Sewing time at last

Two finishes today as I found a little time for sewing.

Firstly, the long overdue replacement Wonky Star Block for my Siblings Together Quilt.

I didn't want to have to cut into any more of the Fat Quarters but couldn't quite manage that without having to cut ONE more 1.5" square! How annoying is that?

But I do think there is enough contrast now to make the star stand out from the background. I now have to find time to sew the Wonky Star blocks together to form two short borders for my Siblings Together Quilt.  Such slow progress is unbelievable for me but I have had a very "full on" time the past six weeks which has made machine sewing impossible.

And now the poor contrast Star block can join the other scraps in my Scraps for Crumb Blocks tin.

I have however, when time allowed, been plugging away at Gemma's Quilt. This evening I finished hand sewing the binding. I had in mind two spotty fabrics in my stash but when I auditioned them, they were both the "wrong" pink which shouted at the rest of the pinks.  So I went with the same sugar pink Kona Cotton that I had used on the inner border.  Really pleased with the whole quilt and I hope Gemma is too when she receives it.

Wonky Stars and being spatially challenged

For my current project, using a Gwen Marston idea of a Liberated Medallion Quilt, I decided I needed some small Wonky Stars for the border I am constructing at the moment.
I made a few several days ago and today jumped at the opportunity of having a little sewing time (the family were out!) to make the rest.
When I started quilting I realised that I was spatially challenged ....................   for instance I found Foundation Piecing an impossibility ............. and I really have to concentrate when making Gwen's Wonky Stars.

I obviously didn't concentrate when I made this block:

As you can see, I have muddled the lime Green Kona squares with the Savannah Bop fabrics so you can't really see the Star!  This block has joined my biscuit tin of scraps for future Crumb Quilt blocks!

When I made the last one I didn't want to cut anymore fabric strips, just wanted to use up what I had on my cutting mat.  MISTAKE!  I knew there wasn't an awful lot of contrast between the background squares and the star point fabric but thought it might work.

As you can see, it didn't.  So another consigned to the Crumb block tin!

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THEN I ran out of time! Lovely little Granddaughter back from her bike ride with Daddy, so all my sewing had to be packed away until another opportunity presents itself.

In the meantime I have these Wonky Stars (including the one with no contrast).

This is part of a Quilt I am making for the Siblings Together Project.  I won a set of Savannah Bop Fat Quarters from Katie Jones, of imagingermonkey fame.

Very behind on this one as my sewing time has been severely restricted over the past month due to little granddaughter living here temporarily with her Mummy and Daddy.

So, Katie, if you are reading this post, appologies but I am doing my best!

Great Giveaway

Just seen a Great Giveaway on Lily's Quilts. A wonderful box of 32 fat quarters of Oakshott fabrics!have a go and enter eith draw!

Retail therapy

Well, no cutting out and machining going on here at present as we have our daughter and family staying with us. An extremely lively 2 and 5 months old little girl (aka Little Beauty!) is not easy to work around so everything is on hold until they move into their house in about ten days' time.

But I did go to John Lewis and treat myself to some gorgeous Amy Butler fabrics in the sale ( a metre of the top 4 and 0.5 metre of the bottom one) and a new sewing machine. My cheap Toyota model finally bit the dust and I have been using my late mother-in-law's old Janome whilst I considered what model to buy.

I decided I didn't need anything fancy or too pricey as I do straightforward sewing for my quilts. Popped into John Lewis about a month ago and saw this model, liked the price and decided to go home and have a think about it.

However when I went back last week I had another look, still liked it, so here is my NEW Janome!
You can see my old Toyota lurking in the background. I wondered if my local sewing machine repair man might like it for spare parts.

As you can see my new machine is still in its box, I haven't even opened it yet let alone tried it out!  Not until Little Beauty is safely in her own house and I can concentrate on the instruction booklet!

I have managed a little hand quilting when Little Beauty is in bed.  I'm making a cot quilt for my daughter's friend Gemma. It is for her 6 month old daughter.  They are also moving house and Gemma requested pinks, blues and yellows so she could base her Baby's Room colour scheme on the quilt.
Gemma wanted a quilt in the same style as my Emerging Butterflies so here are the two versions:

Emerging Butterflies Quilt

and here is Gemma's Quilt, still being hand quilted.

The outer border and backing is Robert Kaufman's Paradise Pareaus fabric in a fabulous Girly Pink and white!

Now off to watch the Tennis!  My hero Roger Federer is in the Final at Wimbledon so I shall be rooting for him........................ I expect the rest of the family will be on Andy Murray's side!

