Goal for July

07/07/201407/07/2014 Mary 5 Comments

I’m cutting it fine this month entering my goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. I’ve had lots to do, but most have been small projects for teacher and birthday gifts which have been quick to start and finish so no good as a goal.

The one project that I feel like I have hanging over me is this one:

I finished the quilt top as my goal for May. I left it in a pile and picked it up again a couple of weeks ago and basted it. I started quilting it but wasn’t happy with how it was looking so have just finished unpicking it!

Now it needs basting again and quilting (again). It’s bothering me so I’m going to try to get it done, I’m pretty sure I’ll feel a lot better when it is ticked off my list.

Linking up with:

More oven gloves

06/07/2014 Mary 5 Comments

I made another pair of oven gloves a couple of weeks ago, again using this great tutorial by Adrienne. I’d not written about it or even got them photographed but was spurred on by Cindy showing off her lovely hot ~~pants~~ pads to do something about it.

This is the pair I made back in December:

They get used frequently which means they need washing but I didn’t want burnt hands while they were in the wash so decided that we needed another pair. I’m guessing if I searched hard enough I might find a pair in a cupboard somewhere but sewing is more fun than searching!

As before I used denim from an ‘old’ pair of jeans, these were from a charity shop pair that were very large and in excellent condition so I really got my money’s worth! I used the dusty pink Kettle Stripe by Melody Miller Ruby Star Shining, it’s a cotton/linen mix so slightly thicker and more hardwearing than a cotton. I quilted the main piece with Aurifil 1240, a dark burgundy that looked perfect with the coffee pots. I think the quilting is crucial to the oven gloves, holds the layers together well but doesn’t make them too stiff to use:

The binding is Sour Apple a Kona cotton which was a pretty good match with the green coffee pots. I did forget to include a hanging loop so had to do some unpicking to add it in.

I’m pleased with how both pairs turned out and they’ve been put to good use over the last few weeks, a highly recommended tutorial if you’re looking for one.

July Bee Blocks

02/07/2014 Mary 1 Comment

This month in the Siblings Together Bee, Jane chose the Cheerio block, inspiration came from Issue 8 of the Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine which has a quilt by Camille Roskelley using this block.

There were discussions in the flickr group about the sizes to cut pieces at which was confusing and meant I had a frustrating day trying to get these blocks made. I ended up ignoring comments and cutting as the original instructions and the blocks came out fine. Lesson learnt I hope!

The quilt blocks we are making now will be ready for summer camps next year; don’t forget that you too can contribute if you want – just ask how.

Sunday Stash #12

29/06/201428/06/2014 Mary Leave a comment

Thanks everyone who linked up with me for Sunday Stash last week. Before I get on to the exciting task of announcing a winner I thought I’d share with you this weeks stash additions.

I’m still sticking to my Fabriholics Anonymous pledge but I did buy this little lot.

Yes not the most exciting photo! There is a stack of rotary blades for my cutters! I use my blades a lot and sharpen them too but sometimes only a new blade will do. I have a wholesale account which makes it worthwhile buying blades in bulk, 8 for the price of 4.

I treated myself to a new 12″ x 6″ ruler because the old one is worn out and no longer so accurate. I also bought a 6″ x 1″ and a 4″ square ruler because I often want a smaller ruler, obviously the 6″ x 1″ is diddy but it’s been in use a fair amount this week so was worth it, so much easier to wield than a 6″ x 12″ but also easier to misplace!

After a week of hot weather I’d been on a shorts making marathon for my children so I bought a 25m roll of 3/4″ elastic so that they could wear the shorts without them falling down! I use this size elastic in dresses for Dress A Girl Around the World too so it won’t last more than a year I guess.

So that’s my stash addition for the week, onto the winner of the giveaway of this little lot:

the random number generator picked:

which is Quilts from the Attic aka as Nicholas:

I did laugh when I realised who had won because he’d left this comment:

Congratulations and please drop me an email with your mailing address and I’ll get this off to you shortly.

Check out Molli Sparkles to see what others have been stashing this week.

A finished quilt!

26/06/201426/06/2014 Mary 12 Comments

I set out my goal for this month to get this quilt top transformed into a finished quilt:

Photo from Jo’s IG

I did it! It was almost too hot for basting but I managed it and also came to the end of a 15 metre roll of wadding!

Summer has arrived and last Friday after school we headed to the beach for a splash in the sea and a BBQ tea. I took the opportunity while dinner was cooking to sew in threads and while the children moved stones around the beach my superb cameraman took some photo’s:

I got it into my head when we were sewing blocks together that I wanted the back to be a large Wonky Cross:

I love the idea of having a super large version of the front block on the back. It’s not always easy to do but worth the effort I think!

