More Sailing by

One of our Patchwork Group members hasn't been well so I offered to make her pair of blocks for the Group Quilt we are currently working on.

Finished them today:

 

I really like these blocks and I think we should have a lovely quilt to gift.

Another entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

I make a lot of Baby Quilts and the one I have chosen to enter Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival is a quilt I completed last October.  Our cousin's daughter was pregnant and I was quite convinced the baby would be a boy, so I made this quilt:

I had previously bought some "Boy" fabrics and used them in this quilt.

The pattern I chose was Fairy Lights by Ruth Buchanan, published in a magazine in 2007.

 

The selection of fabrics were perfect for this pattern as I wanted to showcase the lovely fabrics: gorgeous elephants, trains, cars and rows of fairy mushrooms.

 

I loved making the blocks as I always enjoy the process of making HSTs.  When I came to lay out the blocks I discovered that Ruth had used non-directional fabrics whereas mine were directional ones!  No problem - I just added an extra strip of HSTs to the fourth side of each block. More sewing but I had enough fabric and it made the quilt a good size, 42" square, which I think is a useful size for a Baby Quilt.

 

Here's a close up of those lovely fabrics and the HST borders around the blocks.

 

 

The quilt is still with me as my baby prediction was wrong! Helen had a little girl so a very different quilt was gifted.  I still haven't thought of a suitable name for this quilt but I am sure a baby boy will come along and that this quilt will be a perfect gift and the perfect quilt name will come to me.

 

I would like to enter this quilt in Amy's Festival in the Small Quilt Category.

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Spring 2015

 

A finished baby quilt

I know of three babies due to be born from November to January next year so I am trying to build my stash of baby quilts.  I have a few baby girl ones but no boy quilts.

When I was in New Zealand earlier in the year I was given a patchwork magazine from 2007 which included a pattern for a baby quilt.  It was by Ruth Buchanan and the quilt was called Fairy Lights.

I loved the pattern as it showcased a pretty fabric and was surrounded by HSTs which I always enjoy making.

The Pattern:

 

 

About two years ago my Patchwork Group went on an outing to a favourite Quilt Shop, The Bramble Patch in Weedon, Northamptonshire.  I bought a lovely selection of fabrics and some yellow Fat Quarters which I thought went with the fabrics I had chosen.  The quilt I had in mind didn't materialise so the bag of fabrics languished in my sewing cupboard.

 

Fast forward to a month or so ago when I was thinking of ideas for Boy Quilts and I suddenly remembered my stash of yellow, grey and blue fabrics. Perfect for a boy and perfect for the Fairy Lights pattern as I wanted to showcase the gorgeous elephants (I love elephants!), trains, cars and rows of fairy mushrooms.

 

I set to, made all the blocks without difficulty and then laid them out in a pleasing order.  That was when I discovered my mistake.  The fabric Ruth Buchanan had used was a non-directional design.  All my blocks had directional patterns!  Oh dear!  I put my thinking cap on and realised I would have to add extra strips of HSTs to the fourth side of each block.  more sewing but I am happy with the result.  I didn't have to buy any more fabric as I had enough in my stash for the extra HSTs and the border and backing fabrics were ones I had bought at the Festival Of Quilts back in August.

 

As I had added extra strips my quilt came out at 42" square, a bit larger than the pattern.  I think this is a useful size - big enough to wrap baby in, use on the Moses basket or later on the cot and is a great size for a playmat.

 

 

 

As the pattern was so busy I decided to machine quilt in the ditch.  Although I have been quilting since 1997 this is only the third quilt I have machine quilted.  It's not perfect but it's not too bad either. I'm happy with it anyway!

 

And here it is - my Boy Version of the Fairy Lights quilt:

 

 

 

And a glimpse of the backing:

 

Now I have to think of a name for the quilt.  I don't think Fairy Lights is quite right for this quilt!

Any suggestions will be very welcome.  No idea springs to mind at present.

I have already used the scraps of elephants, cars and mushrooms fabrics in another boy quilt top - strips this time.  It is now ready for sandwiching and I am going to hand quilt this one.   It will be my handwork project to take to my Patchwork Group.

Off to sandwich the quilt top.  Not my favourite part of making a quilt as it involves me crawling around on the floor in my Sewing Room!

 

Last 2 quilt finishes for 2013

I am a fan of Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog.  I love scrappy quilts and think Bonnie's ideas for using up small scraps accords with my approach to quilt-making.  Hence my Crumb blocks and the quilts that I create from them.

