Just fooling around!

Yikes! I feel like I haven't been very good to blog this last couple of weeks, which is reflective of my whirlwind life at the moment. But I **think** we are finally out of the woods on the family sickness front - its been one thing after the other here. All that stress has had its effect and I've been lacking a little creative energy lately. But last night I decided to try to work out an idea that has been in my head for quite a while and I finished it this evening - a little tiny mini quilt that I'm calling Floating Away. Isn't it pretty?

I love to doodle when I'm in meetings or on the phone and lately all I've been doodling was bunches of balloons. Plus, I have a great pic on my "Inspiration" board on Pinterest that I love looking at and return to time and again:

Source: wetbehindthears.com via Sarah on Pinterest

So I decided to try to do a ballon inspired fabric picture type and completely improvised as I went along. I saw a picture somewhere recently - a magazine? a blog? a pattern? I can't remember where - where there were circles emphasised with lines of quilting around them and I really loved the effect. I had some lovely embroidery threads in my sewing box that have a slight sheen - they're called Sulky and I thought they would be perfect. So I marked some circles on some scrap pieces using various glasses of different widths and cut them out and sewed around to give a raw edge applique, and sewed in the ribbon/string trailing from them. Then I started quilting the circles around the balloons. I deliberately went for a very "freehand" look in these quilting lines, crossing over lines, varying the widths - I wanted it to look light, breezy, unstructured and to have a bit of movement.

I used a poly batting which is a good deal thicker (width wise) than my normal cotton one but much lighter and airier in texture, it was interesting to quilt with. I was surprised by the cool raised effect it created under the balloons when I quilted the lines which makes it a little 3 dimensional. Isn't the thread nice too?

I also used it as an opportunity to practice FMQ on the white solid - my technique is getting better but very slowly - I still need to do lots of practice before I'd tackle a quilt. I like the effect though, it looks like the balloons are floating through clouds, even if its uneven in lots of places!

Please don't look too closely at the binding - I was too lazy and too anxious to finish to iron it so I finger pressed it and did it super quick so its not the best. But I don't really care, this little mini quilt makes me smile, its so cheerful! I'm going to hang it on the wall over the stairs so that I see it when I'm rushing downstairs in the morning when I always need a smile!

I'll be linking this up to some great blogs including www.todayscreativeblog.net and

WIP Wednesday #8

 

This is going to be a short one! My little man was very sick all week and I don't have much to show! Plus, a lot of the work I did get done was prep stuff, cutting, layouts etc. So I'm abandoning my usual format.

I had no finishes this week, but did make progress on some baby blankets for my friends (sorry, I have no pics because I know they read this and I want them to be a surprise! I'll post them once they receive them, but I'm really happy with them, I've used some lovely new fabric).

 

The other major progress I made was with my Its a Hoot quilt. I got all the fabric laid out and decided on each block composition, which took quite a while on Saturday afternoon. I've sewn a few blocks here and there and realised this evening I have 10 of my 20 blocks done.

They need sashing etc in between them, but they're done :-) I absolutely love this fabric, the colours, the design, its just gorgeous! So lovely to work with and I'm having fun with the blocks. Can't wait till I have the rest done and can figure out how to place them.

That's it for today! I'll be linking up to Freshly Pieced as always, I love seeing what everyone is working on each week :-)

Gifts from Afar

 

This has been my lucky week! Not only has someone made my PictureBox quilt (which has me completely and totally chuffed!) but, on top of that, a host of packages arrived from around the world and I just had to share with you. Better still, I only paid for one of them, and that one even had free postage!

First up - the quilt. After I wrote my tutorial, I was a little nervous about the thoughts of someone making it and it all going horribly wrong. But then, I got an email last weekend from the lovely Beverly all the way out in Oklahoma with a picture of the quilt top she had just finished and it completely made my day. Here it is, isn't it lovely? I love how the different fabrics give it a different look and can't wait to see it when she's finished quilting it. Thanks so much Beverly for making it :-)

I think my most eagerly anticipated moment this week was opening my package from Australia to find this scrummy Saffron Craig fabric.

