Princess Charming is done!

It's so lovely to have a quilt finish to celebrate. Feels like my first finish in ages - even though I know I have had other projects in the last couple of months - but this was a quick turnaround and one I had a lot of fun with.

Princess Charming turned out just as lovely as I hoped. She is free motion quilted in a very random stipple and the simple pattern and quilting leaves the emphasis on the charms and lets the fabrics shine through.

I left a blank row in the quilt top for the baby's name, Aisling, to be embroidered, and I did this using a dark pink perle cotton, using stem stitch which is lovely for outlining letters (thanks to my sister for this tip!) I then appliqued on some hearts on either side of the name. 

For those not familiar with Irish names, Aisling (pronounced Ash-ling) is a beautiful girl's name meaning a dream or vision.

I used some more of my lovely Ikea hearts print for backing - I love this print, it is so colourful and yet the design is simple, and its perfect for the back of a quilt like this with all those hearts.

I am using my little labels now on all my stuff - love how it looks on the back of my quilts:

The binding is the same as the fabric bordering the name space. I love this little red and pink floral, its one of my favourite stash fabrics which I got from my friend H.

This measures about 38" x 50" - a good size for a cot/toddler bed. I tried a new batting for this one - Simply Cotton - which I bought from Pippablue. I really liked it and it shrank beautifully giving it a lovely crinkly texture. It was great value so I'll definitely be using it again.


I don't have much more to tell you about this quilt - all the info about the pattern etc is in this post. As I'm feeling so happy with it, I'm just glad I managed to take advantage of a little burst of sunshine in between the frequent showers this afternoon!

P.S. Thank you all for your lovely congratulations and good wishes on my last post, we are very excited about our new addition to the family and all your comments meant so much to me :-)

Help with a Drunkard Christmas ;-)

 
I've been turning over in my mind what to do with the Christmas charms I got from Emily's Christmas charm swap. I didn't need to use them in my table runner and didn't want to leave them there till next year. I have some other projects going on in the background but today I decided to try and start a Christmas quilt for snuggling under during the holidays. I also wanted to try something different to my usual square/straight line patterns and I have a Drunkard's Path die for my Accuquilt Go! Baby. I have been watching some great Drunkard's Path quilts turn up on blogs in the last few months, so decided to go with that.

I do love the Go! Baby. My pieces were cut in double quick time from the charms - and perfectly too. Then I started to piece but it did not go smoothly I must admit. I tried pinning just in the middle and at either end, but could not get my pieces as accurate as I wanted. So I started pinning all the way around and that did help. I also ran into some tension issues on the second half of each curve, I'm not sure if it was just a threading problem or if it was something to do with how I was matching the fabric. Yikes!

I was relieved to see once I pieced the 4 quarter circles together, it did look a little better than I anticipated, thanks to a little easing of the fabrics to get seams matching.  The blue and white one is not great. It seems off centre and the circles are not even, nor are the points matching. The red, green and white one is definitely better, but still not brilliant. When I squared off the block, it is at least presentable rather than disastrous. But I would hate to think that I can't improve on these. One or two like this will not be noticeable in an overall quilt, but a whole quilt of them - no way!

 

So at this stage I'm a little disheartened. Those of you who are experienced Drunkards, any advice? (I'll take advice from experienced drunks too!) Is it a flow thing with the curved piecing? Will practice make it quicker and easier? How can I speed it up because these 2 were VERY slow!! And as you can see above, I have lots of piecing to do.

All drunk and sober words of wisdom very welcome ;-)

PS - Don't forget to pop over to my Circa 1934 giveaway before Friday evening to enter!

Yes, I am officially insane.....

Remember this runner? The one with all the angst about the different dye lots?

The one I asked for your advice on, which you so generously gave. Lots of you! And you all pretty much said the same thing.......leave it as it was.

You know what I actually did?

Yes, you're right. The panels are all the same. I ripped it all back and replaced the fabric with some more from the same dye lot. Mad. I know.

But.

I am so much happier with it now. Despite what everyone said, and knowing that you were all right, and knowing that I would have given the same advice myself, I just. couldn't. love. it. the way it was. Just could not bring myself to do any more work on it. I hated the difference in shades so much it was paralysing me, particularly as it was not consistent throughout the runner, so it just didn't look like it was intentional, and really, there was only one decision to be made then.

That's not to say I didn't appreciate all your advice. Or listen to you, because I actually thought about it a lot. And I normally listen to the sage advice you all give me. But sometimes, you have to do what makes you happy. As Lynne wisely said (thank you Lynne!)

So now, I have a lovely ta-dah moment with my Stepping Stones table runner. I really really am happy with it now. (Can you imagine if I had done all that and then I wasn't?) I know in the photo above, it looks like there is a difference in shade, but that's the way the light is falling. When its down on the table, it looks so much better, I think. And I wanted the focus to be on the charms, and the quilting, which it now is.Here are a few photos from my gloomy grey winter garden this morning. See why I called it Stepping Stones?

This was a very straightforward make, but sometimes they're the best. Let me know if you would like a super quick tute on this one, I'd be happy to write it up. I think it would work great as a Christmas themed runner too. I'm really pleased with how the quilting turned out on this one. I used a light grey Aurifil thread on the front, leaving the charms unquilted so they really pop:

 

I used a lavender Egyptian cotton thread on the back (sorry, I can't write the brand name as its Greek!). Love how the quilting pops on the back too!

 
My first time using both brands of thread and I was very impressed with both, compared to the Gutterman natural cotton which is what I normally use for quilting. Love the stitch definition and how smooth they flowed through my machine. I would say the Egyptian cotton is ever so slightly heavier - very marginally - and will definitely be using again for quilting where I want the quilting to be a feature. I got the Aurifil thread from Janette in River Fabrics, who has recently started stocking them, and the Egyptian cotton from Fi in Threads2000 (Patchwork Delights) and its absolutely great to now have some choice in the thread available to me, and to be able to get those great big spools of cotton, at brilliant prices. I highly recommend checking both of them out!

The grey is Kona Ash - love this fabric so much! I think the charm squares stand out against them - they are all from my charms from Jennifer's Rainbow charm swap.

The back is wide strips of Kona Orange, Ochre, Berry and Aubergine - all from River Fabrics in Co. Down also - Janette has a brill selection of Kona shades. Very bright for my friend who loves this combination of colours!

The binding is an orange fabric I picked up at the K&S show - not sure what it is!

All ready now to be washed and sent off in the post to my friend - hope she likes it!!

Quilt Stats:

Name: Stepping Stones Table Runner
Made For: My good friend
Measures: 50" long x 11.5" wide
Fabric: Kona Solids + various charm squares
Batting: Warm and White
Quilting: Straight line by me
Pattern: Simple squares design by me

I'm linking up this week to {Sew} Modern Monday, Manic Monday and Fabric Tuesday.