Piecing a castle!

Our littlest one turns five in November. She is still very much the princess fairy little girl and into all things pretty and sparkly! This year I planned to make each child a cushion as a gift. The boy received a Mario one and the eldest a blue themed pattern from Elizabeth Hartman's book Modern Patchwork.

 

So I set to thinking of a design for the littlest one. I concluded that the only option really was a fairy castle! So I googled for a picture and found this one that I liked.

This would normally say appliqué to me but since I have been doing quite a bit of paper piecing lately I took a different path! That said, I have only ever used other people's patterns and not actually created one myself before. But hey, first time for everything, right?!

So I jumped in feet first and this is the progress I have made.

Im not sure that starting with such a complicated picture as my first paper piecing design was the most sensible idea! But, hey ho! It has been a great challenge and I am certainly learning from my mistakes!

Thankfully I have given myself lots time to do this one and not my usual time frame of completing it on the eve of the birthday! Mind you I shouldn't say that it's not finished yet and time has a funny habit of slipping away very quickly sometimes.

Linking up with The Needle and Thread Network and Freshly pieced.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2013

After admiring the quilts entered into previous Blogger's Quilt Festivals I decided this time I would enter one of mine into the Home Machine Quilted category.

Back at the beginning of the year I took part in the Something New Sampler blog hop organised by Amy at 13 Spools. A total of 9 different blocks were presented by 9 different bloggers each using a different technique and putting a modern spin on it. The blocks were also an interesting size being 7" x 14"! Certainly a size and shape I hadn't tried before. 

I picked out my fabric bundle, colours that were also quite different for me, and set to making the blocks. I like taking part in quilt alongs as it keeps me motivated and focused, and I often need the pressure to get things done! 

Some of the blocks went together better than others and there were some that I was not particularly keen on after giving them a go! But it's good to try new things to know they don't suit you. 

Here are the blocks whilst I played around with different layouts.

To finish off this 'new technique' quilt I decided I would experiment with the quilting. I had, until this point, only really used a stippling pattern when free motion quilting as I was usually too scared to try out new patterns for fear of ruining a quilt top. But since each block was quite small I decided they were an ideal size to play with. How much could go wrong in 7" x 14"! This was quite a challenge, but I really enjoyed it.

I quilted each block differently but once I had practiced on the block I took the quilting out to the adjacent plain block to fill out the white space.

Trapunto Block

Scraptastic Block

Bargello

Cathedral Windows

Curve piecing

And the final quilt looked like this:

I loved how this quilt turned out in the end. But my most favourite part of this quilt is the trapunto block and the quilting. This is the back of the quilt block, I just love how the quilting really makes the trapunto stand out and gives it some great texture.

Linking up to Blogger's Quilt Festival by Amy:

Quilt Stats:
Fabric : 9 dots by Henry Glass, Kona white and a Bella green (can't remember the name!)
Size: 38" x 65"
Started: January 2013
Finished: May 2013

A Lovely Year of Finishes - October

I am spending much of this month in my home town back in the UK visiting family and friends. To reduce the chaos only one of the kids has come with me as it's not really a vacation but more a family visit, but that is a different story. 

I have bought with me a couple of hand sewing projects that have been on going for a while now!! In the hope that I'll get some time to get on with them.

First up, my hexies. I thought this would be an ideal little project at the airport and on the plane. But I was quite tired on the plane (a night flight) and knowing I had a 4 hour drive when we arrived, the sewing didn't even make it out of my bag!!

But now having nearly got used to the time difference (8 hours) I have actually managed to stay awake long enough in the evening to sew some hexies together! Progress, yay!

The other little project is some cathedral windows that I am sewing by hand. I started these nearly 5 years ago! And I haven't got all that far yet! I clearly don't favour hand sewing over machine sewing!! 

So I have lots of these little squares that are ready to be turned into cathedral windows, as this picture shows!

So for this month's goal I would like to finish sewing together all my hexies into a mini quilt top. That is going to require me making a decision on a design though!!

Star Surround Finish

I did it! Yay! My Star Surround quilt top is quilted. And in time for the parade over at Happy Quilting!

This started out as a set of 13 strips of Heaven and Helsinki fabrics, 5" wide by WOF. I won them in a competition held over at Mad About Patchwork sometime last year. It was a bit tight cutting out the squares using these as they were 1/4" too narrow. But I made it work with some fudging clever stitching.

I did some simple straight line quilting on this one to highlight the points of the stars.

Star Surround Front

I tend to prefer a more heavily quilted look. And I have been debating whether I should add some more quilting, but am undecided! The back shows the quilting a bit more clearly. I had enough scraps to make the scrappy binding and used the remaining fabrics on the back.

Star Surround Back

This marks the end of another quilt-a-long run by Melissa at Happy Quilting. She is holding a grand parade of all the finished quilts on Monday 16th September so hop on over and check them out, there will be some amazing quilts!

