Archive for the 'Quilts' Category

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Made in July

Published on 01/08/2013 by Mary in projects and Quilts. 7 Comments

Wow July seemed like a really busy month and a long one, maybe because I think I got a lot done.

A Bee block, Patchwork, Please! sew along, name tags for Fat Quarterly retreat, Siblings Together quilt, paper pieced typewriter started at FQR, teacher gifts and more paper piecing. A pretty productive and fun month of sewing.

We also made a huge amount of progress on the house;

this was April:

to this:

and this was the middle of July:

This means that I have more room to sew, there is still a huge amount to do, this space here IS destined to become my sewing space:

Although someone came home from work yesterday talking about working from home more frequently due to lack of office space at work…

I think I need to make my mark quick! Those lovely built in cupboards will be housing my stash and sewing kit.

I hope you’ve had a good month, looking forward to seeing what others have been creating over here:

Books for Baby quilt top

Published on 28/07/2013 by Mary in Babies, Boys, Paper piecing, Patchwork, Patchwork Please, Quilts, Scraps and Zakka. 18 Comments

On Wednesday after a couple of days of paper piecing (which I’ll show you soon) I had a look at the Patchwork Please sew along project for the week and discovered that it was the Books for Baby quilt. A few weeks ago I had decided that I would like to make this quilt in fabrics suitable for a boy and had pulled a pile of possible book covers.

It was the last day of school for the girls so my last day of quiet sewing with a small boy for company. It didn’t take long for me to sew up this:

I loved the fact that I could fussy cut the text print AND that it complemented the book cover. My only regret is that I didn’t use the orange print on the spine as well as the corners but I wasn’t about to unpick!

Spurred on by how quickly this came together I spent the evening cutting fabrics for 11 more blocks. I’m not quite sure how but by the end of Thursday I had made all the blocks and pulled fabrics for the borders and sashing! I promise I didn’t neglect my children! We did a food shop, a puzzle:

and they didn’t go hungry.

While I was selecting fabrics I came across a text print that said something about ‘falling in love with the robot maker’ so that had to go with the robot book (Madrona Road maybe?):

I don’t think it’s that wonky in real life!

A book about bicycles, tricycles, tandems and trailers:

And watch out this may have a snappy creature inside, don’t be fooled by the cute sea creatures on the cover!

On Friday morning while still in my pj’s I sewed the borders around each block, then went off to my mum’s to fruit pick, coming home with most of this lot:

Once the children were tucked up in bed last night I continued sewing and managed to put the whole quilt top together:

For a seemingly complex quilt I am amazed at how quickly it came together, the paper piecing was straight forward and most of the fabrics for the spine and book corners were from my scraps box. Now I just need to decide how to quilt it – any suggestions? I’m thinking that for the first time ever I might hand quilt it as it seems a bit too special just to machine…

Linking up with:

Modern Plus Quilt for Siblings Together

Published on 17/07/2013 by Mary in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Boys, Quilts and Siblings Together. 3 Comments

I’m off to FQ Retreat at lunchtime tomorrow (yippee), starting with a road trip with Emily, Jo and Susy – I can’t wait. I have 2 quilts to squeeze in to Emily’s car, this one and this one:

I’ve mentioned it a few times before, here and here and the fact that my target was to get it finished by today. Big tick for me and for my ALYOF goal too.

I followed Jeni’s tutorial for the Modern Plus quilt and it worked just fine, except that I scaled it down at Jeni’s suggestion as the FQ bundle was cut short (less than 18″). I pieced with Aurifil 2021 50wt which is fine and my machine loves it.

I quilted approx 1/4″ either side of each seam using Aurifil 2150 40WT. I had a small reel of it and was fairly sure it would run out during quilting so before I started I put out a plea on Instagram and Katy kindly saved the day sending me a big reel of it. I’d not used this weight of thread before in my machine but it quilted beautifully giving slightly more definition that the 50 WT I’ve previously used.

Now all it needs is a label which Laura will bring to retreat. I plan to spend Friday evening on the terrace at Baden Powell House with the FQ crew, Alex Veronelli and a glass of wine stitching labels on both these quilts.

Delma from the charity Siblings Together is also coming along to meet us and take away a pile of quilts for this years summer camps, I will have tissues at the ready.

Quilt Stats:

Size: 58″ x 68″
Fabric: Superstar by Riley Blake
Backing fabric: Superstar by Riley Blake
Binding: Superstar stripe in orange
Quilting: Quilted by me on my machine
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Wadding 80/20
Pattern: Modern Plus Quilt by Jeni B

Linking up with:

A Lovely Year of Finishes – goal for July

Published on 02/07/2013 by Mary in A Lovely Year of Finishes, fabric, Patchwork, projects, Quilts and Siblings Together. 4 Comments

So last month saw me piecing a quilt top for Siblings Together, I now need to piece the back, baste, quilt and bind it.

