Swoon - Long arm quilted!

Back from holidays. Feels like I've been away for a month! I thought I'd finally post an update on the finished Swoon quilt I hand delivered to my cousin for her wedding!

Just before I left for the States, we had our September meeting of the Irish Patchwork Society and I got to share the quilted Swoon with our branch. As it was for a special occasion, I asked Paula Rafferty to quilt it for me on her longarm. I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to making a quilt and like to see the whole thing through to the end, even the binding, though every now and again, I wish I had a team of little yellow minions who would do the basting for me!

This is only the second time I have not quilted myself.  Paula also quilted my Storybook quilt last year for me as it was my first time getting a pattern accepted for publication by Make Modern Magazine.  If you are looking for a long arm quilter in the Limerick region for that extra special touch, Paula is brilliant and I love the finished quilt that resulted!

It was fun flipping through all over patterns trying to pick something that would work well with the Swoon blocks and we settled on the musical Treble Clef with some notes. I thought the swirls would compliment the blocks and as the Groom is from Brazil and I always think of Samba music and sunshine when I think of Brazil, it seemed to fit quite well. I am delighted with how it turned out!

I had fun practicing it on paper too as I think this would be a great motif to free motion quilt sometime using the musical notes to travel around the quilt a bit.  I'm saving that one for a future project!

As an all over pattern too I think it gives really nice texture.

For the back I used some Zen chic fabric I had on hand from the Limerick Quilt Store's sale last January.  I really love this fabric and had to piece a navy strip on the bottom to make the back big enough to fit on the longarm.

Sorry I have no photos of the whole quilt on location.  It was raining in Chicago so instead of taking quilty photos we spent our time waiting for the sun to come out by visiting museums and climbing skyscrapers!

Not a bad way to spend a holiday!  Thanks M & A for the excuse to come and visit!

Design Wall Monday - the Swoon edition

My cousin is getting married next month and I decided to make her a quilt - a Swoon quilt!  I think its a great name for a wedding quilt.

To be fair, I started this quilt way back in the summer of 2013, with the intention of making a quilt for her new apartment, that she would be moving into in the Spring of 2014.  We had been on holidays in Chicago and she took me to a tiny quilt shop filled with 1930's reproduction prints and these guys!

This is Crazy Daisy by Benartex and I thought I'd use the fabric I bought on our shopping trip to make something nice for her.  I figured a Spring deadline, 8 months to make a swoon quilt - easy peasy!  2 years later (she has moved twice since!) and all I had made were 3 blocks and bits for a 4th cut out. Bad, bad cousin!  So feeling a bit guilty, booking flights and thinking all things holidays, I decided to get cracking and bust out of that I don't want to make another Swoon block funk I had going on.

So I made this fiery one.  She is marrying a guy from Brazil and I was going for the hot samba feeling with this one. 

Might have overcooked it a bit as it doesn't quite go with the more flowery blocks from 2 years ago!  As the fabrics are all from the same range, and designed to co-ordinate with each other, I decided to keep going and make a few less contrasty and more mono-chromatic Swoons.

 An Irish flowery version.

 The sun does come our over here from time to time, just not this summer (coldest July in 22 years!)

 Not sure about this one but it seems to work when put up on the wall!

That hot fiery one was still sticking out a bit so I remember reading somewhere, if some thing sticks out as wrong either remove it or add more of the same in so it doesn't stand out on its own!

 So I'm going for add more of the same and seeing what happens!

Linking to Design Wall Monday

Mini Quilt Finish

I finished my mini Swoon Quilt yesterday evening, binding sewn on and labelled and ready to go in the post for tomorrows ship date.  This is a project for Schnitzel & Boo's mini Quilt swap, called "Make a Quilt, Make a Friend"  (previous posts from initial idea , choosing fabrics and layout!).

So this morning before work, I decided to take some photos in the early morning light.  I had fun wandering around the garden looking for a spot to show it off.

Wilbur wandered around following me, not quite awake himself.  I’m sure that dog thinks I’m half cracked!  (Charly wisely stayed in bed and didn’t poke her head out until breakfast!)

I quilted it with large wiggly stipple.  It was quick and fun and super easy.  After the class at the weekend in Free Motion Quilting, I'd probably do a separate design in the colours and something different in the white but I really like the stipple too so I'm quite happy with it.  Hope my swap partner is too!

I really like how bright and colourful it is.  My swap partner loves rainbow quilts and bright modern fabrics on white backgrounds.  She also loves Heather Ross but I couldn't find anything I liked for the centre of the star so I mirrored the half square triangles and tried to arrange the centre star along complimentary colours touching the outer ring e.g. blue and yellow, red and green.

This was a really fun project!  The quilt pattern for this Swoon block can be found in Camille Roskelly's shop.  The block measures 24" square finished and is an update of a traditional block that Camille found on a vintage quilt.  If you want to follow step by step instructions Camille teaches how to make this quilt block on Craftsy's in her class Pre-cut piecing made simple.

Linking up to all the Friday finishes! Crazy Mom Quilts and

WIP - Playing with Colour

To celebrate Fluffy Sheep Quilting being 2 years open, Cindy very kindly gave a discount on her blog and I bought this fabric bundle of 9 fat quarters.  It's part of the blogger bundle collection on the shop and it was put together by Sarah at Fairy Face Designs. Isn't it really pretty?

