Shop till you drop

Yesterday saw the first day of the Festival of Quilts 2014 at the NEC, Birmingham.

For 9 years I worked at this Quilt Show as a Quilt Angel but for the last 3 years following my health problems I just visit!

Yesterday I went with my big sister and we had a great day together.  Pat doesn't quilt but she has been a sewer and knitter (she used to make my clothes from when I was a little girl up until I finished college) and she even did upholstery.  However, Pat does enjoy looking at quilts and is always interested in the quilts and bags I produce - some of them have been for her grandchildren. We mostly concentrated on the Competition Quilts, all beautifully displayed and all of a very high standard.  We had fun trying to decide which was our favourite - an impossible task! We had a little look at the stalls and I bought 3 well-priced fabrics.

Today I went on my own with a shopping list in mind.  I mostly make baby and children's quilts so I am always on the look-out for cheaper fabrics to use as backing and binding and also good deals on batting.  Some of my Quilting friends had bought bundles if white Egyptian cotton at previous shows which are ideal as sashing for baby quilts.  Found one of those at an excellent price. Also topped up my supply of machine thread and bought 2 more Perle cottons, a turquoise and a pink as they are colours I use a lot.

Then I went mad on fabrics:  some yardage and lots of FQs at cheap prices. And a Jelly Rolly - the first one I have ever bought.  Got a great deal on batting too so I am now well and truly stocked up.

Here's a photo of my haul:

I will put it all away tomorrow but for this evening I am going to sit down and have a rest.  I have been using a Fitbit for the past few weeks and today I clocked 31/2 miles, walking to and from the train to the Show and walking around the Show.  Good exercise as well as good shopping!

Another finish for 2013

I've had a busy week, finishing one quilt, sandwiching a WIP quilt top and two little premature baby quilts ready for hand quilting and labelling a little quilt I made exactly one year ago.

Firstly, my finished Zigzag Quilt:

 

I am so pleased with this quilt, all made from stash, nothing new bought at all. 

A few statistics:

Quilt measures 40", which I think is a nice size for a cot quilt/playmat.

I used 72 of my completed 4" Crumb blocks and paired those with 4" squares of yellow, orange and ash Kona Cottons to make the 144 HST units. 

Borders cut at 2.5" from a bright orange polka dot fabric I also had in my stash ( just a small piece of that left now)

Bound in a marbled effect bright green fabric which was sent to me recently in one of the Swap bots I joined.  I had a fabulous parcel of scraps from Shevvy, several of which were very generous sized pieces, including this green one.  Again, I have a little left over.

Hand quilted with a variegated yellow and orange Perle cotton.  I just outlined the zigzags and quilted 1/4" inside the borders.

 

Exactly a year ago I made my first Freckles Quilt fron Emily Cier's Book Scrap Republic. I didn't have anyone in mind for the quilt and put it away with my pile of finished quilts. However, a good friend has recently become a grandmother again so I decided this pretty quilt would be an ideal gift for little Nisha. 
I have embroidered a label ( I have called the quilt Rainbow Bubbles) and sewn it onto the quilt and it is now ready to be mailed.

Here's a reminder of the quilt:

This Close up shows how the circles are constructed from strips of scraps joined together.  It's so effective, especially as the concentric lines of hand quilting make the circles pop out of the background fabric.  I shall have to make another of these quilts!  Again, the quilt was all made from scraps I had in my stash as I even pieced the background of this quilt.

There are three babies due in April and May, all grandchildren of New Zealand friends so I am making a few cot quilts to add to my little stash of finished cot quilts. My Zigzag Quilt was added this week and I also decided to turn a quilt top I made some months ago into a baby quilt.  It's orange, blue and lime green, featuring a lovely Owl fabric.  Simple squares and rectangles.  I managed to find enough pieces of fabric in my stash to stitch together for the backing and sandwiched the quilt a couple of days ago.  The batting is a pale green one made from recycled plastic bottles, a Cot sized piece I won in a Giveaway ages ago.
I even had enough of the batting left over to use for two Premature baby quilt tops that were also sitting in my WIP box. Last night I sandwiched those together, backing them with more of the vintage sheet I used as backing for my Siblings Together quilt.

So, all in keeping with my New Year Resolutions to finish WIPs and to use up my stash!

So, a productive week!  I can now enjoy looking after our little 3 year old granddaughter this weekend, all sewing put safely away, out of reach of little hands!

Have a great weekend and do comment on this post if something has caught your eye.

 

 

 

Sorting out WIPs and tidying up

Had a busy time sorting through the cupboard in my sewing room.  All in a terrible mess! Finished quilts, unfinished WIPs, batting, etc etc. It's a job that I have been intending to tackle for some while but felt daunted by the task so it was put off and put off.

I treated myself to 4 new plastic storage boxes with lids then set about creating some order.
I put all the finished quilts into one storage box, the WIPs into another and smaller pieces of batting and stuffing for cushions into the 2 smaller boxes.  Looking better already!

I was ruthless with very small pieces of batting and threw them away. Sorted the other pieces into similar sized ones, ready for Premature baby or small cot quilts. I was surprised by how much batting I have and will not have to buy any for a long time. Good job as batting is SO expensive these days.

Then I discovered an abandoned quilt which I started many years ago at a Workshop.  It was going to be a Seminole Patchwork single bed quilt in turquoise and purple.  I had made all the strips, each one a different Seminole patchwork pattern and had started to put it together........................ then I obviously lost interest!  Looking at it now I know that I don't like the colours or the fabrics any more and that I will never finish it.  So, I have pressed all the Seminole strips and will pass them on to another quilter I know who has a group of ladies making Linus Quilts from donated fabrics and  left-over blocks.  I am sure another quilter looking at these strips with  a fresh eye will come up with a pretty Linus Quilt.

I found two of my little Premature Crumb Quilts which were almost finished.  I set to and have finished both in the last couple of days.

This one with Blue Sashing:

 

and one with Pink Sashing:

 

 

And now I have 6 ready to donate to the local hospital:

 

 

I now feel justified in starting another project which is on my "To Do" list, the I Spy Freckles quilt for little Robert.  I have made it larger and pieced the background from left-over pieces of cream fabrics.  There are 49 I Spy bubbles which I have fused to the background and this afternoon I started to hand blanket stitch them onto the top. This is my favourite kind of handwork so I am enjoying myself.