Across the Sea Quiltalong Finish!!

Today is the big Ta-Dah day for our Across the Sea quiltalong. It seems like a long time since myself and my lovely friend Jennifer announced our Quiltalong back in August. I'll never forget the morning we posted it, waking up so nervous wondering if anyone would join us!  We quickly had some great peeps on board and it has just grown and grown since then, with over 100 people in the Flickr group - 100 people!!!!! It has been inspiring and amazing watching you all interpret the design, give it different looks with your fabric and layout choices and make it truly your own.

Today, I am really proud to be showing you my own finished version. Apologies for the quality of the pictures - they were taken in a misty drizzle this morning which is the best weather I have had in the 8 days since I finished it up. (I'm so jealous of peeps across the small pond in the UK who have had a glorious week of weather. Yes, I mean you Hadley and you Susan and you Nicky - I am completely jealous of your beautiful pics!!!) Despite the moaning I'm still going to bore you with lots of photos, just because I love it so much :-)

This quilt is for my beautiful new niece R who is just a few weeks old. I used a FQ bundle of Momo's Just Wing It for Moda, and mixed a few other fabrics in there for a little colour balance including the owl print from Its a Hoot, and a yellow print from Dream a Little Dream with Me by Keri Beyer for In The Beginning. I really love how the colours worked. It is girlie without being too pink and the aqua and green and touches of brown give it a nice depth of colour. I love Jennifer's cross block design and think she was inspired to include the scrappy border, it really ties it all together for me! I went superscrappy on my border because I just love that look, but I do wonder if it would have been even nicer with the longer border strips.

The back was my design and I really appreciate all the people who kept faith and made it - I know how strong the temptation is to not bother with a pieced back when you have the quilt front done, so thank you! I hope you feel it was worth the extra trouble - personally, I am very happy with it. I really love the bordered cross block, and I love how the other crosses just float there - particularly that cute little baby cross. Here's my finished back:

I used a white fabric with a baby pink polka dot for my backing - its hard to see here (thank you, crappy light conditions) but it really does add to the quilt and looks very nice.

When it came to the quilting, I went with an all over meandering stipple, a little larger than I normally stipple. I will definitely be using this sort of scale in the future, it was much quicker and looks just as nice - I was definitely over-quilting before!

You saw my binding last week - I'm still in love with it. I used to have some of this fabric in a blue/green colourway and I'm heading back into my local fabric shop this week to see if I can find it, its absolutely perfect for binding.

So there you go, I can't believe its all over! I'll be so sad that our little quiltalong crew is disbanding, but I know that I've made lots of new friends and discovered lots of great blogs in the course of this process.

I want to say a huge thank you to Jennifer, my partner in crime! She's just the best and we had lots of fun doing this, despite the challenges of being in two completely different time zones.
So, a really big reminder that you need to have your finished quilts posted in the Flickr group by tonight to be eligible for the giveaway this week. Winners will be announced on Wednesday. Also, instead of doing a linky of finished quilts which might be hard to manage between two blogs, I have set up a thread in the Flickr group for linking up your quilt finish posts - I hope you all go round and visit the blog links and spread the quilt love. That thread is here.

So, last but not least, here are my quilt stats in summary:


Quilt Stats:

Name: Across the Sea quilt
Made For: My niece R
Fabric: Just Wing It by Momo for Moda + some additional fabrics
Batting: Warm and White
Size: 46" x 58"
Quilting: Meandering stipple by me
Pattern: Mine and Jennifers quiltalong pattern.

Ok, and after all that I'll be doing a bit of linking myself! Linking up to Sew Modern Monday, Manic Monday and Fabric Tuesday with this one :-)

         

Mid-Summer check-in - Summer Sewing project!

Well ladies (and gentlemen!) how are you doing with your summer sewing? Lets have a little mid-summer update and see how everyone is getting on. I've updated the button for this - if you want to replace the old one, please do; if you prefer to keep the older version, feel free - whatever you want. Also if you want to join in now, please do! I'll be doing a little giveaway at the end of August for people taking part.

<div align="center"><a href="http://fairyfacedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/05/summer-sewing-plans-add-yours.html" title="FairyFace Designs"><img src="http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/j433/FairyFaceDesigns/newsummersewingbutton.jpg" alt="FairyFace Designs" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

I'm quite proud of my mid-term report card :-) I put items from the original list in green to make it easier to read. So here goes:

1. Finish my Walk in the Woods/It's a Hoot quilt for my goddaughter's First Communion. Yay! This was done, delivered and loved by my lovely goddaughter and her Mammy :-) It also got so much quilt love from my readers, thank you to everyone for all your lovely comments on it!


2. Make a quilt for my daughter, the most demanding customer in the world ever. Oh yes, demanding is the word but it was done. At the time I was a little disappointed by the backing but as it spends most of its time being dragged around the garden I think I was being a little precious ;-)


3. Commissioned "Sophie's Dreams" quilt. This quilt was renamed "Summer Dreams". I fought with this one a little bit at quilting stage but it turned out quite lovely and baby's mum was delighted with it!


