It's another WIP Wednesday!

Source: etsy.com via Amber on Pinterest

I did warn you all that there would be lots going on on my blog this week! I'm having such a lovely week, lots of sewing, lots of time with the kids and Himself...what's not to love!

As an aside, isn't this the most AMAZING April ever? I don't think I remember such warm balmy sunshine in April...ever!! The kids are loving being out in the garden all day, I'm loving being out with them, or in the kitchen with the windows and doors open sewing while listening to them off adventuring as only 3 and 4 year olds can. Is this only a Cork phenomenon or are other parts of Ireland getting it too? Hope it lasts. I might even BBQ this evening!

Ok, so down to business. Unsurpisingly, its been productive here in my little patch!

Completed this week:

Drum roll please.......I finished my Cosmo bag!!! Woohoo!! I almost can't believe that it has left my WIP basket (having accumulated some serious fluff along the way, that navy fabric shows up every strand of thread making it not as practical as I would have thought!) and become an actually-very-nice finished bag. What do you think? It's made with the Memento midnight fabric from Amy Butler's Love range. The green contrast and the lining fabric are from my local fabric shop, I was sorry I used that green in the end as it was slightly heavier than the other fabrics and made the final sewing on the handles quite tricky.

 I do love the bag but there is no way that I would rate it as an "easy" pattern as it is in the "Style Stitches" book. A lot of the construction is very straightforward, but the handles and the curved band at the top are really not beginner level sewing in my opinion, and definitely the edge stitching around the insides of the handles at the end was quite tricky and I poked myself with pins a gazillion times. If I had tackled this a few years ago as a beginner I would never have managed it and I would have totally lost my sewing confidence I think! I didn't have a quite big enough button for the closure, but I think its ok and I like the effect of using the Memento fabric instead of the green for it.

 

I only did the inside pocket on one side as I ran out of the lining fabric. This is a big, roomy bag and I added some very stiff, cardboard like interfacing to the bottom to strengthen it a little more. I think I'll be using this when I'm out and about, its got good weight and structure and is really very pretty :-)

I also finished this little tag comforter once I got to do the hand embroidery:

In Progress:

I now have 2 quilt tops awaiting quilting - my Dresden from Lily's Quilt QAL

 and my It's a Hoot/Walk in the Woods for my goddaughter.

I really want to quilt the Its a Hoot using free motion quilting so need to get in some more practice in the next couple of weeks before I try it. I was going to do the Dresden in the circular quilting Lynne used on the original QAL block, but now I might FMQ it for practice instead. Still thinking about this one.



Started:

Remember a couple of weeks ago I won a giveaway for about half a Sherbet Pips layer cake, courtesy of the lovely Kristie? Well, I have been trying to decide what to do with it for a while now and finally made up my mind this morning. My 3yr old daughter E is insanely jealous of the quilt I'm making for my goddaughter! She keeps asking for her own and loves the picture of this "The Burbs" quilt from Material Obsession

(which I plan on doing later in the year), but that would be a detailed and time consuming one to do if I was to do it really nicely and do all the hand quilting and E is not a lady to keep waiting! So I got thinking, and realised that the Sherbet Pips has 3 of E's favourite things - swings, scooters and - mostly importantly - dogs. I showed her the fabric and she absolutely loved it.

 

This morning I cut the layer cake squares into 5" charms and I intend doing a simple pinwheels design. I will need to cut some more white charm squares to balance the colours but now that I've made up my mind I'm itching to get started piecing!


Still Stalled...

The stupid curtains are the major item still in my basket awaiting attention. Now that I've gotten a lot of progress on other stuff I am determined that I will have made progress on them by next Wednesday.


As always I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced and some other great blogs!

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!

Better Late than Never

Ok, so I didn't manage to do my Friday Night Sew In on Friday night. My parents were visiting and I could hardly disappear out to the kitchen and sew for hours as I planned! I did it today instead. But that still counts, doesn't it?? Maybe I should clarify: - my plans for the FNSI when I signed up were to finish the inner and outer circle of my Dresden circle for the Lily's Quilts quiltalong.

I was a little nervous about piecing the circle but thanks to Lynne's great instructions, it was pretty straightforward. I had been procrastinating on doing this and now I know why - I wasn't happy with the blue background I had originally chosen.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, it works really nicely, it just didn't feel as.... well, as "fresh" as I wanted. So I went with with some Ivory white Kona cotton instead. I do love it and can't wait to quilt it now! And I'm pretty pleased that I've caught up with the QAL too, so I'm all proud of myself :-)

Even though I didn't manage to sew the Dresden on Friday night, I still did some hand-sewing while I sat on the sofa watching the new Harry Potter DVD. I had the bones of this tag comforter sewn up ages ago but it had gone into a pile of stuff waiting for me to do some hand embroidery on it to complete it. I finished off the seams and some decorative embroidery, including the name on the back and it turned out to be a cutey!

With no work this week I'm hoping to get seriously productive on the sewing front, children and life permitting...so watch this space!  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.

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!