Quilty Love......

It's getting to that time of year again when its practically impossible to get decent photos. During the week its pitch black by the time I get home from work, and even at the weekends the daylight tends to be cloudy, grey and miserable, even when its not raining. The rain stopped this afternoon for a few minutes and I ran out to the garden with hubbie in tow to try to get some pics of my latest quilt top which is just too big to get an indoor photo of.

This is my red, pink and aqua quilt from my Winter Stitching list and is for our friends' baby girl...just in time for Christmas! It's more of a toddler/child size quilt than a baby quilt but that is the way its intended.

I really love this combo of colours, I think its my absolute favourite at the moment. And, because its my fave, I had a huge range of fabrics to choose from in my stash and my scrap basket - so much so that I would say I only cut 2/3 of what I had pulled for it!  Some of my last scraps of particular lines went into this one, and the tiny inner squares were perfect to use up the small pieces I had saved. I went with a square within a square type design for it (although some of the internal "squares" are actually rectangles!) and used 3 different block designs to bring interest and movement to the quilt.

I previously posted pics of some of the blocks - many of which are fussy cut to make the best use of the prints I had. Don't they work well together? Two of the block designs have the internal square/rectangle off-centre, which actually worked great because I could move and turn them around to have the same blocks side by side but with a completely different look.

I am going to use some of my lovely IKEA hearts fabric to back it, although I need to add a fabric column to it to get it wide enough - going to use some large fabric blocks in the front colours for this. Once I have that done, I'm ready to baste it. I have a big can of 505 basting spray that I got from Janette in River Fabrics and I absolutely can't wait to try it out on this one. It will be my first time spray basting, so wish me luck! I'm slightly nervous as I have the pinning down to a fine art at this stage and hope the spray basting works ok.

I'm planning to free motion quilt in my usual meandering stipple, although I'm thinking of trying some hearts in the quilting pattern like Jessica did in this quilt - I'm thinking that would be perfect for a baby girl!

I'm also pretty much done with my Christmas runner swap items. I just need to handsew the binding to the back and handfinish the little ornaments tonight in front of the fire so it will be all ready for the post office on Monday morning.

Hope you're having a great weekend :-)

Minimalist trees Christmas table runner progress

After I pieced the top of my table runner for the Modern Christmas Table Runner swap, I posted it up in Flickr and asked for opinions about quilting. I wanted to see if my partner had any preference.

Well, I got a tonne of ideas, most of which recommended following the zig zags of the tree shapes. My absolute favourite bit of advice was from Rhonda, who told me to "quilt the snot out of the white parts" to make the trees puff up a little. I'm still giggling to be honest, mostly because that is exactly the sort of phrase I would come out with myself!  But her advice has been on repeat in my head for the last week and I couldn't get away from it!

I decided that a little hand quilting would be nice, and I had the perfect ruby red Perle cotton for it. So I outlined each of the trees in it this week while watching my nightly doses of Aussie Masterchef and really love the effect.

 
Next I took it off to my sewing machine, and, with everyone's advice ringing in my ears, I started by echo outlining each of the trees and then filling in the rest of the spaces. I decided to go very dense and the quilting lines are only 1/4" apart.

I'm totally thrilled with how its looking! Really love how the trees pop against it.

I still need to straight line quilt the rest of the white space but want to put the backing fabric on before I do that.

So this is on target to be all done and ready to post off next week. I also need to do a little handmade ornament, but I have LOADS of inspiration pinned on my Christmas Pinterest board and looking forward to deciding on what to do at the weekend.

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.

A little me-time trip!

As you know, Thursday I got to pack my bag, set off all by myself in the car and head to Dublin. What bliss, a whole journey without having to look over my shoulder into the back seat constantly! And I even got to listen to the radio in peace and quiet :-)

I landed at the Knitting and Stitching show reasonably early, it was already jammed with people. But I valiantly founght through the crowd in search of fabric goodies and I did not fail in my mission to overspend my budget ;-)

The very first stand I arrived at was, by chance, Oakshott Fabrics. I have seen their shot cottons on a few blogs, mainly Judith's lovely Needles and Lemons, but I'll be honest, I found it hard to really see the difference to regular cottons online. Oh, how wrong was I!! I was completely blown away by these fabrics. Take my word, they are absolutely and utterly fabulous. Really gorgeous quality, the array of colours and fabrics looked like they were shimmering in real life. So vibrant and beautiful. Here's one of the pink shot cottons I bought, to give you some idea of the colour balance:

 

It is really true that browsing fabric online is nothing like seeing it in reality and this was especially true here. I spent a long time drooling and stroking fat quarters in an amazing array of colours before finally deciding on an Elements fat eighth bundle in Spirit. They are a little bit pricier than your regular cottons, but, oh my, SO worth it! I have tried to pick up the quality of the fabric in my photo here, but in the watery November sunlight today, it was really very hard. All I can say is if you like solids and you want to treat yourself, you should definitely check them out.

