One last finish!

I couldn't tell you where the month of December has gone! It has been an upsy downsy month with flu (the entire family!), bulging disk in my back, lots of birthdays and the mad Christmas dash that always seems to happen no matter how well I think I have everything in hand. 

I've been absent here and online as home life, work and getting the secret sewing done has taken over and I haven't had a minute to myself except for last week when the back gave out and I had no choice but to find a comfy spot on the sofa and read and knit and not try to do anything that required brain power!

Still, I got one last quilty make done.  You might remember this when it was just a flimsy?  I finished it for my Friend's new baby for her first Christmas!  As my friend reads the blog from time to time I didn't want to show too much but now it's been gifted I can share away! 

Indoor photos only as it was miserable weather before the Christmas!  Rained most of the day Christmas day too!  The quilting is inspired by Patsy Thompson's Craftsy Class called Ultimate Free Motion Quilting where she teaches a technique of layering quilt lines called Hyperquilting.  I have been wanting to try it our for ages so using 2 different colours of pink aurifil thread I managed to quilt in some butterflies and flowers. 

I had a lot of fun with this and a small throw quilt like this was a great size to try something new.  I'll definitely be doing this style of quilting again.  I love the texture it gives the quilt after its first wash.

I showed it unbound at our branch of the Irish Patchwork Society meeting in December and the ladies asked me what colour I was going to bind it in.  When I said a very pale blue there were some funny looks but I think it works really well.  The background fabric is Kona Smoke and I can't remember the pinks but think one might be Rose.  The off white is PFD bleached white.  I think the blue might be Sky.

I'm glad it worked out very like I imagined and am happy to have to have one last finish for 2017!  I know there are a few days yet to go but it's unlikely I'll get a quilt top basted and quilted by New Years, though I have a chance at finishing another knitted hat!  Made 3 this month so far and happily today the rain has stopped, it's turning frosty and I may get to wear one out walking the dogs!

That is if we can get them away from their new toy.  Well it's meant to be Maggie's toy but Charly has other ideas and it has been a constant battle between the two of them for ownership!  We've had to hide it twice, so far Charly has found it every time.  Can't fool a Jack Russell, a Basset on the other hand...

Hope everyone had a happy Christmas and wishing everyone a very happy New Year!

Make Modern Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Make Modern Magazine Blog Hop!  Make modern is a new online magazine from Australia, with patterns and articles for Modern quilters.  Lara, Jane (Where Jane Creates) and Kirsty (Quiet Play) have put together a great first issue and today I get to show you my contribution to the magazine.  

This is Storybook, a quilt pattern using pre-cuts to make a colour block quilt.

This was my first time using a brushed cotton and even though you can't see it in the quilt it is super soft (a little like flannel) and perfect for a baby quilt.

I used 2 charm packs of Storybook by Kate & Birdie for Moda for this very quick to piece baby quilt. My cousins in Chicago have just had a baby girl so I may just have to make another one!

As this was also my first pattern published in a magazine I asked my friend and fellow Just Threads (Sewing group) member Paula Rafferty if she would like to quilt it for me on her longarm.  She did a fantastic job quilting the cow jumping over the moon (keeping with the storybook theme!)  I love it to bits!

I think Teddy does too!  Not having any kids ourselves (just the 2 dogs!) I used this teddy bear as my model!

One of the things we were asked to think about, when writing our patterns, was to include options so things can be changed up a bit and add a bit more value for the readers.

I scaled my pattern up to a layer cake to make a bed sized quilt for my mum.  Since I began quilting, I've not made a proper bed quilt for my mum.  She has 'borrowed' 2 pieced cushions, a mini-quilt and I am under orders to make her a Christmas table runner but no proper big quilt.  Feeling a bit guilty about that I thought this was a good opportunity to finally make her something for the winter.

This version of the pattern uses 2 layer cakes and the layout is included in Make Modern with the baby quilt above.  The fabric used is from the Limerick Quilt Centre and is called Table for Two.

Photographing this was a little tricky.  It was quite windy so Gordon had to stand on the tripod legs to keep this from blowing over while I grabbed a photo.  It blew down 3 times and we got some funny smiles from the neighbours walking across the green with a bed quilt draped over a photo stand!

