Say "Cheese!" - a finish

Today I have a finish for Finish it Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts and my first finish for Quarter 2 from my 2016FAL list.  It seems to have been a long time coming ...... I give you Say "Cheese!"

This is a cot quilt and has finished at 36" x 50".  The Polaroid blocks were made by fussy cutting novelty prints, which had mostly been gifted to me as scraps.  They are bordered with Kona White.

The background fabric is Grunge Basic in aqua by Moda.  I had never used Grunge fabric before and I love it.  It's really lovely to work with and I like the different tones in the fabric.  It was really hard to capture a true likeness of the colour in these photos - it is warmer in real life! 

 

The Polaroid camera was paper pieced using Quiet Play's pattern - you can read more about that here.   I decided to matchstick quilt the camera leaving certain parts unquilted to bring them forward.  The black on black quilting was really hard to do because I could not see the lines at all - it really was a case of sew and see!

 

The background fabric and binding is Camera Snapshots by Riley Blake Designs.  This is the first novelty print I have ever bought and I love it!!!  I have to say I am really glad I used such a good quality backing on this quilt because I had a bit of a problem the first time I tried to quilt it and there was a LOT of unpicking to do!

I had a quilting design in my head and loaded the quilt on its side accordingly.  When I tried to quilt it I realised that it would not look any good because I had tilted each picture.  Lots of toing and froing ensued to try to find an alternate design.  I then decided to try a pattern from Angela Walter's book and it was a disaster ...... I had no rhythm and it looked awful.  At that stage I decided I needed to unload the quilt, unpick and start again!

 

The next morning I started again and decided on a nice easy stipple all over, except the camera.  I think what had put me off in first place was that I did not want to go over the white strip, but once I had I realised it looked fine!  I now remember having the same reservations when it came to quilting my Dog Gone Cute quilt - but my daughter had asked for a stipple design so that is what I did.

 

 

I used Fantastico thread, 5024, Opalescence,  for the stippling.  This was the first time I had used a variegated thread and I did not have any problems.  I used a size #18 needle as stated on the cone.  In the bobbin I used Glide, 10000, in white.  For the matchstick quilting I used Magnifico thread, 2002, Blackout and 2001, Ghost White.  The wadding is Warm and White by The Warm Company

  

I have just realised that this is actually my first quilt finish for the year, apart from some mini quilts.  It won't be my last because today I have been quilting my oldest WIP which has bought back a lot of memories.  But that's another post all together!

Have a great weekend! x

Rather anti-social in real life!

Is it wrong to sign up to Let's Bee Social when in real life I am being anything but social?!  I have 4 1/2 days left to have all my quilts ready to deliver to Malvern for Quilts UK.  When I filled out the entry form, what seems like months ago, I decided to be brave and enter 4 quilts .... only one of which was actually made.  My reasoning was that with a deadline I would actually start AND finish the quilts and push myself forwards on my quilting journey.

Fast forward to today and I think I am certifiably insane and am cancelling everything that I had in my calendar until next Tuesday!

There are reasons that I am so far behind 1) my husband, rather unexpectedly, went back to New Zealand for 3 1/2 weeks which meant all the Home Ed and family and home responsibilities fell to me 2) lots of people requested a pattern for my Union Jack block so I wrote one, whilst aforementioned husband was absent! 3)  I fell down the stairs 10 days ago and I am only just able to move freely but it certainly wasn't conducive to rotary cutting, sitting still piecing or quilting on my longarm machine.

Which brings us to today and the following list:

Quilt No 1 - ready - hooray

Quilt No 2 - requires binding, label and hanging sleeve

Quilt No 3 - requires quilting, binding, label and hanging sleeve

Quilt No 4 - still needs strip to be pieced, then assembled, quilted, then binding, label and sleeve attached

I can do it, right?  Yesterday was a disaster on Quilt No 2 requiring lots of unpicking, repressing and reloading.  Today some stippling and matchstick quilting went well and my Polaroid Quilt is now ready to bind!