This quilt is a wonderful example of people pulling together for a good cause. Susy put a call out on instagram and in the Siblings Together Flickr group for Wonky Cross blocks. In total we received 211 wonky cross blocks and used every single one of them. The request was for blue’s – navy, cobalt, denim, persian, azure, royal married with greys, whites, pale blues. We received one block that was green and even that was used, I sliced it up and added it in to the binding!

I quilted in straight lines either side of each block seam using a Gutermann variegated cotton 4056 which complimented the variety of blues in the quilt top.

I machine bound the quilt for speed and durability and I also couldn’t face the thought of sitting on the sofa with a quilt on my lap in the heat of last week! I did miss that slow and steady end to the quilt process though.

Thanks to everyone who contributed blocks, I think I’ve remembered everyone, apologies if I have missed anyone, there were a lot of you:

joanne333jones, rosedahlia, thewoolpalace, Carol, mochawildchild, inspiredbyfelix, brianisthemessiah, heartofcharnwood, Sue, metroquilter, fabricandflowersuk, helenlay82, BossyOz, imstudiolou, petal68, moogiemum, quiltification, hannlib, bothybird, jorobexeter, susydunne

Thanks to Emily for allowing us to use her frame to quilt 2 of the quilts.
Thanks to Emma (Brian is the Messiah) for the donation of the iconic Ikea number prints fabric for backing this quilt.

I’m waiting for labels to arrive, once stitched on this will be mailed off with others to the Siblings Together office ready for the summer camps. 73% of siblings in care are separated from at least one brother or sister. The camps aim to provide adventure and to create memorable and meaningful experiences which sibling groups can share together and cherish forever. The quilts are given to children to take home at the end of the camp.

There is an ongoing need for quilts, so if you missed out on contributing to this quilt there will be other opportunities, join the flickr group and offer to make blocks or a whole quilt if you can.

I have another of these to share but that is saved for another day and Susy has one that she is finishing off too.

Quilt Stats:

Pattern: Wonky Cross 9″ blocks
Fabric: a wide variety from stashes in the UK and Europe!
Binding – Scrappy using Bike Path in blue, black and lime green
Backing – Ikea Britten Nummer and Bike Path by Alison Glass in blue
Wadding – Super-Soft 70/30 Eco-Blend by Sew Simple
Quilting – 1/4 both sides of every block
Size – Approx 63″ x 90″

Linking up with:

Personalised Paper Pieced Pillow

24/06/2014 Mary 4 Comments

(How fast can you say that? Actually it’s a cushion but for the purposes of the title…)

It appears as if it’s birthday party season again, invites keep arriving; mostly for the children! At the end of last week I decided to make a gift for Bethan to take to a party on Sunday.

Boys are trickier to sew for than girls, disagree if you like but please tell me why I’m wrong! Anyway I thought this boy might appreciated a personalised cushion, so I printed off the letter ‘A’ from the Just My Type pattern and paper pieced it using one of Bethan’s favourite prints which is from Ellen Luckett Bakers Quilt Blocks line.

I pulled some prints from Mo Bedells Mechanical Genius line and added borders to the 9″ block to make it 16″.

I quilted in and around the letter and added some more lines on each border, before piecing a zip in to the back (under the light blue flap in case you were wondering) and stitching it all together.

It wasn’t the quickest make in the world but it was a satisfying project to start and finish in a day. There are at least 2 more party invitations pinned to the calendar and teacher gifts to think about, they won’t all be getting one of these!

Sunday Stash #11

22/06/2014 Mary 15 Comments

Oh happy day, today, thanks to Molli Sparkles I have the great glittery honour of hosting Sunday Stash.

If you’re a regular reader you might be aware that I’m all signed up to Fabriholics Anonymous so maybe you’re wondering why on earth I’m hosting Sunday Stash. I could have used it as a good excuse to buy fabric just for the purposes of this post but I didn’t. For those of you that know me well you’ll probably know that I’m stubborn and once committed to something that is it.

So instead of new fabric I’ve pulled out some gorgeous ones from my stash that remain unused and in the case of charm packs unopened too:

I am still pretty smitten by this fat quarter bundle of Novella by Valori Wells, it’s been in my stash for 18 months and it’s probably time I opened it up and sewed something with it. I want to make another plus quilt and think that this might be just perfect for it, however I’m open to suggestions.

Next up are 2 charm packs of Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille, I really like this line and as all I have of it are charm packs I’m waiting for the right project to use them in, they have however been in my stash for almost 2 years!

I also have 2 charm packs of Wishes by Sweetwater, it’s a really cheery line with some lovely text prints in and guess what? I’m waiting for the perfect project for them!

There has been one sewing related item enter the house this week, not fabric but a book; Little One Yard Wonders sent to me by Storey Publishing for review. There are a stack of gorgeous projects in there (101 to be precise) ~~I’m pondering which to make first and for who~~ I have already started cutting out a pair of shorts for my middle child!

