to see what you've gotten done from your lists :-) You can also join in at that point if you want! I also have a new button for it if you want to grab it.

I'm also linking this up to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day - it's my fave make of June!

A Long Overdue WIP Wednesday!

It's been 3 weeks since I posted a WIP Wednesday update. Despite it still being busy, despite evening games of football with the kids, a constant battle against the creeping intrusion of the sandpit into my kitchen, children who can't go to sleep until it gets dark at 10:30pm and a little evening away with my lovely hubbie at the weekend, I still managed to get lots done this week. I kind of suprised myself! So here goes:

Completed this week:

Box pouch and coin purse:


I'm going to make a couple more of these for my kid's preschool teachers for next week, they were so easy to make and so lovely finished! This project also got my sewing mojo back in action - nothing like a quick, easy and fun project to inspire!

Work in Progress:



All of a sudden I have a lot going on. I am at basting stage with this commissioned quilt based on my previous "Sophie's Dreams" quilt. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions on names! I was going to name it after the little girl it's being made for but decided to go with "Summer Dreams" instead. After seeing how Becky quilted her Little Man quilt and how gorgeous it turned out, I think I might just steal that idea for quilting this one - hope you don't mind Becky? I reckon it will really work with this quilt!

I've finally got back to my Skittles quilt and have all the fabric cut for the quilt top. I also got the first 6 blocks made up:


This pattern uses the Stack n Slash method. At first, I got really confused sewing up the strips and was convinced I hadn't organised them correctly or had mixed up my layers of strips. Then about 1/3 of the way through, I suddenly "got" it and once I knew what I was doing, it was a breeze and I chain pieced the rest at top speed. I didn't manage to trim these blocks yet so the photo is a little messy, but you get the idea. There's another 3 fabrics to make up the next 6 blocks and then I need to make up another 12 the same as the first 12. I'm very excited about this one now.

I've another very important project going on which I'll tell you more about in a few weeks (*nothing like a bit of mystery, eh??*)

I finally got the blue fabrics I bought for Jennifer's Rainbow Charm swap in the post this evening - need to decide which one to use, cut it up and get back in the post before the end of the week. No pressure!!

I signed up for Elizabeth's Kaleidoscope Quiltalong (not being at all busy of course!)

Lastly, I signed up for Cindy's Japanese import fabric swap which is the first Irish fabric swap I've seen hosted - and I'm really excited about it. Its also open to people in the UK - I can't wait to receive my fabric. I'm always admiring the Japanese fabrics but find them a little pricey. This is such a great way to start a little stash of Japanese fabrics!

Ok - lots there despite the fact that I'm supposed to be taking it a bit easier! I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced with some super talented ladies!

Great new fabric swap!

My friend Cindy has just posted a great new fabric swap over on her blog, Fluffy Sheep Quilting! It's a Japanese import fabric charm swap and I'm really excited about it :-)

It's open to Irish and UK based peeps so click on the button above to get over there and sign up fast!!!

Missing in Action

It's been more than a week since I last posted.....can't quite believe that! I've definitely been missing in action this week. Not only have I not posted, but I've barely been online, have only been able to read a small number of blog posts and have done only a small amount of sewing. And I'm afraid that, for the next few weeks, that's probably going to continue although I hope not to the same extent - I should, at least, be able to read my favourite blogs! This time of year is pretty much my busiest of the whole year in work, and it doesn't ease off until mid to late July. That means increased hours, increased stress and - definitely - increased tiredness. Plus, with the long evenings, I want to be able to spend time out in the garden with the kids, and they're definitely going to bed much later these days, which means my evening sewing time is much reduced. So I hope you'll understand if I'm not around as much as usual and bear with me - I have no doubt I'll be back to my usual self by the end of the summer. So please - don't go anywhere, I'm here, I'm just a little quieter than usual!!