Quilt No 4 is my flag quilt and I have made good, but slow, progress .... the New Zealand flag is now finished!

I still have to decide how to join the Union Jack and the NZ flag together.  They need something between them otherwise they lose their demarcation.  I better get my thinking cap on whilst I bind my other one!

Am I a brave quilter?

I am going to be this month!  I have just read about the linky party that Julie at Pink Doxies hosts and I think I can do it.  In a nutshell, you just have to have one goal a month stating that you are going to try working on something that is challenging you.

 

Mine came to me straight away and my goal is this:

 

I would like to try curved piecing. I'm participating in the Pink Doxies new link up, #BraveQuilter. As part of the link party for May, my goal is to try making a block using curved piecing, with my Quick Curve Ruler (which has been sat there for quite a few months now .....).

 

So there it is ..... no photos, not many words but a goal has been set!

But I do have some totally unrelated photos which are rather adorable and I thought you might like to see ....

A few days old ducklings heading out for the first and having their first bath - if we had land and a pond they would all have come home with me!

I also made my 2nd purchase for my May is for Makers pledge.  Last week I saw the Summer Sampler 2016 in my instagram feed and headed straight over to Freshly Pieced to see what it was all about. 

I have never been involved in a QAL before so I thought it was perfect for my purchase this week.  If you haven't heard about May is for Makers yet pop over to my post last week or click on the button on the right.  It's going to be fun making lots of new things once the show quilts are out of the way delivered!

Me-Made-May 2016 - Week 1

I was almost too late to jump on the bandwagon that is Me-Made-May, #mmmay2016 over at So, Zo ... What Do You Know? but I am so glad I made it.

I don't have a wardrobe full of handmade clothes but I have more than I thought, if I include bags and accessories.  Some of them I haven't worn or used for a long time others I use a lot and forget that they are hand mades!

So a recap of Week 1, which I have been detailing over on instagram:

01 May

pyjama trousers

self drafted pattern

made from vintage sheeting and vintage Laura Ashley fabric for trim

02 May

crocheted bracelet decorated with various beads and sequins

03 May

nothing to show here!

04 May

crocheted bag

designed by me

made from 100% cotton yarn, Rico DK if I remember rightly

05 May

a feathered ruff - part of a dressing up costume for my daughter

made from a repurposed shirt collar and various sparkly 'feathers'

for more information, click here

06 May

handstitched skirt

from a pattern in this book by Alabama Chanin

made from jersey knit bought in an op shop in New Zealand

07 May

another pair of pyjamas

self drafted pattern

made from vintage sheeting

So you can see I didn't manage every day but it has got me thinking ....... a lot!  About what I wear, where it comes from and how I really need to do some making for me!  I have a couple of dressmaking projects on my FAL2016 Q2 list so fingers crossed there will be some new clothes on my horizon!

A feather ruff anyone?

My finish for this week, in order to link up with Crazy Mom Quilts, was finished yesterday.  Our local Home Ed had their World Book Day meeting today and the children dressed up as a character from a book.

 

My eldest decided to go as Raven Queen ...

 

 

and so required a 'feathered collar/ruff/capelet'!  A rummage through a couple of boxes and I found some scrap silvery and sparkly fabrics which would work perfectly as the feathers.  How to do the collar though?  I had thought that I could mould some pelmet Vilene to shape and then attach fabric to it.  Then I remembered how much shaping there is in collars ........

 

Time for another rummage .... and I found an old shirt on the shelf and took the collar off it - voila an instant made foundation!

 

 

 

My daughter was very pleased with the end result and I have to say that I was rather taken with it myself .... although, when I did try it on, I realised that it looked a lot better on an 11 year old than her mother!

She didn't get the pink and purple hair but I think being able wear pink and purple eyeshadow (which she had to borrow from a friend's mum!) and pink lipstick more than made up for it!!

