Scooters and Stars

I've had this fabric set aside in a bundle since before CT was born (she's 4 now), and I think in all that time I've planned about 10 different quilts for 10 different reasons for it.  Mainly, the bundle grew up around the background scooter fabric which I bought just because it was fun.  There were a few other fabrics in the mix but my new plan for the fabrics has whittled it down to these initially.

Time to make a Giant Star quilt!!

Using the In Colour Order tutorial (but adjusting my sizes to suit the sizes of my fabric pieces) I have cut this fun Giant Star.  I'm really looking forward to working on it.  It might be one of the projects I take along to retreat in a few weeks' time.  Giving myself options.  You know, because I don't have enough WIPs to choose from already ;-)

ETA - I've just read this published post and noticed my glaring mistake!  I need to remember to re-order those red and green star points in the top left corner before I stitch them up - what a numpty!!

Chunky Cut Quilt - stash busting bonanza!

I recently had a request to post the sizes of the blocks for my Chunky Cut Christmas Quilt.  (Marilyn, I'm sorry I have been unable to respond to you personally, but you are a no-reply blogger.)

This quilt is quick and fun and a great way to bust some stash if you are feeling you need to liberate fabric from your shelves.  It would be so good in many different fabrics, I think, so if you make one, be sure to share.

I'm sorry I don't have time to fancy up my quilt sketch before publishing here.  I did consider it, but it will be a long time before I find time to do that, so I hope the sketch is legible on your screen and that it all makes sense to you.  I constructed the block in sections A to I (indicated by the bolder lines on the larger diagram) and joined them into three rows to complete.  The sizes on the diagram are finished block sizes, so remember to add a half inch to each measurement to allow for your quarter inch seams.  The seam allowances are included on the cutting list below for you.  

Section A

Cut 1:  15 ½" x 6 ½"

Cut 1:  6 ½" x 12 ½"

Cut 1:  9 ½" x 12 ½"

Section B

Cut 2:  9 ½" squares

Cut 1:  9 ½" x 18 ½"

Section C

Cut 2:  15 ½" x 9 ½"

Cut 2:  9 ½" squares

Section D

Cut 2:  9 ½" squares

Cut 1:  12 ½" x 9 ½"

Cut 1:  12 ½" x 15 ½"

Cut 1:  9 ½" x 6 ½"

Section E

Cut 1:  9 ½" x 15 ½"

Cut 1:  9 ½" x 6 ½"

Cut 1:  6 ½" x 9 ½"
Cut 1:  9 ½" square
Cut 1:  12 ½" x 9 ½"

Section F
Cut 1:  12 ½" x 9 ½"
Cut 1:  9 ½" x 15 ½"
Cut 1:  9 ½" square
Cut 1:  6 ½" x 9 ½"
Cut 1:  9 ½" x 6 ½"

Section G
Cut 1:  6 ½" x 15 ½"
Cut 1:  12 ½" x 6 ½"
Cut 1:  12 ½" x 9 ½"
Cut 1:  18 ½" x 9 ½"

Section H
Cut 1:  15 ½" x 12 ½"
Cut 1:  6 ½" x 12 ½"
Cut 1:  9 ½" x 12 ½"
Cut 1:  9 ½" square
Cut 1:  9 ½" x 15 ½"

Section I
Cut 1:  9 ½" x 12 ½"
Cut 1:  6 ½" x 12 ½"
Cut 1:  15 ½" x 12 ½"

Binding 
You will need 15" FWOF for binding
246" of binding is required
Cut 6 strips 2.5" x FWOF

Backing
I used a brushed cotton sheet for my backing so I didn't calculate actual yardage but the quilt will measure 57 ½" x 66 ½" finished, so you will need backing to cover this size.  I think 3m/3yds should cover it but please check as I didn't calculate this for my own sewing purposes.

I hope this is helpful to you Marilyn, and maybe others will also enjoy breaking out some long held fabrics for a fun scrap buster!

Happy stitching!!

A, B, C

A    is for Awesome quilt by Lori Holt.

B    is for Beginning another project.

C    is for CT who "needs" this quilt ;-) even though she may not get it until she's 15!