As soon as I ripped open the blue packaging, I knew this was going to be used for the scrappy Swoon block I have planned for the Schnitzel & Boo mini-quilt swap. My swap partner loves rainbow, bright and modern fabrics so I needed to add a few more colours to this bundle of 9 to make the trip the whole way around the colour wheel.

I had great fun pulling everything from my shoe boxes of Fat Quarters and when they were all laid out together, I realised I didn't have enough variation  So, I broke up some precuts to add to it.  I added Charm pack squares from Domestic Bliss by Liz Scott.

Some dark blue and orange layer cake squares from Kate Spain's Sunnyside and even the small bit of Noteworthy (I am Noteworthy obsessed!) made it into the pile.

I'm not sure about the bright aqua or the orange at the moment and there are probably too many light blues but it's a colour wheel and it's pretty much complete, so I think I'm ready to just dive right in!

I also have a quilting plan for my 3 log cabin cushions.  I'm thinking of straight line quilting for the two smaller cushions.  I'd like to try matchstick quilting at some point and this small project seems ideal for this.  Another quilting pattern I've not tried yet is spiral, so I think the snail block is going to be my test piece for this one too!  It's really fun making a small project just to play and explore.  I'm not sure how many cushions one house needs but I'm sure I can squeeze in a few more! 

Linking up to

Virtual Design Wall Monday - Scrappy Swoon

One of the swaps I took part in last year and enjoyed immensely was organised by Schnitzel & Boo.  Over 200 of us took part in making mini-quilts 6" square to 24" square maximum.  I made this applique mini quilt for my partner in Washington, USA and I received this quilt from New Jersey from Christina.

This year 600 people signed up!  I got my partners information over the weekend and as it is a secret swap I can't follow her officially but I have been having a look at her website and favourites on Flickr trying to figure out what to make for her.  Yes I've been stalking!  Only occasion I can think of when this is actually a good thing!

My swap partner loves Thimble blossoms, bright colours, Rainbow quilts and Heather Ross.  Now I have no Heather Ross prints in my stash (I know, I should probably go shopping!) but I do have a book and pattern or two by Camille Roskelly of Thimble blossoms fame.  I love bright rainbow colours so have a bit of that on hand and that got me thinking.  How about a Rainbow Scrappy Swoon?

I couldn't help myself, I had to play with background colours.  I really like the black background on this but I think my swap partner would like the white. There's even a nice square in the middle for a fussy cut something (this could be good place for a Heather Ross print if I can find one!)

The Swoon block is 24.5" and I think I could be forgiven a 0.5" over on size.  More than likely shrink on quilting too as I think this could be a great candidate for trying out matchstick quilting!

Of course I didn't stop there on my virtual design wall.  How about 4 mini swoons with space for 5 fussy cut prints?   I could definitely see this in a 60" quilt to brighten up the living room.  Is this one a bit too much for a mini?

Linking up to Design wall Monday and

WIP Wednesday - Still Starry Eyed

I pieced my Star Crossing block from last week - couldn't help it, I had to get it together and I'm very pleased with the result.  The block is 32" and I'm going to add borders to bring up to 36" square for a baby quilt.  It was really easy to put together.

I've been thnking about how to quilt it and have come up with straight lines along the sun rays and stipple in the white areas.  Not sure what to do with the navy square and star centre.  Maybe I'll stitch in the ditch and echo in matching thread?

I'm thrilled with how this block turned out and I love the pattern multiplied so I've drafted a 24" block as well.  I hope to put this one together as a tutorial and pattern but I've got some more Star blocks to finish.

Last week I had a star centre for Happy Quilting's Star Surround QAL.

This week I have surrounds and corners.
 

Next week is assembly but I couldn't resist laying them out for a sneaky peek!

I'm loving this project.  It'll be a 40" baby quilt, hopefully in 2 weeks time.

No joy on my Swoon QAL this week - still in pieces.  Hopefully Sunday will be a swoon day for me and I'll get this one done as well!

These large star blocks are tons of fun and very versatile.  I'll be making them for a while, 5 more Swoon to go in addition to this one!

Linking up to

WIP - All in Pieces

I think I've gone Star mad.  I'm still making Swoon blocks

and taking part in Melissa's Star Surround Quilt-A-Long.

Both of these designs have a large block feel to it with a star at the centre.  Having this in mind and the need to come up with a Bee Block (I'm not Queen Bee until next June but there's no harm in starting early!) I came up with this over the weekend.

I've had a look and can't find it as a traditional block.  If anyone knows this please let me know but for the moment I'm calling it Star Crossing.  It's too big to use for my Bee Block (max size 14") but perfect for a baby quilt or a throw.

Of course I had to test it straight away.  So instead of sewing together Swoon and Star Surround I pieced the HST and Flying Geese for this and laid it our on my design wall (aka the floor).  Charly helped enormously by keeping a watch at the window for Wilbur the Wrecker (aka the Happy Basset Hound).

I think the navy Kona solid is too dark for the pastels I've used.  Maybe a brighter blue would have been better.  Question : should I change it now or try to lift it with a bright thread on quilting?

This was a very quick put together for a baby quilt and I think I'll write it up as a pattern.  It goes together very much like Swoon and the colour variations and size options are endless! With pinwheel or without pinwheel it works quite well.

Funny how you get an idea in your head and the things that influence it.  So now I have 3 stars projects in pieces that I will work on putting together this week! 

Linking up to Slow Boggers Linky Party,  Design wall monday and