Retro Butterflies Quilt

Today was too beautiful a day to miss a photo opp in the garden with my newly completed Retro Butterflies quilt.  Woohoo!

This quilt was a class project with original design by She Can Quilt's Leanne and taught in Belfast by Judith.  I have been so enjoying the new skills of curved piecing to achieve these butterfly quilts, and I even did it the hard way with templates.  Not a die cutter in sight for this dinosaur!!

This quilt really started with the backing fabric which is a lightweight curtain which my gorgeous friend Di charmed from some charity shop.  Being rather taken by the vintage feel of it but the freshness and softness of the colours, I knew immediately that one day it would be the perfect backing for an aqua and grey quilt top.  So I raided my stash back then and set aside any fabrics that might work with it and over time I added a sale fq here or half metre there until the stack was big enough to stretch to a reasonable sized quilt.

When Judith advertised this class for her summer term programme, I wasn't the only one to rush to enrol.  And, I am so glad I did!  I love the calmness of the colours in this quilt, the soft dove greys and the splashes of clear water aquas.  It's definitely a summer quilt, so I used some very low loft cotton wadding from Quilter's Dream and added a few echo quilting lines inside and outside each butterfly.

This gloriously over-exposed shot shows off the quilting beautifully.  It reminds me of simple celtic knots almost when you see it from a distance or from the back.

I'm calling this quilt "Flutters of Friendship" because it will always remind me of the other friends who've had a little share in its bringing into being - Judith for her class tuition, Leanne for her original design and brilliant curves piecing video tutorial and Di for her generosity and thoughtfulness in gifting the inspirational backing fabric.  Thank you, lovely ladies!

In my attempts to ensure that this quilt did not add to the WIPs list that I have so diligently been trying to diminish since the beginning of the year, I actually managed to finish up a few weeks before the end of the class session.  But never fear!  Trusty WIP/UFO list to the rescue -

these 49 churn dash blocks have been laid out and are being packed for a piece-a-thon at tomorrow night's class!

Windmill Petals Cushion

I managed to get hold of a zip this week and spend a few hours finishing my practice curves block into a cushion.

I enjoyed quilting some curvy lines following the shape of the design which you can see much better on the cushion lining side above.

All this I managed to do without the aid of a seam ripper!!




I used the leftover fabric to make my backing with a lovely zipper flap.  I won't tell if you don't that I managed to stitch the backing on sideways, so although what you see here is horizontal fabrics, in reality they are sitting as a vertical closure on the back.  (The text fabric on the front does make the whole thing directional, otherwise it wouldn't have made any difference.)  But, we're not telling, so it's ok, right? ;-)

So, here she is in all her wonderful, whirly glory!  As I said before, this layout of the Drunkard's Path units was totally inspired by Angela's Sewing Summit project.  I don't know if Angela has named hers at all, I couldn't see one on her blog post, so I have decided to call this my Windmill Petals cushion thanks to Terri who said it reminded her of the sumer beach toy windmills we used to have as children.

One last pic, just for gratuitous loveliness.  (Can you tell I really like this?)

BTW - if you happen to know the name of the orange fabric print in this cushion, could you please tell me?  I have only a weeny piece left out of the half metre/yard I picked up somewhere, but I cannot remember where, and it's one of those fabrics I don't feel quite done with yet, if you know what I mean.

Well, the bank holiday weekend is upon us and I have plans for coffee and a natter with Judith, a Ruby Wedding celebration lunch with my folks and hopefully a spot of crocheting borders and two quilts to bind.  I do not have plans for cleaning, ironing or any more dreadful financial paperwork, so all is looking GOOD!!!

Enjoy your bank holiday, peeps!

Squeezing it all in!

Sewing time is scarce lately so when I spot an opportunity I need to make the most of it.

Friday afternoon was a very interrupted kind of space.  It's still been the Easter holidays here (but school is back tomorrow - hooray!) and mum's taxi/fast food joint was well in action all afternoon and evening, but there were bite sized chunks when my presence/food/money/driving licence were not required so I set to sorting out some bits and pieces.  Nothing too taxing, not requiring too much concentration and easily left at the call of "Mu-um".

So, I started by making up some 2.5" square cornerstones for my crazy scrappy quilt. Quick and easy, just what the doctor ordered!

That job done, I decided to make a start on prepping for my class with Judith which starts next week.  I've decided to use my bundle of grey and aqua fabrics for the Retro Butterflies quilt (though have since opted to leave out the darkest two greys from this project as I think they'd draw attention to themselves a little).  So this bundle became three little piles like so - 

 I hadn't really intended to cut so much in advance but well, at least they're done!

Next up, as my brain was really starting to fog, I thought I'd tackle my 1" strip scraps.  I've shown you before how I've been trying to cut smallish leftovers into usable squares and strips to keep my scrap basket from overflowing and one day to have a ready made stack of scrappiness to make something fun from.

Well, I haven't really known what I should do with scraps that are less than 1.5" width.  I'm really not sure I see a project in my future that uses 2,000 1" squares!!  However, the frugal lass within hasn't quite let me throw these smaller pieces away altogether.  So for a while I have dutifully trimmed any skinny strips down to 1" (and chopped up a few old pillowcases too) and left them aside hoping that a plan would eventually come to me.  One bin full of scraps later and I have my plan - a crocheted rag rug for no other reason than "just because".

So, much of Friday afternoon and evening was spent in intermittent bouts of stitching strips and strips and strips together.  Poor IG friends probably felt they were living this dull experience with me - the joys of sharing, heh?

But eventually, the strips were wrangled into seven pretty strip rolls all ready for the day I can get hooky with them, maybe later in the summer/autumn if my current FAL plans go well.  And, as a bonus I get my bin back!!

After a good night's sleep I had the joys of the sewing room all to myself for most of Saturday and I didn't plan to waste it.

The cornerstones were laid out with the sashing in the somewhat cramped floor space.  There was an IG discussion a few weeks ago about skinny versus broader sashing and, while skinny was the most popular, I just didn't feel it was right for this one in the end and I went with the wider sashing but added the little colourful cornerstones to break it up a little.

Got to say I love the navy against these bright crazy scrappy blocks and valiantly persevered with a hoolie of a wind to try to get a pic I could show you.  This was the best of a rather wind-swept bunch!
I pieced a backing too, but chickened out of pinning it on the line in favour of warming up inside - that wind was biting cold!!

I nabbed some time before church this morning and read J's pre-class instruction about bringing some scraps with us to practice piecing curves.  So that was my task for this morning - some 5" squares for practicing curves.

Except, well ... I got a little distracted, played a little too much and had a wee practice and very nearly had to go to church in my PJs!!!  It was so hard to have to leave it so close to being pieced into a block.

Needless to say, chicken in the oven for dinner, quick stitch and press of seams and a speedy border later and I am in love!!!!!  Should point out that while I worked out the piecing for myself, I was inspired by Cut to Pieces Angela's layout of the Drunkard's Path block here.

It isn't perfect because I need to learn about trimming the block better, but I am pretty pleased with myself for a first proper go.  Leanne's video tutorial is a wonderful thing!!

And, if the bits that don't quite meet up in the middle bother me I can always add a button, right?

Just to show you a wee trimming shortfall.

This one was a better finish.  Think I need to cut a scant quarter inch like my stitching seam allowance, but at least now I know what to try next time, right?

Definitely a productive time this weekend and I even managed to clear my ironing basket and chores too, all ready for a new week of routine (and no doubt new loads of laundry)!

Hope your weekend was fun whatever you were up to!