Super Mario {Finish}

It's finally finished!! I am so pleased to tick this one off the list at last.

Finished Mario Quilt

If you have been following me a while you'll have seen my progress on this mammoth quilt! There are pictures on flickr here and some old posts here, here and here.

I started this quilt in Feb 2013. I found the QAL run by Cut to Pieces a while after it had ended but my son (and husband!) is such a Mario fan I couldn't resist. I had envisioned it being a birthday present for him. His birthday being May gave me 3 months!

I didn't have the Pellon stabilizer that she recommended so decided I could just sew them together! The one thing that I hadn't really thought through was the amount of time it was going to take to cut and sew together all those 1 inch squares! Some 3888 squares to be precise! It was certainly a challenge, and it became evident quite early on that it was going to take longer than 3 months to complete!! So I shifted the goalpost to a Christmas gift!

I found I could focus on doing blocks for a while but would then have to stop and do something else until the pain had worn off and I could face it again. Eventually I had all 12 blocks complete. 

It was at this point that I discovered that my blocks were not all 18.5" square! Some were close to the same size but there was nearly 0.75" difference between the largest and smallest blocks! So adding the sashing proved to be quite an issue. A lot of manipulation went on until it was all attached! It was now 3 weeks before Christmas.

The backing had to pieced since I certainly didn't have a piece of fabric big enough for this huge quilt. I decided to stick with a pixel theme and some pieced letters. Despite going with a relatively simple idea, it took longer than expected to piece it together, this might have had something to do with the busy time of year too! I had now abandoned the idea of it being a Christmas gift!

By the beginning of January 2014 it was finished to the point of basted and ready for quilting. And there is sat, again.

I eventually got brave enough to start quilting it about a week before his birthday! The quilt was so heavy and large I knew the quilting had to be kept fairly simple so I decided to go with stippling like the pillow I had already made for him. With the blocks being 18" square (roughly!) it was taking me just over an hour a block! 

I spent every evening quilting late into the night. His birthday arrived and I conceded to give it to him with a 6" strip at the bottom of the quilt that was not quilted! It was finished the following day whilst he was at school. I bound it using Kona charcoal. 

Quilt Front

Quilt back

He was very pleased when it was finally on his bed! 

I am now about to package it up though and send it to the UK with my daughter as I have entered it into the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August 2014! This will be the first quilt I have ever entered to be displayed anywhere! My mum has entered one of her quilts too! I wish I could be there to see them hanging, instead I am hoping my mum and daughter get a good picture of them when they are there! 

Quilt Stats:
Pattern (front): Mario QAL with Cut to Pieces
Quilt Stats:
Pattern (back): My own design using some letters by Blossom Heart Quilts
Fabrics: Variety of Kona solids
Quilted: by me using Aurifil 50 weight Silver Fox
Started: Feb 2013
Finished: May 2014
Size: BIG! : 87" x 67"

Boxy Pouch {Finish}

I made a boxy pouch! I usually avoid zippers as I think they will be tricky. But I have a need for a pouch so thought I would give it a go.

I found a tutorial for a boxy pouch here by Pink Stitches.

I want to use the pouch for toiletries so decided to use some of the babyville boutique PUL fabric I have had sitting around for a while. This was probably not the best fabric to choose for the first try at the pouch! But hey, I like a challenge. 

I managed to do it, with quite a large amount of unpicking and fiddling! The PUL fabric moves too much when sewing. But at least that's hidden on the inside. 

Boxy Pouch

I practiced some FMQ on the outside. I did loops and hearts to make the stripes a little more feminine than their are. This is a pouch for my big girl who is doing some travelling on her own this summer. She likes blue so hopefully this will appeal to her.

I might have to try another one of these pouches but with some more forgiving interior fabrics!

Happy sewing.