I adore her beautiful designs but her fabric is a little on the pricey side for me, and postage from Australia to Ireland is not cheap. So when I got an email update from her website late one night with a special free international postage offer, I just had to jump at it! (The fact that I was the far side of a couple of glasses of wine certainly helped my decision making process ;-) Note to self: browsing fabric shops while enjoying a tipple does not make for a healthy bank balance!) I think I'm going to use the little bird fabric for one of my Amy Butler Style Stitches bags, and the Beetle Bugs will go into my baby boys blankets and quilts. But I don't quite know what I'm planning for the Magical Lands fabric (the very top pic) - isn't it gorgeous? Its very large scale so it will definitely be something special!

Next up - my scrap swap arrived and my lovely partner, Tracy, was SO generous in the scraps she sent. 

I asked her for yellows, oranges and purples as I'm very light on these shades and she totally obliged, sending a huge quantity! Plus, she sent me chocolate. Do you see the one that's left? That's because I already ate the rest. Thanks so much Tracy, I'm so delighted with everything I got!

She also sent some fab little goodies too - I love the buttons and the little bag and have about a billion different uses for it!

I also won a few things lately - a lovely giveaway for these pins/clips over at Sugar and Dots - aren't they gorgeous? They'll brighten up my wardrobe!

And I was delighted to win a crafting competition over at Hungry Hippie - and received my prize today. I was blown away by all the stuff I won - I couldn't even get all of it in the picture.

I was thrilled to see there were lots of essentials included like premade bias bindings, ric rac, ribbon, buttons, zips, a really lovely book of little purse patterns, some great fat quarters and - jackpot - 2 Moda Charmpacks in Arcadia, which I have seen online - they're even nicer in real life and totally my taste. Can't wait to make up a quilt with them. Natalie also included a precut quilt kit and even though the pattern is not totally my taste, the fabrics in the kit are great so I'll be stashing them too. Better still they include lots of colours that I don't have a lot of!

So far, so good, right? I was pretty happy with my lot this week and was just uploading the photos this evening to blog when an email popped up in my inbox from Kristie over at OCD saying....wait for it........I'd won her Sherbet Pips giveaway!!!! Yes, that's right, Sherbet Pips - it seems like its the hottest fabric in the quilting world right now and is sold out anywhere I've looked for it in the last few days. I'm totally excited about this one and can't wait to get my hands on it, I'll be watching that post from Canada every day now! Thanks so much Kristie!

 

P.S. I'm off down to the shop to do the Lottery now seeing as my luck has never been so good!

2011: First Quarter gone already

I saw a lovely post by Elizabeth over at Don't Call Me Betsy which got me thinking; she was looking back on her progress against her crafty goals for the first quarter. So I decided I'd jump on the bandwagon and do the same, and maybe get thinking about what I want to get done by the end of June.

Back at the start of the year, I was still too much in recovery from Christmas to write out any goals. But I did have quite a few actually - mostly short term focused. Here's a little summary:

1. To finish my Bliss Charm quilt. This was the first quilt I ever made, I started it over Christmas and completely fell in love with quilting while I worked on it.

2. To make more from my own designs and I definitely have done this with lovely quilts I made.

PictureBox quilt

I loved how they turned out, and even wrote up a tutorial for the PictureBox quilt, and at the weekend I got an email from Beverly who has made it - I'll post her version over the weekend. That totally made my day, as you can imagine!

Sophie's Dreams quilt

I also designed this handbag and must get working on more bags.

3. To take part in a Quiltalong....I had been reading about these all over, and was hoping one would come along that I felt experienced enough to take part in. Of course, like the proverbial bus, none came for ages and then 3 came at once. In recent weeks I joined up in the Lily's Quilt quiltalong. I'm loving doing the Dresden mini block, its so much fun!

Also, this week I decided that I'm going to take part in the Bottled Rainbows Quiltalong on a small scale. But sadly, I just couldn't commit to the Supernova quiltalong over at Freshly Pieced even though I'd love to do it - I just don't have the time.

4. To take part in the Amy Butler Style Stitches sewalongs over at My Crafty Crap and JemJam. I'm making pretty patchy progress with this one - the Cosmo bag (January) is half done, I didn't do the February bag (the big shopper) at all and I did one small Origami bag for March, although I'd like to do a few more. I'm looking forward to the next one for April, the chequebook cover, I badly need a pretty one.