All quiet on the sewing front

There is no sewing happening here at present and I am getting withdrawal symptoms! Firstly because we had our two year granddaughter here whilst her Mum and Dad packed up their home ready to move up to where we live. They all moved in here last Friday as the house they are going to rent is not available for another three weeks. We are surrounded by boxes and suitcases and toys. And of course a little dynamo who moves at the speed of light! I have two projects I should be doing and want to be starting but there has been no suitable time as yet. I am hoping to sneak in a couple of hours today. But then Wimbledon begins today and I LOVE WIMBLEDON! Again, not sure how much I'll see when Little Beauty is demanding Granny's attention. How can I refuse? Hoping to post a bit of sewing news soon.

Butterfly cushion

So pleased to report that I have finished the butterfly cushion for baby Willow.  This was made to match the Gwen Marston style quilt I made for my daughter to gift when Willow was born on Valentine's Day.


This is the quilt:

And here is the cushion.  I decided the butterfly wings needed to be made from scrappy strips. The background is Moda Essential dots, the fabric I used in the Owl quilt, that way keeping down the costs.

I felt the lime green plain fabric on the top left wing stuck out like a sore thumb, so I embroidered little flowers on it to soften it.

So, here's the whole package I shall be handing over on Friday afternoon:

I'm pleased with everything so I hope Mum  Nina is too!  Always a worry when someone asks you to make a particular thing!

Another finish, another Freckles Quilt

Suddenly every baby being born is a boy!
A couple of years ago, they were all girls and I was frantically making another girl's quilt to replace the last one I had gifted.
A few months ago I knew of three babies on the way and I made three quilts.  Two were definitely girly colours,

Emerging Butterflies Quilt, my own design

Rainbow Freckles Quilt, my first from the Scrap Republic Book by Emily Cier

The other one my first Freckles Quilt that I had made in an I Spy version.

I Spy Freckles Quilt

The first baby was born in April ............ a boy, so I Spy Freckles was gifted to little Edward.

Quickly I made another I Spy Freckles Quilt, this time with a pale blue background ( I had run out of Kona Aqua!). 

Second baby was born.  This time I was SURE it would be a girl.  Wrong!!! So I Spy Freckles II was sent to baby Elijah along with a knitted blanket and two Crinkle squares.

But I still had my two girly quilts so I rather took my eye off the ball.  After all I was busy creating an Owl Quilt and matching cushion and another cushion for my daughter's friend, Nina.

Then about a week ago I suddenly realised that the third baby which I was expected in July was going to be a boy.  The only one I had known the sex beforehand, and I had no boy quilts left!  Owl Quilt put on one side and I hurridly searched through my stash for fabrics.  The Freckles were no problem as I have loads of novelty fabrics for fussy cutting interesting I Spy bubbles.  But the background was more of a problem.  Not enough aqua or blue left, even if I did some clever piecing as Emily Cier suggests in her book.  How about yellow?  I was certain I had enough of that colour. Oh no, again only small pieces, I had used the rest on another I Spy quilt I made for baby James (see what I mean about all boys being born?)

Now the hunt was really on as I am determined to try to make quilts from fabrics I already have.  Ah yes, that large piece of Kona Ash may be OK.  About a year ago Kona Ash kept popping up in quilts on Flickr and I thought it looked great so the next time I replenished my Kona cottons from the Fabric Shack I ordered 1.5 yards.  However every time I thought of using it somehow it just wasn't the right fabric for that project, so it sat in the drawer.  Until last week.  I hadn't got time to order more Aqua, blue or yellow from America, so it was Kona Ash or nothing!  I had fun fussy cutting the bubbles and used Heat and Bond for fusing onto the background Kona Ash.  Looked OK.  Onto my favourite part, hand blanket stitching using matching embroidery threads.

Now another dilemma.  What backing did I have?  Loads of big pieces of girly fabrics, pinks, flowers etc or pastel baby style ones which really wouldn't have gone with the modern look that the Ash background had created.  Then I found a small roll of Moda 30s Playtime fabric, a remnant I had bought at a good price several years ago.  Time after time I have auditioned this fabric for the backing of a baby quilt and everytime it has been" wrong".  But this time it suddenly seemed just the one.

I decided to hand quilt with Perle cotton in the same Bubble style as I have used with all my previous Freckes Quilts but this time I chose a more dramatic Royal Blue colour ( still remembering the Diamond Jubilee celebrations perhaps?).  I am really pleased with the result, as the bright blue stitching makes the I Spy bubbles "pop" and livens up the pale background.

Again I decided this quilt needed a striking binding and went for a raspberry red dot Amy Butler I had in my stash.  The large spots complimented the Bubble designs going on in this quilt.  So, all finished and I'm pleased with it.  Mum- to -be is a modern sort of girl so I think this quilt will be to her liking...... hope so, anyway! 

And here it is:

I Spy Bubbles Quilt

And this photo shows the backing fabric:

 

Now I can concentrate on making the second cushion for Nina as I want to hand all of her commission items over to her next weekend.  So, I had better get cracking!

Thanks for stopping by!