Tag: scraps

Shingles

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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

Categories: English Paper Piecing, QuiltsLeave a comment

Tweaking

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I’ve appliquéd my Pantone Emerald challenge star onto the the grey Essex linen background as I know that I have to finish it soon if I want to actually enter it.  It’s been slow going as I’ve been watching Downton Abbey (Season 2) at the same time.

Réalt Glas

I probably would have finished quilting by now if I hadn’t decided to tweak the pattern at the same time, snatching a few minutes here and there. I had to get the seam ripper and scissors out a few times as I had problems with a couple of the pieces not fitting properly. If you look at the small green star and the grey elongated hexagons you can see they are quite pouffy as I literally had to shoehorn the grey pieces in.

Réalt Glas

The fabrics I picked for the tweaked version remind me of spring flowers. Kaffe Fasset, Denyse Schmidt, Robert Kaufman dots and Kona Solids in happy reunion. I don’t know about you but I’m definitely ready for some sunshine and warmth. It’s not quite finished but I’m hoping to get the last apricot pieces sewn on this evening.

Spring VersionThe apricot colour isn’t something I would normally have picked but I really liked how it coordinated with one of the colours in the Kaffe Fasset print.

EPP Star SistersLying next to each other you can really see how fabric choice influences the perception of the stars. The hexagon shape which is so prevalent in the Spring Version sort of disappears in Réalt Glas. I love both of them. One last trial version to go before I put the templates up on the blog.

 

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing4 Comments

Waste Not, Want Not

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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

Bright Piecing

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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:

EPP Flower for DQS13

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.

EPP Progress

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.

Categories: Doll Quilt Swap 13, English Paper Piecing2 Comments

Progress Report

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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.

 

Categories: English Paper Piecing2 Comments

Scraptastic

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I thought I’d show you how far I’ve gotten with my Spring Carnival quilt. Sorry about the dodgy picture. The weather here has been quite depressing and I took this picture last night with my phone.

I took a little break from hand sewing to start a quick knitting project but have gone back to it now as my elbow and wrist don’t like me knitting for too long. Getting old, I believe. I will show you what I’m knitting once it’s finished and has been gifted to a certain lovely lady.

When I first started sewing the plan was to make a cushion in pink and aqua. Then I added a couple more colours and decided to make it into a lap sized quilt. Now, I’ve my mind set to go for as long as I have any of the black and white ticking left. If I’m lucky I might be able to turn this into a quilt big enough for a single bed.

My biggest problem, however, was to find enough scraps in my scrap bin for all the wheels. As I haven’t been quilting for very long, I don’t have a huge scrap bin but I needn’t have worried. First, an envelope full of scraps arrived from Helen and then, a little while ago, another one from Dianne.

The quilting community is just the best and I’m so glad I’ve met these lovely and very generous ladies.

Categories: English Paper Piecing3 Comments

Spring Carnival

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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.

Categories: English Paper Piecing, Uncategorized1 Comment

Let’s Put a Pin in it

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Have you heard of  scrap vomit or technicolour yawn quilts? Katy from I’m a Ginger Monkey (I know, I know) has a great tutorial on her blog. I have been wanting to make a scrap vomit quilt literally from the second I saw a picture of her first one. However, I don’t really have the time or the scraps to start on it yet. I have been cutting all my scraps and some truly ugly fabric into 2,5″ squares for a while now but with 49 squares in each block I still have a long way to go. The solution?

Make a pincushion from Block B.

Now if I had made the block using 2,5″ squares this pincushion would have ended up the size of a small planet. Not very practical. So instead I made it with 1″ squares. Crazy? Yes, but I was nervous as Aron, our lovely 11 year old dog was at the vet’s today to get his teeth cleaned and a few biopsies from some lumps. I really needed to focus on something else and this pincushion did the trick.

There are some fun fabrics in there: an easter egg, an elephant, gloves, a ladybird, a radish, strawberries, a bird, a guitar and a lamb. Not easy to see but you might just get a glimpse of them here and there.

For the back I used some sheep.

If you like this pincushion go check out the scrap vomit appreciation society group’s photo pool on flickr. Who knows, you might want to have a go yourself.

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Forgive me…

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…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?

Categories: English Paper Piecing3 Comments

Rows of Colour

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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.

 

 

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