 

 5.  To make a Charm Bracelets quilt using Kate Conklin's lovely pattern. I even have the Fandango charm pack. But I haven't even come close to starting it.

6.  To make the Alice quilt from Red Pepper Quilts - I just love this one and reckon I have enough scraps for it but again, no time (yet).

7. To take part for the first time in some Flickr swaps. I joined up for the Scrappy Pincushion one and loved taking part, in particular the lovely pinnie I received.  I'll definitely be looking forward to participating in more!

8.  To grow my blog and to take part more in the crafty blogging community - and I've really pleased I've done this. I'm really thrilled and flattered to have lots of new readers this year and I've made loads of new bloggy "friends" all over the world who have given me great advice and lots of inspiration. I love visiting their blogs every week to see what they're up to!


9.  To learn, learn, learn!! I'm new to quilting and this last 3 months has been a challenging and wonderful time for me as I learned new techniques, got to grips with quilting basics and browsed online resources, tutorials, patterns and blogs voraciously. I'm now completely addicted to and in love with the process and end result - roll on the rest of the year!!

I have lots of goals for the remainder of the year but think I will spend a little time thinking about them and maybe post them next week! In the meantime I'll be linking this up to Elizabeth's post and checking out everyone else's progress.

WIP Wedesday #7

I've spent a lot of the last week in the car! Visiting my parents, away at a work conference, its been all go here. I still found some sewing time however, so here is my little progress report for the week.

Completed this week:

Actually, its been a pretty good week, in terms of finishes. I sewed like a woman possessed on Thursday night to get gifts finished for my little niece for her birthday:

  

 

I also managed to get a few small scappy pincushions done - this one with my Its a Hoot scraps:

 

 And this one with some nice Amy Butler scraps I had in my stash, both for some friends:

I also finished this cute little mug rug, after being inspired by all the lovely tutorials for Mug Rug Madness over at the lovely blog Two More Seconds.

 

Its not dissimilar to the wonky stripes one I made a few weeks ago, but I kept the strips quite straight and wonked up the quilting after seeing Jeni's tutorial. I'm really pleased with how it turned out apart from my mitred corners which did not go well (I might pick them back and redo, or I might just leave them!). I've had this fabric in my stash for a while now and it works really nicely as the backing.

  

I have another identical set of strips pieced that I might cut back a little in size and make a complimentary smaller one. I'm thinking that these might work nicely as a Mother's Day present for one of the kids' nanas!

Work in Progress:

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment. I'm still at fabric layout stage for my Its A Hoot quilt blocks. Nothing to show you yet there, its packed up at the moment but I'm hoping to do more work on it tonight and get piecing the blocks.

I have some baby girl patchwork pram blankets to get done for some friends who had babies in the last few weeks - hopefully will get to finish them this weekend.

I'm working (slowly) at my Dresden plate block for the Lily's Quilts quiltalong. I have the blades pieced and pressed.

I read Lynne's post on piecing the inner circle yesterday and want to do this later in the week. But I want to add an additional inner circle in the brown fabric (like this)

and am not sure how I'm going to do it. I could piece it. But I'm more inclined to applique it on using a nice small zigzag stitch. Much easier and less work. Will it work nicely though or just look weird against the rest of it? I'd love some opinions on this one as I'm really not sure what to do. If its not going to look good, I will (maybe not very enthusiastically) go ahead and piece it - I'll have to do a bit of tutorial searching as piecing circles is not something I've done at all. But I do want it to have a nice finish so I'd appreciate advice from all of you experienced quilters out there :-)

On Hold:

The curtains have gone back in the box to my dismay. Must, must get them moving again!

The Cosmo bag is on a little break, I intend picking it up in a week or 2 again.

Thinking about:

I can't get the Bottled Rainbows QAL out of my head this last two weeks. Really, I so want to do this one but I don't have a) the time or b) the fabric to do it, and I can't justify going buying another FQ bundle for it. Any ideas? Maybe I could size up the blocks and do a few single blocks as placemats / mug rugs in the colours that I do have in my stash? What do you think?