I’ve rifled through my stash of fabric, notions and patterns and come up with a bunch of items to give away to one lucky Sunday Stash linkerupper (yes that is now a real word):

There are 2 quarters of some of my favourite Jay McCarroll prints from his Garden Friends line, a fat quarter of Quilt Pirates by Michael Miller, a quarter of Alexander Henry Home Sewing is Easy comic strip print and the spools print. The winner will also receive 2 yards of tape measure twill ribbon, a new, unused Steam Punk quilt pattern by Jen Kingwell and a packet of fabric grips which are wonderfully useful for sticking on the back of your rulers to stop them slipping around while you’re cutting! The giveaway is open to anyone linking up below wherever you may be in the world. I’ll use RNG to select a winner and announce it in a weeks time.

Now, show us your fabrics/notions!

1. Link up a blog post welcoming any new sewing supplies to your stash.

2. If it is fabric from your existing stash that you’ve showcased before, please use new photos with as much natural light as possible, and provide as many manufacturing details about the fabric.

3. Please try to leave a comment on at least two other links. We want this to be a safe space for sewing supply collectors, after all!

4. Grab the button, and proudly proclaim you endorse Sunday Stashing!

All Shirt Swap

20/06/2014 Mary 4 Comments

I had a message yesterday to let me know that my shirts had arrived safely with Lee for the All Shirt Swap. I didn’t send all of these, I couldn’t bear to part with them all:

So I’m eagerly waiting to see what gorgeous shirts fly back to me. I believe that there is going to be a 3rd round so there is still a chance to join in.

Pop back on Sunday when I’m hosting Sunday Stash and will have a little giveaway to celebrate.

Ta daaaa!

12/06/2014 Mary 14 Comments

At last I can share with you the finished quilt I made as a gift for my brother and his wife to celebrate their marriage.

I’ve been going on about it since January, it felt all consuming, it really was my main focus for almost 4 months so please excuse my excitement at finally showing you the finished quilt.

There are posts about it here, here, here, here, and here. Like I said I did go on about it!

Any way the other weekend the newly weds visited so I was able to hand over the quilt, I hadn’t wanted to share photo’s before as Imogen said she wanted to see it for real first.

We had taken it to the beach with us at the beginning of April for a photo shoot:

I quilted approximately 1/4″ either side of each seam line, it’s a big quilt and really quite heavy so there was no way I was going to attempt anything fancy! You can see the quilting here:

I ordered extra fabric for the binding as I’d decided I didn’t want it scrappy:

It was a big quilt to photograph:

I wanted to make this extra special so decided to paper piece their names and the date of the wedding in to the back. I used Quiet Play’s Just My Type Uppercase, Lowercase and Numbers and Punctuation patterns (available in her Craftsy store). Originally I was going to use a mix of fabrics for the text but I’m glad I didn’t, some of the prints have quite a bit of white in them and I think that the text might not have been so clear:

I ordered 2 metres of the backing fabric which is extra wide at 108″ and had just enough for the paper piecing back ground and the backing. Quilt maths is often tricky but it’s great when you get it right and have little fabric left.

All rolled up and ready to gift:

So did they like it? Oh yes (phew), David even said it was worth getting married for! I’m assuming that it isn’t the only good thing about getting married!

Quilt Stats:

Pattern – adaptation of Gaggle of Geese by Jeni Baker in Issue 3 of Love Patchwork and Quilting
Fabrics – Tule by Leah Duncan (I used some of every print) which I bought specifially for this. Also a few prints from Quilt Blocks by Ellen Luckett Baker, Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House and some solids and spots from my stash. Background of geese is Kona Snow
Binding – Windmarks in Mirage from Tule
Backing – Widescreen – Grey by Carolyn Friedlander
Wadding – Super-Soft 70/30 Eco-Blend by Sew Simple
Quilting – 1/4 both sides of every block
Size – Approx 80″ x 90″

A goal for June – #ALYoF

03/06/2014 Mary 4 Comments

At the end of April I along with Susy and Jo stitched together a pile of Wonky Cross blocks that had been made by the lovely people of instagram and flickr to make quilts for Siblings Together. We made 3 quilt tops.

In May Susy and I made a trip to Emily’s and we quilted one of them, I took it home and stitched on the binding, I’ll share photographs of it in another post.

Susy and I both have one top each to baste, quilt and bind. Mine has been sitting for a few weeks waiting patiently, I’ve cleaned the kitchen floor twice in preparation to baste it and neither time has it been done!

I’m not going to FQR this year but would love to be able to send a box of quilts to be handed over to Delma from Siblings Together so I really need to get this done.

So that is my goal for June, if nothing else happens this needs to be finished ready to be given to a child on the summer camps that Siblings Together run.

Photo from Jo’s IG

Feel free to nag me, follow my progress on Instagram and check back to see if I’ve met my goal at the end of June.

Linking up with: