Hurrah, I can put a tick on my Finish-A-Long list! Yes, that’s right I’ve finished my Hexie Heart Cushion.
Once I had decided to quilt the hexies in a diagonal pattern, as suggested by Leanne from She Can Quilt, it was a very quick finish. I’m happy with how it came out and hope I can raise a bit of money with it for our local cancer treatment centre.
Well, I’ve been plodding on with my EPP for the Doll Quilt Swap and I love it more and more. I’ve appliquéd the flower onto the linen background and I think it really makes the colours pop. I had thought about adding a border but have decided not to as I really love the simplicity of it now. It’s going to be so hard to send it off at the end of the month.
The colours are a lot brighter than those I usually have in my house but, oh my word, I love them.
PS I’ve already started another one…
Edited to add: The pattern can be found here.
I have been busy cutting out shapes and choosing fabrics for the Doll Quilt Swap 13 which I’m part of. After seeing all the talent on flickr I went back to the drawing board. The sketches I had made didn’t really sing to me so I tried again and again to come up with something original that would make an impact. I failed. In the end I went on the internet and found this design:
It really spoke to me and after printing it out I went to the post office to get it enlarged to A3. They couldn’t do it quite as large as I wanted it so I went home and drew the design on some paper. This might be an easy job for most people but not for me. I drew, discarded and used many a swear word before I finally finished a drawing in the right size. I’m incredibly proud of this achievement and have decided that I’m going to make at least one other mini for myself, probably in slightly more subdued colours.
Anyway, here’s how far I’ve come. I’ve used some fabrics that I bought on Instagram before Christmas and some Kona solids, Lakehouse Dry Goods black labels and linen from Simply Solids. My partner likes bright colours, text prints and linen and I’ve tried to accommodate all of those. The flower / star is going to be appliquéd onto a linen background. What do you think?
PS I’m having some real problems with my photos at the moment. They look in focus with nice bright colours in iPhoto but as soon as I upload them to the blog they become fuzzy and bland. Master won’t be home till the weekend but I hope he will be able to help me then. I do apologise for the bad quality of my pictures.
Edited to add: Although I searched for the origin of this picture at the time I couldn’t find who had designed it and where I could find the templates (hence the drawing and swearing). I have since found and purchased the pattern on Craftsy. If you would like to make this beautiful design you can buy it here.
I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas. We had a very quiet Christmas Day which was just what I needed after recovering from the flu. It’s obvious though that I’m not quite back to normal as I didn’t take a single picture!
In other news, I believe I might have mentioned before that I signed up for another swap, namely the Doll Quilt Swap 13. I tried to get into this swap earlier and wasn’t picked; this time, however, I was. I’ve got my partner and she’s basically given me free reins. Not as easy as you might think. When your partner gives you lots of pointers it’s easier to pick colours and shapes. Having checked her favourites on flickr and mulled over it a bit I’ve decided to go for some English Paper Piecing.
I’ve come up with two patterns I like but simply can’t decide. Which one do you prefer?
Number one.
Or Number two?
I’ve pulled some texty fabrics, some small florals and bright solids for this. I’m really looking forward to starting on it, if only I knew which version to pick.
I don’t watch much tv but with the start of Strictly Come Dancing and I’m Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here I do sit down and watch a bit every night. Luckily I have my Spring Carnival, as well as Charlie and Aron, to keep me company.
You can’t see Charlie in the picture but he’s there, half hidden by my sewing. This is how far I got a couple of days ago.
It’s so much fun for me to look at the different rings with all their different coloured scraps. Lots of memories are already attached to this quilt and I’m sure there will be even more by the time it’s finished.
Look what I received in the post yesterday:
Scraps for my Spring Carnival quilt sent by the lovely, wonderful and very talented Helen from runquiltknitwrite. I tentatively asked for a scrap swap in my last post and Helen offered to send me some straightaway. As I had told her I didn’t have many yellow and green scraps she sent me these.
I love them, they are going to look great in my Spring Carnival. Thank you so much, Helen!