Another of Bonnie's ideas is her "Leaders and Enders" projects.  Instead of using scrap bits of fabric as Thread-catchers she adds to blocks for her next project.  In this way she sews a whole pile of blocks as a sideline to the quilt she is focussing on.

This is how I make my Crumb blocks and how I have made these two little Premature Baby Quilts:

 

I had been given a huge pile of scrap triangles, trimmings from blocks a prolific quilting friend had collected together.  She knows I enjoy using the tiniest of scraps, so as a series of "Leaders and Enders" projects I first created the small HST squares and then put them together in fours to make the kite-style blocks.

 

I had some of the Rabbit fabric left over from a child's quilt I had made for Ava so cut strips of this to intersperse with the kite-block strips.  Then more scrap string for the borders and I had made two Premature baby sized quilts.

 

I had a quick sort through more small left over pieces of fabric for the backing  and another look through my bag of leftover bindings and I was able to complete the little quilts.  One has pink binding scraps joined together and the other a mixture of blue scraps.

 

 

So, my final two Quilt finishes of 2013.

 

After these were finished I sorted out my sewing room.  Put all the scraps away neatly in drawers and sorted out my Crumb blocks-in -the-making tin so I could leave it with the lid shut!

Then a big dusting and Hoovering session and the room is packed away until 2014.

 

Only one more thing to do now - embroider a label for this quilt:

 

Baby Charlie was born on 11th December so this is a gift to welcome him to the world.  I will post it after Christmas to, hopefully! , avoid it getting lost in the Christmas Post Rush.

 

 

Strangely I have just realised that the Rabbit fabric leftover strips were from Charlie's big sister Ava's quilt!

 

Happy Christmas!

 

 

My scrap Pinwheels are now in a quilt

For the past few weeks I have been sewing triangle scrap pairs into small HST units and then turning those into pinwheel blocks.  Sometimes I have made these units in a leader/ender scenario and other times I have sat at the sewing machine churning out the HSTs and pinwheels.  As they piled up I thought of Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran with their "Parts Department".

But a few days ago I had enough "Parts" to start constructing a quilt. In true Gwen/Freddie style I have made a Medallion Quilt, using the pinwheels to make a centre panel and also borders.  The small HST units I also pieced into narrow borders.  As the colours were predominantly Autumn shades I just used two other fabrics for alternate borders:  an apple green with a yellow spot and a bright yellow with a deeper yellow spot. I hope these have helped to give this rather "busy" quilt a sense of calmness.

Again, like the dynamic duo, Gwen and Freddie, I let the "Parts" lead the design.  The black and cream and jazzy coloured pinwheels seemed to lend themselves to a dramatic centre panel and then I chose the borders as I got to them.  Good fun.

And here it is!

 

It measure 41" square.

 

I was given the scrap triangles by Wendy, a lady who makes (and gets others to make) hundreds of Project Linus Quilts.

 

On Monday I will see her at a Patchwork Group meeting and will hand over the finished quilt top so Wendy can back it and quilt it on her quilting machine.  I hope I see it before it is given away to the Linus organisation.

 

Lots of work in this one - I can't imagine how many hours sewing - but I am pleased with the cheerful quilt I have created from scraps most people would have thrown away plus some solid scraps and polka dot yardage from my stash.

 

And to finish, a couple of close ups of the pinwheels and HSTs:

 

 

I have also finished hand quilting my Rainbow Quilt so I hope to showcase that one next week.

Linking up with Maybush Studio's Brit Thursday Linky.

 

 

Preemie Quilt top from Scraps

 

Lots of sewing this week but only one photo.  I guess you are all tired of my endless sewing of scrap triangles! 

 

 

 

 

All week I have been churning out 3" blocks from my paired triangle scraps.

 

When I tired of making pinwheels I arranged the HSTs differently to create a sort of  diamond effect.  I expect there is a name for this sort of block but I don't know it.

 

As a change from churning out little blocks I decided to use some of the diamonds to create a small 15" x 20" quilt top.  I sewed 5 diamond blocks together into each row.  What doesn't show up in the photo is that two blocks in each of these rows are the same, a red on cream patterned "neutral" with a wine coloured fabric. Pretty.  I interspersed these row with a rabbit fabric and added a narrow pink border to bring it up to the size my local hospital prefers for their baby cots.  The babies lie on the quilts and the quilts are washed in a washing machine on the ward every day so they get a hammering!