The back was made with a a panel pieced horizontally and I quilted this on my home machine using a wiggle stipple.  I just have to label it and then it'll be on it way to mum this week!

If you would like to see more of Make Modern there is a preview here on Issuu and if you would like to buy the first issue or subscribe you can do so here on the Make Modern website.  The Make Modern blog is worth having a look at with many guest posts and interviews with the contributors.  

The blog hop is continuing throughout September and there is more to see on the following:

1^st September                   Make Modern
3^rd September                   Kristy @ Quiet Play
5^th September                   Where Jane Creates
7^th September                   Gina @ Party of Eight: Our Story
9^th September                   Molli Sparkles
11^th September                 Juliet @ The Tartan Kiwi
13^th September                 cat&vee
15^th September                 Ruth @ Ben and Charly’s corner
17^th September                 Kelly @ Kelliotmagic
19^th September                 Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts
21^st September                 Serena @ Sew Giving
23^rd September                 Melissa @ Ms Midge
25^th September                 Anne @ Hudson Valley Quilts

WIP Wednesday - Designing Paper Pieced Stars

Seeing as I won't make the deadline for the triangle-a-long this weekend, I figured, as it's a Bank Holiday here this weekend, to try and make some headway on my baby Medallion quilt.  The last round planned for this are some stars and 4 hearts in the corners.  The whole design when finished should look like this:

Yes, it's very busy and I hope very colourful. I'm not even sure how to begin toning it down if I ever wanted to!

I scaled up the 3" hearts in the inner border to 4" and 6" for the last two borders. I've been playing with star shapes trying to figure out what will work best for the quilt.  The last border will be 6" and my original design above had a fat star with 6 points.  There are lots of ways to make a 6 pointed star, EPP diamonds, piecing with triangles or inset seams but to try it out quickly I decided to paper piece. 

After a bit of trial and error I came up with a fat 6 pointed star and a skinnier 5 pointed star using both Quilt Assistant and EQ7 which now runs on my old Macbook.

Paper piecing was quick and I think I can get 2 stars from each 10" layer cake so not too wasteful of fabric.  The fabric I'm using for the Stars is a layer cake from Me and My Sister with Kona snow for the background.

With only a few seams it went together very quickly and what's great about paper piecing is all the points are protected, especially nice when making star shapes!

 So now I've got 2 stars made, I need to make a decision.

I'm leaning towards the second one on the bottom.  I'm hoping when pieced together they will make a lovely chain around the quilt to finish it off.  What do you guys think?  There'll be 40 stars in total so 39 more to go!

Linking up to

MQGI Medallion Quilt-A-Long update

 

It's been 3 weeks since the last update on the Baby Medallion quilt, where did those weeks go to?  At this point we should be finished border #3.  Even with the extra week given to us by Cindy I'm only just finished border #2 and about to start border #3!  Now it's not all bad news, it's coming together nicely if a bit slowly.  All the math's are working out so far and paper piecing the diamonds turned out to be a good decision as they are all so straight and pointy!

And I got my clouds made

And my balloon stitched down!  Just need to add some tails to the kite and the centre panel will be finished at last!

We are following Melanie's guidelines (Catbirds Quilts Medallion series) and she suggested to take the time between borders 2 and 3 to make sure everything is squared up.  This turned out to be great advice.  After the first checkerboard round things were a little stretchy.  Adding the plain frames to grow the dimensions to a number divisble by 3 for the diamonds really helped.  I trimmed back the inner border to 2.75" all around and added the pink 1.5" strips.  I made sure the length cut was correct for the width and height and used a lot of pins to add this frame.  It eased in any stretchiness (?) and pulled the quilt into a more rectangular shape.  I have to admit I was a bit nervous making the cut hoping I hadn't gotten the math's wrong but sometimes you just have to do it and see what happens.  All worked out in the end ok, so now round #3!

I had great intentions at the weekend but then ended up a tad under the weather and did nothing for the whole weekend!  So this is where I'm at:

The plan for this round of borders is to add flying geese!  86 of them + 4 more hearts!  I bought a charm pack and a layer cake of Hubba Hubba by Me and My Sister and this will be used for the next 2 rounds.  I've used a lot of scraps from Me and My sister fabric ranges in this already and their designs are really child friendly, bright and happy which is what I'm going for here.

