Thank crunchie it's Friday!

No chocolate crunchie bars on hand this Friday - I have to admit being all sugared out at this stage and looking forward to getting back to normal.  I did manage to sit at the sewing machine for a very small time this week and get my Home is Where the Dog Is quilt top finished! To be fair it was all done bar sewing the rows together.

So glad I got all the zig-zag done on the letters before the disk in my back came at me as that bit took ages!  Finishing it into a quilt now is going to have a wait a while as I have left a blank space on the first floor to add something special and have no idea whatsoever what that could be!  I do need to try and get on with a quilt and teaching samples I need for workshops I am teaching in February and March so I am happy to park it for a while, while I mull it over in my head!

Not being able to do to much at the sewing table means there is still lots of knitting going on!  Here's an update: Winter hat for Gordon - Done!  Pattern is A Hat Fit For a Fella by Shana Schasteen.

A sparkly Christmas cowl for mum - with her help!  I get bored with plain and purl and mum hates following a pattern so we share the workload sometimes.  Mum knits looser than I do so when gauge matters I give her a smaller needle.  This was her first time using metallic circular needles - my favourite - she didn't like them!

Still her finished cowl turned our lovely and perfectly matching Christmas decor.  This pattern is the Miss Marple Scarf free on Ravelry.

Chunky hat and shawl for me - done!  Hat is my own design using two a white and a pink ball of Tivoli super chunky wool.  The shawl pattern is Clouds in a Blue Sky by Andrea Rangel.  I added a bit of Swiss darning to it to tie in the edge yard to the brighter cream from my stash.  This technique was a lot of fun and I would definitely do this duplicate stitching technique again.

And if superchunky isn't fast enough I got a present of some Jumbo Merino wool for Christmas along with 25mm needles! 

I wanted to make a cushion for my cousin as a thank you present but the 1kg ball wasn't enough and the cable I attempted to add in ended up rock hard and messed up the width so I started again!  I found the needles hard to work with and had too tight a gauge to start with so loosened it well up on the second go.


This is how thick the jumbo yarn is and it is so soft!  Unspun, it is quite delicate and frogging it is not a good idea to do too regularly!  You can't wash it as it will felt but you can dry clean it.

 Second attempt went better with a simple pattern over 10 stitches!

 Yup only 10 stitches and I had the front of a cushion.  Now to figure out the back!

I had a bit left over to make a cowl for mum though - only 3 stitches and arm knitted and done in about 15 minutes!  Feels cheating to call this one a finish!  The arm knitting was much faster once I got the hang of the cast on!  She loves it and it is really soft and warm.

I am planning on arm knitting  with a bigger ball of 4-6kg acrylic yarn to make a blanket for the bed.  I normally buy the best wool I can as I think if you are going to take the time to knit up something might as well treat yourself to the best.  Acrylic is washable though and a good bit cheaper so while I would love a Merino wool blanket I think the Acrylic is the way to go for the moment.

Happy New Year everyone - hope 2018 is a good one and a cosy one to you all!

Trunk Full of Quilts

This was my display for a recent talk at our guild exploring Modern Quilting.  You would think I have a lot of finishes but quite a few of those piles are only quilt tops.  I have way more WIP's than finishes and I think that is going to be my focus for 2016 - just get them done!

So when I read Soma @Whims and Fancies was hosting an online trunk show I knew I wanted to join in the fun but the stipulation was to share finished quilts.  I had a bit of an oh-oh moment with that and thought about writing about maybe 1 or 2 quilts I hadn't shared in a while, that I had actually finished.

As I started pulling in photos for this post, it occurred to me instead to show the makes I can't ever show in person as I have either given them away or a certain someone has "borrowed" them (more on that later!)

Bounce adapted pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co made for G's Aunt in London

Strip N'Flip baby quilt #1 for a friend on birth of baby!

#2 for cousins 10th birthday!

plus matching doll quilt & cushion

Baby quilt from Melissa Corry's Star Surround QAL

Baby Quilt from Schnibbles Full House pattern

Disappearing 9 patch dog themed quilt for Godchild #3!

Teddy sleeping! Birthday present Godchild #3

Handmade crochet teddy with his own quilt!

