Christmas layer cake

Third of the four quilts delivered last Thursday which has now been collected by it's maker. A great use of a layer cake for a lovely finish.

 



Again I used the Vine B2B pattern by Anna Bright which didn't overwhelm the piecing.

 

Another first quilt finished

Another fabulous first quilt - this time by Barbara for her 3 year old grandson. This was all hand blanket stitched and bondawebbed down first. I love the way Barbara has used stripes so cleverly on the boat hulls and sails.

I used a pantograph called Tickle which gives the feeling of splashes of water. I used Sew Fine in off white and this meant the quilting didn't overwhelm the lovely applique.

Blogger's Quilt Festival ROYGBIV

 

My second entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival is another bee quilt and I've chosen it because it was a popular quilt at Fat Quarterly Retreat. It was made to donate to the charity Siblings Together and used 2.5" squares in a rainbow of colours, each bee member made two blocks with the star randomly placed. It was made for a child and fits the brief well.

 



 

The binding was made from my box of 2.5" scrap strips and roughly follows the rainbow around the quilt. The binding was adhered to the back of the quilt with Steam a seam and then machine stitched down from the front.

 

 

The quilt was quilted on my long arm with a pattern called Allium on a Tula Pink backing.

 

 

 

Do go and have a look at all of the entries on Amy's blog. Voting starts on 1 November.

 

Bloggers Quilt Festival scrappy quilt

 

 

Having just finished binding this quilt today, I thought I'd enter it in the Blogger's Quilt Festival in the scrappy category. Many of the blocks were made for me by members of Hive #5 of The Stash Bee. The design is the popular Japanese X and + block and I asked for warm colours for the points, black crosses, texty white backgrounds and turquoise ends.

 

 

I love all of the different fabrics. Many of which I'd not seen before. I particularly liked the New York cityscape which I understand can only be purchased at The City Quilter.

 

 

 And one of the fabrics I used was Sweetwater's Sew text fabric.

 

I used a new Border to Border quilt pattern called Vine by Anna Bright which I was very pleased with and I have used it on a recent client quilt too.

The backing is a Robert Kaufman wide screen print from Fat Quarter Shop bought in their recent promotion and I love it as the binding too. It really hides the joins on the sashing.

If you're in need of a pick me up, do visit Amy's blog to view all of the quilt's entered into the competition. Mine is in the scrappy quilts category and voting starts on1 November.



Also linking to:

Another first quilt

Two customers collected three quilts in total on Friday, so time to get another quilt on the machine. This quilt is 110 inches long.



I am using a pattern called tickle which reminds me of splashes of water and is best quilted up the quilt. I'm not sure it will be finished before we leave for our next trip, but I will do my best between other commitments.

I have offered Jane the opportunity to use the machine whilst I'm away so I think she's expecting the frame to be empty. :)

Patriotic nine patch

 

Have you discovered how useful trouser hangers are for keeping your ironed backings and quilt tops wrinkle free? This is Fiona's first quilt, but not her last, which I quilted with a meandering star pattern to pick up the stars in the fabric. The quilt has the look of Ralph Lauren to me.

 

This was one of four quilts delivered to me yesterday, so I have a busy few weeks ahead of me, as well as a trip to London and Berlin. I managed to squeeze one of my own quilts in, which I will hand stitch the binding on tonight.

Spider's web

Another stunning quilt is finished for a client and ready for collection. I've quilted a traditional Baptist fab over all of the quilt.

Amitie mystery BOM 2014

I bet Claire was shocked when I told her what I'd purchased. Jen Kingwell's style is so outside by comfort zone, hand pieced too. However I thought it would be a good project for Wednesday mornings and travelling and would stretch me. Jen doesn't press her blocks either, which is one step too far for me. Having taken a class with Jen at fat Quarterly retreat, I took the plunge.

 

Hadley blogged that hers arrived earlier in the week so I guessed she was in group 1 and I'm in group 2 so ours comes a week later. Yesterday I saw on facebook that the mail order section of Amitie in Australia was suddenly closed for ten days, so I thought I'd have to wait until next month, but my kit arrived yesterday and here it is.

