Quilty Textured Bliss - Strippy Heart Wallhanging

I've been on a bit of a mission to bring some of my WIPs almost to completion so that I can take them away with me to retreat at the end of the week and get them bound, ready to bring home again and finish on the sofa on these dark nights.

I'm thrilled to report that this one will definitely be making it to Dundrum with me for some binding attention!

I opted to quilt this straight lines which should be ¼" either side of the seam.  In reality they are anything but.  I promise no alcohol was consumed prior to quilting but I just could not hold those lines straight at all.  I'm going to blame the multitude of seams for making it 'bumpy' ;-)

Regardless of my rather dubious quilting (which you can see for yourself above), the result is a fabulously textured wallhanging in waiting.  I really love how it looks and feels!

This quilt was not very square when I went to trim it back after quilting.  I don't usually have much trimming to do on my quilts but I found this one, and it's bigger sister, were bit a bit 'out' when finished quilting.  I wonder is it to do with it being made of so many strips, rather than blocks?  I think maybe a bit of a wave happens when working in strippy pieces, but maybe I'm just making excuses for my inaccurate piecing.  I did eventually trim away a fair bit to achieve something squared off, so I'm hoping it will look alright when actually (eventually) on a wall.

I'm very excited to be so close to a finish now!

Moda Love Layer Cake Prep

Um, yes, this is yet another quilt in preparation.  This one is going to be a Moda Love Layer Cake Quilt, though I'm making it from 7.5" squares and HSTs rather than 9.5" squares as the pattern and Layer Cakes lend themselves.  With a little border to prevent loss of the star points in my binding I should end up with a quilt measuring 60" square.

In defence of this new start and the Giant Star I showed you being prepped last week, I have a retreat weekend coming up and I really want to make these two quilts to donate to CT's pre-school/support groups so they can raise some money from them.  So, yet again I'm allowing common sense to be overruled and will hopefully come home from retreat with two quilt tops ready for basting.

This layout has been shuffled so many times I think my eyes may have lasting damage!  It has been tricky to get a balance but I think there's always going to be a glut of reds especially since the Little Ruby Layer Cake was a little shorter on green and pinks.  I'm now at the point where every move I try affects something else, so this is the layout for better or worse.

This will be my second reduced size Moda Love Layer Cake (first one here) - one day I will make a full sized version because it is such a fab pattern!

Scooters and Stars

I've had this fabric set aside in a bundle since before CT was born (she's 4 now), and I think in all that time I've planned about 10 different quilts for 10 different reasons for it.  Mainly, the bundle grew up around the background scooter fabric which I bought just because it was fun.  There were a few other fabrics in the mix but my new plan for the fabrics has whittled it down to these initially.

Time to make a Giant Star quilt!!

Using the In Colour Order tutorial (but adjusting my sizes to suit the sizes of my fabric pieces) I have cut this fun Giant Star.  I'm really looking forward to working on it.  It might be one of the projects I take along to retreat in a few weeks' time.  Giving myself options.  You know, because I don't have enough WIPs to choose from already ;-)

ETA - I've just read this published post and noticed my glaring mistake!  I need to remember to re-order those red and green star points in the top left corner before I stitch them up - what a numpty!!

Strippy Heart Wallhanging

My forgotten projects find in late July uncovered this packed up wallhanging that I started some time back in the early months of this year.  I was inspired by the Strippy Heart Quilt I made for my friend and thought it might be nice to try a reduced size version as a wallhanging.

It could possibly be the insanity of working in scrappy 1.5" widths that resulted in it being tidied away and overlooked for a number of months, but I have been scrapping away at it and have made some progress since the pic above.

See?

Unlike the bigger quilt, I made this one piece by piece (the large quilt was made from rolls of fabric I'd stitched up - you need to see my post to understand what I mean).  I think it has meant for more overthinking the placement of each piece though, which was avoided by using the rolls method of the bigger quilt.  Perhaps, coupled with the fact that I have way less pink, navy and green B&C fabrics than the reds and aquas and I was trying to balance everything out - but, yes, I probably overthought it.  

So amid an explosion of B&C scraps I have made progress and my questionable sanity is relieved by how much I like the results.  Just need to keep a bit of momentum if I can so that I can get this flimsy ready for basting and quilting soon.

Mini Archie's September Furtle

September has been a hectic, stressful month with the return from summer break to full on schedule of activities and routines again.  On top of that, I seem to have spent much of it in advocacy for CT's pre-school provision. So, I'm a little surprised that I have anything stitchy to show for September at all, and not really surprised that what there is to show is a little bit all over the place (rather like my head).

Before my wee brain got super stretched I managed to exercise it a little in working out how to make a rather large sleeping bag for CT.  It's been well tested now and I'm pleased to report is doing the job nicely.

I finished my 'perfect pairs' block into a cushion which was such a pleasure once I'd decided which border fabric to use.  I just love this.

While I didn't actually do any stitching for my EPP Hexie Diamonds quilt in September, I did gather all the diamonds to play layout and then spent a couple of evenings figuring out a design to help frame and finish the diamonds centre panel.  Let's just say it's going to take a lot more hexies!!

The re-emergence of this Christmas project WIP did encourage me to progress it a little this month.  Not a lot of sewing admittedly - I completed the embroidered panel and then spent time at the ironing board setting bondawebbed numbers on the squares for the next stage.  A little progress is still progress.

So, that was my September in stitches. What about you?

 Linking up to Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Christmas Countdown Wallhanging

A long time ago (2014 actually) Hadley (of Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle blog) had a fab make in Quilt Now Magazine.  Not an advent calendar but a Christmas Countdown wallhanging.  I bookmarked it in my magazine at the time, you know, just case there was ever reason or time to have a go myself.  Then, of course, along came the reason but not so much time ;-)

Well, with the Lori Holt Cosy Christmas quilt finished I'm making the excuse of using up some of the scrappier leftovers and giving Hadley's pattern a go, at last!

The main part of the mini quilt is Christmas scrap heaven, of course, and perfect for Lori Holt's Christmas collection.  I've managed to complete the '...days until Christmas!' embroidery and have bondawebbed the numbers to some background squares.  A little bit of machine appliqué to secure them is the next thing - though I notice that I've forgotten to make a zero, so probably need to sort that out first.

Not sure that CT is going to grasp the backwards counting aspect of this any year soon, but one day I do think it will be a fun way to aid her on that skill.

EPP Hexie Diamond Quilt update

These five EPP hexie diamonds, in all their Bonnie and Camille beauty, are the final few full diamonds for my four year old WIP.  These ones were made this summer and I enjoyed the peaceful, rhythmic stitching of them in the evenings of sometimes testing days.  Handstitches of any variety can be very soothing, I find.

So, this is what 23 EPP hexie diamonds look like - each one about 3 hrs worth of stitching (I'm not particularly speedy).  It doesn't really look like much, does it?

Hopefully, it looks a little more substantial all laid out like this.  What do you think?

There were several layout options considered for this quilt, and I have at different times had different preferences for which to choose.  Now, though I think I quite like the full scrappy patterning of the layout above.

Mind you, having sat down to doodle out how to finish this quilt, I think I might only be just about halfway through piecing for it!  As you can see, this current layout yields a quilt wider than it is long and I don't like it so much turned through 90 degrees. So, it needs lengthening and some kind of bordering and squaring off.  Only a gazillion more hexies to go then!

That said, I have high hopes for how nice it will look when it's done!