Do you remember the project I started before I tackled any of my UFOs?
My scrappy Spring Carnival quilt is progressing nicely. I took it with me to Denmark and worked on it while chatting, watching the kids play, in the evening. Basically whenever I had a little time.
I have now started sewing the ‘wheels’ together and I’m so happy with the way they look so far. I still have a bit to go before it’s quilt size but my aim is to finish it for next summer.
14 ‘wheels’ down about 85 to go.
BTW, loved the Aurifil thread for hand sewing around the leaves on my mini quilt. Will write a bit more about my experience with Aurifil when I show you the finished quilt but it definitely gets a thumbs up from me.
…Father, for I have sinned.
Yep, I started a new project before finishing any of my UFOs. The beautiful weather we had last week (wow, a whole week of summer!) meant that I was stuck in the garden, lounging under the gazebo while watching Little Miss Bossy-Boots playing in her paddling pool. I know it’s a hard life.
My hands were itching to do something so I started cutting out paper templates for my next English Paper Piecing (EPP) project using Katy’s Spring Carnival Templates. Once I finished cutting out millions of templates I was, of course, tempted to start covering them in fabric and sewing them together. This is how far I got before the weather changed:
Iffy picture again, sorry. This weather is driving me crazy.
I’ve decided to add more colours and have cut out some yellow, purple and green triangles and squares but I just don’t have enough different fabrics. Would anyone like to swap some scraps?
Hello! nice to see you here again. We’re back from our trip to Ireland which I have thoroughly enjoyed. It was incredibly relaxing with Grandma and Grandpa entertaining Little Miss Bossy-Boots most of the day. It gave me some time to do things on my own or with Master. We even managed to have a lovely anniversary lunch (7 years last Sunday) with some friends in Kelly’s Bar in Galway. We ambled through a tiny market in Galway where I bought some Echino and Far Far Away III fat quarters and just generally enjoyed some quiet time.
I also found the time to work on my hexagons in peace and quiet.
“Hexagons? I thought you said you were going to do octagons?” I hear you say. Yes, that was the plan but I changed it at the last minute. The week before Easter my friends Nicola and Vicki came over and we made five heart pillows. It made me realise that we have to somehow find the money to buy lovely fabrics to make them with. So far we have been using fabrics that we’ve had lying around and some stuffing that I bought for the first heart pillow I made. It’s ok for now but I really think that we need some cash to be able to buy materials such as bags to put the pillows in and cards to wish the women the strength to fight. I’ve decided to make a hexagon cushion in pinks and reds which I will donate for a raffle. I might find some more things to give away if I have a good look but I thought this might be a start.
Anyway, Ireland was lovely and we were even lucky with the weather. As an added bonus we were allowed to bring the dog and I very much enjoyed walking him along the river in Birr.
One day we even found a friend for him. Although all dogs are supposed to be on a lead there are quite a few dogs that roam freely. One day on our way down to the river we met a gorgeous white dog who followed us on most of our walk before going back home. It was lovely to watch the dogs running around and playing. They chased each other into the river and all around the field. Pure joy!
Sadly we had to return two days early as Master had to attend an important meeting at work.
Now that I’m back I want to make my partner’s name tag for the Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat. I’ve had a great idea for it but I’m not sure that I can pull it off. I will have a go and if it doesn’t work out I’ll have to put my thinking cap back on. Pressure is on as I’ve seen a few name tags in the Flickr pool and they are gorgeous. On top of that the shipping date is the beginning of May so I really have to get a move on.
My English Paper Piecing Project is going really well. I’m enjoying it tremendously. It took me a while to get the final layout right, changing hexies around every time I worked on them. In the end, however, I managed to sew them into rows and yesterday evening I finished sewing together the rows of red, orange and yellow. I’m hoping that I will be able to sew the greens, blues and purples together tonight.
Then I’ll have to decide on the quilting and that’s where I’m still very insecure. I could, of course, follow the lines but I’d much rather be a bit adventurous. What should I do? I don’t think I dare do free motion quilting but otherwise I’m up for suggestions.