Author: eli

And breathe….

eli

Little Miss Bossy-Boots is off to Ireland with her Daddy to visit Grandma and Grandpa. This is her first holiday without me and we are both very excited about it. The reasons for her excitement are pretty obvious, I’m sure; she’s going to be spoilt rotten and have the undivided attention of quite a few grown-ups. My excitement can be summed up with three words: sewing, sleeping and not-having-to-repeat-everything-734 times (ok that’s not really one word but I’m sure you can let me off this time).

I’ve got a few sewing projects lined up but first on my list is the tutorial for my Modern Churn Dash quilt. I realise I promised to have it up this week but somehow time just slipped away from me. I have started on it and I hope to get it finished very soon.

Modern Churn Dash TutorialThese are the fabrics I’m using and I’m making a cushion cover. I thought about making another quilt but realised that I just didn’t have the time. However, I’ll be giving the measurements for the quilt too.

Today I just need to help Little Miss Bossy-Boots buy some chocolate to bring and pack her suitcase. Tomorrow I will crawl out of bed at 5am and help her get ready to catch a very early train to the airport with her Daddy. And then…

.. I will breathe. And crawl back to bed.

 

Categories: Musings3 Comments

Finish Along Q2

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It’s time to get making the list again. This time, I’m sure, it won’t be quite as long as in Q1 but there are still more than enough projects to keep me busy.

1. Athea Bloom is the one on the right. I’ve already decided that it will become a medallion quilt, so I need to make some borders….

Athea Spring Version and Bloom2. My Sew-Euro-Bee-An quilt. I need to turn the blocks into a top, baste, quilt and bind it.

Sew-Euro-Bee-an3. The Heron Log Cabin quilt. First of all it needs a better name, then it needs to be basted, quilted and bound.

Heron Log Cabin4. The Portholes. They’ve been a WIP for the last two years and really need to be dealt with now.

Heart

5. The Robin. I realise Christmas is still eight months away but you know how quickly time flies when you’re having fun?!

Close up Robin6. Art Deco. I have a magazine rack with a black handle and this EPP block will be used for the sides which at the moment are a very tatty black vinyl.

Art Deco7. Good Fortune. This one is already basted and marked, ready for quilting.

Good Fortune8. Spring Carnival. This is going to be put at the top of my list now as I really want to have it finished for FQR London.

Spring Carnival Progress9. Scrappy Trip Around the World. I’m still thinking that it should become a quilt rather than a cushion. I’m thinking a picnic quilt would be nice. It also means I could get away with ‘only’ making another 12 blocks.

Scrappy Trip

 

I thought this was going to be it but now I realise I have another two projects I need to put on the list.

10. The Brontosaurus. Another pattern I tested for Juliet and that I was sure I was going to turn into a cushion straightaway. No WIPs , I thought, and failed. It’s still sitting there waiting.

Brontosaurus11. The Euro Siblings Together quilt. I’m still waiting on two blocks but once they’ve arrived I can finish it and get it ready to bring to London in July.

Euro Siblings TogetherLinking up to Finish Along 2014 over at The Littlest Thistle.


Finish Along 2014
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: Finish-A-LongLeave a comment

Jewel Ta Dah!

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That’s right, Jewel is finished. Maybe I should’ve changed the name as it doesn’t really look like a jewel but, hey ho, I can’t think of anything else.

JewelI love the hand quilting and will definitely do more of it. I also love the red binding. Little Miss Bossy-Boots was crying when I told her that she couldn’t keep this mini.

This mini quilt is off to its new home in America. Bye, bye, little quilt!

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Quilting, Quilts1 Comment

Finishing

eli

It was the end of March yesterday which also means the end of Q1 of the Finish-Along hosted by Katy of The Littlest Thistle. You may remember -as I have been harping on about it- that I put fifteen projects on my FAL list and I’m happy to report that I finished six of them.

1. Athea Spring was turned into a finished cushion. It sits on my sofa and makes me happy every time I look at it.

Athea Spring

2. The DQS 14 mini, Liberty Bloom, was finished and sent all the way to Canada.

Liberty Bloom

3. In the Woods was turned into a sewing machine cover.

Sewing Machine Cover4. The Triceratops was sewn and turned into a cushion for Little Miss Bossy-Boots. This was a truly fun pattern to test and you can find it in Juliet’s shop.

Triceratops Cushion5. A Dashing Echo was quilted and bound and now resides on my bed where Charlie my cat and I fight about it. Even though the quilt isn’t bound in the picture below I picked it because I wanted to show you how much Charlie loves it.

Charlie asleep

6. Liberty Butterfly was turned into a cute little cushion.

Butterfly

 

I’m rather happy with how much I’ve achieved. The other projects will end up on Q2 of the Finish-Along, I’m sure. I’m very pleased to report that I haven’t actually started any new WIPs. Everything I’ve started in the last three months I’ve finished. Long may it continue!


Finish Along 2014
 

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Jewel

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When I designed this EPP pattern I named it ‘Jewel’ because I thought it looked like a square cut precious stone (very original, I know…).

Jewel

However, once I started sewing I really liked the way it looked without the corners and, thus, it now looks completely different.

Jewel You may also have noticed that I changed the way I used the colours. I often start with a plan and then deviate from it. It does mean the piece looks very different to what I had originally planned. I like both versions and may still go back to the rainbow version one day.

Jewel being hand quiltedThis is the first time I’ve hand quilted any of my EPP minis and I really like the look of it. I think there may be a few more in my future. I’m hoping to have this finished tomorrow as I need a few more colours of thread for the quilting. It’ll get its proper ‘ta dah’ moment then.