Bed Quilt for Mum

and the back!

Quilt designed for this room currently "borrowed" for over mum's sofa!

also at Mum's

...and she took the bag too!  Pattern Bye bye love
by Sew Sweetness.

She didn't get this one - went to a friend (we  went on holidays around China and Thailand and this made me think of her!)

Donation Quilt - first time doing clamshells - love the texture!

Baby Present for family in Chicago - pattern is Night Sky by Thimbleblossoms

Swoon Quilt - only took 2 years - wedding present for cousin in Chicago

Sunset on the Shannon - made for local landscapes exhibit - gifted to a friend!

Just so you know, they have been passed by my quality control inspector Charly!

who sometimes gets distracted from finishing things up too! 

Thanks Soma for giving me a chance to revisit these! Linking up to

A Finished Flimsy: So Frosty

Meet So Frosty!  This is a giant block, quilt top approximately 72" x 72".  It is quite bonkers as Tula Pink Acacia Raccoons are popping up everywhere!

I've been playing around with a block design for a Christmas QAL for the Modern Quilters Ireland Group later on in the year and came up with these three designs based on the traditional Snow Crystals block.  I always find it funny with traditional blocks, a tiny change means a big name change on the block so I've called these three Super Frosty, So Frosty and Sub-Zero to try and link them together.  I'm always reminded of the Running Man movie with Arnie when I think of sub-zero!

Super Frosty, So Frosty and Sub-Zero Quilt Blocks!

Changing the colour placement & tiling can give really fun results

I'm working on the instructions for various sizes.  I like the idea of making a cushion!  What do you guys think?  Interested in a Christmas Quilt-A-Long in Sept/Oct? 

For the moment it's my stop on Ho Ho Ho and on We Sew linky party next Thursday the 18th of June and I'll be sharing the instructions here on the blog so you can make this big block version if you like.  Please drop by and join the fun!

Linking up to and the Friday Finishes @ Crazy Mom Quilts and

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Upriver

We are allowed 2 entries into Bloggers Quilt Festival so my second entry is into the Art Quilt Category.

This is called Upriver and it was made for the Mid-Western branch of the Irish Patchwork Society's exhibition on the 1st June.  The exhibition is called Local Landscapes and the size is 16" x 40".  If you happen to be in Limerick 1st to 6th June please come visit, there will be some beautiful art quilts on display.

One of the first workshops I signed up for when I became a member 2 years ago was a fabric dyeing workshop with Paula Rafferty. We made 11" squares of fabric in glorious rainbow colours and I have had them sitting in a box ever since.

Paula gave a demonstration at one of the meetings of a pictorial technique by Laura Wasilowski and I signed up for both her classes on Craftsy one of them being Landscapes.  I highly recommend these classes, they are full of bright colour and fun projects.

So Limerick, my home town, was founded on the banks of the Shannon, by the Vikings and the river is a massive part of life here.  We have 4 rowing clubs in the city area and walking across the bridges in the late evenings will give the most beautiful sunsets reflecting off the water.  I made a very small sketch and using the rule of thirds came up with a river scene with the sun setting as my composition.

Using bondaweb/steam a seam I freehand cut wavy strips with my rotary cutter and layered them on parchment paper to look like, I hope, flowing water.  The Shannon is tidal and you can get strong currents!

 It needed a little bit more though, so watching Laura's class, where she shared a  technique for the grass cutting zig-zags and layering them too gave me a perfect addition.

I love Kona Navy.  It is probably my favourite dark fabric and I knew I was going to use it to set off the colour so I played with proportions on the computer and ended up with a 3-3.5" border.  

And to give the eye somewhere to travel to I added a boat and again took inspiration from Laura's class and added a tree made of purple (yes it's supposed to be the setting sun having an effect - and it was the darkest colour I had in my hand-dyed fabrics!!!) and the same green in the grass cut into small snippets.

The quilting gave me problems.  I had no trouble with the water, a few skipped stitches on the boat, massive tension problems on the grass and a swirl or two that had to be unpicked and left holes so lots of steam applied!

So this is my colourful sunset on the Shannon that I am calling Upriver for some reason.  No idea why it just seems to fit!  I think maybe I need to give the boat a name...