Shining Bright

I’ve finished my Pantone 2013: Emerald Quilt Challenge mini quilt and I’m very happy with it.

Réalt Glas Finished

As it’s name Réalt Glas means Green Star in Gaelic, I decided to quilt some wandering clover on the grey Essex linen. It’s not my first time free motion quilting but it’s still rather wobbly and I realise that I have to practice a lot more. I used the same grey Aurifil 50wt  (2605) that I used for piecing.

Réalt Glas Finished

Except for the centre, the star (stars?) itself isn’t quilted. I did stitch in the ditch around the grey pieces but left the green pieces alone. I could tell you it was because I wanted them to stand out but in reality it’s because the inner star was too pouffy and I was worried that I would have lots of little pleats if I quilted it.

Réalt Glas Finished

The pattern tweaking is still going on for this but I should be finished by this weekend. All I need then is a little help from Master to turn it into a PDF file.

 

Teacher Gifts

I admit it, I struggle with teacher gifts. I never know what to give them, after all how many pencils, fridge magnets or bits and bobs with “Best Teacher” on them do those poor teachers need? This year I decided on chocolates as I’m fairly sure that you can never have too many chocolates. However, I’ve decided to put them in some lovely fabric baskets.

Fabric baskets

I cut four charms into 2,5″ squares and used one for each basket. The charms are all from the Japanese Charm Swap and I picked out the ones which had a food theme: strawberries, cakes and baking implements. The main fabric is Essex linen and the lining is some Kona in Robin Egg.

I can see lots of these fabric baskets in my future as I’m just totally in love with them and I can see so many different uses for them. First I’m going to make one for my sister-in-law for Christmas which I will fill with some candles and nice-smelling body lotion. Then I’m going to make one as a thread catcher for when I’m hand sewing. At the moment I’m using a yogurt pot….

Somewhere over the Rainbow

I have been thinking quite a bit about what to make for my partner in the Mouthy Stitches Swap. The night before last inspiration struck and yesterday afternoon I spent a good 30 minutes pulling fabric from my stash. I decided early on to use some Essex linen in ivory for the bag (not the most practical, I admit) as my partner likes rainbows and I wanted the colours to pop. After pulling out a rainbow of fabrics and putting it on the background I decided to ditch half the rainbow and ‘only’ go with purple, blue and red. At the last second I threw in a little orange but am not sure whether I will keep it in there or not.

The aqua Kona is for the lining and a couple of accents. This is going to be a reversible tote so the lining needs to be pretty as well. We are allowed to change the pattern inasmuch that we may add a small pocket on the inside. I’m thinking of turning that pocket into a bit of a feature so that both sides are equally pretty.

Now, should I wait to see if my partner comments on the picture I’ve put up on flickr or should I just dive in?