 

 

 

Very eclectic and the first block is about 6" in size, so should be doable for my first foray into hand piecing. i now have to find all of the tools I took to FQR as the quarter inch tracing wheel is in the wallet along with the correct needles.

Dainty hexagons

It's wet and windy today so I've stayed inside to photograph this lovely client quilt. I love the choice of border which picks out the greens used in the flowers and really peps it up.

 

 

I'ev used the pantograph called Dainty and the thread colour is Stone age by Superior Threads.

 

 

I have another quilt for the same client in progress today. If I can finish it today, I might be able to quilt one of my own quilts before two new projects arrive on Thursday.

Moda Modern Building Blocks 1

 

 

I wasn't as prepared as I expected for sharing our first four blocks as holidays and customer work have limited my time over the last month. However this morning I sewed two blocks that I cut yesterday and I think my Sewjo is back.

 

Firstly here's block 5 - an 18" block made of fabrics by Carolyn Friedlander.

 

Then block 7 uses the background scraps from block 5 along with some Basic Grey grunge and stitched circle. Bold colours. I waited until the rest of the block had been pieced before adding the four corners.

 

Block 6 which is also an 18" block, uses Cotton and Steel, Basic Grey Grunge and Bake Sale. Not as in your face as the previous block.

 

 Blocks 5 and 6 are then joined together to make part of section B. I recommend stitching the sections together as you make more blocks as then finishing the quilt top will be quicker once the last few blocks are finished.



 

Then finally I pieced one of the 24" blocks - number 4. I'm loving how this looks. It uses grunge again, Summersville, Bake Sale, Pearl Bracelets and the background text fabric.

 

 

And here are my first four blocks together. The orange dominates at the moment, but as we make further blocks, I'm sure it will be less dominant.

 

 

How Are your Moda Building Blocks coming along? Link below to share your progress.

 



An InLinkz Link-up

Seminole giant

 

I finished this huge 110" square quilt before going on holiday. The client didn't want to come and collect it so we agreed that Jane would deliver it to the Guild meeting on my return. I tidied it neatly away to clear the long arm for Jane and promptly forgot about it. I even took another client quilt from the same table and didn't see it. however our Guild meeting is tomorrow so it was time to trim the quilt whilst another is on the machine.

 

 

All of this quilt was pieced by hand. Carmel always pieces by hand, she has more patience than me. So it is now ready to be bound and Carmel is going to have to ask her friend to apply the binding to the front by machine as she usually takes the backing from the front to the back. As the backing wasn't large enough for the quilt, I trimmed it as instructed. The request was to quilt it so that it was ready for binding. Everything else was my choice so I used So Fine thread again in cream and the pantograph - Japanese Clouds.

 

 

Now to finish Alice's hexagon quilt. I wonder if I could get Jane to deliver that tomorrow evening too. Then I can quilt one of my own quilts before quilting Alice's second quilt.



Be happy with what you have

We are back from our four night trip to Venice followed by a seven day cruise on P&O's Ventura. Once again we were lucky to have dinner each night with three couples who were very good company. We also got an upgrade to a superior deluxe balcony cabin which included a bottle of champagne which we shared with our dinner companions.

 

I also received lots of happy mail whilst I was away and the first I'm going to share with you is the embroidered mini quilt swap.

 

 

All beautifully packaged by Florence who blogs at chezprincessenounouche.blogspot.com 

 

First of all some delightful chocolates in the shape of a bundt tin. Hmm, might have to look for another tin when we're in Berlin. Some sewing themed tape - I've been looking at some on Ebay so Florence was spot on with that and some floss in a colour I don't have.

 

Florence's card said that she knew I liked bright colours!!  We have swapped before. ;) A perfect red spot for the backing and then a beautiful mini quilt is revealed. I love the little bumble bee. I recognise the designer but will have to ask who it is as I can't remember. I was awake at 4am this morning so please forgive my woolly brain.

A beautiful parcel to chase away the post holiday blues.

 

 

I have beautiful bee blocks to share tomorrow and I hope my photography will be better than today's offering.

Beautiful Bumbling Honeys blocks

More gorgeous post which arrived whilst I was away. Blocks from three Bumbling Honeys bee participants - Carol, Sue and Jo.