It has to be done by 17th July as on the 18th I’m travelling need to London to the Fat Quarterly retreat and want to hand it over then. Technically I suppose that’s a goal for just over half the month; but I’m taking into account that exhaustion both physical and mental from retreat will wipe out the rest of the month and one child breaks for holiday on 19th July and the other two on the 24th. So really there is little hope of sewing action in the last week or so of the month.

Linking up with:

June’s projects

Published on 01/07/2013 by Mary in craft, Dress a Girl Around the World, Patchwork, Patchwork Please, projects, Quilts, Siblings Together and Zakka. 6 Comments

June saw not much progress on the house front but I got some sewing done;

Projects from Patchwork, Please! my first ever bee block (check out the speedy Lynne who has already pieced the top), paper piecing, a quilt top for Siblings Together and on Saturday I organised a Dress A Girl Around the World event in which 36 dresses were stitched and more taken home to be finished.

With a lot of hard work I hope that July will be the month of a floor in our extension and a kitchen. So who knows if there will any sewing but there may be a new sewing space for me!

Linking up with:

June’s goal – done

Published on 27/06/2013 by Mary in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Patchwork, Quilts and Siblings Together. 8 Comments

So my goal for June was to get a quilt top pieced for a Siblings Together quilt, and I did it;

The cutting of 300 plus squares was simple, the laying them out and deciding on a design was not! I don’t have a design wall, I don’t even have a design floor! But I do have a bare concrete floor which will one day will be our kitchen floor, so I laid an old sheet on the floor and placed the squares out on top. I didn’t actually play with the layout much because that would have been too fiddly and could have gone on for hours, instead I collected up all the squares hoping they were in the right order and got stitching.

Now I have slightly less than 3 weeks in which to get this basted, quilted and bound ready to take to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London to hand over ready for the Siblings Together summer camp – wish me luck!

Linking up with:

My first ever Bee block…

Published on 13/06/2013 by Mary in Patchwork, Quilts and Siblings Together. 9 Comments

(Gaming giveaway still open here)

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that I’ve joined my first Bee. When Lynne asked if anyone wanted to join a bee for Siblings Together I jumped at the chance and she kindly let me in!

June is Lynne’s month and last week the fabric arrived and on Sunday I sewed it together following this tutorial. To say I was slightly nervous might be an understatement. Once done I got Tobit to take a photograph and then I packaged it up ready to return to Lynne on Monday morning, just so that I didn’t look at it again with my critical eyes and find an error:

The fabrics are PB and J by Basic Grey for Moda; thanks to Moda for providing the fabric and to these other wonderful sponsors who are supplying backing fabric to the bee throughout the year.

And on top of all that the generous folk at Lady Sew and Sew have offered to supply wadding for the quilts.

My month is October so I have a while before I need to think about what block I’d like.

A Lovely Year of Finishes – June goal

Published on 03/06/2013 by Mary in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Boys, fabric, Patchwork, Quilts and Siblings Together. 4 Comments

Right time to set a goal for June. Not too tricky, I have lots to do but I need to get this pile of fabric sewn into a quilt top:

I’m going to make a Modern Plus Quilt using this tutorial. I bought the FQ bundle at the end of last year with the plan to make a quilt for the Siblings Together charity to give to a teenage boy this summer. It’s been sat waiting for me to have time and space.

I pulled the precut FQ bundle out the other week ready to cut and discovered that almost every FQ was under size, i.e. not 18″ x 22″. The 22″ measurement was fine but the 18″ was more like 17.25 or 17.5. Ok so not a huge amount out but the pattern uses 4 x 18″ strips so you need a full FQ so it made it impossible.

Fortunately Jeni saw a photo I posted on Instagram about it and suggested different measurements that I could use that would make a slightly smaller but still good size quilt.

I did email Riley Blake Designs and have not been impressed with the customer service I received and have had to chase for a response on several occasions. However I had bought the bundle from Fat Quarter Shop and I had an immediate response to my email to them along with three possible solutions to the problems which was much more impressive and to be honest just what I would expect. They also mentioned that they had this problem with Riley Blake fabrics and they (Riley Blake) have made a change so this does not happen in the future.

So I urge you to check any precut FQ bundles you buy; my friend Jo had the same issue with a bundle of Seaside by October Afternoon for Riley Blake and had to rework her quilt as she was also using a pattern which required 18″ width of FQ.

Oops rant over, the plan is to get the quilt top made this month, not sure how I’m going to plan the layout as the house is far from straight and I don’t have much space to use as a design wall! Then in July I can get it basted, quilted and bound ready to take to FQ Retreat near the end of the month to hand over ready for the Siblings Together summer camp.

