The Longest Break Ever

Hello, anybody out there? This has been the longest unplanned break ever. What happened was simply life and a lack of creative juices. I suddenly had no urge to create nor any ideas. Instead I focused on getting fitter and concentrating on my yoga and running. It was lovely but now I’m ready to get back into sewing and the ideas are piling up.

I haven’t been completely idle but have very little to show for the last few months. I might write about the things I made at a later stage but first I want to show you the quilt I’m working on now.

Purple IMG_5700

It’s purple. I’m not naturally drawn to purple so when my sister asked me to make a purple quilt I was not really inspired. I pulled all my purple fabrics out and looked at them. Nothing. I decided to add some blue and pink. Much better. Then I started cutting them into 4.5″ x 6.5″ rectangles and suddenly I loved it.

The quilt is now basted and ready to quilt. I’m going to attempt to quilt some ivy or honeysuckle growing on this ‘wall’ but before I do, I’ll practice doodling the pattern on some paper first. It would be a shame if I had to unpick lots of stitches now that I’m finally enjoying sewing again.

Shingles

I can now attest to the fact that shingles are painful. It’s not something that was ever on my list of must-haves and I have to admit that I’m pretty tired of them now. Luckily I went to the doctor quite early so I’m hoping that the tablets he gave me ensure that the pain will subside soon. Furthermore, I was lucky that Little Miss Bossy-Boots was going to see her daddy for ten days. This meant that I could sit on the sofa all day with my Spring Carnival EPP, Charlie and The Gilmore Girls.

Lazing Around

Charlie loved the fact that I was there to talk to him and stroke him all day long and I got quite far with my sewing.Spring Carnival and CharlieEvery time I laid it on the floor he had to go and sit on it. I already knew that I didn’t have enough of the stripy ticking that I used for the hexagons and triangles to turn this into a large quilt. I sewed all the circles into rows but realised that if I squared it up I would lose a lot of the top and bottom circles. So I changed my plan and got the seam ripper out, took off a couple of the circles at the top and bottom, added them in different places and ended up with a giant oblong hexagon.

HexagonThe plan is to appliqué this onto a white background and then add some borders made up of 2.5″ or 3″ squares. I’m making them slightly bigger than the ones in the EPP panel as when I printed out more papers to finish it I realised that the original ones I used were all 1/8″ smaller than they should have been and I really don’t feel like cutting a million 2 3/8″ squares. I’m sure it wouldn’t take me long to get them wrong.

I know for sure that Charlie will love this quilt whatever the size of squares. Not that it’s for him. No, this one is for me, at least until Little Miss Bossy-Boots comes along and claims it as she has done with all the quilts I’ve made lately.

Charlie

Surf and Turf meets The Birds and The Bees

When Jess from The Elven Garden asked for pattern testers for her new Roundabout pattern I couldn’t help myself and volunteered.

I’m on a (self-imposed) fabric buying ban but still get the Simply Solids stash club every month. When I saw all the pinks and oranges together I really wanted to make a quilt using just the two colours. However, when I started pulling fabrics for the Roundabout pattern I added some fresh blues to the mix. As a neutral I decided to use some Heather Ross fish which I got when Claudia from Machen und Tun München had her destash.

Roundabout Pattern by The Elven Garden

I loved the combination and soon started cutting. I checked the fabric requirements for all the colours but not for the neutral as I was convinced that I had enough of it. Well, long story short, I didn’t. After piecing two quarters I realised that I wouldn’t be able to cut enough for another two. I wasn’t going to unpick; unpicking foundation paper piecing is a nightmare and I didn’t want to waste my precious Heather Ross. So I hunted around in my stash for a neutral I would be able to use for the other two quarters and found some My Happy Garden by Cloud9 Fabrics that I used as backing for Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ flannel quilt.

Roundabout Pattern by The Elven Garden

The top was pieced with my beloved Aurifil thread (2000). I don’t really need to mention it anymore, do I? I don’t use any other thread since falling in love with it two years ago.

I have a few things I need to finish before I can actually think about quilting this. The plan is   to practice my fmq and hang it on my wall in the sewing room.

The pattern hasn’t been released yet but once Jess has finished all the editing you will be able to win a copy on her blog as well as all the tester’s blogs, including mine!

Hurty Finger

That’s what I have after appliquéing many green half circles onto the background without a thimble. I’ve finally gone to find my thimble and am continuing the task with more pleasure. Only six more to go and then I’m finished.

I had to sew together two strips just to see whether it would really look the way I imagined it.

Green

It does.

A Little Bit of Green

I have signed up for another swap despite vowing never to enter a swap ever again after the last one’s disappointment*. Anyway, I couldn’t resist the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap and signed up. My partner likes green so I’ve hunted down almost every green scrap I own (ok, who am I kidding, about half of them) and have cut half circles in three different sizes. 40 different fabrics have been used and I still have more if I need them. I’ve always known that I like greens but didn’t realise that I had quite that many different ones.

40 half circles

Now all I have to do is appliqué them onto the low volume background. I may be a while.

 

*I wasn’t in the least disappointed in what I received; oh, no, I absolutely love the mini I received and enjoy looking at it every day as it’s hanging on my sewing room wall. No, it was the fact that after sitting for hours hand sewing and really putting my heart in it my partner didn’t even say ‘thank you’ or let me know that the parcel had arrived.

Birthday Quilt

I’m not sure why but on Wednesday last week I suddenly decided to make my mother a quilt for her birthday. It had to be a quick finish as her birthday is today. Layer cake to the rescue!

I bought a layer cake of ‘Honey, Honey’ by Kate Spain quite a while ago. The prints are so cheerful and gorgeous, I absolutely love them. In fact, I decided while making this quilt that I have to try and find some yardage of some of the prints as I think they are p.e.r.f.e.c.t. I have yet to see a collection by Kate Spain that I don’t love but this one truly makes my heart sing.

Mam's Birthday Quilt

Every now and then I pulled out the layer cake and wondered what pattern I should use to make a quilt. I put it back not being able to decide. Now that I knew I was making a quilt for my mother I had to come up with something. In the end I decided to go for big tumblers to let the fabrics do the talking.

Cutting Tumblers A bit of washi tape on the ruler ensured that the angles were all the same. As some of the prints were directional I had to make sure I cut the tumblers the right way and I’m pleased to report I only made one mistake. As it was fairly early on I could swap that tumbler with one from one of the other rows and sort it like that.

The quilt was pieced with Aurifil 40wt (2021) and free motion quilted with my favourite Aurifil 40wt (4654). I did some big flowers, leaves and insects and added Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ and my name and the year. My fmq may not be perfect but, by Jove, I had a lot of fun doing it.

FMQ FlowerCaterpillarSnailBeeNames

I love this quilt and I hope my mother does too (I might just steal it back if she doesn’t). The best thing? Kate Spain saw my picture on Instagram and wished my mum a ‘happy birthday’.

Happy Birthday

Jewel Ta Dah!

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!

 

Jewel

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.

 

 

 

A Mini Mini

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.