Online Trunk Show

Soma over at Whims and Fancies is hosting an online trunk show and I thought I would join in.

Wedding Anniversary Quilt
I think my best finish so far this year (and possibly ever) has to be the 50th anniversary quilt I made my parents. The pattern was round and round by Thimble blossoms and I used a Simply Colourful II layer cake and a huge amount of Kona white! 

50th Wedding Anniversary Quilt

The centre block contains my parents photo and around the edge are their five children on their wedding days. I included the 16 grand children under the respective parents too. Somehow I quilted this in a weekend (a tight deadline!) and was sewing the binding down on the aircraft flying to the surprise party. The final stitch were sewn just hours before the party began. There is more about this quilt here.

Center Block

Mario Bros
This next quilt was finished a couple of years ago and is another favourite of mine. Made for my son who was a Mario Bros fan. The pattern is by Angela at Cut to Pieces who ran it as a quilt along several years ago. I started making the blocks long after the quilt along had finished or I might have found it easier to keep on track. It took a long time to make these blocks, maybe something to do with the 3888, 1 inch pieces it comprises! I also found this one hard to quilt on my domestic machine, the size and weight made my shoulders ache after a while and it took me well over an hour a block despite chosing a simple stippling pattern! But I am so pleased with it, it keeps him warm and I love seeing it on his bed! You can read more and see more pictures here.

Super Mario Bros Quilt

Dalek Pillow

My husband is a big Doctor Who fan and I just loved taking part in Soma (Whims and Fancies) and Caroline's (Trillium Designs) quilt along a while back. I must confess though that I still haven't sewn all the blocks together into a quilt! But I did complete this Dalek block and turn it into a finished cushion last Christmas. Their patterns are great, sometimes challenging, but so satisfying to finish. 

Dalek Cushion

Friends for Christmas Wall hanging
I am so pleased I have finally finished this quilt (a long term WIP). I has been on the go for quite a few years. I went right off appliqué half way through but picked it back up earlier this year determined to finish it. The pattern is by Lynette Andersen and I just love the reindeers. I quilted the background with an all over loops and stars and it makes the characters stand out more. If you want to see more, it can be found here.

Friends for Christmas

Oakshott Challenge Quilt

My mum and I have been challenging each other to do something new and together for the last few years. The latest challenge was to use some Oakshott fabrics I won in a competition. We each started with a center block (wonky star in my case) and then, a bit like a round robin, sent it to the other to add a section and then swap again. We continued like this until we'd reached a reasonable size. This is my finished wall hanging. I heavily quilted mine just because I like to experiment with new designs. See more here.

Oakshott Challenge Quilt

Well, I think that's enough for one trunk show. I hope you enjoyed the selection. Take a trip to Whims and Fancies to see other trunk shows happening and maybe join in yourself. Thanks Soma for a fun idea! 

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"

Quilt backing

I had hoped to have finished the Mario quilt for the boy for Christmas but unfortunately it didn't happen! I had the front completed well in time. But the backing proved more tricky! I wanted it to be a bit more interesting than just a plain backing but knew I was limited by time! 

I have taken part in the Blossom Heart Quilts ABC Quilt along making my children's names (something else that needs finishing!). So I used her templates again to make the boy's name for the quilt backing. They had to be square to fit in with the pixelated theme of the front so I changed a couple of the letters to fit in with the look I wanted. I didn't take pictures of them as I was going along! 

But then I realized I hadn't got enough of the Kona aqua to complete the back! So 3 weeks before Christmas I ordered more fabric and sat patiently (not!) watching the days disappear waiting for the package to arrive in my post box. It took far longer to arrive than I anticipated, I guess Christmas post and all that. 

Two days before Christmas I finished piecing together the backing! But, by then, I had to accept that it wasn't going to happen so gave up pushing myself to complete it. 

Now I have the two pieces waiting to to be put together. Soon, hopefully!

Lovely Year of Finishes - Dec Goal

I seem to have a long list of things I want to finish (or even start and finish!) within the next couple of weeks! So it's hard to pick one for this months goal.

But I have decided that the Mario quilt is the priority! This is supposed to be one of the boy's Christmas presents and I'd rather it didn't become a birthday one instead! 

I spent much of yesterday doing the sashing. None of my blocks seem to have finished at the same size. The margin of error may only be very small on any row or column but overall has meant that they have ended up anywhere between 18.25" and 19". Lots of manipulation going on!! 

Now it is nearly all together, this quilt is looking big! I am struggling for a space to photograph it all! I am going to have to make a backing as I have nothing this large sitting around! And quilt it! Going to be interesting! I see some late nights coming up!

Linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes.

WIPing it!

The castle pillow seems to have gone on hold for a minute. I mustn't leave this too long though or I will be rushing it the night before! I am still deciding on the pillow backing! I can't decide on a patchwork design.

