Category: Quilting

Log Cabins: A Finish-A-Long

eli # # # # #

These last few days have been a race to the finish line as I really, really wanted a second finish for Q3 of the Finish-A-Long.

My first finish was the Siblings Together quilt which I handed over at the Fat Quarterly Retreat.Siblings Together Quilt

This is only a picture of the top as I haven’t got any pictures of the finished quilt! You can find a picture of the finished quilt here.

The list had a few smaller projects on it but I was determined to finally finish Little Miss Bossy-Boots- log cabin quilt. To be honest, I found it a little difficult to muster the enthusiasm for finishing it as I don’t like it. Or rather, I didn’t like it. I found the log cabins too busy and bright. However, toning them down with some white squares helped tremendously. As I didn’t have enough white for more than four squares so added some polka dots which I had bought for the backing.

Log Cabin QuiltThe quilt has grown on me and I rather like its cheerfulness. I decided to have fun with the quilting. First, I quilted some square spirals on the log cabins simply following the lines with my walking foot. Then I decided to quilt a big flower in the white squares, again with my walking foot. This was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the process, although turning the quilt so many times was a bit of a pain.

Quilted FlowersFar from perfect but I don’t think my five year old is going to notice.

Next I thought about the polka dots and decided to practice my fmq with some stippled hearts.

FMQ HeartsAgain, this is far from perfect but I’m proud I did it and had fun in the process. When I told Little Miss Bossy-Boots I was going to add her name as well she asked if I could also add Charlie’s name as he likes her quilts too. So I did.Charlie

And then I was asked to quilt some cats too. Cats? That’s pushing me to the limit. In the end I managed to hide a few cats amongst the hearts.

Cat

The quilt finishes at 45″ x 45″, just the right size to snuggle under while watching a movie, and is entirely pieced and quilted with Aurifil in white (2024, 50wt). I’m so pleased with how it came out in the end and can’t wait to stick this quilt in the washing machine and tumble dryer. I think it should crinkle up beautifully.

Little Miss Bossy-Boots loves her new quilt and I love that I’ve been able to make my bestest girl happy.

 

 

 

 

Categories: Quilting2 Comments

A Dashing Echo

eli # # # #

Two years ago I fell in love with Lotta Jansdotter’s first collection, Echo. I bought a fat quarter bundle with nine different fat quarters in the blue, teal, brown and grey colour way. They were earmarked for a quilt and hoarded together with a pink fat quarter that I received in a swap. Last month both queen bees of the two bees I’m in asked for churn dash blocks. I hadn’t made any before but always liked the look of the humble churn dash. Making these blocks  was so much fun and it made me want to make more. I got my greens and yellows out but they were really all bought for a specific quilt and I just couldn’t get myself to cut into them. That’s when I remembered Echo. I wanted to see lots of the gorgeous fabrics so decided to design a big churn dash that would use up the whole fat quarter. In the process I also linked the churn dashes which again triggered a different design in my head (but more on that later). A Dashing EchoYep, photo bombed again. Charlie does get around…

It was, of course, pieced with my beloved Aurifil 50wt, this time in white (2024).

The blue sketch in denim was the only yardage in my stash that was big enough for this project. It was one of these situations where the sewing had to be done there and then. No way was I going to wait for fabric to arrive. I’m still not convinced by it but am hoping that I will like it better once it’s quilted, bound and lying on my bed. The quilt finishes at 56″ x 72″ and is my biggest so far. I’m hoping to do some free motion quilting on it but am a little worried because of its size. As I have to order wadding and piece the back before I can start basting and quilting anyway I’ll just put this in the wip (work in progress) pile and forget about it for a little while.

Next up: basting and quilting Little Miss Bossy-Boots log cabin quilt. If I’m really quick I might be able to finish before Q3 of the Finish-A-Long ends. Wish me luck!

Categories: Quilting, Work in Progress2 Comments

I’m Back!

eli # # #

Hello! Wow, that was a very long blogging break and I have missed it big time. What’s new? I’m now talking to you from wonderfully hilly Switzerland rather than very flat Cambridgeshire, UK and my sewing machines now have their own room rather than a corner in my bedroom. There have also been changes on a more personal level which I might tell you about at a later stage. Now I’m just happy to show you around my little sewing space.

Sewing Corner

My sewing room was the first room I (almost) finished in my new flat. There are  still a few things I’d like to add such as a design wall and a few shelves but all in all it’s already pretty functional. I love the fact that I share this space with Little Miss Bossy-Boots.

