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!

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 ------>>

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.

It's a Hoot quilt top finished!

 Can I just say that I love and adore this It's a Hoot fabric? It's so summery and bright and cheerful. And I love being on holidays from work, I got so much done last night when I wasn't wrecked after a day at the office, and again this morning. So much that I got this quilt top finished!

 You know how I love to put names on my quilts, I can't help it, I just do! So I'm calling this one "A Walk in the Woods" - isn't it apt? I was really pleased with how it came together although I noticed one or two seams that I'm not happy with when I was taking photos, I need to do a little repair work to strengthen them up.

 

After I put all my blocks together with the sashing, I decided it needed a little something extra and I had lots and lots of scrappy 1.5 inch strips left over from cutting the framing strips, so I pieced them all together randomly to form a little extra sashing line around it. I'll be honest and say that I got the idea from the sashing on the Dresden quilt top I'm doing for the Lily's Quilts QAL so I have to credit Lynne for that! I do think it draws it together though.

And happiest of all, we had a nice day here today so I could get some good pics - I love the ones of it blowing in the wind so apologies for indulging myself with lots of pics! Look at the blocks though, aren't they pretty? I love how the white space in the "tree" blocks creates its own little spatial pattern.

I have ordered the backing and binding fabric but it will be next week before it arrives from the States so I'll put this away for a few days and take a break from it now. 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.