I’d better get cutting! Linking up with:

Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2013 – All Stars

Published on 19/05/2013 by Mary in Boys, Patchwork and Quilts. 19 Comments

I knew that Bloggers Quilt Festival was almost upon us and then a lot of blog posts appeared with lots of lovely quilts in and I realised I wasn’t prepared like I’d aimed to be.

The quilt I’m going to show you today has not appeared previously except in a sneak peek at the end of March. There is a story behind it which is not mine to share. But what I can share is my reason behind the making of this quilt.

A lovely young boy that I know has been going through an extremely tough time and things recently got a whole lot worse, I was lost for words. Tobit (my husband) was away in London for a couple of days but once he was back I told him what was going on and how I needed to make a quilt for this boy.

Sometimes there are no words, but there was a stash of fabric and the ability to sew, so I did. With every cut and stitch I thought about this boy and his family, a couple of times I thought they might think me weird for doing this but so what.

I pulled out from my stash every bit of the All Stars collection for Riley Blake that was one of my first full bundle purchases, I’ve used it in various projects but still had plenty left. In addition are a few pieces from the Wheels collection (also Riley Blake) and some charms from the Andover Dimples range:

I made a pile of 9 patch blocks, cut them up and moved them around a few (hundred) times before agreeing a layout with myself.

I was on a bit of a mission not just for the young boy but also because we had started major building work on the house and I was about to lose the dining room (also my sewing space) and the kitchen.

I didn’t want to hang about so made a scrappy (very) back with all my leftovers and a large piece of All Stars flannel for extra snuggle factor.

So with an hour to go before time was up and the dining room was sealed and off limits I got down on my hands and knees and basted this quilt.

I quilted it myself in straight lines either side of the main block lines (someone please tell me a more technical way of explaining that) and hand sewed the binding on.

There’s a label on there too, which had a message added before it was delivered:

I worried about how to deliver this quilt and how it would be received, but I needn’t have. There were tears from the mum and me and smiles and amazement from the young boy as he wrapped it round himself. I hope that it will continue to give him comfort for years to come.

Thanks for reading. I’m entering this into the Throw Quilt category as think that’s the best fit.

Quilt Stats:

Size: 45″ x 58″
Fabric: All Stars and Wheels Riley Blake, Dimples – Andover
Backing fabric: All Star Flannel and scrappy
Binding: Summersville Cross Hatch red
Quilting: Quilted by me on my machine
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Wadding 80/20
Pattern: 9 patch

A quilt finish for Siblings Together

Published on 09/04/2013 by Mary in Girls, Patchwork, Quilts and Siblings Together. 11 Comments

So I finished this quilt a week or so ago, I just needed time to write about it!

Last year I bought some charm packs of Little Apples by Aneela Hoey from an online fabric store that was closing down, they were a bargain price and ideal for a quilt for a girl.

It took me a while to decide what to do with them. I had ideas of making 2 quilts with the 4 packs that I had, but after much sketching and calculating I decided to it would be easier to make just the one with this fabric.

I’d seen Jeni’s Patchwork Chevron Quilt and liked the idea but didn’t want to make quite such a big quilt. So I scaled it down using 4 patch blocks instead of 9 patch and this is the result:

Believe it or not we actually had sunshine one day last week so I took the opportunity to take some photo’s in the park, pegging the quilt to the fencing of the tennis courts.

The yellow fabric was left over from last years Siblings Together quilts, I used it to back the Sew Cherry quilts. I had enough left to make 3 rows of chevrons but I then decided I didn’t want a square quilt, so I ordered some more fabric, enough for another row and for the backing too.

The Klona is wide 54″ so a metre goes a bit further than other solids. The finished quilt is 54″ wide, I basted it on the floor in the half an hour or so that I had left before the dining room was shut off in the building works. Unfortunately when I’d finished basting I discovered that it had a big crease in the back, so I decided to unbaste it and add a strip of Little Apple charms in to the back which made the backing fit a bit more comfortably and basting easier (although with no dining room floor I had to take it to my mums to get it done).

I quilted the background fabric between the chevrons following the line of the chevrons.

The binding is Cross Hatch in Bus Red from Lucie Summers Summersville line, I’ve used it on another quilt that I’ve yet to blog about and I do love it as a binding fabric. I bought 3 yards of it with plans for clothing but I might just keep it as my ‘go to binding’.

So I hope that while this is my first quilt this year for Siblings Together it will not be my last, only time will tell! Oh and I must get a label from Laura Jane to finish it off.

Quilt Stats:

Size: 54″ x 72″
Fabric: Little Apples charm pack by Aneela Hoey, Klona Maize
Backing fabric: Klona Maize and Little Apples
Binding: Cross Hatch in Bus Red from Summersville collection by Lucie Summers
Quilting: Quilted by me on my machine
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Wadding 80/20
Pattern: Based on this idea by Jeni Baker