Mini Honey - Modern Patchwork

Craft Buds have been having a big craft book project blog hop and giveaway this month. The final bit being to link up a project made from a craft book.

It just so happened I made something from a book recently! I am just loving my Modern Patchwork book by Elizabeth Hartman at the moment. I particularly like this book for the inspiring designs but also because she shows minis of the quilts using different colours or scrappy.

As my eldest little girl keeps reminding me it's her birthday soon. She has had a princess cushion on her bed that I made many years ago when she was into princesses. Needless to say she doesn't do princesses anymore so handed it down to her little sister who loves anything princess related! So I decided it was time to make her a new cushion.

I picked the Honey pattern from the book, why, I am not sure as I am not keen on triangles (can be fiddly to line up points!) but I liked the hexagon design. 

My daughter tells me her favourite colour at the moment is blue so I pulled out some of my blue scraps and a Kona solid marine blue. So here's my triangles ready to sew together.

The quilt in the book has a white background fabric. But I decided to substitute the white for my navy blue since the cushion is likely to spend a fair amount of time on the floor! Hopefully it will not show the dust/dirt so badly as white!

It actually went together quite quickly and relatively easily for triangles! And before I knew it I had gotten this far.

Then for some layering and quilting. I straight line quilted the hexagons with the space between lines getting larger towards the centre. Then free machined a meandering (I really must branch out more and do some different designs!) pattern around the marine blue. 

Et voilà ...

I made a simple marine blue envelope back with a four of buttons (no doubt it will need a wash at some point!). I pieced some of the scraps together to make a square and added it to the remaining marine blue. I was struggling for fabric by this point! I then bound the front and back together like a quilt using a bit more of the scraps I used in the hexagons.

I notice that not only does the white look cream in the light the pictures were taken in (too late on an evening probably!) but also this one is rather blurry, sorry! I am really pleased with the way it turned out. I just hope she hasn't changed her mind on blue being her favourite colour!

As you can see I have not quite finished! I need to finish hand sewing the binding and the add the buttons. I will also need to custom make a cushion pad too as it is not the right size for one of my stash! So I have 11 days (and she's counting!) left until her birthday, I must be able to finish it in that time! :)

I am linking up to

WIP Wednesday - basting and triangles

No finishes this week, but I have been working on a few things that are getting close!

Firstly, I have finally layered my Christmas In July Block-a-Thon quilt top. I pieced the backing from some of my leftover fabrics so it took me a lot longer than I expected. Here is a peek of it layered ready to quilt, more later.

Secondly, I am working on a new pillow cover. My biggest little girl turns 9 soon! Wow! Where did those years go. She has always had a princess pillow on her bed, I made it many years ago when she was into princesses! Needless to say that she doesn't do princesses anymore, and she recently handed it down to her little sister who is very much into princesses!!
So I thought I would make her a new cushion for her bed. She is into blue at the moment and I am into my Modern Patchwork book, so I am making some hexagons using triangles. Last night I managed to finish sewing them together :) So another one is layered ready for some quilting.

Finally, I have been doing some hand sewing too, in those moments when I am sat waiting for children to do ballet or Beavers or on an evening when I really don't have the energy to do something bigger. But I have no pictures of that yet.

I am, for the first time, linking up with Freshly Pieced and The Needle and Thread Network (Canadians)!

 

Baby quilt completed

I seem to have developed a habit of starting a quilt/project and half way through deciding it doesn't meet the intended purpose anymore. The baby quilt I started in the Ten Little Things range has now gone on hold for the older brother's birthday present instead of for the new baby. 

So a few days before the baby actually arrived (early!) I started a new design, so needless to say it wasn't finished on time. 

A simple design using a set of fat quarters I have had sitting around for a little while. There were 10 fat quarters in the set but I only selected the brightest ones so I only had four fat quarters. The blocks ended up at 15" square but by this point I was running out of fabric so to make it a bit longer I added two extra, thinnish rows. This is how the front turned out:

Hearing so much about pieced backs and watching Elizabeth Hartman's Craftsy workshop Creative Quilt Backs on the subject made me use up all the scraps I had left (which wasn't very much in the end). So I created a rather narrow row of odd sized strips to break up the off white solid I was using.

I had pretty much finished piecing the front and back when the baby arrived a few days earlier than the due date. But the quilting held me up considerably! I started by doing a square spiral in the big colour blocks and then I free machine quilted a meandering pattern over the off-white area. I was really pleased with how the pattern went, and really liked the back of the quilt.

I am thankful I was limited by the amount of fabric I had and didn't make it any bigger as I found it tricky maneuvering it through the arm of my sewing machine. I think this is the biggest quilt I have machine quilted! And probably the most FMQ I have done too.

Anyway, the quilt has been handed to it's new owner, who being only 2 weeks old, was not exactly impressed but his mum thought it was wonderful. So that makes me happy :)

And we are being sooo lucky with the weather at the moment. It's hard to believe it is late September with temperatures in the high 20s. 

Love It! Pin It! Win It! - Sunkissed!

Don't ya just love The Moda Bake Shop for some amazing inspiration and great patterns?

Well, they are having a fun giveaway, and we all love them, don't we?! So hop on over there and have a look.

 

There are so many wonderful quilts and projects on the site, it really was quite hard to pick my most favourite recipe! I selected a few and pinned them on pinterest here. And I have managed to select my most favourite :)

Sunkissed Squares - KarrieLyne from Freckled Whimsy

Quite a simple design but I just love it and really would like to find the time to make one. I love the colours, the fabric range, the design, all of it. The quilt evolved from a pillow that KarrieLyne made first, isn't that fab too? Look at the quilting on there!! 

Another recipe that came close to being my favourite is this one by Melissa at Happy Quilting, and get this it's called Sunkissed too!!

Sunkissed By Spring Quilt - Melissa Corry at Happy Quilting

So what is your favourite Moda Bake Shop recipe? I dare you to try and pick one!!

Enjoy :)

A couple of finishes!

Today was the first day back to school. Well, not really a day since they were finished by 10am! There is some logic there somewhere.

Anyway, I did manage to complete two small projects today. A pillowcase and a journal book cover.

My first finish is a pillowcase. A friend of ours has just had a baby boy! Yay! In the early hours of the morning, after nearly 24 hours of labour, she gave birth to a healthy, 9lb 4oz, baby boy. Both are now home and doing well. I have never before sat by the phone willing it to ring with some news, now I know how my mum felt when I was having our children.
Anyway, she already has a little boy who is heading towards 3 and is mad about cars. So when I saw the Moda Ten Little Things fabric range I just had to get some. Here are my completed pillowcase! 

My second finish is a journal cover for my eldest daughter. She is entering grade 4 and needed a homework journal so I made her a cover for the book I bought her. I used some linen and some Lynette Anderson fabrics. The tutorial I found here added ric arc along the top and bottom. Boy did I struggle to get this to work nicely, but it looks ok in the photo. I also had an issue with the width of my book and managed to start her name to far over so it doesn't sit nicely on the front. It is completed on time for school tomorrow but in a true school statement I 'could have done better'. I just hope she likes it, or I might be making another one! Or maybe I'll be making another one anyway.

homework journal cover

That's it for today. Happy creating.