What I was doing this week, in between planning & hosting my little man's 5th birthday party this weekend, was catching up on some customer orders which I have outstanding. One was a sweet baby buggy blanket, and this little tag comforter:

The other fun project I finished was some pillow cases/cushion covers for Anna. These are to coordinate with
the quilts I made her earlier in the year. They measure 50cm x 50cm and I'm pretty happy with them. I found it a little funny working in metric, having gotten really used to working in inches, but I soon figured it out!

There are two to match the PictureBox quilt:

and two more to match the Sophie's Dreams quilt:

After making these and the Pinwheels pillow for my daughter E I'm suddenly addicted to cushions (or pillows as my non-Irish friends call them) and when I was ordering the fabric for Jennifer's Rainbow Charm swap I ordered a small amount of Bliss yardage to make some fresh cushions for my sofa to match my Bliss charm quilt. Can't wait for that to arrive!

I'm really excited about this swap. My colour is blue and over the weekend I was guilty of totally overthinking it - getting freaked out about shades of colour and how badly colours appear on screen - so, unable to tell if a particular fabric was blue or teal or aqua or navy.....and, obviously, it all assumed a significance beyond a few fabric charms in my little brain :-) After all the angst, today I decided to pop into the city and visit the only store that carries designer fabric here in Cork (and that's confined to a limited selection of Amy Butler prints and a small range of Tanya Whelan - both double the price I can buy it for online, of course!) in order to properly see the colour values. But the city marathon was on today (its a public holiday here) and of course, it was closed when I got there. Sigh. So I ordered two different blue fabrics online today and can't wait to get them to see which I'm going to use! One I have already and love but the print is a tiny bit bigger than I wanted. The other I thought looked about perfect for what I was searching for but I need to see what the colour is like. (See what I mean, TOTALLY overthinking it!!!!)

Ok, so that's been my week. I hope you stick around, and don't mind too much if I slow down a little over the summer - I promise I'll do my best to keep in touch!

I'm linking this to Fabric Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday and some other great blogs... Check out my links on the sidebar!!

Pinwheel Pips Quilt finish

Another quilt done - that's 5 this year so far, not including the minis. Pretty good going for me, I'm really happy with that! So, without out further ado, here it is, Pinwheel Pips!

This quilt was made for my 3 year old daughter E. She loves dogs, scooters and swings, so the Sherbet Pips fabric was a perfect choice for her. She has asked every single day for a month if it was finished yet, so I was really pleased to hand it over to her today. It makes a perfect cape for Super Lady, her current favourite imaginary persona.....

I have mixed feelings about this quilt really. I enjoyed piecing it and I think my accuracy in cutting and piecing has improved hugely since earlier this year, and it shows here. When I was sewing together my rows of pinwheels, the vast majority of them matched up perfectly!

 

There are a few that didn't, they don't worry me too much, and one that was completely off that I had to unpick 6 or 7 times to get it remotely close. But overall I am happy with the piecing. My job is so stressful that I like not to stress about quilting, and everything lining up perfectly and tend to go with the flow once it looks ok, I know some quilters would hate this approach but it works for me!

I also did my first attempt at a pieced back - a very simple one. I used one leftover block, put some borders on it and pieced it in the centre of the backing. I did an ok job of matching it up, one side is perfect, the other is slightly off but the quilting through it looks ok, so I'm happy with that.

I quilted it on the diagonal lines, 3/8" on either side of them to give a double line. I found the quilting harder than I anticipated -I'm not sure if the seams were stretching a little, being on the bias (or is that my imagination, I would have thought they wouldn't move once the quilt top was sewn together) and even though I basted it with pins a little closer together than normal, it seemed to move around a little on me and I have a few puckers. It was hard to keep the lines dead straight at some of the intersections because of the bulk of the seams meeting even though I had done a lot of work to make them lie flat. This is the first time I've quilted something this lightly and I think I really do prefer the more densely quilted look, although I like the squashiness of this.

