Scraptastic Tuesday - March link up

I've been doing non scrappy things recently, so I quickly had to think what I could get started on to prove my scrappiness this month.

I have a background to make for a silly scrappy project, nick named Triffid - you might be able to see why....

It could be another quilt for Siblings Together as long as it will not scare a child!? 

Another reason to make a background from scraps is because my neutrals scrap box seems to be constantly overflowing onto the floor.   So it was obviously time to get busy with my rotary cutter and low volume scraps.

This is the result so far

Will it do as background for my silly Triffid!   What do you think?

It's the second Tuesday of March, so the Scraptastic Tuesday monthly link is open.



Now its time for you to share your scrappy projects, plans and ideas.

InLinkz.com

A huge thank you to our generous sponsors for providing the following prizes which will be awarded randomly among those of you who link up.

• Mad About Patchwork - a $40 gift certificate

• Fluffy Sheep Quilting - a €20 (20 Euro) gift certificate

• Green Fairy Quilts - $25 gift certificate

• Karen Lewis Textiles  - scrap pack

• Fat Quarter Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Massdrop - Sam and Mitzi Fat Quarter Bundle

• Sew Sisters Quilt Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Simply Solids - £20 (20 Pounds) gift certificate

Please join Leanne at She Can Quilt and I by linking up a blog post or flickr or instagram photo sharing a scrappy project, in progress or finished, or your thoughts on dealing with your scrap mountain:

• You don't have to have joined us before, everyone is welcome.

• One link per person, and it will be your entry into the random draw for the prizes. It is the same link up here and at Leanne's blog - She Can Quilt - so you only need to link up on one of our blogs.

• Please visit at least a few of the links, they are very inspiring, and leave comments too as everyone loves to connect. 

• Use the Scraptastic Tuesday button and invite your friends to join us too. Please share our button, or a link or the hashtag #scraptastictuesday in your linked post or photo.

• The link is open until next Monday night at 10:00 pm MST. We will announce the winners next Tuesday. 

• If you have trouble linking up, let me or Leanne know and we will get you sorted.

Wonder what Leanne has been up to?  A bit of paper piecing perhaps - in which case her scraps will be paper rather than fabric....I think you should go and check it out!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tweet Tweet!

[This post is now linked to TGIFF hosted by the lovely Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap!]


Inspired by Susan's recent posts about her birdy quilt I thought it about time to finish my own....

I first thought about making this quilt in 2010 inspired by all the great birdy fabric I kept seeing on the internet.  I bought the fabric mainly off ebay and started making my Birds in the Attic Window blocks in May 2011.

I thought it was going to be hard to mitre those frames but it turned out easier than I thought and the top was soon finished....

Then I was thinking how the back should look and still had birdy fabric to spare...My answer was found on Cindy's blog @ Hyacinth Quilt Designs  with her birdbath blocks quilt!  

I thought how cute to use this block and put birds in the bath!?

I thought just one or two would be great on the back of this quilt but got carried away and ended up with another quilt top ful!  My layout is a bit different as I added those pink squares in there just to brighten it up a tad you understand and tie it in with the skinny border on the front!

At this point I asked my readers which top should be the front? 

They all seemed to say they should be two different quilts! 




I was still thinking about putting the two together - yes I am obstinate but that could well be down to my Capricorn tendencies - and was stumped as to how to quilt it as the patterns did not match up.  That's when I shelved it for a while!

Since then I have learnt about Free Motion Quilting and all over patterns and a light bulb went off in my head and I saw that was my way forward!  My idea was birdy free motion quilting of course!


Well here is the finished quilt - now called Tweet Tweet!

Not as sunny now is it??  Birds in the Beech tree!

 Have to say that the quilting is probably my least favourite part of the quilt and this is my second attempt - don't ask!  But for someone who does not unpick, I unpicked a whole lot of bird's nest quilting in too heavy a thread and replaced it with some not great quilting...can't unpick it all again so will need to learn to love it!

I do love the label though - fed up of sewing a label onto my quilts at the end of the process I made sure I pieced a block ready to be my label.  Thinking I would hand embroider it I left it until now and then I just FM quilted that thing and that is probably the best quilting because the thread matches the background and doesn't really show! 

Ok it is not awful but I am getting more picky and I have done better I feel.  Don't tell Lucy as she will call me a hypocrite and you know what she would be right.

Delft Dreams - the finish!

This little quilt has been on my list for some time - it is one of my UFOs from October 2009 when I did a workshop with Margaret Hughes at the Quilt Room in Dorking.

The workshop was called I Love Scraps, which I do, and features curved piecing.  I later found the block we did in an old quilt book by Jan Halgrimson and the block is called Rose Dream!  

 As my quilt is all blue and white I felt I could hardly call it Rose Dream so since then I have been calling it Delft Dreams to recall the lovely Deft pottery from the Netherlands in blue and white.


On the back I added some solid (Kona Ash) to the blue florals in an attempt to lend it a more graphic modern feel and I could not resist putting in a large broken dishes block.