As this was all made from scraps I am linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday over at Mrs Sew & Sow. 



May is for Makers

You may, or may not, have noticed a new button on my side bar (eyes right take a quick squizz now!).  I saw this wonderful logo pop up on my instgram feed and decided to investigate further.  Head over to LR Stitched to read the full article.

 

 

Reading the article really resonated with me, especially as I was in the throes of finalising my first pattern to get it out to the testers.  Up until a couple of weeks ago, I did not really have a clue about the time and energy it takes to design and write up a pattern.  In fact the design and making is the easy bit but getting it down onto paper, in a format that other people will understand and be able to follow - now that's hard!  I also may not have bought a pattern because I like to do my own things and don't want to have the same 'thing' as other people.  However, there are as many ways of making the same pattern different as there are different fabrics ... and that's a lot.

 

So I have decided to support indie designers and buy direct from them through May - whether it will be one a week or not remains to be seen but I started the month with a purchase. 

 

I saw a noodlehead bag over here whilst playing along with Let's Bee Social and realised it was about time to get a pattern from them.  All the reviews I have seen have been fantastic so I decided to dive straight in.  Sadly I won't be able to start it for a couple of weeks but by then I will also have all the supplies to hand.  My daughter has also spotted it and has put in an order!

 

Do you have any favourite patterns that you could recommend? x

 





April in review ....

A third of the year gone already - how can that be?  I remember as a child a year was forever, in fact from Monday to Friday was a long time but my daughters were talking with friends the other day about how the year has gone so quickly.  Is this the speeded up world we live in?  Or is it just Home Ed children that think this?   Does time still go slowly for children in school?  I've no idea just rambling now!

 

So at the beginning of the month I signed up for Quarter 2 of the Finish-Along.  Sadly I have nothing yet completed of that long list!

 

Onto Bee news - I continued to receive some more blocks from my hive in the Bee Hive.  I laid them all out last night and love the way this quilt is going to come together.

 

 

For April's queen bee in the same Bee there were Wanta Fanta blocks - just slipped in under the month deadline and these will be posted on Tuesday, as we have a Bank Holiday here in the UK tomorrow.

 

The queen in the Stash Bee hive I am in requested a block in a combination of mustard, grey, navy and chartreuse.  I have no navy in my stash but she was happy with the other colours.

I liked how this made up so made an extra one for me.  I decided at the start of the year to make an extra block each time I made a bee block and by the end of the year I will have some lovely blocks to play with.  I still have a couple to play catch up with but that's OK!

For the Siblings Together mini bee I was queen and asked for 16 patch single colour blocks, which I will sash with white to make up a lovely colourful quilt.  The two I made below as an example were quick and easy to make.  I haven't received any yet because most of the members had holidays booked this month.

I learnt some new things like removing a square from a complete quilt top and replacing it so that no-one would ever know ....

 

 

and foundation paper piecing tiny little scraps of fabric into stars ....

 

 

The majority of the month was spent without my husband who returned to New Zealand to oversee the winding up of our life over there.  That has bought up so many emotions that I'm not sure I have fully dealt with yet ......  We tracked his flight over there ....

 

 

and we'll be welcoming him home in two more sleeps!

 

I spent a lot of time interlocking seams ....

 

 

making up these ....

 

 

and writing a pattern for them.  Watch this space for a release in the very near future!

 

On the Home Ed front there have been the regular activities, an end to ice skating lessons for now, the start of athletics and netball, a visit to nearby Coughton Court where the lambs and bluebells were doing their best to tell us it was spring, although the snow, sleet, hail and freezing rain told us a different story!

 

 

And, of course, there has been reading, although not as much as usual I see now ....

 

 

 

And welcome May!!  The hawthorn is in full bloom, although I didn't wash my face in its dew this morning, we may get to make elderflower cordial early this year and with luck the weather will soon get warmer and sunnier.  Can't wait for some lovely days spent outside and exploring!