I used a flat sheet for the backing, having seen other quilters do this and I'm kind of regretting it already. I bought a sheet on sale and I know it was cheap, and its polycotton, but I threw it in the wash last night and its bobbled already. Now, I use polycotton sheets quite a bit here when I can't get cotton, and I've never, ever, had a sheet bobble on me before, no matter how little I paid for it or how much it was used or washed. So I'm pretty annoyed and feel its taken the sheen off my quilt :-( I even, in a mad moment this morning, considered unpicking the binding and the quilting and requilting it. Hmm. I'm actually still considering that one. I just put so much work into the quilt top that I'm a bit disappointed that I'm not totally loving the end result.

I bound it with the remaining half yard of Its a Hoot eggs fabric, the gray colour compliments the colours in the quilt really well I think.

But, looking on the positives, E absolutely loves it and I have a cushion/pillow to match it for her so its a lovely set for her to snuggle in watching DVDs, or to drag around the playroom for her games.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Pinwheel Pips
Made For: my daugher E
Fabric: Sherbet Pips half layer cake (won in a giveaway thanks to Kristie at OCD) and 1 additional yard
Batting: Warm & White
Size: 51" x 51"
Quilting: Straight line quilting on the diagonal seams
Pattern:  Simple pinwheels & border

This is another one to mark off my Summer Sewing list!  Yay!

I'm linking this up to {Sew} Modern Monday, Fabric Tuesday  and some other great blogs - check out my sidebar for a full list of links ------>>

Sewing Fun..and a sneak giveaway preview!

This week I just couldn't get into anything big I was working on. I didn't have the mental energy and had lost a little bit of creative spark. But I was panicking slightly, needing to have something ready for my Sew, Mama, Sew! giveaway post on Sunday. So, Wednesday night I sat down with some scraps and an idea I had from my little notebook and decided to just have a bit of fun. By yesterday afternoon, this is what I ended up with:

A cute little cozy for an iPhone!

Now, I'm going to shamelessly post lots of pics of this, not because I love it so much (although I do!) but because my friend Helen is staying with me for a few days, and she's an amazing photographer, and I just love the photos she took. She also gave me a crash course for dummies in how cameras work, light, shutter speed etc, and, even better, where to find all these things on my little camera. She wandered around adjusting things, muttering about depth of field and light and I ended up with about a million fab photos, not just of my stuff, but also, as always, of my kids!

Its made from a natural coloured cotton/linen mix, paired with some tiny red scraps from my basket. I quilted the main fabric using some scraps of cotton backing. This is the front:

It's made to fit a phone with a fitted protective cover as I hate when I have to take mine off, the phone inevitably gets dropped when I remove if for 5 mins! I added a little tab so it can be hung from a handbag or a belt. This is the back:

I debated what to do closure wise but ended up covering a button with one of my last Bliss scraps, and made a fastening loop from the main fabric:

And I lined it with one of my favourite fabrics, Ta Dot in Berry. I think its the most versatile yet striking fabric I've used, works great on its own or blended, can be background or the main feature. It really brings life to anything you put it with, I just love it!

By the time I finished it, I was back to my normal addicted-to-the-sewing-machine self and full of energy again!

This is my handmade item for the giveaway, which I'll post on Sunday {link is here}. I'll be adding some fabric and notions to it too, so be sure to check back in then! I'm also thinking of writing a tute on this one, if you're interested let me know!

Helen and myself had a little bit of a crafty evening yesterday and I showed her how to make a scrappy pincushion:

Of course, she's taking it away with her. I also had this little mini pincushion that I made with some hexies a while ago and kept for her:

Of course, I'm not sure what she's going to do with them...her being a knitter!

I'm linking this up to Fabric Tuesday on Quilt Story, Sew Cute Tuesday, Todays Creative Blog and a bunch of other great blogs, check out my sidebar for the links!

Walk In the Woods (It's a Hoot) Quilt Finish!

Here it is, my biggest quilt to date! If you're a regular reader, you'll already be familiar with the story of this quilt so feel free to skip the next little bit and enjoy the photos! If you're visiting my blog for the first time from the Blogger's Quilt Festival (or elsewhere!), welcome and I hope you pop back to visit often! Here's a little info about it.