So I pulled out an old WIP. One day last week it occurred to me that we are nearly mid-November! I got a little concerned that I hadn't made any progress (since July!) on the Mario quilt for the boy for Christmas! I thought I had better focus on this for a while, so this last week I have made nearly 3 Mario blocks.

Goomba

I thought I was doing so well with Goomba, until I stood back and looked at him from a distance. I noticed I had transposed a couple of lines! Oh, I was not a happy bunny! It meant quite a bit of unpicking, but worse still it meant sewing the lines back together, which is time consuming matching all the seams correctly! But he looked a lot better once put right! 

Turtle Shell

Bob-omb

I am quite thankful that I am done sewing together so many 1.5" squares, some 3888 squares to be exact!! I can't wait to finish off this last block and to lay it out and finally get it sewn together!

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

Lovely Year of Finishes - July goal!

The goal for June was to finish the charm pack challenge quilt top and get it ready for quilting. 

I think I managed to get to this point around the middle of the June, which meant I could get on with the quilting. So I have a bit of a head start on this months goal which is to finish the quilting and bind it! 

Now this should be a fairly easy challenge if I could just stop doing other things! Like making Just One Slab (or 11).

Slabs

Or another of the Mario blocks

Power Up

Or anything else that I think 'Oh, I just have to do that '! But that's what I enjoy about this fabric obsession! So much to try and play with.

Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes

WIP Wednesday

I have got my charm pack challenge quilt basted and ready for quilting. I kind of know what I want to do, I just need to take the plunge and actually start quilting it. 

Front

Using the remaining fabrics and a lot more Kona snow I put together a back, which is almost visible in this picture. In the end I used the whole charm pack apart from two 2.5" squares! So that in my book can't be bad! 

Looking at the picture now it is hard to believe it was taken yesterday. Today is wet and chilly again! It changes so quickly!

Whilst contemplating the quilting of the charm pack quilt I have been working on some of the Mario blocks. I now have nearly 7 completed. Poor Luigi needs a head! But I think that takes me to half way through the quilt now, thank goodness!! I really like it but it's not an easy one to do!

Mario Quilt

I have this lovely stack of fabric to work with too! Loving this Comma range, so fun and bright. 

Comma

Lastly, I can't help but share this picture of our youngest little girl graduating from preschool this morning! It was so sweet! 

Linking to The Needle and Thread Network and Freshly pieced.

Mario cushion

Things seem to have been busy around here! But not too much sewing going on, more birthday party prep. Our boy turned 7 yesterday and we threw a Mario party for 14 kids! 

We had some craft and party games to entertain them! There was Mario bingo, pin the moustache on Mario, 4 corners, pop the balloons. The prizes for all the games were gold coins, which went down very well!

Pin the moustache on Mario

Some themed decorations:

And child decorations too!

No party is complete without biscuits and cake!

I did manage a bit of sewing this month though. One of the birthday presents was a Mario cushion. The day before the birthday I was finishing the cushion pad and the buttons had to wait til the following day, I was that pushed for time!

I had to borrow one of the blocks from the Mario quilt as I just knew I would not have time to sew another one! I quilted an all over stippling using a cream thread.

and I did some appliqué on the back:

It has beans inside as the boy liked his old bean-filled cushion. He seemed pretty happy with this new one when he saw it. Seeing this finished makes me want to get on and finish the quilt now, to match it. 

I met my May goal! Yay! Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes

Square Eyes!

So what 18 inch block could possible take 324 squares to construct! 

A Super Mario Bros block, that's what!

I was browsing the internet one day and came across some blogs I had not visited before. Don't you just love finding new places to visit. One site I stumbled across was the Cut to Pieces blog. Some great inspiration but one quilt in particular that caught my eye! 

Last year she held a Super Mario Bros QAL!! It's a shame I didn't come across this when it was running, but hey ho! 

I have a 6 year old son who just loves Mario! When we moved continents we bought our wii games console with us but it stopped working after about 6 months or so. He was not a happy boy, but it was summer so there was plenty of other things to do! 

Unfortunately, the games are region based! So, we had the dilemma of do we buy a new wii here and reinvest in all the old games or do we try and get an old one that would work with the games we had. Well, last Christmas Granny and Granddad visited us and our son has been reunited with a working wii! Mario is back in our house!

So, when I saw this quilt I just knew I had to make him one. Oh, and my husband apparently wants one too! Hmm... there are a lot of little squares involved, maybe one is enough! We'll see!

In the instructions it calls for some 12 yards of fusible interfacing. Well I didn't have any of that and it sounded rather expensive so I am sewing mine together individually!! Oh boy, I might regret that decision!

Here is Mario in rows :)

I have to keep this one under wraps which is really hard with all the work that is going to go into it! I so want to pin it on my design wall and say 'hey look at this'! Alas, poor Mario sits in a pile out of the way only to be touched when said little boy is in bed or at school!

I am going to have to work faster than 1 block a month though if it is to be done by Christmas! Anyhow, here is Mario completed!! 

324 squares for the block

Next up Luigi or maybe a mushroom.