Fabric Cabinet

Below is her corner of the craft room as we call it. She loves to draw, cut stick and paste and I thought it would be fun if we could do it in the same place. I can sew and supervise or help if needed.

Crafty Corner

The rest of the flat is still rather messy as I need to buy a few pieces of furniture to get rid of the last boxes: a bookshelf, a sideboard, a shoe rack and a desk. Next week I’m going to hit the charity shops to see if I can find some nice bargains. Otherwise I’ll hop on a train to Ikea to see if I can find some bargains there.

PS These pictures are from last week when the sewing room was still fairly tidy. Since then I’ve sewn a few bee blocks and started on a quilt using my hoarded Echo by Lotta Jansdotter. The sewing room is now very messy and needs a good tidy up. Hey ho, at least I’m sewing again.

 

Categories: Musings, Quilting2 Comments

Teacher Gifts

eli # # # # #

I have had an absolutely fabulous time at the Fat Quarterly Retreat and I will get round to writing a post about it very soon but first I would like to show you some mug rugs I made as teacher gifts for Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ teachers and teaching assistants.

A little while ago I bought ‘25 Patchwork Quilt Blocks‘ by Katy Jones of Monkey Do fame. For Christmas I gave all the teachers a fabric bucket filled with chocolate, this year I decided to make them mug rugs. I was a bit too quick wrapping them all up so I only have these Instagram pictures to show you.

Mug Rugs I

Mug Rug IIThe mug rugs are all made with scraps and some Kona Snow or Sketch in Mist. As always I pieced and quilted them with my trusty Aurifil 50 wt. Because I didn’t have that much time I kept the quilting to a minimum, simply echoing some of the shapes.

I added some tea and biscuits in the bag but didn’t actually have the time to get them a mug (that’s what you get when you organise presents at the last minute because you go gallivanting in London). Hopefully they get some mugs from one of the other children.

 

Categories: Quilting3 Comments

Modern Mini Challenge

eli # # # # #

After a long debate with myself I’ve decided to enter my ‘Starflower’ mini quilt into the Modern Mini Challenge hosted by Ellison Lane Quilts. This little quilt is 18″ x 18″ and was made for the Doll Quilt Swap Round 13.

StarflowerI found a drawing of the ‘flower’ on the internet but couldn’t find either who had designed it nor a pattern for it so I sat down and started to draw out the pieces on a big piece of paper. The flower is English paper pieced and then appliquéd onto the white linen background. I then quilted it with some Aurifil 50wt by echoing the shape on the background and the centre and some stitch in the ditch between the pink and purple shapes.

The binding is slightly wider, finishing at about half an inch. I thought a border would be too distracting but liked the idea of using all the fabrics in the scrappy binding.

This was the first EPP patten I ‘designed’ and it was quite a challenge to get all the pieces to fit together and lay flat. It was quite a steep learning curve but helped me a lot with designing my next EPP mini, Athea. You could say this was the start to my obsession with designing EPP patterns. There’s another one in the works as I’m typing this.

Edited to add: I found the pattern, Girih Tiles by Endulzar, on Craftsy. If you would like to make this beautiful mini quilt you can buy the pattern here for $1.95. Although I drew my own templates for this mini I have now bought the pattern as I do not want to cheat this talented designer.  

 

 

Categories: Quilting, Quilts3 Comments

FLiRTS

eli # # # # # # # # #

A while ago I joined FLiRTS, a fun little swap on flickr. However, when the first round kicked off I couldn’t sign up as I had too much going on to properly concentrate on it. Round two came around and I signed up. I was so excited about it all and didn’t think life was going to be quite as busy as it got. So although I haven’t been able to comment on all the pictures as I normally do when I join a swap, I’ve been busy making a few things for my partner. I like this swap as you pick three things from a list of makes and your partner then choses one of these items to make for you.

My partner had some great things on her wish list and I decided to go for a mug rug. As I knew I wouldn’t have that much time to spend but wanted it to look good and be fun I went for foundation paper piecing two different blocks. First, the tea pot that I found in Fat Quarterly number 8. It was desigend by Kerry Green from verykerryberry and I’m sure that I will make it again. It was really fun to do and I love the colours I used.

Tea PotI hand quilted around the teapot and on the tablecloth with some Aurifil 28wt. Once I finished the piecing I thought ‘what if this girl prefers coffee?’. Around about then I won a giveaway on Kerry’s blog and the prize was the Parisienne Cafe pattern by Sew-Ichigo. So I made the coffee cups and put them on the back of the teapot mug rug.