Two blocks from Sue (left) and Carol (right) love the summerville, big beautiful text prints and cotton and steel

Sue also chose text fabric and pinks for her second block. Again some favourite fabrics of mine - Simply Color, Bike tracks and Carolyn Friedlander, then a great yellow pearl bracelet design on a polka dot from Carol.

 

Jo always uses great fabrics and this block is no exception. I love the blue graph paper background that she's used. This is an 18" block.

 



 

And here are all my beautiful blocks together from the ladies. I must cut another block out to piece tomorrow as I need to get back into the swing of things.

 

And tomorrow, I'll have the first of the Siblings Together 2 blocks which have come home and I'll share my daring plan.

Stash Bee hive #5 September

I had these blocks all parcelled up ready to take to the Post Office and then I realised I hadn't taken a photo. Jacki gave us a tutorial to make blocks for a boy's quilt in primary colours using a tear away stabiliser. I have realised that I don't have many greens in modern fabrics, so I will have to enhance my stash again. :) But not before starting to tidy my sewing room ready for Jane to come and house sit next Monday.

 

This is the last month of Stash Bee for Hive 5. Due to ladies dropping out we have missed two months, but that now gives us time to finish our own quilts.

Mini quilt swap

The theme for this swap was "embroidery", hmm. I dithered over this one until I remembered a cross stitch I did many moons ago that has languished in a cupboard unloved, so I took it out of its frame, added some log cabin borders of random sizes, quilted it with random embroidery stitched on my Bernina and I'm pleased with the outcome. I hope my partner likes it. it is very purple.

My partner is Lynne from www.happinessiscrossstitching.blogspot.com  I will admit my contribution was mailed a day late but it came together very quickly once I'd decided what to do.

Siblings Together

A quick make of two Scrappy trip Around the World blocks as I have a box full of 2.5" wide strips from two scrap strip swaps at FQR hosted by me. They are ready in an envelope waiting for Jane to add hers into the envelope and send them to Sonia.

My fabric choices were totally random and very different to the fabrics chosen by Jo and Mary, whose photos I've seen so far, but with this pattern, all fabrics seem to play nicely together.

Jersey Jane Quilts is in the house

Quite literally. We are away on a cruise to celebrate my husband's 60th birthday. And yes he is MUCH older than me, well spotted. Before Jane left to take her daughter to University, she quilted three quilts on my long arm to practise so that when she's house sitting she can quilt her own quilts. Do you think if I leave a couple out she might oblige? You can see what Jane has quilted on her blog.

 

 Jane and Issie worked on this over a weekend and quilted it on the Monday and it was bound and ready for Issie to take to University on the Friday. You may recognise the quilt as it is based on a pattern in Love Patchwork & Quilting by Amy Smart.

 

Moda Modern Building Blocks Sewalong - tips - block 5

 

Another 18" block but this time I pulled out full fat quarters and both of my choices happen to be by Carolyn Freidlander. Have you seen that the Village Haberdashery have some of the newest line before it's previewed at Quilt Market. I may have bought a few FQs.
 

My tip this week is if a block doesn't lie flat, firstly use some starch or Flatter, then place your largest square ruler on top and the steam rising from the newly pressed block and the weight of the ruler, will help flatten the block.

For more information about the Sewalong which you can join at any time go to http://jersey-scrapper.blogspot.com/2014/09/moda-modern-building-blocks-sewalong.html

 

 

Ready for the off

Having finished the gargantuan client quilt yesterday afternoon and taken it off the machine, I quickly loaded up my Whit Schnibble. It's less than 30" square so it was quickly quilted, and whilst dinner was cooking I machined the already prepared binding to the front of the quilt. I then put it in my hand luggage along with thimble, needle and thread to stitch on the plane.

 

 

Then it was time to pack my suitcase, which came together quickly which is very worrying. Worrying too was the weight, however DH put the case on the hand held scales. 16 kg, wow that's very underweight. Lizzie offered to do some hovering for me, so what is a girl to do? It was only 9 o'clock so I grabbed Whit from my hand luggage which is ready for the door for our 7.30 am pick up, which as it's Mum collecting us, probably means 7.10 am. An episode of Have I got News for you and QI later and the bindings were finished. That's my October project done.