I'm linking this up to Work In Progress Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced, go check out the great projects linked up there, I love seeing what everyone is working on each week! I'm also linking it to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day:

Handmade gifts for big and small girls

 

My charming little niece turned one this weekend, a perfect excuse for a visit home to my parents & a fab afternoon in my sister's house celebrating with family! I've made quite a few little gifts for her in her first year as she's my goddaughter - so I wanted to continue the trend. But I've already made her 2 blankets and lots more so I didn't want to repeat anything I'd done before. I bought this lovely book last year and I've used it to make quite a few fleece monsters for my own kids.

So I took it out last week after entering the One Thing, One Week Challenge over at Amy's Creative Side and flicked through it for a little while and decided, with the help of the kids opinions, to make Dilly. I have gorgeous, high quality fleece that I use for my baby blankets and used this to make Dilly - and she's fabulously soft and will be lovely to hold. She's actually one of the simplest and fastest patterns to make in the book which was a bonus too as I had very little time last week with work demands.

 

I think she was a hit too with the little lady! I would definitely recommend this book - the patterns are very straightforward to make and very, very cute - plus, a little quirky, which I really like! My kids adore the monsters I've made for them - they bring them to bed every night and the fleece has held up very well.

I also made some bunting to decorate her room using some lovely fresh, colourful fabric:

 

As well as my niece's birthday presents, I had some little gifts I wanted to make for bigger girls - my own friends! So I ran up some pincushions in the last few weeks for them. After cutting all the strips and squares for my Its A Hoot quilt, I had lots of lovely scraps left over, many of them conveniently already in small strips. So I pulled out a small piece of coton batting and quilted the strips on as I went.

 

I just love the colour palette in these fabrics. I had some lovely bigger scraps left over and used one of them for the back:

 

 I also made this scrappy pincushion from some Amy Butler scraps I had. Like the first, its quilted onto a scrap of cotton batting in a very simple style, and the blue, orange, brown and cream colours work really nicely together.

 After our lovely weekend, we stopped off in Kildare Village outlet centre on the way back and I popped into the Cath Kidston outlet store and found this lovely sewing basket. I've been looking for a nice sewing box for a long time but so many of them are just hideously old-fashioned! I love the fabric print on this one and have already moved my sewing supplies from the horrible old functional "craft" box I had from a few years back to this pretty one - a perfect gift for me!!

p.s. - I just wish I had a garden like my mum's for taking photos in - I could have such wonderful backdrops!

WIP Wednesday # 6

 

Can you believe its almost April? I can't quite understand where the days are going. Its been super busy in my life this week, mostly in life outside this blog, with work being particularly demanding! It sort of feels like I haven't gotten a lot achieved, but actually I have.



In Progress:


Friday Night Sew In was a success here and I have made good progress on the Cosmo bag. I have the exterior pretty much totally completed and just need to do the lining and the button at this stage. I really like the colour combo too now that its made up (I wasn't sure I would when I cut them).

I also got started with picking my fabrics and cutting in the Lily's Quilts Quiltalong. I'm very happy now with the fabrics I chose, and the blue background came about purely by chance but I think it will work. That brown bundle of fabric in the middle is to see if an extra internal circle would work in the middle and I think it will. I need to start piecing it next.

After spending all last night working out measurements, I finally started a new quilt tonight with my It's a Hoot layer cake. This quilt is for my goddaughter; she will be making her First Communion in May and I thought that a keepsake throw quilt would be a nice gift and something she could take with her through her life. The Its a Hoot fabric is perfect for what I want. I'm doing a simple design, alternating 2 different blocks. One is a 5" square with 2 layers of borders; the other is a 4 patch square with borders. The finished blocks will be 9" each. I'll add white sashing of about 3" betweeen each of the squares to make them stand out.

Tonight I cut all my squares and border strips:

Then I made up a trial block of each. This is the first:

 

And this is the second:

I love how these turned out, and I love how the fabrics interact with each other. Tomorrow will be my favourite part, laying out the fabrics and figuring out how it will all go together!

That's my little report - I think its going to be a very quiet week this week as I'm visiting my parents at the weekend and away at a work conference early next week. So my apologies in advance! But hopefully after that I'll be picking it all up again!

I'll be linking up as always to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.