 

 

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Quilting, Quilts1 Comment

Athea Spring

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I have been on a steady course to finish WIPs since confessing to them all on my FAL 2014 list. Now, you may remember that I was rather overambitious when I put fifteen (!) projects on there but I thought it would be better to have a big range of projects so that I could pick and choose what I wanted to work on. It’s worked rather well as this is project number five that I’ve finished and number six is being worked on as you read this post.

Athea SpringAthea Spring, as I call this cushion, was made using the first templates I made available on my blog. They are drawn by hand and you can find them here. I made three different versions of this pattern and I love them all. They look so different depending on the fabrics you choose.

Réalt Glas, Spring and BossomRéalt Glas is on my wall of minis in my sewing room, Spring is a cushion on my sofa and Bloom is destined to become the centre of a medallion quilt (but that won’t be done before Q2 of the FAL, I’m sure).

Right, back to my cushion. I quilted it in a spiral in the most gorgeous variegated Aurifil 40wt (no. 4654) which is a perfect match to the green solids in the centre. My spiral is pretty wobbly and there are a few jumps but all in all I love it. I did learn the hard way, though, that I should have gone the other way. Ah, you live and learn. This will definitely not be the last time I’m quilting in a spiral.

The back of the cushion is a shirt of my Dad’s which I kept after he died almost three years ago. I wanted to make a cushion or quilt for Little Miss Bossy-Boots to remember him by. However, when I saw how well it matched Athea Spring I decided to use it for this. I still have the back and sleeves of the shirt for a different project.

Baba's ShirtThis was the quickest cushion back in the history of cushion backs and I wish I had kept a few more of his shirts.

I’ll be back tomorrow with an update on the EPP mini for Karie and, if you’re reading this Andrea, a tutorial for my Modern Churn Dash quilt at the beginning of next week.

 

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Finish-A-Long2 Comments

A Little ‘Thank You’

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I told you about the mini that I was giving away on Instagram in this blog post. In it I also told you about Karie who helped me get to the last three followers by posting about my giveaway to all her followers. Well, I decided to make her a mini quilt as a ‘thank you’ for her help.

This is how far I’ve gotten:

DSC_0049

Only two more rounds and then I can appliqué it onto a background, quilt it and bind it.

I really love making these EPP patterns and I like making minis and cushions but my next plan is to make a big quilt with various designs in various sizes. It’s been floating around in my head for a while and I now need to grab my iPad and turn these ideas into patterns. I get a real buzz with every new idea so you can imagine how excited I am at this project. A couple of WIPs to finish first and I’ll be able to start. I’ll make sure to show you the progress.

TTFN (ta ta for now)!

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Quilting1 Comment

Cover Me!

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You might remember my FAL list which was as long as my arm and maybe even a little longer. Fifteen projects were on there and today I’ve been able to cross off number five.

Sewing Machine CoverThis EPP block has been mooching about for quite a while. Once I finished it (btw, the templates are here if you’re interested In The Woods) Little Miss Bossy-Boots wanted me to make it into a quilt for her dolls while I wanted to use it as a pocket on a tote. In the end it landed in my enormous pile of WIPs. Thanks to the FAL list, I knew I had to make something with it and when I saw how well it went with my little thread catcher I decided to turn it into a sewing machine cover.

I added some Pearl Bracelets around the block and for the back, lined it with a bright blue solid from Ikea and sewed on some ties for the sides. Some very basic straight line quilting made sure that everything stayed where it was supposed to.

I encountered one little problem which are my thread holder thingies (I’m sure there must be a technical term for them but I can’t remember…). The hard cover that came with the machine pushes them down but as soon as you take it off, they spring up. The fabric cover isn’t heavy enough to push them down so I drew two circles on the cover and sewed around them four times.

HolesI’m really pleased that I’ve finally made a sewing machine cover and have been able to use an orphan block for it.

 

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Home ProjectsLeave a comment

A Mini Mini

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I just wanted to show you the finished mini I’m giving away over on Instagram (I’m Lemonshark if you’d like to try your luck).

MiniThis little mini was designed and made for the giveaway. I used some of my all time favourite scraps, such as Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt, Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander, Summersville by Lu Summers and some Tula Pink. You can’t go wrong with Tula Pink. The whole thing was pieced and quilted in Aurifil 50wt (no 2600, my favourite). For the quilting I did some stitching in the ditch and echoing as the quilt is busy enough as it is.

It was appliquéd on some grey Essex linen and bound with more of the yummy Tula Pink print I used. This mini mini finishes at 13,5″ and I’m in love with it. It’s going to be a little difficult to give it away but a promise is a promise.

I’m thinking of putting the templates for this mini up on the blog. This will then be the last pattern on here as I’m going to open a shop on Craftsy.

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Quilts1 Comment

I Follow, You Follow, We Follow

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Last Saturday I noticed that I had 297 followers on Instagram (I’m lemonshark on there). I love Instagram because you can easily upload a picture of what you’re working on and get feedback from likeminded people. Anyway, I posted a picture of this number and said I was going to organise a giveaway of an EPP mini once I reached the magic number of 300.

Instagram

Imagine my surprise when I was tagged by Karie (karietkq on Instagram) who had posted a collage of some of my EPP designs and suggested to her followers that they should follow me. Within half an hour I had ten more followers and by the end of the day 46!

So I sat down and designed this mini:Giveaway Mini

So far I’ve done the first round and I’m in love with it. I really hope that people will like it too and enter my giveaway. It has some of my favourite designers and fabrics in it, Tula Pink, Denyse Schmidt, Carolyn Friedlander and, of course, some Kona solids and I’m hoping to have it finished by the end of the week. If you like it and would like a chance to win it you’ll have to hop on Instagram and follow me…

EPP Giveaway Mini

Categories: English Paper Piecing2 Comments