Friday finish and free motion bee & flower tutorials!

So my sewing machine has had a hiccup!  The bobbin has jammed up and no sew joy at all.  The shop I bought it from are on holidays until the 4th of January so it looks like it'll be hand stitching for me over the Christmas break.   In the meantime, I thought I would leave you with one last post showing how I free motion quilted some of the motifs in the mug rugs I made for Lara for our recent best swap ever!!!! 

rough hand stitching on the mini - before quilting

In addition to sharing with you guys process steps and inspiration for a project, this blog does me a big turn by being a place to record details that I can go back to, again and again, particulary if I am trying to remember where I found a block or pattern, or if I'm struggling to remember how to use a special technique.  I thought today I'd share some steps on the flower and bee quilting in these two little projects to save them for reference.

I'm a big fan of The Inbox Jaunt and love Lori's approach to doodling and how it can be used to make quilt motifs.  I've been trying to doodle more and had great fun practicing bee shapes before even attempting to take needle and thread to the mug rug.  I even googled how many wings bee's have and tried a technique Heather Ross recommends in her Creativebug class on fabric design.

The idea is to look at images of an object, practice drawing them to get the shape in your head and in your hands and then put those images aside, take a blank piece of paper and draw from memory.  That way you don't copy someone else's drawing and make your own. 

Following that technique this is how I quilted my bee!

The remaining quilting was just loops in a matching background colour and some steam from the tea to fill the cup.

Knowing how amazing Lara is at applique, I thought my rough and ready approach could do with some backup, so I found some pretty co-ordinating scraps and made a more traditional pieced mug rug to go along with the first one.

Fiona @ Betsy Grey Crafts had a de-stash on instagram and I picked this teacup fabric for the backs!

I had fun quilting this one.  A little bit of stitch in the ditch, some wavy lines, orange peel effect and a doodle flower!

To make the flower I kind of made this up as I went along!

I like how it looks and think next time it would be fun to combine both the bee and the flower and make a garden of them!

So that's it from me for a bit!  Thanks for reading and letting me share my quilty adventures.  Hope everyone enjoys the festivities and has a wonderful Christmas and New Year's celebrations!  

More Mug Rugs!

IPS Mid West Branch Mug Rug Swap 2015

Things are a bit mug rug crazy around here at the moment.  The Modern Quilters Ireland group are having a Christmas mug rug swap on the theme of relaxing when all the Christmas work is done and our branch of the IPS had a secret mug rug swap for our December meeting.

I received this mug rug from Claire with an extra special touch.   It included a little bag for a cup and a pocket for tea bags! You might know by now that I'm a big tea drinker - Barry's tea specifically (an Irish Breakfast blend) and when we have our Thursday night sewing meet, I bring a cup with my own tea bags!  So this is perfect for me!  Thank you Claire!

Mug rug swap, magazine and handmade tissue holder received as gifts on the night!

I was also gifted a magazine by one of the branch members on the night.  I had given a presentation on modern quilting during our October meeting and a very generous quilter had bought this magazine issue featuring a lot of modern projects and thought of me.  Quilters really are a generous bunch.  We say it over and over again but only because it's true!

For the Modern Quilters Ireland group, I was originally going to go with a cup and space for a biscuit to fit the theme of taking a break but ended up making this little guy.  Quite a few people are doing a Christmas theme as it is a Christmas swap and this little penguin has gone on holidays to the North Pole to see Santa!

Nearly finished for posting this week!

I had intended on the igloo being there in the background but I ran into a little problem and had to rescue this from ending up in the bin!  When drawing my igloo I decided to use an air erasable pen.  Mine has a purple cap on the top.  What I had forgotten is that I also have an embroidery transfer marker with a purple cap and that one, not so erasable.  Guess which one I used?

Realising my mistake after I had quilted it and nothing was fading, a few expletives, a google search, a soak in boiling hot water for 10 minutes, wash in the machine with non-bio detergent and no joy.  Marks were still there.  So bumping into Claire in the Limerick Quilt shop, she suggested heavy stitching over them, so that's what I did.  I free motion quilted in some shade at the bottom of the igloo, added some Christmas lights and then went over the whole thing again in a thicker purple thread!  And then to cheer myself up I added in my favourite red stripey binding (thanks to Jennifer for putting me onto that!) 

The penguin (I'm calling him Larry!) is based on the Greetings From Antarctica pillow projects in the book Pretty in Patchwork Holidays by John Q Adams.  I scaled him down to fit a 6" size and he came together really quickly.  Instead of felt I free motion quilted in the circles of his eyes and the pom pom on his hat!  So this guy is ready for the post, just need to add some chocolate to my parcel!  Hope all the Christmas preparations and holiday cheer is in full swing for you guys.  Can't believe it's only 1 week away! 

Best Swap Ever!

Have you ever had a parcel arrive in the post that sent you squeeling like a crazy person?  There may have been hopping up and down and giggling and lots of Thank you, thank you, thank yous when I opened the envelope and found this mini quilt from Lara @ BuzzinBumble.

Isn't it perfect!

There is so much about this that captures the spirit of Wilbur and Charly.  Charly the boss driving the cart and Wilbur's ears flapping behind him.  I love the little scarf! I can't believe how lucky I am to have received something so perfectly personal to me and amazingly made too!

The little stitches defining the shapes give them the most lovely expressions.  Even Charly's little tail looks like its wagging!

Lara even captured Wilbur's brown coloured fur on his neck.  He has allergies and in the summer months his fur changes from white to a red brown.  He also has really dark patches by his ears which are brilliantly done!

During the summer when I was doing up the kitchen Lara and I had an email exchange about how nice it would be to have people in for a cuppa and from there we decided on a mug rug swap.  My holidays to the states meant we held off on shipping to only a few weeks ago. 

I'll share my mug rug in a separate post as there is no way I can follow this up!  I knew Lara was brilliant at applique and was so looking forward to receiving the swap parcel.  Even with that expectation I am blown away!  So, so happy and grateful.  Thanks a million, Lara!

Lara has a book coming out in December called Crafted Applique - New possibilities.  Seriously if you want to see more of this fab work check out the book, you can pre-order already. 

Lara also sent me some fussy cut squares to start me off on my Polaroid quilt and some lovely feather fabric too!

I have my new mug rug up on the wall already, looking down on me, where I sew at the kitchen table.

Happy Friday everyone - hope all have a great weekend and big thank you to Lara.  Cheers!