Blogger's Quilt Festival

I've watched the last two Blogger's Quilt Festival with enjoyment, looking at all the beautiful quilts created by so many talented bloggers.

This time round, I thought that I'd enter, as I've just finished my nephew's quilt. According to this post, I started it in early April, so it's taken quite a while!

It's based on the Small Plates quilt in the Practical Guide to Patchwork, and was quite easy to put together, but time consuming because I was measuring, cutting and piecing really slowly.

The solids are all Klona cottons from Backstitch, (Royal, Turquoise, Copen, Jade, Holly, Lime and Orange) and the white is Klona Cream (Eclectic Maker had a sale....) The prints are from a random selection of places, but were inspired by the tortoises (Urban Zoologie) which came from a scrap pack from Fabric Rehab. I love the mix of cars, animals, numbers, robots etc - H's mum works with disabled children and I know that she'll love playing games with him, spotting and matching up all the different groups.

The backing is from Ten Little Things, and was the result of a fabric buying disaster  - for the record, I did need all of it!!

It was quilted by me using the tutorial on wavy line quilting by Bijou Lovely, with lots of overlapping wiggly lines. There's one line in each vertical row of sashing, and the horizontal rows have got (from top to bottom) 6-5-4-3-2-3-4-5-6 lines. Hubs thinks that my OCD tendencies are getting worse, but I think that it feels lovely! Also, it's yet another educational opportunity :D

This was really quite easy to quilt, despite the fact that it's the biggest quilt that I've made at 68 x 85"(first two were approx 30" sq, third was 52x68".) I can't quite believe my Pink Chalk fabric card tells me that this is only twin size - how do people quilt things bigger than this?!

It also features a little bit of hand embroidery.

 

 

(Please ignore the wonkiness of that binding!)

The binding is made up of long scraps of the solids which I used in the main body, and was attached by machine to the back then the front. You can see this quite well in the photo above - there are three different colours of binding around the bottom two blocks.

It won't fit very well in our washing machine and we don't have a tumble drier, so it'll go in at my Mum's next week, I'm hoping that it'll crinkle up nicely (and hide those little imperfections where I got a bit trigger-footed with the quilting!)

I'm really looking forward to giving this to his Mum, I've been sending her occasional sneaky photos via Whatsapp, and I know that she's told my mum that she can't wait to see it. Hope it lives up to expectations!

The only thing that is still missing from this quilt is a name - any ideas gratefully accepted!

Stats:

• Quilt Measurements - 68 x 85"
• Special Techniques used, if any - wavy line quilting
• Quilted by… - me and my little Janome
• Best category - Favourite bed quilt, Favourite home machine quilted quilt

Still quilting!

Up to 6 rows on one side, and five on the other!

Quilting Question

H's birthday quilt is nearly done, which is good timing as his first birthday is only days away now. It's looking really good if I do say so myself - certainly the best quilt I've done so far, and the biggest!


I've embroidered a big "H" on one corner, as A had her whole name on her quilt and it would be rude not to do something similar on this one.


Lots of scrappy binding! Hoping I'd added it up properly, it was hard to figure out due to the number of different scrappy bits which I used.


The quilting has started quite well, I'm using a tutorial from Bijou Lovely on the suggestion of Kelly. I've decided to cross over my wavy lines, but apart from that I've followed the tutorial closely.


After one line of quilting:

After two :

This is where I'm up to so far, and I'm not sure what to do yet - keep adding overlapping rows in the sashing? Add some more non-crossing lines in the blocks? So far I've only done horizontal lines in the sashing, but maybe a few vertical ones would look good too?


Pondering...............

Shopping at the Knitting and Stitching Show

That's all it seems like I did today at Ally Pally judging from the bags!

Here's my loot, which I'm sure you're all dying to see - they're now hidden away a bit so that Hubs doesn't need to worry about how much I spent - only my own money, the joint card stayed at home ;-)

I got:

Mollie Makes subscription (4 issues for £1!)
Gorgeous silk and merino wool for my bessie's birthday present - I can't knit so she's just getting the wool!
Various notions - new embroidery scissors and hoop, some "cute as a button" ribbon (which I think NEEDS to go on a new zippy pouch!) and other boring stuff like 505 spray and pins which aren't pretty enough to go in the pic
Essex Linen from the Eternal Maker in a nice Ivory colour for some cushions (10% off voucher too!)
and from the lovely ladies at Village Haberdashery, I got a charm pack of Sew Stitchy, other pretty print which I can't remember the name of, and the best of all - my first ever bit of Heather Ross!!!!
(and hello Kelly, it was lovely to be able to put a name to a face)

 I went to two workshops, one making dresses for charity and another very challenging but extremely well run workshop with a lovely lady called Celia. We did darts, easing sleeves, understitching and bound buttonholes, all in an hour :O

I forgot to take pictures until the very end, and many of the stalls and displays explicitly asked you not to take photos. Here are two that I did manage to snap:

The Knitted Village - spot the Scouts!

 and the stunning view from the top of the hill after we left:

Finally a Finish...

... nearly in time for Friday!



If you see me on Saturday at the Knit and Stitch show at Ally Pally, I'll be wearing my new scarf, made using the pattern from Rebecca at http://www.makingrebeccalynne.com/

I used some gorgeous fabric from M is Make (in the sale of course!) - it's Autumn Trees, a Navy Voile and some amazingly lushious Nano Iro - honestly, it feels so soft! I wish I could afford to make myself a dress in this....

So if you see someone in a patchy-soft-slightly clashy but cuddly scarf - come say hi!

Ohhh - I also got a ticket for the Retreat! I was at my brother in laws wedding, hence the total lack of sewing/blogging/contact with the outer world, but my lovely mum bought it for me!

Copycat

Well, I saw this post of Lucy's and decided that I needed a scarf too (in a slightly teenage "must have the exact same thing as someone else NOW" kind of way...)

So, the pattern has been bought.....

Etsy


And the fabric arrived super quick from M is for Make.....

 

Shame I haven't got time to make it this week!

Sewing in September

Yet again, another month dominated by sewing a quilt for my little niece/nephew! It's H's turn this time, and I've been seriously working to churn out blocks for his first birthday quilt. The first 40 blocks took me four months, the next 40 took me a week! Now to piece them and decide on quilting - I'm thinking diagonal lines through the centre of each block.

Here's the blocks

And the completed rows so far, from both sides of the door!:

The rows are coming together quickly, and I'm hoping to have it all pieced by the end of next week, as we've got a huge number of commitments this week, especially my brother in laws wedding (speaking of, I gave up on embroidering their cushions, I found a good phrase but my embroidery skills just aren't up to it!)

Here's their cushions:

I've also been making the odd little bit like this fabric basket and toy tidy:

Hopefully this will be finished by the end of October so that it can go up North at half term, and so that I can finally crack on with other things!

Linking up with Lily's Quilts Small Blog meet - hopefully I can top 50 followers this month!

Also linking with Catherine's Slow Bloggers Linky