On a whim

and on the scrounge.

The whim led me to enter a quilt in this week's Quilting Gallery's Show and Tell.  The theme is "quilts for teens" and as I was reading the blog post yesterday I thought, "I've made one of those",  and next thing I know I've uploaded a pic and a blurb and pressed "submit".  Not very like me, but I did.

This is the "Sweetest Sixteen" quilt I made for my niece last year - all funky Amy Butler goodness!

So now I'm on the scrounge for your votes.  If you have a wee mo and are interested pop over and see if my quilt is your fave.  If it is vote for it, or even for one of the others if they're better.  You could try entering the weekly giveaway while you're there.  Never know what you might win!

Soul Blossom D9P Progress

There is definitely something mad about sewing 9 patches together to have this

 only to then chop it again like this

all to sew it together again!

Of course, when you mix it up a little as the Disappearing 9 Patch should be, then you see why you would undertake this madness.

Love it!

And when you get 20 blocks stitched, chopped, re-stitched and trimmed square then you can have loveliness such as this -

Please don't tell me if you spot a patterned fabric which will meet itself when the blocks are joined.  We spent a fun (!) Saturday evening crawling around the floor arranging and re-arranging blocks to avoid such meetings.  I think I got there in the end!

I love these Amy Butler fabrics and think they mix up very nicely in the D9P.



PS - If you'd like to see a great tutorial for the Disappearing 9 patch block check out my lovely friend Judith's post here.

Soul Blossoms Cushion

At the end of August I showed you my cutting preparation for another gift cushion -

This cushion will be the second of my Christmas gift makes for my three nieces (sisters aged 2, 9 and 15).  First cushion blogged here.

Last weekend I got a chance to piece the cushion panels (front and back) together.  I know my cutting layout my have inferred some kind of cross pattern was ahead, but the reality is in fact much more simple.  I wanted to keep this cushion unfussy and to make the most of the larger scale prints that Amy Butlers Soul Blossoms are.  This gift is for my fifteen year old niece who is very beautiful and very fashionable and I don't want her to find it old-fashioned or wonder what on earth her fuddy-duddy aunt was thinking giving her patchwork for a gift.  So, I opted for this -

Front of cushion

Back of cushion

Front and back - positive and negative of each other

I really like this piecing which allows the fabrics to speak for themselves, and hopefully my niece will too when the time comes.  I'm happy to have made some progress on this but I'll be leaving the quilting and the finish aside for a bit as there's a lot going on here in the next couple of weeks.  Good to feel ahead of the game for once!  (Bet it'll be shortlived!)