Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop

Well I've been trying to find the time to write this post for over a week but life kept getting in the way - the Wee Chap came down with a vomiting bug (much, much laundry) and then on the day he went back to school the Little Lady ran into the corner of an open car door and split her head open (much, much blood) requiring a trip to A&E to glue her back together.

But enough about all that!  Beth of Plum and June had the wonderful idea of a blog hop for newer bloggers and was kind enough to ask me to take part.  You can read all about it here.

My date is 14th June and that is perfect as my project is a baby quilt for some good friends of ours and that is their due date, so for once I know I'll have a baby quilt ready in time!

Here is some of the fabric I'll be using

Monsterz by Cloud9

I hope you will check out all the participants, starting tomorrow with

Kelsey of Kelsey Sews
Erin of Billy Button Designs

See you soon
Sarah

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Spring 2012

This is a very exciting post for me!

Ever since I got into quilting 18 months ago I've been a massive fan of quilting blogs and last spring I noticed posts popping up about the Bloggers' Quilt festival run by the wonderful Amy of Amy's Creative side.  I became a follower and looked forward to the Autumn Festival, with good reason - so many wonderful inspiring quilts.

So when I started this blog at the beginning of 2012 one of the things I was really looking forward to was taking part in these fantastic online quilt shows.

But I've spent the last couple of days pondering which quilt to enter - part of me wants to feature my 'best' quilt so far but at the same time many of the stories I've most enjoyed from past festivals have been those with a story.

So in the end I've decided to show you the Monkey quilt.

This quilt was made last year for my 4 year old son.  I made my first ever quilt for my 2yr old daughter and then I had made several quilts that I gave as baby gifts and was in the process of making another baby quilt when he asked if that was 'his' quilt.

I hadn't even thought about making him a quilt! Queue a dose of mother's guilt and a scramble to find some fabric he would really like.

I settled on Lollipop by Sandy Gervais for Moda as he is a massive fan of monkeys - his favourite softie is a monkey (called Monkey - we are not good at thinking up names in this house, we also have Blue Bear, Red Ted and Big Dog).  I bought some bundles in the cream, brown, turquoise and yellow colours on ebay and the seller was kind enough to send me the panel for free.

But these were not standard fat quarters but rather scraps (albeit big ones) that she was selling off.  So then I had a bit of a dilemma - up to that point I'd always used patterns and pre-cuts so I'd not had to figure out fabric quantities of how to put them together.

So after a bit of surfing I came across Oh Fransson's Mod Sampler pattern which I reckoned I could make work if I used the block designs and substituted the panel in the centre.  I then spent the next couple of evenings working out which fabrics I had sufficient of to make which blocks.  I added half square triangle blocks as I wanted to try them out and then I got cutting.

Amazingly for my first attempt at 'quilt maths' it all came together pretty well.  There was a slight hiccup - you can probably see that the panel is chopped off at top and bottom, unnecessarily as it turned out, as I'd got mixed up with seam  allowances.  So then I had to increase the sashing width at the top and bottom.

But none of that mattered to the Wee Chap who has loved this quilt from the moment it was finished.  It is the most used quilt I've made and he asks to be wrapped up in it whenever he is cold, tired or sad. And that to me is the best thing about quilting!

If you are here from the festival I hope you will stay and look around and if not then head over there and browse the 400+ fantastic quilts.

Sarah

Wednesday again!

Hello!

Seems like an age since I posted - I was away at a conference so I missed WIP last week and Fresh Sewing Day and Small blog meet.  Very inconvenient of my job to get in the way of my sewing and blogging!

Anyway despite my trip, the horrendous weather (which means the kids are stir crazy) and a small snotty little lady who wanted lots of cuddles over the weekend I have managed to get a good bit of sewing done

Finished

Siblings together quilt

Really pleased with how it turned out - it is bright and cheerful and hopefully will bring a bit of comfort to its recipient.

I backed it with Klona Corn Yellow and bound it in the same with a few last scraps of Modern workshop thrown in.  It is quilted with a simple diagonal running through the centre of the blocks

Fabric - Modern Workshop by Oliver+S, klona white and corn yellow.
Pattern - adapted from Small plates by Elizabeth Hartman

Baby wonky stars quilt

The owls are my favourite!

Well technically not entirely finished as still needs to be bound but binding strip is made and will be attached tonight as I'm off sewing with my friends A & J.

I'll definitely be making more wonky stars - love them.  Quilted with an all over loop pattern and my FMQ is definitely improving, I still have the odd stutter but this was much smoother than my last attempt.

Fabrics - Urban Zoologie by Ann Kelle and Klona pink and pomegranate
Pattern - wonky star tutorial here

In progress

Siblings together quilt 2 - Print fabric is cut and solid is on order so hopefully get sewing soon
Paper pieced bag commission - paper pieced block completed

No progress

Twiggy lattice quilt - really must start quilting this!
Alice mixtape - have decided on fabric for backing so need to order
Modern workshop bed quilt - going to take it tonight so hopefully progress to report next week

There are probably others as well but can't think of them this week.

Other news

• As you might have noticed I've been messing around with my header using a tutorial by Clover Lane. It isn't perfect but not back for a first try so expect to see more changes in the future.

• Emma of the fabulous Emma's Fabric Studio has posted about my Building Block Baby quilt on her blog!  Eeek!

• The lovely Beth of Plum and June has invited my to be part of her Let's Get Acquainted bloghop.   Designed for newer blogs it looks like a great way to get to know each other a bit better.

Well this must be my longest post ever so well done if you made it to the end!  I'll try to post a bit more regularly instead of occasional deluges.

Linking up with 

Bye for now
Sarah

All gone a bit wonky

Okay so apparently I missed the memo about just how much fun wonky stars are!