Only question now is which method of Flying geese do I use to make them?  Flying geese are traditionally twice as wide as they are high.  (Quilters cahce and Instructables have nice explanations of these methods with diagrams and step by step instructions if you are interested in making your own.)  I'm looking at using 4" wide x 2" high for this border.  I'm not sure what the quickest method is. 

A is charm pack friendly, has a little waste and requires sewing them all up individually
B has no waste and does make 4 at a time, all identical and will need them sewing up individually
C, Foundation paper piecing,  makes them up in strips as you go along and guarantees perfect pointiness, but will inevitably have more waste.

I'm leaning towards C.  What do you think, what's your preferred way to fly?

Linking up to  Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland

WIP - Another border on the Medallion Baby quilt

The insatiable fabric monster, aka Hexie Baby Medallion Quilt, is chugging along.  I've been working on this and only this and am still behind for today's status update with the MQG of Ireland Quilt-A-Long!  Oh well, I  am making progress - did I mention handstitching hexagons is a slow, easy going kind of a thing?  I still need to stitch in the balloon/basket lines and add the clouds in the centre panel. I have watched 17 episodes of Persons of Interest while making this so far, plus the odd episode of Midsomer Murders!

The chequerboard border took 2 fat quarters and is not as square as I would have liked (lots of seams!)  I'm  hoping it will straighten out as I add more to it.  The next border is made up of a frame to grow the quilt top, to make the Maths easier, to add the outside row of 3" diamonds.

I had hoped to make the diamonds all from scraps but did in the end have to cut into a charm pack from Me & my Sister.  The centre panel hexagons are entirely from scraps.  Last year, the MQG of Ireland had a pin cushion swap and I got this beauty from Rosie, along with some fabric and I've used the fabric for the centre panel and managed to make it stretch for some diamonds too.

I like the idea of the fabric linking the MQGI projects to each other!

I used a low volume polkadot for the frame to keep everything soft and I'm thinking it might be a little too soft.  One of the things we've been learning in Stitched in Color's class, Colour Intensive, is fabrics with a lot of white in them can tone down the saturation of neighbouring colours.  I can see this with my border choices above and though it was a deliberate decision I'm thinking of adding in a skinny border to frame the centre panel and help draw focus inwards. 

What do you think?  Pink to the rescue or not?

 

So this lot needs to be sewn up and then its onto flying geese for the next round.  So glad we have 3 weeks until the next check in because I have 86 of them to make!  Did I mention yet that Medallions use a savage amount of fabric? 

Linking up to Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland and

WIP Wednesday - Checkerboard & Hearts Border Baby Quilt

I'm still working on hexies, they are not finished yet though I now have a cloud to go with my kite, some flowers and a bee!  But I decided to take a break from them and make up the first border on my medallion quilt for the MQG of Ireland Medallion-A-Long.  The guidelines from Catbird Quilts for the first border is to have it maximum 4" so with my dimensions of 18 x 24 three seemed a good number.


So I cut strips 2" wide in the pale pink and blue from some fat quarters of Tailored by Annette Tatum.  Cut them 2" wide and made 12 for the top and bottom border and 16 for the sides.

 For the corners I had the idea to add a heart.  As they are 3.5" unfinished, 3" when sewn in, I thought some of the corner pieces that define a heart shape would be very small so the easiest way to make them would be to paper piece them.  My first attempt was a little too angular and not quite heart shaped so I modified the top a little (bottom heart on the picture) and was much better.

I sewed the squares into 4 patches and here they are so far.

The border is not yet sewn into the background fabric and I need to sew on my hexagon shapes and add some grass for the flowers but getting there!

I need to remake the bottom heart as it was made with template #1 and I should have just enough to do it.  I was a little worried I'd run out of fabric on this border. Medallions use a lot more than you would initially think! Then again there lots of seams in this chequerboard but I like the effect.  

The template I made from EQ5 is here if anyone wants to make 3" hearts!
Linking up to