Yes, I'm rifling my fabric boxes again for something new.  This is all my Lori Holt prints and similarly coloured/styled Riley Blake prints that were left over from my Happy Days BOM quilt.  Um, no, that quilt is not finished yet :-o  I've added a mix of low volumes to have a scrappier feel to the quilt background and to keep working at reducing my stash.  So the plan is to use mostly these fabrics, but I will dip into my general stash for greys and other bits I might need as this quilt progresses.

No sewing yet, but I made a start cutting. I did wonder at my sanity as I cut squares that were 1.5", 1" and even 0.75" in size! This is all of the cutting for the first row blocks, the sashings and the low volume inner scallop borders. There is still such a lot to cut, but I already know this will be a VERY long term project and that's ok.  I plan to enjoy this one - it's such a beautiful design and I know CT will love it - eventually!!

Sometimes simple is all that's required

Well, that was an unexpected blip in transmission!  I hoped to be present here more regularly this year, but I think I'm trying to find rhythm where there is none really.  So I can do one of two things.  Either, I can be disappointed that it's not working and call it a day, or I can accept and enjoy what time there is to sew and share as and when it happens.

As you see, I made the sensible choice!

My B&C stash got smaller last year, but it's still overly healthy (if there is such a thing), so I need to continue its depletion into pretties!

First up, I was in the mood for something simple.  I had quite a few small pieces of various prints that wouldn't stretch to a whole block's worth of cutting, but would chop into charm squares pretty well. Fortuitously, Amy Smart posted this gorgeous baby quilt tutorial around the same time as my deliberations which reminded me of the beauty of simplicity, and how sometimes, that's all that's needed.  So I got cutting and laying out on the bedroom floor.

Some setting squares and stitching later, it looked like this.   Glorious scrapilicious flimsy!!

I kept the quilting simple too - just a quilting foot width either side of the seams, and hey presto! A pretty little lap quilt.

This isn't the picture of this quilt that I'd like to be sharing with you, but our weather has been so wet and miserable for end May/beginning June that I can't get it outside for a brighter shot. Come on, sunshine!!  Anyway, this is the picture I have and it kind of makes me wish I'd made the quilt a little bit bigger, even though small was always the plan.  It will be great on a single bed, I think.

Amazingly, this little lot has hardly made any difference to those fabric boxes at all.  Perhaps a project bag of some sort would make another dent.  Do you think my stash is secretly self-reproductive? ;-)

I hope you are all sewing up lovely treats for yourselves and others, too.

Another late/early quilt

I have finally made a start on a quilt that my lovely son requested two years ago!  In my defence, I spent much of that time waiting for him to decide on a pattern for the curated bundle of maths / chemistry / engineering types fabrics I'd been collecting for some time.

I managed to source periodic table fabric,

chemical equations (chemistry student),

musical notation (DS plays trombone),

little vintage engineering drawings - aeroplanes,

and motor cars, 

and some rocket science ;-)

physics, chemistry, (physics student)

geometry,  (maths and further maths student)

 bike chains (he loves cycling for fitness),

a feint script print which is about mapping, latitude and longitudes (super keen orienteerer)

all set in a mix of other tonal script fabrics and DS's choice of turquoise and orange fabrics from my stash.

Most of my pattern suggestions were politely declined so I waited to see what DS would come back with.

He never did, but, when I made this quilt (above) for a friend, I could see the pattern's potential for use on the bundle of fabrics awaiting our/my attention.  It also nicely fulfilled the "no fussy stuff" brief.  DS couldn't quite see it though.  I think it was hard for him to look beyond the florals of the quilt I was holding in front of him.

So, I doodled ...

and I played with colour placement and his lovely eyes lit up. Yep, he liked them.  The mix of his colour choices (far right) was his favourite of the ones I'd offered.

So, there was a plan.

But there was no time, and he wasn't in a hurry, and so it sat unstitched.  Until now ...

We did some laying out and re-arranging, including the extra row on the floor because neither bed nor floor was big enough for all of it.

We decided on 13.5" unfinished squares, so while not the biggest quilt at 78" square, it is generous and definitely enough for a strenuous machine wrangle come quilting time.