I've been waiting for the wadding for my Siblings Together quilt top arrive (which it did on Friday) so in the meantime I made a little wonky star baby quilt using this tutorial.

Even with all the trimming (of which I'm not a great fan - always paranoid I'll chop a chunk off that I wasn't meant to) I loved making them.  Fabrics are Urban Zoologie by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman from Frumble and Klona cotton in pink and pomegranate from Backstitch.

All my new favourite things (wonky stars, HSTs, paper piecing) seem to involve a lot of trimming - ah well such is life.

I've got some Izzy flannel for the back - not a perfect match colour wise but not too bad. 

So next up basting (for this and the Siblings quilt)
Bye for now
Sarah

WIP Wednesday

Wednesday again and lots to report as I haven't managed to blog much recently.

Finished

Baby building block quilt

 Pattern : Baby Building Blocks by Cindy Lammon at Moda Bake shop

 Fabric: David bundle and Riley Blake flannel from Emma's Fabric Studio plus one orange print from my stash

I'm so please with how it turned out and really glad I went for it with free motion quilting.  Although it is a bit jerky in places I love the overall look.

It was posted off at the weekend and yesterday I got a call from my friend Elspeth saying that she loves it  :-)

In progress 

Siblings together

I've committed to making two quilts for Siblings together, a charity that helps siblings in care keep in touch, as organised by Lynne of Lily's Quilts.  For more info see here.

First off is one I make from may scraps

Fabrics: Modern Workshop by Oliver+S and klona white
Pattern: adapted from Small Plates from A Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  Initially I was going to back it in orange or turquoise but after perusing my swatch  card I've settled on klona Corn Yellow as it is the best match to the colours in the quilt and the extra width of klona keeps it economical.  Backing and batting are ordered so hopefully can get cracking on the quilting this weekend.

Today I received fabric for my second Sibling together quilt

It was donated by the wonderful Katy of I'm a ginger monkey.  There are six pieces from the Natures Effects collection (all of which are WOF and range from 12 to 30 inches in length!) and a yard of kona cotton in Wheat.  Wow!

I'm not sure what I'll do with them but my initial though is to use Super Zig pattern by Monica Happy Zombie with a pale beige/tan instead of white.  But my sewing buddies are coming over tonight so I'll get some more input there.

No progress

Bed quilt - although working with the Modern Workshop scraps has reminded me how much I like the fabric so I'm ready to get going with this one again.

Twiggy lattice quilt
Alice Mixtape quilt

New projects

Wonky star baby quilt - decided to make a baby quilt for a friend of a friend.  She has been very complimentary about my sewing and has had a rough pregnancy so I thought it would be nice to make her something and I fancy trying wonky stars.  Fabric is on order.

Paper pieced bag - my first commission! One of the ladies from the Wee chap's after school club got in touch and said that her daughter had been visiting at Easter and had fallen in love with the bag I made so could I please make another for her to buy!

That is about all for now - I'm feeling very enthused about sewing and since the Little lady has suddenly decided at the age of 2 years and 5 months that she can go to sleep by herself without an hour of messing about and having someone sit with her I might actually have more sewing time from now on!

Linking up with



Bye for now
Sarah

Siblings together - making a start

Hello

I've signed up to make a quilt for Siblings Together, a charity that helps siblings in care stay in touch and get together.  The lovely Lynne of Lily's Quilts has organised it and so many fantastic quilters are on board.

Already there are loads of quilts being donated - just have a look!

I spent a load of time surfing online fabric shops looking at fabrics that I'd like to use but in an effort to be frugal I investigated my scraps.  I don't have loads and I'm not very good at combining fabrics yet so I wasn't that hopeful but I did have a lot of 3" by 10" strips of Modern Workshop by Oliver+S - off cuts from a couple of layer cakes (the rest will eventually be a bed quilt for hubs & I).

After a lot of calculations (maths is definitely the hardest part of quilting) I worked out that with the strips and a few left over layer cake squares I had enough to make a decent size quilt top.
Here are the first four blocks

It was inspired by the Small plates pattern in A Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman.  The quilt should finish at about 66" by 76" which I think is a good size even for a teenager.

It is all cut out and I'm itching to get going!  Hope to have some time over the Easter weekend.

Hope you all have a great Easter.

Sarah

Fresh Sewing Day & Small blog meet

Happy April - hope not too many fools around ;-)

March has been a busy month - although I set myself a couple of major projects and then did my usual thing of procrastinating.  But anyway before we get to that here is a summary of what I got done in March:

I tried out paper piecing for the first time - and oh how I love it!

To feed my paper piecing addiction I made three bags for the lovely ladies who ran the Wee Chap's after school club (it closed at the end of term).  They were a massive hit so I'm pleased I made them.

I have finished the top and basted the Twiggy Lattice quilt I'm making for my Mum's 60th birthday.  Well her birthday was the 25th March and she arrives here on Thursday (she lives in Dubai but is back to help look after the Wee Chap over the Easter hols) and unfortunately it will not be finished by then because:
1) the a fore mentioned procrastinating
2) the Little lady contracting tonsillitis and a ear infection at the same time and hence robbing me of sleep and enthusiasm for sewing
3) deciding that my initial background quilting plan (straight lines on sashing) wasn't working and spending the last three nights unpicking - why does it take sooooo much longer to unpick?

But I've decided I'm not going to stress about it - I'll wrap it up as is on Wednesday night and let my mum open it and then take it back and hopefully have it finished by her next visit in June.

So the plan for April is to finish the Lattice quilt, finish my building block baby quilt and most exciting of all, get cracking on my donation quilt for Siblings Together.

Linking up with

and

Now off to visit some new blogs.
Sarah