This quilt is made for my goddaugher's First Communion. F is the eldest daughter of my oldest, childhood friend and I wanted to make something special for her to mark the occasion. I wanted something fresh and pretty, but not too pink and girlie, as I wanted it to be something that she would be happy to bring with her and use as she grew up. I spent some time browsing through fabric before deciding to use Moda's It's A Hoot - which is whimsical, colourful, full of lovely prints and quite girlie in an understated kind of way.

I drew up my own pattern for this quilt and it is made using two simple block types. One is a simple four-patch with a border, the other is a larger charm framed with a double border. The prints were so lovely they were crying out for fussy cutting techniques wherever possible and I think I managed to make the best use of the layer cake for the various squares.

I used white sashing to make the squares pop, and an additional skinny sashing block made from the scraps left over from cutting the frame borders around the outside edge. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This is my 4th quilt ever and (I think!) my favourite so far! It's the first time I've made a quilt entirely from one line/range of fabric. Normally I mix and match elements I like from different lines, and I found it a little strange (and maybe a teeny bit limiting!!) to work totally within one line. It makes for a lovely quilt although I did miss the challenge (and those moments of utter satisfaction when something just works) of putting together my own coordinates more than I thought I would.

I used free motion quilting for the first time on a quilt for this one. Its not perfect by any means, but I'm very happy overall with it, even if it was a little challenging! I love the crinkly texture from the quilting :-) Because it was a special quilt I used backing from the same line - the Owls in raspberry

I went with the Marshmallow dots for the binding. I think I'm in love with the binding actually! The dots are much more striking than I thought they would be. And happily, I have a half yard left so I'll be saving that for binding for another quilt.

In summary -

Name: Walk in the Woods quilt
Fabric: Moda - It's a Hoot by Momo layer cake + yardage for sashing & backing/binding,
Batting: Warm & White
Quilting: First time free motion meandering
Measures: 69" x 56 "
Pattern: My own!

I'm linking this quilt up to the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side. As this was a huge project for me, you might also see it linked up on a pile of other great blogs ;-) including {Sew} Modern Monday, Fabric Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday and more- check out my sidebar for these links! If you'd like to see other quilts I've made, check out the tab link at the top of the page "Quilt Finishes 2011".

WIP Wednesday

Wednesday again, and my WIP is pretty short and sweet this week!

Completed:

My Walk in the Woods quilt using an It's A Hoot layer cake. I will do a separate post for this quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival later in the week so I'm just showing the rolled up finished quilt here.


This took most of my time all week. I spent the weekend quilting it, and was pretty happy with my FMQ despite a slightly crazy start  (new quilting techniques and small children are not a good mix!) I am chuffed with how this quilt turned out and can't wait to put up the final pics. It just needs to be washed and dried to give it an even crinklier look so its ready for delivery on Sunday.


In Progress:


I've finished all my blocks for the Pinwheels Pips, they're pressed, trimmed to the correct size and I need to piece together my quilt top next. I've changed my idea for the quilt top layout a couple of times this week (lots of doodling!) so I need to finally decide what I'm going to do in the next couple of days. I'm also thinking of backing it with fleece as its intended as a throw for E - how does fleece quilt up? And if you have quilted with fleece, do you use batting as well? I'm afraid that might make it too heavy and warm. And as fleece is so much easier to work with and more stable than Minky I was wondering if I would be able to leave out the batting layer? Would love to hear any experiences, good or bad, if you have them!

The other little project I've been working on is a lovely piece of embroidery using this pattern:

Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Another great example of how much I love Pinterest - I found this pattern as a pin there a month or two back and just couldn't get it out of my head. I found a nice, natural coloured linen/cotton mix and am doing it bit by bit in front of the tv in the evenings. Hoping to get this finished up this week, I'm almost done with it and loving how it looks, even if my embroidery skills are pretty basic.

To Start:

I need to do a few sets of bunting for baby boys' rooms before the weekend for my nephew and my friends' two nephews.

I'm linking up as always to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced - get over there and check it out! And check back in later in the week to see more photos of my finished quilt.