 

So next job is to sandwich and quilt.  a nice easy project with a quilt of this size!

 

Linking up with Clare's Thursday Brit Sewing Linky.

Triangle scraps being turned into Pinwheels

Linking up with Maybush Studio blog on her Brit Thursday Sewing Linky.

I have been continuing to turn my bag of gifted scrap paired triangles into HSTs and then into Pinwheels.  Quite a time consuming task but I am doing bits at a time.

I have now sewn all the paired triangles into HSTs and they are all trimmed to 1.75".  Most of those have been turned into Pinwheel blocks, with about 8 more left to sew into Pinwheels.  Some of the finished Pinwheels have also been trimmed to a scant 3" block.

This is what they are looking like:

 

The top row are waiting to be sewn, the middle row need trimming (not 4 Pinwheels there, but 4 PILES of Pinwheels!) and the bottom row ARE trimmed!

 

As I was congratulating myself on being so productive with the bag of gifted scraps I suddenly remembered a previous bag of paired triangle scraps the same lady had given me several months ago.  At the time I had lots of projects on the go and decided to put the bag away in a drawer.  And then forgot about it!

So, a couple of days ago I looked it out and was a bit non-plussed to find this bag 2 or 3 times the size of the previous one!  Oh my goodness!

 

Here it is!

 

The triangle pairs are literally stuffed into the bag! 100s of them!

For the past hour I have sewn paired triangles together and am now off to press them.  Then I will put all the piles into plastic bags until next week.  Of course I have barely put a dint into the stack of scraps in the bag.

However we have our granddaughter for the weekend, so no sewing can be done then.

I have also finished hand blanket stitching the I Spy bubbles to my Freckles Quilt.  That's now ready to be sandwiched.

And I have done a lot of hand quilting on my Rainbow Beeline Quilt.  It's looking great, the rainbow bands of colour being embellished with a row of largish Perle cotton stitches.

So a lot accomplished on the sewing front this week.  Hurrah!

 

 

 

A bits and pieces sort of week

A busy week: lots of gardening, a couple of sessions with our little granddaughter, a great talk by the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce, a mind blowing concert in Coventry Cathedral by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, two Patchwork group meetings and a little sewing at home. 

Oh, and I have just returned home from a first read through of Mother Goose, the radio pantomime we are recording this year for Radio Warneford, hospital radio station for Warwick Hospital.  I have been a member for over 16 years and a Duty Producer for many of those years!  Now I'm also the Fairy Queen! Until Christmas, anyway.

Phew!  So, a few moments to catch up on what I have been sewing this week.

I have been continuing to hand blanket stitch the I Spy freckles on my latest version of Emily Ciers' Freckles Quilt.  There are 25 circles to stitch around and I am working on number 20.  I love blanket stitching, very restful and soothing and good to do whilst watching TV.  Tonight I shall be glued to the TV watching Strictly Come Dancing, quite a long programme so I should be able to complete a few more circles this evening.

This is how it looks at the moment:

 

I have also continued to work with the HSTs I made from the paired triangle scraps I was given.  All sewn together, mainly sewn as I used them as leaders/enders as I pieced my latest Beeline Quilt.  I am now slowly working my way through the pile, trimming them to 1.75".  Hope to finish this task this afternoon whilst I listen to some lovely Classical music on Classic FM.

 

Here's my cutting board, all ready and waiting!

 

And I managed to sandwich together my Rainbow Beeline Quilt at the Patchwork group I went to on Monday afternoon and started the hand quilting with Perle Cotton at the Patchwork group I attend every Thursday morning.  I have decided to match the Perle Cotton to the particular Rainbow band. On Thursday I managed to complete all the red section.  Using a larger stitch than I do with normal quilting thread so it sews up quite quickly.

During the past few weeks I have been trying to link up with Clare's blog Maybush Studio, but I am probably a bit too late this week.  Perhaps next week?

Off to have a quick sandwich before I tackle those HST blocks!

 

Oops, made a quilt top whilst I was tidying

Last Thursday when I linked up with Clare's Brit Sewing Thursday Linky I expressed the idea that I would tidy my sewing room and perhaps continue the Mr Scarecrow quilt.

Did it happen?  Well, yes ....... and no......................!


I started to tidy my sewing room and came across a pile of fabrics I had been adding to in readiness for a Scrap Republic Beeline Quilt.  It seemed silly to put that carefully sorted pile away into a plastic bag in a drawer.  Didn't it???????????

