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!

hipBees January 2013

This month it's Collette's turn to place her special request with us hipBees.

Being a prepared little body, she beat the Christmas post rush and sent us some precious squares of her Field Study stash,  requesting disappearing 9 patch blocks as per Judith's tutorial, but mixed up a bit.  In her own words "the more random the better".

Truth be told, I don't do "random" very well, but I hope these blocks work for you Collette - I did try not to make them ordered, honest I did!

I hope Collette has a smashing quilt with all these D9Ps coming her way!

"Sweetest Sixteen" Quilt Finished!

It's finished, it's on time and I hope she likes it!

Sunglasses needed for that binding!

Sweetest Sixteen Quilt finished.

Bits and Pieces

So I put on my big girl pants and went for it and quilted the Soul Blossoms quilt in a wavy grid pattern, and I'm very happy with the result.

It's not fussy quilting which I don't think would be the recipient's style and it was fun to do (if quilting is ever fun - yep, it's the part I hate most in the process).  The fear of "should I? shouldn't I?"  with the quilting design originates in my inability to visualise how quilting lines that cut across or through the patchwork patterns will actually translate onto the fabric, and what effect they will have on carefully created patchwork designs.  This one turned out well, though.  And, I've since managed to machine stitch the binding so just need to finish it off on the back (hopefully over this weekend).

Also this week in the Sew Me "playroom"  I've been fiddling with scraps and ribbons and notions.  So far this is what I've got.

The maths went out the window on this one, so I'm making adjustments left, right and centre (literally) as I go along.  There's still quite a bit more to do but I'm in no hurry as this one is just for me and I've already been waiting 6 mths since I decided I wanted to do it!  BTW it's supposed to be a jewellery tidy, but we'll see how (or what) it ends up!

At class we played with our scraps and bondaweb last night, and ta da!

I'm showing you now before I let myself loose on it next week with my newly acquired sketching skills (ahem!).  So in case you never see it looking this beautiful again, you will know that it did at least have potential.  And yes, those are soul blossom scraps along with bits of my old denim skirt.  Finally, a little bit of SB to keep for me!

And lastly, I've been trying to think of an idea for my partner in the Mouthy Stitches Swap.  She's made a lovely mosaic and has been helpful in her comments on discussion threads, so I'm hoping I can make her something she really will like.  As a starting point, here are my design options -

They're all based on linen and embroidery with fabrics, possibly scrappy.  Hope at least one of them will be her type of thing!

Quick peek at Soul Blossoms again

It has been a busy weekend without much sewing so far I'm afraid, so not much to show you that's new.  I will show you this though

I did get the Soul Blossoms D9P top pieced during the week and I love it more with every stitch!  Now for the quilting.  I know what I'd like to do just not sure if I'm brave enough to try it in case it turns out to be a bad idea.  And no, it won't be fmq-ing, since this is not a 10" square old sheeting sandwich!

The exciting news for this weekend is that I can now put my deerstalker hat on and light my pipe for some sleuthing as partners have been assigned in the first round of the Mouthy Stitches Swap!

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 D9P Quilt

The problem with this hobby is that even when common sense is telling you not to take on any more big projects, beautiful fabrics and creative longings just keep coming and eventually overrule that common sense altogether (sometimes it really doesn't take that long)!

So...  my teenage niece LOVED her Soul Blossoms cushion that I gifted her for Christmas (what a relief!), remember it?

And, in among the other more random fabrics in my little "stash" are sitting the remains of the Soul Blossom fqs that I bought to have a good variety in her cushion.  At the time I justified the purchase of such a selection because I really loved them myself and thought I would make something for me with the leftovers.  However, seeing how much she loved them I want to use the remaining fabrics to make her a quilt she can love too and this fits in rather nicely with the fact that her sweet 16th is in Feb and I need to have a pressie for her (would help if it was in March actually, but I haven't yet learned how to magically shift a person's date of birth).