When DS saw it all laid out he declared it 'better than he could have imagined' and has asked if, rather than it being considered a 'late' quilt, could it be his take away to university quilt?  He's a wee bit ahead of himself, but I am secretly stoked that he likes it this much!

Unfortunately, I encountered a big problem when I was trying to quilt it last weekend.  Just over half way through the quilting, I moved the quilt out from under the machine to start a new line and heard lots of little pops as the stitching broke in many of the lines.  It was so discouraging, especially after a whole evening's worth of work.  The stitch length was good, the tension wasn't a problem and the quilting looked lovely from the front.

But, all the breaks unfortunately make a complete unpick necessary.  Having consulted better quilting brains than mine on IG, I think the issue may be that the Aurifil 50 wt thread is just not strong enough for the movement in the wavy line quilting on the diagonal bias of the quilt.    

So, when I eventually finish un-quilting, I will use a stronger thread and possibly straight line quilting on this lovely quilt.  Officially I  have (hopefully) another year and a half before it's required in student accommodation, but it would be awfully nice if the unpicking was a little quicker than that.  So, here's to not losing motivation by acres of unpicking stitches and hope for an early finish, instead of it being two year's late.  You never know ...

Strippy Heart Quilt - Ta Da!

Here's the finished Scrappy Heart Quilt.  I need two tall, willing volunteers to help me get a proper shot of this quilt but since none are currently forthcoming, I'll have to make do with a floor shot.  Sadly, this doesn't show the quilt at its best but hopefully you can imagine its better than it looks.

I experimented with an echoed continual curve when quilting this heart and kind of regret it.  I feel I could have done better and am worried that it washed and dried a little oddly because of something to do with the quilting.  But, it's too massive to unpick and re-do, so I'm hoping that with time it will wear in a little crinklier perhaps, instead of just looking creased like it does now :-(

I know it's very hard to make out from the picture, but it is bound with a green print from B&C Vintage Picnic to finish the quilt.  I'm glad I chose it as it's actually a little more subtle than I thought it would be, whilst still adding a colour boundary and doesn't vy for attention with the heart design itself.

Another finish in the bag and soon to be gifted!

Strippy Heart Quilt - progressing

A wee bit of progress on the Strippy Heart Quilt to show you -

The top 8 rows and the bottom 12 rows.  Honestly, I have no idea why I decided to work a bit from the top and then from the bottom up.  Doesn't seem like my logical self, but no matter.

You can see that this quilt is not difficult in the complex sense, but it does require close attention to your cutting lengths and being organised and labelling everything so the rows don't get mixed. 

I've been enjoying it.  It takes about half an hour each time I pick it up to get into a wee rhythm with the laying, deciding, cutting, and piecing but I'm getting there.  Mostly, I just let the fabrics sit randomly as they come off the roll but now and again it does need a wee tweak (turn the strip upside down, piece in another 2.5" width, or skip a bit) just to ensure that there aren't too many occurrences of the same fabric in the same area or touching.  It's not an exact science and I promise, I am being much more hands off than usual! ;-)

This section is rows 1 -20 - I think it's growing really well!!  I think there are just 10 more rows to piece before there's a flimsy but my little strip rolls of fabric are getting to look awfully small - I wonder will it stretch?

What would you say is the dominant colour of this quilt as you look at it so far?  When I had it laid out on the bed for the pic I was surprised by how green it looked, but on the actual photo here I think maybe it's the aqua, or maybe not. Perhaps it's actually reasonably well balanced and scrappy?  What do you see?

Moda Modern Building Blocks Quilt - finally finished!

This quilt has been 2 years in the cutting, stitching and quilting and is one of those quilts that is going to be forever associated with a particular season of my life. Do you have those kind of makes - ones that take on resonances and memories as you work through them?

There was a bit of a buzz about the Moda Modern Building Blocks pattern around the time when I bought it and started to work on it, but of course, it has taken me so long to finish that the buzz is now a faded hum somewhere off in 2015!

I enjoyed making a quilt of different sized blocks, even if those HSTs were the bane of my stitching times.  The range from 36" to 6" blocks was fun, though I have to admit that near the end, I wished there'd been a few more 24" and 18" ones and not quite so many tiddlers!