Can you see Saffy's fluffy tail?

The top is all pieced by hand - this represents lots of hours waiting around for children to do swimming, piano and guitar lessons and keeping my hands busy!


The back is machine pieced.  I have FMQed it with loopy stitching in my lovely Aurifil 28 this time in a sea green shade and last night stayed up late stitching my binding down which is a matching solid sea green shade!

Part of my label....

And finally the obligatory rolled up quilt photo - this time able assisted by Miss Bernina 1030! 

This is my first finish of 2012 - let's hope I can do a few more as there are lots of UFOs to come!

Starry, starry night! Quilted!

This quilt I started in 2009 and promised to my eldest for Christmas!  I didn't say which Christmas but she is rather despairing of ever getting her quilt so it is about time I finished it don't you think!?  I last blogged about it in April this year!

This is my favourite photo of it from April - looking like a stained glass window!


I pieced it entirely by hand except for attaching the borders which is why it has taken so long to finish the top - my daughter doesn't appreciate that it is time consuming, but to be honest the top has been complete since April 2011!  


It has lain waiting to be quilted!   As I have progressed with my machine quilting I decided to quilt it by machine just to make sure that it will all stay together and to give it more texture.  Well and also because I thought maybe I could and quite frankly it was the only way it would be finished on time!


So far I have quilted round the stars and have cross hatched the squares in the border. 

Ok there are a few wiggles and the stitches are not all even but I don't think she will mind!  I quilted it using King Tut variegated thread which I had bought at the time for that purpose as my top thread and cream on the bottom to match the back fabric.   I wish now I had been confident enough to use the variegated thread on the bobbin too but I still like it!

I will do something else in the irregular octagons but would rather give her the quilt at Christmas bound and ready for use and add a bit of quilting to those octagons once we've had a chance to discuss what she wants there - there was talk of Japanese words but I am not sure that it will fit with the look of the quilt.  But if she does want it still I will have a go!  Either by machine or perhaps hand stitched in cotton perle!?  

I have called it Starry, starry night for obvious reasons but also because the Don Mclean song is/was a favourite of hers.  

The song was written in admiration of the work of Vincent Van Gogh - she likes his paintings too.  Bit of a sad song telling how Vincent was at odds with the rest of the world - for so many years, misunderstood and alone!  She is an individual too who likes to go her own way!

She is also a Doctor Who fan and who remembers which Doctor is the one to meet Vincent in one of the episodes??


Hope she will love it, and as she gets ready to go to uni next year, I hope it will remind her of home and family and all the love we feel for her.  




She is interested in Cosmology and is a bit of a star herself in my eyes!




I'm linking this post to Quilt Story, see my sidebar for the button - see you there!

Borderless Delft Dreams

You were mostly telling me to go without a border and as I have never done that before I find I am only too happy to oblige - plus the fact that I can finish sooner!


But I do like a pieced back to a quilt to make my quilts sort of reversible so here is the back....spent all yesterday playing with it!

First of all there is a giant sized broken dishes block in blue and white - what else could I use? The block is deliberately off centre and I have given it a border first in Kona Ash from the lovely Mandy at Simply Solids.  Followed by a blue and white border suggested by new blogger Helen at Archie the wonder dog! 

Aside:
If you know Lynne then you have been to Helen's blog already otherwise go and have a look and say hi!  She has just started blogging but has done some lovely work which you can also see on her Flickr photostream - same name!  And you will meet Archie and his pal Alfie there too!   

Back to the quilt:
More Kona Ash and blue squares follow with a bit of white thrown in. 




You may notice a hint of black fluffiness in the bottom right corner......you've guessed I was visited by the lovely Saffy while taking my photos this morning in pyjamas and wellies in the gentle English drizzle....!


It was great fun making this pieced back and my next job will be to layer and quilt this little one.....here are front and back together

....with guard cat!

...and there is her seal of approval " Good job mum!"

Nearly finished but now I need Liz to nag me about getting on with that applique border on the Friendship's Garden quilt as I have done two swags and no more!  Go for it Liz!

Polo Fruity Hexagons!

The bright hexagons have been zigzagged on the machine together!  And now I have to decide what is to go in the centre as at the moment my quilt is full of holes!  




Just like a whole lot of Polo Fruits!

The options I was considering were


1  All one colour throughout the quilt
2  A fabric from each individual hexagon 
3  A contrast fabric from the quilt but not in that specific hexagon 

I had some very helpful comments and some ideas I had not thought of so I had to test them all out.  Thank you all you creative people even if I am not going with your suggestion I appreciate your time and thought!  


I placed some of my Kona solids under the quilt top to see what I liked best and these are my favourites

Well I like them all with some of the hexagons so I am leaning towards option three after all.  I will actually cut out some dotty fabrics next as the centres to see if this will work.  I will report back!


As for the Delft Dreams quilt - again thanks for your input and I will go ahead without a border - haven't tried that before so it will be fun to try something new!  

This post is linked to

Freshly Pieced WIP - Wednesday