Next I wandered around the corner and found the Pippablue stand. Now, lots of you will know that Eva there was one of my secret partners in Cindy's Goodie Swap back in August and even though they are up in Galway, I've never been to their shop or met Eva in real life. So meeting up with her was one of the things I was really looking forward to and chatting with her and Ger was a real highlight of the day for me. Not to mention their gorgeous fabric - I hadn't realised what a lovely range they stock. Look at this FQ bundle I picked up:

They also have a fab range of Japanese imports and myself and my friend Helen picked up these 3 lovelies to go with the Russian doll fabric (top) that I am basing a quilt for Helen's niece on.

Pippablue have also started to stock some Klona solids, so all in all I think I'll be doing a bit more online shopping with them in the future!

I also found The Crafty Fox, who are a new shop in Drogheda and picked up these super cute Tilda fabrics there. I'll definitely be popping in to visit them next time I'm up in my mum's!

And I picked up these half metres from a huge fabric seller called Doughtys at a great price.

In addition to all my fabrics, I got some great basics - batting at fantastic prices, new cutting rulers, etc. And I also discovered another thread brand - Wonderfil - who had a stand. I grabbed a trial pack of variagated threads in 50wt cotton to try:

And also found some perle cotton tucked away in the corner of another seller's stand which I promptly bagged. I'm slightly scared of that orange, its for a particular project but its so bright!!

All in all a great day was had. I also managed to have a chat with Anne Marie of Kilbora Quilt Shoppe where some of us Sew Irish girls are heading for a quilting retreat in Feb (places still available if you're interested! Just drop me an email) and to Sherry of Irish Quilting magazine. Plus I had a lovely wander around the quilts exhibition which was really interesting.

It was then on to an evening meetup with my some of my real life buddies who, for the first time in over a year, were all in Dublin on the same night for a meetup and we had lots of fun over some good food and wine. I scarily realised that we have been friends for almost 20 years - since our early college days -somehow, it really doesn't feel that long!

The next morning, I finally got to meet my great blogging buddy, Cindy of Fluffy Sheep Quilting. We met for a coffee and yapped happily for over and hour and a half and I think if I had not had to leave for home, and she for the show, we possibly would be still there talking! We had so much fun chatting and I can't wait to meet up again. I am always a little nervous meeting people in real life who you have an online relationship with - in case it doesn't turn out the way you expect, but happily this trip showed me that there's nothing to fear - they are all even nicer in real life that they are online. And now I have faces to put with the names. Happy days!

So, yesterday evening it was back to real life and I realised that I am really a big softie - 24 hours away from my kids and hubbie and I just couldn't wait to see them all, it was like I was away for a week. So now I need to put away all that new fabric and decide what I am going to use it for. But in the meantime I'm fancying some handquilting on the sofa this evening catching up with the new series of Grey's Anatomy on the Sky Plus :-)

WIP Wednesday

Time for a little catch up!

Started this week:
 
This week is all about table runners in my house. I started on two this week - one for the Modern Christmas table runner swap, and one for a gift for my friend. The Christmas one was a bit of an experimental process but I'm really pleased with how its looking and just waiting till the weekend to quilt it. I know now that my partner is going to like this, but need to make a decision on how to quilt it. I could go in the white space with zig zags, which would seem a natural choice, but the trees are cut on slightly different angles so it might be a bit tricky to get it looking right. I'm liking the idea of straight line quilting too. Still pondering this one!

I also pieced and started to quilt a runner for a friend. She is not into crafty stuff really at all so this is a little bit of a reach. I want it to be very modern and understated looking. She loves bright colours, particularly orange and purple, but I don't want it too look traditionally crafty so I went for pops of colour against Ash grey Kona. The squares radiate out from the largest one in the centre towards both ends, getting smaller for each square.

I started to quilt it tonight and really love how the quilting is shaping up.I went for straight lines, with the print squares unquilted. The back is large strips of aubergine, orange, berry and ochre Kona (couldn't get a decent picture) and I'm using some of the lovely lavender coloured Egyptian cotton thread I got from Fi for the quilting on the back.