4. Quilt for my son D. He's now feeling a little left out of the action and asked me this morning could he have a train quilt. Haven't gotten near this one yet although I have the design drawn and its going to be a simple one. I need to stock up on some solids in charcoal and brown for it.

5. My Central Park Skittles quilt. I've pieced half the blocks for this quilt top but had to put on hold for a few weeks to create some time for the Kaleidoscope QAL! I know a couple of people were curious to see how this quilt is going to be laid out - here's a little preview of how the blocks will work.


6. Finish making my bedroom curtains - they've been sitting half made in my basket for almost a year now and they need to be done! Slowly, slowly I'm getting there. I have one hemmed and the other basted; once that's done I'll be working on the lining. I'll definitely have these done by the end of the month.

7. Baby quilt - I have a pattern idea for a baby quilt that I want to try to make up and if it works, write up the pattern for. Eeek, nothing on this yet and its looking the most likely candidate to get bumped off my list to make way for some other things!

8. Bottled Rainbows QAL placemats. One done, bar the binding, 3 more to go! Haven't moved these on at all but they are definitely still on the to do list.


9. Crazy Scrappy QAL - I'm going to see how many blocks I do with this and then decide how I'll use them. Well, I thought a couple of weeks ago that this wasn't going anywhere for me but I got a flash of inspiration last week and you saw the result on Wednesday. I'm still in love with this!


10. Quilt for my new niece/nephew when he or she arrives in August (please God, all going well). Nothing done yet on this one although I have plans. I also am pretty sure what colours I'm going to be using :-) but won't share that here until baby arrives.

11. Simple Sewing tutorials. I've done a lot of prep work on some tutorials but haven't published them yet. Hoping to get these up and running in the next couple of weeks.


All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far! I've found my big list really motivating and good to keep the mind focused. I did a few other bits and pieces too which weren't in the original plans, including:

12. I got the Sew Irish Flickr group up and running (thanks to all the lovely ladies who jumped in to join straight away) and its great to see people adding projects every week! I've "met" a few lovely new Irish quilters that I didn't know and we're now planning a meet up at the Knitting & Stitching Show in November. If you're living in Ireland and interested in sewing or quilting, whatever your level of experience, please come and join us!

13. I took part in the Rainbow Charm Swap over at Ellison Lane Quilts and can't wait to get my charms - I'm hoping the postman will bring them next week! And I also joined Fluffy Sheep Quilting's Irish/UK Japanese fabric import charm swap and need to get my charms off this week to Cindy.

Of course, I couldn't help but add a few things to the big project list (being unable to resist some of the fab things going on out there in quilty blogland), so are some new projects to add:

14. Kaleidoscope QAL hosted by the very talented Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy - I'm a little behind on this one as it started when I was away on holidays, but I'm busy catching up! This quilt will be for my friend's new baby boy and I'm really excited to see how it turns out, I think this pattern is so striking and I tried to pick really fun fabrics in varied prints in blue, red and green colourways.


15. Secret project - I have a project that I'm totally excited about but still in planning stages so my lips are sealed!

16. Some other commissioned baby gifts/baby quilts for friends :-)

17. Swaps - I'm hoping to sign up for the next round of the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap and the new For the Love of Solids [a modern swap], both of which look like great fun!

Well, I think that's enough to be getting on with! I can't wait to see what you've been working on. Get linking!

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!

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!!!

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 ------>>

Calling all Irish quilters & sewers.....

I think that its great, but kind of sad in a way, that I discovered several Irish sewing blogs I didn't know about through the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway. I've done lots of searches for Irish blogs but it can be hard to find them in search results. Plus, I have been watching the Brit Quilt Flickr group taking off and thought, really, its time for us to have one too!

I'm also conscious that not everyone who quilts, or sews has a blog of their own, and if you're not blogging yourself it can be hard commenting and interacting. I thought it would be really great if we could get a little Irish sewing and quilting community going on Flickr where people could share photos of stuff they're working on, or have finished, where we could have discussions on sewing related stuff- like where to find supplies etc etc, and - even better - organise fabric swaps and more.

What do you think? Interested?

If you haven't used Flickr before, you should definitely check it out. I have really only become active on it since Christmas - at Fi's suggestion - and I love it, there are lots of fun things going on including swaps, e.g. the scrappy pincushion swap. It doesn't require the same amount of time commitment that blogging does and its a little more instant in some ways. You upload your photos and then contribute them to groups you are taking part in, and within the groups there are discussion threads etc. Check out http://www.flickr.com/groups/britquilt/ to see what I mean.

So, please, if you are interested (and I hope you are!) no matter how much, or how little you know about sewing or quilting, whether you're super-experienced or just starting out - please come over to www.flickr.com, set up an account (its free!) and join the Sew Irish group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sewirish/and lets get a little community going.

If you need help getting to grips with Flickr drop me an email to fairyfacedesigns@gmail.com and I'll do my best to help you out.