Espresso

I also bought a blue and white mug to go with the mug rug, added some scraps and made a grocery bag (which was also on my partner’s list).

Grocery BagAll these things are now on the way to…. ha, ha, ha, it’s a secret swap so I won’t tell you until I know they’ve arrived.

Let me show you, however, what came for me all the way from the United States of America:

FLiRTS Goodies from DawnI couldn’t remember what three things I had put on my list but it seems Dawn (2mayboys on flickr) decided to make all of them! First up the greatest Kindle case ever. I love Denyse Schmidt fabrics and the colours are just so spot on. I really could not have wished for anything better. It even has a pocket on the inside for the charging cable. However, Dawn also made me the cutest coasters in my favourite colours and from some of my most favourite fabrics. To top it all off she made me a little pencil case and sent me a mini charm pack of Boho. Gosh, I really have been spoilt and I can tell you this little package has made my day, my week, my month. Thank you so much, Dawn!

 

 

 

Categories: FLiRTS, Quilting4 Comments

Wonky Princess Bee

eli # # # # # # #

Hello again, I decided to seize the fact that mojo was lurking in a corner and started on my wonky stars again. Stellar is the wonderful pattern some of the Sew Solids Crew Stash Club are using for the Sew Solids Quilt-Along. You can see the posts about my first stars here and here. Because I was lagging behind I had two colours to sew stars from, pink and blue. To be honest the most difficult part of this sew-along is pairing up the colours to get enough contrast between the star and the background.

Stellar Sew-AlongDon’t look too closely please. The blocks have lots of stray threads hanging off them and my floor is…. let’s just say it needs a good clean. This quilt is definitely going to be colourful and I’m not sure how much I like it yet.

Something I love, however, is the fabric that arrived today from Simply Solids. I know a lot of people prefer prints to solids but I really enjoy working with solids.

SolidsNext month it’s my turn to be the Princess Bee of the Sew-Euro-Bee-ans. For a long time I didn’t know what to ask for but then I decided to go for colour rather than block. This means that my fellow bees are allowed to make any block they like, in any size they want to make (I’m sure I’ll regret that decision later) and with any extra scraps (solids or prints)  they want/need. I’m only asking them to stick to this colour palette. I would like the blocks to be something they enjoy making and that, I suppose, therefore represents them.  Now that the fabric has arrived I’m really excited about sending it out to everyone.

It’s good to have you back, mojo.

 

 

Categories: Quilting, Sew Euro-Bee-An, Sew Solids Crew Stash Club, Sew Solids Quilt-Along2 Comments

Stellar Update

eli # # # # #

Hello! This week a lovely orange bundle of six fat quarters arrived on my doorstep, courtesy of the Simply Solids Crew Stash Club. I was feeling a little bit low due to missing a lovely meal in a lovely restaurant on Sunday so decided to cut into it straightaway. You might wonder what a meal has to do with sewing and the answer to that is…nothing. Sewing does cheer me up, though, so that was good enough for me to get the rotary cutter out instead of the duster and hoover.

Stellar OrangeA couple of hours later I had three bright orange stars to cheer me up. As mentioned before Stellar is a great free pattern on the Simply Solids website and although it was designed for the quilt-along I’m sure it would look just as great in patterned fabric or a combination of the two. I love making these stars and can’t wait for the March bundle.

Stellar PhotobombI think Charlie likes the stars too.

 

 

Categories: Quilting, Sew Solids Crew Stash Club, Sew Solids Quilt-Along2 Comments

Waste Not, Want Not

eli # #

When I made Little Miss Bossy-Boots Tumbler Cushion, I used two charm packs to cut out the tumblers. This was my first ‘proper’ venture into quilting and I couldn’t bear to throw away the little offcuts. Last Sunday, I dug them out and made a little doll’s blanket for Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ babies.

Doll Quilt Front

As you can see the baby also has a tiny cushion made from some small scraps from Little Miss Bossy-Boots flannel quilt. The mattress, however, still needs a cover and that job is next on my list.

For the back I used some offcuts from the offcuts, and some Kona lavender. I then bound it in some Kona snow.

Doll Quilt Back

It’s only 12,5″ square but as a couple of the dolls are small this is more than big enough to cover them at night. Because that’s what we do at the moment, every morning we dress them and bring them downstairs and every evening we bring them back upstairs, put their pyjamas on and put them to bed. For someone who doesn’t like dolls and never played with them as a child, I’m quite proud that I help with the whole process without too much protest. I just hope she gets back into the train set soon….

 

Categories: Quilting, Quilts1 Comment