However, there is a problem. Have you noticed? I used 2 different lots of Kona Ash grey to piece this and there is a minor, minor difference in colour between them. I didn't notice it when I was piecing, it was only when I had it laid out to quilt that I realised it and I hoped the quilting would draw the eye away. I don't know what to do now - whether to continue or to stop, undo it and repiece the strips in. I'm not sure my friend will notice when its all finished, quilted and bound and laid out on the table. I am a bit of a perfectionist about stuff like this and its bothering me a bit to be honest so I would love to hear your honest opinions on it. it. My hubbie thinks I am quite mad to be so exercised about it! I will say that the camera and light exacerbate the difference more than it looks to the naked eye, but I did still spot it. But then, I am always looking much more at the detail than most people would and I know when you're in the process you tend to focus on the detail and the imperfections rather than the big picture. Urrgh. Opinions please!!

In Progress:

The red, pink and aqua quilt is progressing steadily (but no pics!) and I am almost finished cutting the block pieces, another cutting session should see me finished. Once I have finished the cutting, I am confident of moving this along quite quickly.

My Skittles quilt top is on my mind a lot this week, I think I need to start quilting it soon too. I have pretty much decided to largely hand quilt this one, mostly because then I can do it in front of the fire in the evenings :-) So, hoping to start on this soon!

Other Stuff:

I'm off to the Knitting and Stitching show on Thursday and, to my huge excitement, am meeting up with some friends there, not least my blogging buddy Cindy of Fluffy Sheep Quilting who I chat to a lot but have never actually met. Imagine how excited I am to be meeting her in real life!! So, I just can't wait for Thursday morning to roll around to set out to Dublin and hoping that I manage to pick up some lovely fabric too :-)

Ok, so I'm linking up the fab WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced - hop over there and check out the fab talent on show!

Am I allowed mention the "C" word?

You know...Christmas? Well, what else did you think I meant :-))

So, I've been pondering my table runner for Susan's Modern Christmas Table Runner swap. This runner was probably the worst hit of all my projects when my sewing mojo deserted me a few weeks ago. Inspiration was not coming to me and I was starting to really freak out about the fast approaching swap date. I did some sketches a few weeks ago but discarded them. Then I did a few random wonky Christmas tree blocks. I liked them individually but they just weren't singing for me.

This afternoon, in a stormer of a bad mood, I pulled out my fabrics and started cutting triangles. Aggressively. Lol! It made me feel much better. Then I did a bit of sewing. Then I realised it was pretty close to the very first sketch I did. Doh! All that angst for nothing.

I did have a little freak out trying to get my trees to all sit in a straight line. It involved some swearing and a lot of seam ripping. Or maybe, I should reverse those. A bit of seam ripping and a LOT of swearing :-))) I made sure to send the kids out of the room so they thankfully missed the worst of it. But eventually it all worked. And I smiled. To everyone's relief!!

Then, after putting the kids to bed, and never one to pass up some sewing when inspiration finally strikes,  I decided to do a skiny scrappy border. Its a little wobbly but I'll sort that out with the quilting. And now, as if my magic, the quilt top is done. And I think it looks really nice.

It appeals to the modernist in me. I love the clean lines, the simple shapes. Love the border and how it pulls it together. Love that it is Christmassy without being twee. So, now I'm happy. The question is, what does my partner think? I hope she likes it. If she doesn't, well, I have already tried it out on my coffee table and it will work perfectly there. So, now, having got that all off my chest I'm off to enjoy a little bedtime glass of red wine.

Cut, piece, press, repeat....

Slowly but surely I am making progress this week! Having some time off work is great and the miserable weather definitely limits the options for other things I could be doing.

 I finally managed to get CeLynn's October bee blocks done and in the post to her. She picked a super cute owl block and, with some lovely fabrics to work with, I think they turned out nicely!

We also did a 6.5" signature block for the back:

 

I spent a lot of yesterday making up a little something for Susan as part of her long overdue giveaway prize from the Summer Sewing list. Its gone in today's post with a Terrain charm pack - but no pics until it arrives! I want it to be a surprise.

Then I got working on the blocks for my friend's baby quilt. I took Leanne's advice and decided to piece what I had already cut before doing any more cutting (good advice!) and now have 25 blocks done! I think they are going to work quite nicely - I know there is an over supply of red blocks here - haven't done a lot of the blues and pinks yet so it will be more balanced.

I have some faves in these blocks - like this gorgeous flower:

This butterfly:

This fairy princess - although I don't know what fabric its from!

The willow wren:

And of course, not forgetting my owls:

And lastly, my very last bit of Sherbet Pips:

Have to go to work tomorrow but hoping I might make some more progress on Friday when I am off again! Linking up to some really talented ladies over at Freshly Pieced: