Spring on the building plot

I know I have mentioned it before, but I am so lucky to have an excellent local sewing shop- Aberdashery.  It's not a very big shop, but it is choc-a-bloc full, and almost always has what I've been looking for.  Many a quilting emergency has been saved by the lovely Jane.

Until recently, my 2016 challenge to finish more things than I started was going quite well.  Then the fabric started calling me again!  This gorgeous little Construction strip roll by Fabric Freedom just begged to be bought. I try to resist the ubiquitous pink and blue gender stereotyping in children's products, and originally thought that the little vehicles were tractors, so planned to give it to my farming niece.  However, when I unrolled the fabric I saw that they were diggers. I forgot that machinery is also subject to the colour police - tractors are red, diggers are yellow! Fortunately my little nephew is a huge Bob the builder fan, so I didn't need to look far for a new recipient.

There are just five fabrics in the roll, each repeated four times.  I felt that another yellow fabric was needed to balance it out, so bought this gingham to co-ordinate. 

I wanted the quilt to feel fresh and modern, and toyed with the idea of solid white.  I think it would have looked gorgeous, but not very practical for a gift for a toddler.  I settled on this pale blue instead, and now I can't imagine any other choice.


I followed the Summer in the Park tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt company to make the blocks.  Having never used a pre-cut before, I was so impressed how zippy-quick it went together.  In a couple of afternoons I made 42 blocks, which are 8" squares (7 1/2" finished).

A 6x7 layout would measure 45 x 52.5", which is a generous cuddle quilt, but not quite big enough for a single bed.  As my nephew is only three, I felt that a smaller size would be better, so have two quilts - 5x6 blocks, measuring 37.5" x 45" and a 9x9 layout measuring 67.5" square. I laid the blocks out differently in the two quilt tops.

The smaller quilt top is not finished, and I might add a border.

I wanted the fabrics to be the star of the show (and also wanted it finished quickly), so I chose to stitch in the ditch with my walking foot.  I quilted all the horizontal and vertical seams as well as the main diagonals.  It isn't a lot of quilting, so I hope it's robust enough to withstand toddler use.

There wasn't a suitable green fabric in the shop for binding, so I bought bias binding off the roll.  I won't use it again.  It's too narrow for a quilt, so was a battle to get it on neatly.  I do love the colour though.

I really love the bright cheery spring colours.  I don't think adding in the extra yellow was necessary, but it wasn't a bad choice either. Perhaps because making this quilt tied in with some gorgeous sunny weather, I really love this.

Here is the total list of materials used.
1 Fabric freedom strippers roll (1.25m of fabric)
25cm of yellow gingham
2m of solid blue (there is some left over)
4.5m of pre-made bias binding
1.5m of fleece
A whole 250m reel of thread!

Unforgettable- The Welsh Quilt Centre 2016 exhibition

On Saturday, the Welsh Quilt Centre's 2016 exhibition opened.  Tied in with this was an exhibition by one of my favourite local artists - Valeriane Leblond.  I buy her calender every year, and treat myself by not peeking at it in advance so I get a beautiful surprise every month.  The pictures of hers that I love the most are the ones done in conjunction with the quilt centre.  To tie in with the annual exhibition, she has painted a series of pictures featuring the exhibited antique quilts.  Her work is very popular, and has always sold out quickly.  This year, I highlighted the date in my diary, visited on opening day... and am soon to be the proud owner of some original artwork! I'm so excited!
I didn't photograph any of the paintings, and I only had my phone to take pictures of the quilts, so they're not the greatest quality.  This quilt is the one featured in my painting.

I'm always surprised by how bold and bright the colours are in the antique quilts.  I would associate them more with the 1980s than the 1880s!

In the second gallery are a series of cot quilts had quilted by Sandie Lush.  They really do not photograph well, but are absolutely beautiful in real life.  I think these were made for exhibition, but would be an heirloom to treasure if made for a baby.  Most of the quilts are whole-cloth in plain fabric, which deservedly allows the quilting to take all the attention.  I also liked the ones with pretty borders. 

Sandie will be running a workshop at the quilt centre in September, and I have signed up straight away!  I love having something to look forward to.

Owl always love you!

My new baby niece arrived a little bit earlier than expected, and I had only bought the fabric for her quilt about a fortnight before.   I had entered Calico Kate's quilt shop in Lampeter with quite a clear picture in my head of what I wanted to make.  I only needed three fabrics- a statement print, and two complementary smaller prints - I thought it would be easy! It wasn't- even with the vast selection available in Calico Kate. 
On my many circuits of the shop a bright cheerful Owl panel kept catching my eye, so I abandoned my original plan, and decided on a simple quilt with a central panel and matching border.   I am in the camp who believe that children's items should be bright and cheerful, and this certainly is! It's all made from the "Owl in the family" line of fabrics by Desirees designs.  Owls seem to be in fashion at the moment, and my Dad (the baby's Grandpa) said that they symbolise wisdom, so we hope baby will be clever!
I really love the owl puns written around the border fabric.

The quilt top was super-easy to put together, I simply cut out the panel, and added two borders from the complementary fabric.  I used a poly-cotton wadding, and backed the quilt with another fabric from the same range. Backing the quilt at this stage was a mistake, as the next thing I did was outline quilt around many of the features on the central panel, to give the quilt a 3D effect. The pictures on the front are outlined in black, so this was the only suitable thread choice.  This gave me a dilemma.  Hand quilting stitches would show on both sides of the quilt, and I didn't like the idea of black outlines on the lovely pale green back.  I decided to machine quilt, with black on the top, and pale green bobbin thread.  There would have been two advantages to only quilting through the top fabric and wadding and adding the backing afterwards; firstly, I could have used the same black thread in bobbin and top spool, which would have solved any slight tension issues going around the intricate designs; secondly, I wouldn't have needed to bother with the most tedious task in quilting - burying all those thread-ends. I absolutely hate this task, although these easy-threading needles have really helped.  Instead of threading the needle in the usual way, you just pull the thread over the back of the needle, and it threads itself.  A real sanity-saver!

Sewing around all those intricate designs also called for the use of another tool I wish I didn't need - the seam fix!  This gadget is a really, really good seam-ripper.  The point is lovely and sharp, and the rubbery white ends help to pull all the loose threads out neatly.  The only thing that irritates me about this is that the cap which covers the pointy end for storage doesn't fit on the other end when in use.

The reason the seam-ripper had so much use, was that I tried to free-motion around the outlines.  This first picture shows my wonky attempt around this poor owl's eyes and ears.  I think it's a little bit scary-looking!

The next picture shows what I can do with my walking foot if I go very, very slowly.  Pretty neat, if I do say so myself!

Although insufficient skill is a large part of the problem, the different machine feet also contribute. I have two walking feet for my machine.  For this work I used the open-toe one, which means that I can see exactly where the needle is going in the fabric.

The free motion foot, however, is clear plastic.  Although in theory, you can see through the plastic, it actually refracts the light and distorts my view, so I can't clearly see the crucial exact point where the needle enters the fabric.  An open-toe free motion foot is definitely on my wish-list now.

Trials and tribulations aside, I love the 3D effect now that it's finished.  Although it doesn't photograph well, it really lifts the quilt in real-life.  Most important of all, the new parents liked their gift, and hopefully baby will too when she's a little older.
 

February progress

This post helps me to remember where I am with my projects, and what I have to do next!

I have knocked two projects off my UFO list- the Secret Santa Quilt, and Baby and Big A vests.
After the earlier than expected arrival of my new baby niece, her quilt jumped rapidly off the NESY list.
I have unfortunately though bought enough fabric for THREE new projects, so no progress into the fabric mountain.

UFOs - Unfinished objects

Lacy Scarf

Cross stitch train

Pink elephant

Minnie mouse bag.

Party dress

Crochet doily project

Snake

Rainbow crochet

Tree quilt

Flower puff blanket
New neice quilt

Nearly finished

Threadcatcher pincushion

NESYs - Not even started yet!

New cushion cover

2nd snake for upstairs

Covers for cubes 

Colourwash with liberty lawns
Kaffe Fassett Stripy something

Christmas bunting

Tree skirt

Picnic blanket with samples, including more NY beauty

More caddy bags

Caddy bag for scrap sorting.

More totes best friend

Amended totes best friend with tutorial

Crochet tank tops with tutorials

Tesselated pinwheel tutorial

Dress!

Ispy quilt - possibly a picnic blanket with little huts.

Something for hallway with indigo batiks

Strawberry quilt

Anna summer dress

Bettine dress from jersey 

Fauxby wrap
Construction jelly roll
Owl caddy bag.

Secret Santa Quilt

The advantage of the horrible weather at this time of year is that there is plenty of opportunity for staying in and sewing. 
It seems that when I'm at work I spend far too long talking about what I get up to at home, because Secret Santa nailed it with my present- fabric and chocolate!  Obviously the chocolate was put to good use almost immediately, but the fabric has lasted a bit longer.

I was given a little collection of 5" squares in very pretty florals.  I had been wanting to make a quilt with this pattern, for a long time, and this was a perfect opportunity.  In the tutorial, the pattern is called Sea of squares, but I'm not sure if that only applies when it is done in blues, greens and whites. 

I combined the little squares with a plain cream which was a bargain duvet cover from a charity shop. I used my trusty zip-lock sandwich bags to keep everything organised while I was sewing.

After sewing my patches I tried a few different layouts, but nothing seemed to work. 

There was no other option - off I went to my wonderful local fabric shop - Aberdashery to look for something to co-ordinate.  I am so lucky to have this little shop nearby.  It doesn't have a particularly big selection of fabrics, but the owner is absolutely lovely, and as usual, we managed to find a perfect complementary fabric.
Adding in the extra fabric helped the pattern to work, this photo shows the new fabric with the original blocks laid on top.

After sewing the quilt top together, I really wasn't sure what to do next.  I usually have a use in mind before I start sewing, but not this time.  I pondered between making a picnic blanket, a snuggle blanket for a little girl, or a table topper.  The snuggle blanket won out because I felt the cream would show too much dirt to be a table topper or a picnic blanket. 

I decided instead of wadding and backing I would simply back the top with fleece.  This has the advantages of being warm and snuggly and machine-washable, as well as being one less layer to fight with when pinning and quilting!
I really wanted to free-motion quilt this top, and it sat in its unfinished state for months while I struggled to master the technique.  Unfortunately I still haven't got the hang of it, but I did find some excellent inspiration on Pinterest on how to use the walking foot creatively.  I'd only ever sewn stitch in the ditch, or long wavy lines before.
I used my favourite Crayola washable markers to mark the pattern on the top, and off I went.

Here is the finished blanket. 

I'm glad that I've started to expand my quilting skills, rather than just piecing a top and thinking it was finished.  I will keep practicing FMQ, perhaps on the next project!