A Ruby Quilt Finish & a Catch Up!

It's been a while since I posted; life has been a bit chaotic around here in the last month, and I have not been well for the last couple of weeks after a horrible allergic reaction to some medication which landed me in A&E, and left me very shaky. I have managed a small bit of sewing, but apart from snapping pictures of what I was working on and posting them on Instagram, I haven't been able to manage to find the time to blog, or even to read my friends' blogs - something which I'm hoping to rectify tonight with a big catch up! You'll know that I really have not been myself when I tell you that I finished this Ruby quilt on the 2nd October - 3 weeks ago, and am only sharing it with you here today. I think that might be some kind of record for me - normally I am out taking photos of a finished quilt as soon as it comes out of the dryer.

So here she is, though, and I think she was worth the wait - my Ruby quilt! 

I really, really love her and she is getting lots of use. I've made so many quilts for other people this year, its nice to keep one for myself. I used the Crazy Nine Patch Lattice tutorial from Oh, Fransson! for this one, sizing it up to a nice generous lap size of 56" x 72". It uses a Ruby layer cake, plus 3 extra squares I took from my Bliss scraps, plus Klona white. The blocks are 8" finished.

The colours are a bit dull in the top picture, thanks to a very grey Irish October, but you get a better idea of the vibrancy of the fabric in the next one.

I didn't manage to get a good picture of the back as both times I tried, it started lashing rain as soon as I got the quilt hung. This is the best I could get:

 

The back is a print from Aneela Hoey's Walk in the Woods line, and I really love how it works so well with the front of the quilt. I had 2 blocks left over, so I pieced them into the back. I rarely make a pieced back but I'm so glad I made the effort here, the 2 blocks look so nice pieced into the grey.

 It's quilted with a meandering stipple. After the previous quilt I made, which was extremely difficult to quilt with problems with skipped stitches etc, I was dreading quilting this one. But this was as easy and fun as the previous one was difficult. I flew through it and was done before I knew it. I pin basted this, as I wondered if my basting glue was one of the issues I had the last time - it had got a bit old and not as sticky, so I had to use bigger quantities - and I have to say I loved not having all that sticky glue on the edges etc. I think I'm going back to pin basting now.

As I said, this quilt is getting lots of use and is permanently in residence on our sofa. I might be guilty of hogging it myself quite a bit!

I'll catch up on Wednesday on other projects I have in progress at the moment. I'm back to work after maternity leave on Thursday. Eeek. I've been gone for a whole year, as I was out sick on bed rest for the last 3 months of my pregnancy, so it will be a big shock to the system to have to go to work again - I hope I manage to fit in some sewing before collapsing into bed in the evenings. Wish me luck!

Saturday sewing results...a Ruby quilt top

I spent all day yesterday finishing off my Ruby quilt top.
 

I. AM. IN. LOVE. Seriously, I absolutely love how this is looking. I used Oh, Fransson!'s Crazy 9 patch lattice pattern, sizing it up to make this a lap quilt. It's measuring about 58" x 73".  I LOVE the blocks and I LOVE the fabric. Even Himself loves this one, and didn't complain once when holding it up for the pictures. Record!

 

I pieced most of the blocks one Tuesday evening and sang Ruby Tuesday to myself throughout (narrowly avoiding shattered window panes for our house and our neighbours' houses too) and the name just stuck in my head. I used a layer cake of Ruby, plus 3 large scraps of Bliss to bring it up to 45 10" squares, and the blocks work out at 8.5" (before piecing).

I have some Klona Ash grey ordered for the back from Pippablue in Galway (my new favourite fabric line, brilliant value and extra wide...love) and have 2 leftover crazy blocks to piece into it. It should arrive tomorrow and I am looking forward to getting it done (assuming I don't succumb to a threatening chest infection....I am so sick of being constantly sick this winter. I blame the air conditioning in my office).

In the middle of all that piecing yesterday, myself and my little lady did a bit of practice sewing. Keeping her finger away from the needle was harder than anticipated. Particularly when she thought her Fireman Sam gloves offered magic protection and stuck her finger right under there. Eek! So I managed to persuade her to go off and play by promising her a purse of her own:

Perfect for storing moshi monsters and fairies.

Cute owls on one side, cats on the other. Possibly not my best piece of sewing ever, but I am the best mammy in the world ever at the moment!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend :-) 

Linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday and Manic Monday.

WIP Wednesday

I can't believe its Wednesday already, the days are just flying by! Here's what I've been up to this week.

Completed:

My Fresh Pinwheels baby boy quilt. I was really happy with this one, and a little bit sad to let it go!

 

In Progress:

I have a couple of projects in progress this week. One is my Ruby quilt. I am making this using Oh Franssons! Crazy 9 patch lattice pattern, but sizing it up a bit. This quilt is made in multiples of 9, and I had 42 pieces in the layer cake. I really need the 45 blocks to make it the size I want and was cursing myself until I remembers some large scraps I had leftover from my Bliss cushions. I dug out 3 and cut to 10" squares and they work perfectly with the palette of the Ruby.

 I love making these blocks and am flying through them, I have 36 out of the 45 done - 27 of them last night in my own version of Ruby Tuesday :-) and will get the rest finished today. I love how they are all different, and I love the movement in them. Even darling hubbie who was doubting the requirement for another sofa quilt in the living room is now converted! I'm hoping to get the quilt top assembled this week and need to order some more batting before I can then move it on.

I am planning on piecing the back of the Skittles quilt and basting it this week too. I have an Egyptian cotton sheet for the back, and I have a big panel of Saffron Craig fabric that I am planning to piece into the middle of it. The colours are similar to the front and I think it will be a nice feature on the back.

Then, the plan is to machine quilt along the block outlines, stitching in the ditch, and hand quilt the rest of the quilt, around each of the print fabric pieces. Its promising to be super cold this weekend here, so this is the perfect project to have on the sofa in front of the fire.

I am also making progress in my ideas for my partners in the For the Love of Solids Swap and the Mouthy Stitches swap. I have this lovely rainbow of solids for my FTLOS partner and am watching the response coming in on Flickr to see what she thinks!

And I have this option for my Mouthy Stitches partner, which I think will work, although I also have another idea in mind for her, so must do a pull for that too and see which she prefers.

Starting Out:

I am starting another quilt this week too - nothing like having lots to do. This is the long awaited quilt for my son D. D is mad about trains so I have a nice train print to feature heavily for him. We went through my fabric boxes last night and this is what we picked:

Nice, right? But he also picked these:

Now, they just don't go with the rest. He loves purple. He loves the letters. How am I going to do this. I'm thinking I will put them on the back. What do you think? It is his quilt, for him, but I won't be able to make it if I hate what I'm working with, I never can get projects finished if I don't love them.

Any advice?

I also signed up to the Doll Quilt Swap 12 - my first time doing this swap, there are some great guidelines there to challenge your creativity and I am looking forward to it.

I'm linking up to the talented ladies over at WIP Wednesday. See you there!