So with some very careful cutting to get 100 Soul Blossom squares from the remaining fqs (I had enough fabric for 102 squares!)  I now have this little pile of loveliness - with a new piece for binding - to make into 9 patches and then chop up again to make them disappear.  (Am I mad?)

Here's to another quilt in the making and hopefully making her even happier than her Christmas pressie did!

Birdie Stitches and Bees

It's been grey, wet, windy and generally miserable all weekend so here are a few bright and cheery bits from my weekend sewing time.

Yesterday afternoon we had another gathering of Bee Blessed and busied ourselves making disappearing 9 patch blocks

I did make more than one block but just forgot to take the photos!

and piecing a quilt top together from all the fabulous D9P donations from our blogging friends.  Check Judith's post for a photo of the gorgeous scrappy D9P quilt top.

We also have our Bee's first fully finished quilt top this weekend -

First Bee Blessed finish - "Monkey Fun" quilt

Isn't it great?  Thanks to Susan for sending us the quilt top and the fabrics to complete the border and binding.  I think you'll agree this will be fabulous for any little boy!  Fear not, there are several other quilts approaching completion as well - we've been working hard to keep up with all the beautiful blocks you've been sending and that we're whipping up ourselves!

In the hope of not falling behind again with Birdie Stitches I put a boost on the stitching of the October block.  Just in time for the November one to come next week!  I omitted the spiders from the original design - spiders and I cannot co-exist even in stitchery!

Not so sure if this one is still a bit Hallowe'en-ish for me (I don't do Hallowe'en) but I did like the voluptuous pumpkins.

Hope your weekend has had some bright and cheery in spite of the wind and rain!

Ta da! Quilt no 3 complete!

Well, here it is folks - quilt no 3 all done and dusted (and ahead of schedule).

Quillow unfolded as a quilt.

All neatly folded up as the Quillow

I did so love the Denyse Schmidt fabrics - they were gorgeous to work with and so calming.  I know that this particular pattern doesn't showcase some of the larger designs of the Greenfield Hills range in the same way as another type of piecing might have but I like how the quite traditional look of the fabrics has been altered by the chopping and re-arranging of the disappearing 9-patch.  Still finding it hard to think that I will have to part with this quillow (it does have a cushion pocket sewn into the back) at Easter because I love the colours so much, but hopefully so will the recipient.

Close up of Greenfield Hills fabrics

 I love the effect of this Ramble fabric -
looks almost free-machine quilted!

Now I'm off to tend to my poor perforated fingertips - is there such a thing as an all over hand thimble?

Could it be I'm falling in love?

Uh oh, I think I may be falling in love...

I have been piecing a quillow with the Denyse Schmidt Greenfield Hills fabrics I ordered recently and I had no idea just how much I would love it.  I have panicked at every fabric choice - are these going to look too traditional? are they too dark? which sashing white, cream or navy?  But now that the top piecing is complete I adore it.  Everything is just as I would want it to be. Problem is, this quillow's not for me so I have to give it away (gentle sob).

When I made my own quillow I was on a mission to break out of my fabric comfort zone which I think I can say I managed successfully.  Hence the purple and green creation and its recent left-over cousins.  This quilt top, however, has reminded me of all the reasons I love the fabrics I would usually choose.  I am truly going to find it hard to part with this one.

Here's the thirteenth block which will become the cushion front part of the quillow eventually.

Now I will let you in on one of my secrets folks - I am not a fan of the quilting part of making quilts.  I am hoping this will improve with experience.  After all, I have only ever made two quilts before and to say I still have a way to go in gaining confidence handling all that bulk through my little sewing machine is a bit of an understatement.  So, today I am in love but perhaps when I am half way through the quilting  I will have sufficiently fallen out of love enough to be able to give this quilt away to its intended recipient!

Now I need to try and get some more of 'The Ramble' fabric which I used for the outer border - I have another project in mind which it would be perfect for.  Wonder if this will be available in UK soon?

Sneak Peek

A little preview of the disappearing 9 patch blocks for the quillow in progress ....