Quilt Stats:
Fabric: Heaven and Helsinki, Kona Snow
Size: 35.5" x 51" (rather an odd finished size!)
Started: August 2013
Finished: September 2013

Linking up with 

More Letters

We are in month three of the Easy as ABC QAL over at Blossom Heart Quilts and the letters she published were KLMNO. I kind of wish I was making the quilt as it looks so great.

But no, I am making name banners for my 3 children. So I am picking and choosing the letters I make.

I started with the boy's name. I have just redecorated his room and made curtains and a headboard in a green, yellow and blue striped fabric. 

So I pulled out some fabrics that I though went with these and ended up with these four letters. Just need a couple of letters from further down the alphabet and he will be done.

The littlest one is very pink and very girlie so it was easy pulling fabrics for her letters. 

I never realised there were so many Ls in my children's names.

Linking up to

A Lovely Year of Finishes - Sept Goal

September! The start of a new school year and the littlest one has started Kindergarten! It's going to get very quiet around here! I haven't quite decided if that is a good thing or not. I do, however, have an ever increasing list of things that I should now be able to get done given there are no small people around!! But before that list can be tackled we have to get passed the 'gradual entry' phase, so far the school day has only been 2 hours long!


So, I have been busy finishing off my Star Surround quilt top. The deadline for this step is the middle of the month, so I have managed to meet that bit! Yay. 

I decided I had enough fabric to make another 2 blocks. It would have been nice to have had a little bit more fabric to make another column, but I was scrimping on the fabrics as it was! So I have the 16" blocks in a 2 x 3 layout.

The top has been on my design wall for a few days while I contemplated whether it should have a border or not. I didn't really want too much more white space but didn't have enough of the Kona tangerine (to match the outer triangles) to bind it with. So in the end I decided to add a small border so that I can do a scrappy binding.

I am currently piecing together all the leftovers to make the backing and then I can layer it and start quilting. Ha, and there is another decision to make!

Melissa is having a grand parade on September 16th for all those that get it quilted by then! There have been some great looking quilt tops! It should be a fun parade.


Whilst the quilt top sat on the design wall I managed to complete another Dr Who block. I am so far behind on these! Anyway, I give you the sonic screwdriver.

Sonic screwdriver

So, my primary goal for this month is to quilt and bind the Star Surround quilt top ready for the parade! 

If I meet this goal, I should then have the rest of the month to crack on with some Mario blocks (I have 3 left to do) and maybe another Doctor Who block, before the next 2 are revealed!

A Lovely Year of Finishes - August goal Met!

Well, for the first time in a few months I actually completed my goal this month! That's not to say in the last couple of months I haven't completed anything, just not the one thing I set out to do! 

So my charm pack challenge mentioned here and here, has been on going for a while now. The top was finished quite quickly but then my chosen quilting pattern caused me to avoid it for a while.  It wasn't a particularly tricky pattern, I just got fed up turning the quilt every 10" when doing the straight lines. Plus my lines were not always very straight, despite using my walking foot guide, or equally spaced, especially after stopping for a coloured block.

Anyway, it's done! The kids were out today so I got to finish hand sewing the binding this afternoon sitting in the garden in the sunshine, which has returned after an amazing storm a couple of nights ago. A very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours!

So here is the finished quilt. Although the quilting was not the most enjoyable I have ever done, I really like how it has turned out. 

Sticky Notes - Front

I have also thought of a name for it! My husband seems to have lots of those sticky note pads and he stacks them up in piles on his desk, and several other places around the house! 

Some are square and some are rectangular, and so many colours. Looking at these one day I thought my pattern reminded my of sticky notes stacked in piles. And given that the fabric range is noteworthy, I am calling it Sticky Notes. Also quite apt since I did get a bit stuck on the quilting of it! 

So here are some more pictures of Sticky Notes.

Sticky Notes - Back

Quilt Stats:
Fabric : Noteworthy charm pack, Know Snow, Kona Ash (I think)
Size: 43" x 48"
Started: May 2013
Finished: August 2013


Linking up with 

Paper Piecing

I have been admiring lots of paper piecing lately! There really are some very talented people out there. I particularly like stars but have yet to actually make one myself.

I am a follower of Crafty Shenanigans and she is making a wonky village. One night last week, I fancied a quick project so found a wonky house and a wonky tree pattern. I was quite pleased with how they turned out. I perhaps should have picked a brighter fabric for the door and window to make them stand out a bit more.

They will soon be flying their way over to Amy to join her village. I hope she likes them.

This next one took me a bit longer than one evening to do! The Tardis! Part of the Doctor.Who.Along. It was actually block number one, but I started late and am playing catch up in my own order! I have another 5 to do to catch up!! 

I had a few issues with this one. I realized, after I had made 2 doors, that I had transposed the light and dark blue fabrics. I can live with that. The background seems a bit bright but perhaps in a daylight setting it won't seem so bad. The seams got a bit thick in places.

The Tardis

I like the challenge of these but I do get frustrated at times! I think I'll attempt the sonic screwdriver next.

Off to do some regular straight line quilting for a break. 

Happy quilting.


Linking up with