Embroidered Mini-Quilt

Part of my Easter stitching plans included this little embroidered mini quilt for a space on our bedroom wall.   In spite of getting distracted by the lovely sunshine we had last week, I did manage to finish up the embroidery last weekend and add a backing, binding and a couple of hanging tabs to allow me to finally get something on that wall!  You can see it in situ above.

 And, here's a closer look at the finish

and while it was in progress.

It was nice to have a wee bit of embroidery on the go again last week.  I think I am beginning to slow down and consequently am enjoying the more relaxed pace of hand-stitching.  I foresee more of it than I do of machine stitching over the next few months, and probably after that too!

Hopeful beginnings

There's a wall space in our bedroom that I have been threatening to make a mini-quilt for for a considerable time (maybe three years).  But, somehow, I have always had more urgent projects on my make list.  So the space is still waiting.

On my quest to clear as much of my sewing list as possible and to use up rather than have to store supplies once relocated from my sewing room, I decided that it's time to get on with the mini-quilt for the wall.

So,  I prepped a bordered centre with some of my Bonnie and Camille fabrics for an embroidery design.

Then, after a little play with some word processing fonts, I arranged the little design in my head on to paper and transferred it to the fabric ready for a little perle action over my Easter break from work.

It's the first stanza of an Emily Dickinson poem -

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops - at all.

Gotta get busy now!

You Can't Have It ...

... 'cos it's mine!  All mine!

This fantabulous creation was awaiting me in a very unassuming jiffy envelope today.  I recognised the sender's surname (fellow hipBee Reene) immediately and couldn't believe I could get lucky enough to be receiving the quilt she'd made for this summer's Brit Quilt Swap 3.  But guess what?  I was!

This little quilt was no sooner out of it's tissue paper wrapping than I dashed upstairs to temporarily fix it to my sewing room door.

See, how perfect is that?

As if the quilt wasn't awesome enough for a Monday, Reene was kind enough to include some yummy scraps and a wee set of afternoon tea pintoppers from Poppy's Pocket.

Even the back of this mini is gorgeous - I love that purple fabric!

I feel like the cat that got the cream today!  Thank you truly, Reene, I love it all.

BQS 3 Finished!

I am a little ahead of the BQS 3 schedule with this finish, but there are good reasons.  Although the Brit Quilt Swap 3 is running until the end of August I didn't want it to become neglected amid some bigger quilt commitments which I've recently taken on.  So, in order to give it the time and attention it rightly deserves, I devoted time to it early.  And now, here it is all bright and happy and finished!

For the binding, I was tempted by scrappy but it sort of got a bit lost because the centre is scrappy enough.  So I decided to use one of the bright prints from the hexi wheels, but I didn't want the binding to draw attention out from the wheels or compete with them.  I hope I have achieved that with my choice of the green metro circle print and ultimately, that my partner will like it.

I chose to quilt simply on either side of the straight seams and I love the resulting double triangles and the little stars that appeared in the intersections of all those lines.  

I added two wee hanging corners at the top too, just in case my partner likes it enough to put it on their wall.

As a wee extra I stitched up this cute little Zakka pencil case from that book and I'm sure some chocolate may also find its way into the parcel when the time comes too.

So, there it is partner.  I really hope it's something you like and not a disappointment.

Brit Quilt Progress

I've had a big empty weekend so far.  No plans, no chores, no family - all is quiet around here.  Except in the sewing room of course.

With nothing specifically planned and no meals to prepare I have been stitching away to my little heart's content and making progress on my Brit Quilt Swap 3 Mini-Quilt.

Fabrics were chosen, strips were stitched, triangles were cut 'til my brain hurt figuring out which way to turn a 6" x 24" ruler for the easiest slice

Don't those little flowers look like fried eggs?

and hexies were arranged.

Somewhere about 30 mins in to pressing open about a hundred seams I had a brainwave and dropped the height of the ironing board and squeezed it in beside me.  Yes, I know, it can take a long time for the penny to drop with me some days!

Pretend all that clutter isn't really there.

Pressing the seams open isn't something I generally do unless a pattern particularly calls for it, but with these hexagons reducing the bulk in the centre joins really helped keep the momentum with the machine piecing.

With the top all together, I did something I rarely do and pieced a back for this little quilt.  I had some remaining triangles and joined them differently to make a centrepiece for the backing.

Then I pieced this into some white cotton and made the whole thing my quilt label (partner's name is hidden of course!).

See those pins poking up at the corners of the hexagon up there? They are how I tried to keep the back hexagon centred with the front hexagon.  The pins were inserted at the corners of the front centre hexie and then I positioned each corner of the back hexagon over the corresponding pin and voila!  It wasn't perfect, but pretty close.

I am rather impressed with myself for getting this far today.  I'll get the quilting done shortly and then I need to decide on binding.  It doesn't look very big but when I calculated the binding requirement it  is quite a bit more than I had imagined.  Dare I go scrappy with the fabrics already in here?

Brit Quilt Swap 3 - the plan

The partner assignments for the Brit Quilt Swap 3 came out a little while ago and I've been busy cogitating and deliberating (read 'panicking') about what to make my lovely partner.

It's taken a while, but I do have a plan...

The bottom draft gives the better impression of what I'm aiming for.  It looks a little patriotic here but that's accidental as the red and blue were the best sharpened pencils in my pot when I was doodling.  So ignoring these particular colours, this is what I'm hoping to be able to pull off for my partner (with fingers crossed that it'll fit the bill).

Just to check if this was going to be even remotely attainable for me, I made a test block.  Again, ignore the colour of the fabrics.  Given my partners preferences I don't think these will appeal,
so the real thing will be different.

I'm pleased with how the hexagonal block turned out for my first effort and I really enjoyed making it.  I would like to see more of them in a future project for me (way, way in the future at this rate).  Though if I do make many more I'll be investing in an equilateral triangle ruler.  I was like some kind of crazy twisting bug trying to figure out which way to angle my big 6" x 24" ruler correctly at the 60 degree mark!  It's all new to me, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it by the time I make all those little triangles for the real job!

So, that's the BQS3 plan - suddenly feel even more nervous about this as I prepare to hit the publish button on this post!