So, over the next two days I sewed the (carefully chosen) scraps into this lovely Quilt Top:

 

I love Emily Cier's book Scrap Republic.  Probably because I enjoy making quilts from scraps, something out of nothing sort of idea, and I LOVE colour and rainbows.

 

So, this quilt top is literally scraps, many that I have received in Scrap Swaps and others the remains of quilts made years ago but the left overs safely stashed away. I have increased the size of the quilt, more details when it is finished.

 

Thursday is also my Patchwork Group day and last week I was given a plastic bag of paired triangles(light and dark) which were off cuts from trimming blocks.  For my sins I have got the reputation (with good reason!) of being the person who loves to make Crumb blocks. However, as I made the Beeline Quilt top I used the paired triangles as leaders/enders and made Half Square triangles as I went along.  Didn't quite finish the pile so yesterday I finished sewing the triangle pairs and started to trim the squares to 1.75". Still not quite finished, but up to 100 already!  My intention is to make Pinwheel blocks and either make up a Quilt top myself or to hand them back to Wendy, the lady who donated them originally.  She is an absolute star, having made, or been the inspiration of making, literally hundreds of Linus Quilts. 

So, watch this space.

 

This has been another very happy and satisfying week on the Quilt Front.

 

Two baby quilts mailed last week and two baby quilts arrived safely and were loved this week!

Went to my Patchwork Group this morning - a lovely time as always! - and came home to a beautiful email from Germany, thanking me for the Cornerstones Quilt and attached was a delightful photo of baby Jasmine wrapped in a fluffy pink blanket, fast asleep in her cot. Underneath was my quilt, which fitted the cot perfectly! Wonderful!

 

Friendly frogs was equally well received.  Mum and Dad overwhelmed as they didn't expect a quilt and baby George's Granny was in  tears! This is why I make quilts.  I get so much pleasure making them and then that is trebled when I know people love them too.

 

As for Mr Scarecrow, nothing added to him, although I have carefully packed finished parts of borders into a plastic bag and neatly put them with the top as it stands to date.  Watch this space!

 

 

Quilt finishes and Can it be Spring?

The last few days have been busy on the sewing front as I sewed the binding on another little Crumb blocks Preemie quilt, finished quilting and binding the Busy Traffic Baby quilt and turned 49 of my finished 4" Crumb blocks into another Baby quilt top.

Here's the Preemie Crumb Quilt:

 

I paired the Crumb blocks with 4" Kona Cotton Solid ( I think the colour is Chartreuse) to make the HSTs. Only had to finish handsewing the binding to finish this little quilt.  I have another very similar waiting to be hand quilted when I need a little hand project to keep me busy at a Patchwork Group meeting.

 

Then, as the twin boys had been born in New Zealand I needed to finish the second Baby quilt. 

I completed the hand quilting and then decided to use the same Regatta colour of Kona Cotton Solid for the binding that I had used for the border. That is now finished and I'm very happy with it.

 

Busy Traffic Quilt

 

Earlier this year I took part in a Scraps Swap on Swapbot and the pale vehicles were one of the scraps I received.  I used fusible webbing and cut out around the different vehicle shapes to create the blocks. I had the dark blue background vehicle fabric in my stash so made more blocks with that fabric.  Then I jiggled the wonky sized blocks into strips by adding various depths of extra borders.  I love the bright I Spy effect of the quilt.  I have decided this quilt is for baby James and the Little Owls Quilt is for baby Edward.

Here are the two quilts, side by side just waiting for me to embroider labels to sew on the back of the quilts.  Then they can be posted to NZ.

 

 For Edward and James

As always when I am sewing I create more and more little Crumb blocks and my tin was overflowing.  So I have used 49 of the blocks to make another Baby quilt top.  All finished, ready to sandwich ready for quilting.

Here's a Sneak Peak:

The pretty Cornerstones fabric was also one of pieces I received in the same Scraps Swap parcel.
The pale green sashing is the Green Tea Kona Cotton solid I recently bought from Fabric Shack.  Only a 3" strip left!

But I have also been out and about making the most of a couple of days of lovely sunny weather.  Still not too hot, haven't reached double figures for the temperature yet, but it is pleasant to walk around without a woolly hat which has been a permanent fixture on my head for months and months and months! It has been great not to battle icy winds that practically cut you in half!  Let's hope this is really the start of Spring and not just another flash in the pan.