As you can see, this quilt has had a professional touch from the awesome Trudi Wood as there was no way my abilities were going to cope with quilting all 84" x 96" of it on my dining table!  As ever, Trudi has worked magic on the quilting, breathing life and flow into the blocks.

Even with my friendly helpers this quilt is a biggie to squeeze into shot.

With the hardest part contracted out, all I had left to do was bind and label it for a finish. So, hooray for another tick of the WIP list and a finish to declare for FAL Quarter 2!

Siblings Together - Frame Box Quilt

There has been progress of the finishing kind in these here parts!  Yay!

Last Feb (2016) I started working with my scrap boxes to pull together some Frame Box Blocks - tutorial here - with a view to making a bright, cheery quilt for Siblings Together.  I hadn't expected it to take so long to reach its conclusion but still, it's a finish now and although it didn't make last summer's Siblings Together camps, it will be there on time for this year's camps.

While the mix of fabrics in these blocks wasn't always what I might have otherwise chosen to stitch together, sometimes I think with scrappy quilts I just have to let go of my tendency to order and remember that scrappy quilts are about the bigger picture, not the individual blocks.  So, yes, not all of the blocks are truly beautiful, but look at the overall effect of that riot of colour.  It's not really so bad, is it?  Can you see what I mean about the bigger picture?

I quilted in vertical lines through the blocks in 7 places and twice across the horizontal just to give it a bit better hold.  Where my lines are a wee bit less than straight, a tumble in the wash and dryer have softened them up a bit (and hidden the multitude of wobbly sins).

Finished with hot pink polka dot binding this quilt really does look bright.  I hope that the child who receives it at this summer's camp will be cheered by it and the memories that will be associated with their Sibling through the camp too.  That's what it's all about!

This is a finish for my FAL 2017 Quarter 1 list too.

Baby Beginnings

One of the new makes I referred to in my 2017 plans post is a quilt for my cousin's expected baby.

I mulled over lots of ideas and fabrics for a few months actually, but my mind kept coming back to scrappy.  (I think I found it hard to get a 'feel' for what my cousin might like, without asking directly, and I'd like it to be a surprise - sort of).  Scrappy wonky stars on a scrappy low volume background sort of forced their way to the forefront of my thoughts and before long I had raided my scraps and stash for fabrics, ready to make a start in the New Year.

I love how wonky stars make up so quickly, though these ones are only made up on the horizontal sections so far the upper and lower points have now yet been stitched in.  There's still a lot of piecing to go, but it's good to have made fair progress already.  Wonky stars never fail to disappoint me, just hope my cousin will feel the same when/if it's ready to gift to her.

Family Tree Wallhanging

I did it!  I finished the Family Tree Wallhanging quilt earlier in December but can only reveal it here now because occasionally mum peeps into the blog and I didn't want her to know this would be her and dad's Christmas gift.

This quilt has been in my head for about two years (you can read more here) and I am thrilled with how it turned out.  Actually, I'm thrilled it got finished at all.  Thought it might hang around in my head forever!

The names of my parents, my brother and his family and me and my family are all embroidered on the leaves.  From a distance, the names aren't obvious which allows the fabrics to dominate the quilt rather than the embroidery. And, mum and dad will know the names of all of us are there.

Raw edge applique and sketch stitching is definitely not my forte, but I think I pulled it off.  You can see my name on that upside down yellow leaf - isn't that a pretty fabric?

As you can see, I quilted the background with a diagonal grid before stitching down the tree trunk and leaves.

Just for a wee change I cut curved edges on my quilt (inspired by Judith's autumnal wallhanging from Pretty Patches magazine).  It wasn't as difficult as I imagined and makes a nice change, softening the whole quilt while it hangs above mum and dad's bed. (It co-ordinates with their bedlinens better than it does with ours in the top pic.)

My folks have been amazing support in the past two years and I wanted to thank them with a quilt that reminds them of the family they started together.  Thank you more than you can know, I love you two! xx

Seriously excited!

Just couldn't wait to show you my churn dashes all stitched together.

Squee!

All my Ruby fabrics mixed with some Marmalade and Vintage Modern. Love it SO much!

 

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