Brit Quilt post 3 (mini star quilt)

The quilt I showed as a WIP for the Brit Quilt swap 3 is all finished and has been received by it's new owner. I'm pleased to say that Vikki seemed genuinely pleased with it, I was hopeful that I was on the right track as she left some great comments on the group pool photos.
So here is the finished quilt.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. This is the first time I'd used a binding in the same fabric as the quilt background and had toyed with the idea of using a contrasting fabric but I think the grey looks fine.

You should see the quilt I received, it's a beauty but I'll save that for next time as it deserves a post all of it's own.

Bye for now, Maria.
I'm linking up to amylouwho's sew and tell friday which is back after a summer break.

Birdy Quilt.

We had a poor bare area of wall in our hall which I felt desperately needed a nice cosy quilt to keep it warm.

I fell in love with Valori Wells range of fabrics called "Nest" and decided to use the birds panel as a central design surrounded by borders. I free motion quilted it. There's a section of spiral quilting just above the middle bird which I don't like but can't face pulling it out.

There's a strange rumour going round that we may get some sun on Monday. We may all melt!

Maria. 

Linking up with,

Brit Quilt post 2. (mini star quilt)

I've made a few more star blocks for the Brit quilt swap.

I've really enjoyed making them. The biggest block is 8 inches and the smallest 3.5 inches. The idea for this mini is to have quite a lot of empty space i.e. the Kona ash and as the maximum size for the quilt is 24x24 inches I won't need to make too many stars.

I posted a progress photo on the group's flick page and asked for opinions as to whether to make any more blocks. I received some lovely comments and quite a few people suggested making a few more tiny ones. I've now made a teeny tiny star which measures just under two inches with an overall block size of 3.75 inches. They're actually fairly easy to make using the wonky star method. I'll do a few more teeny ones and another ones about the size of the star in the bottom left of the photo.

I wonder if the quilt being made for me has been shown on the site yet. There's some lovely ones being posted.

Bye for now, Maria

I'm linking this post to Fabric Tuesday on the Quilt Story blog.

Brit Quilt Swap - post one.

I haven't participated in a swap for a while but couldn't resist joining round 3 of the Brit Quilt Swap on flickr.  In the last round the group swapped cushion covers but this time we are making a mini quilt for our partners.
I was pleased to receive my partner details as she has similar tastes to me. It's a secret swap so we don't know who is making for us.

The inspiration for my quilt is the Constellation quilt by Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey. The pattern is published in the FatQuarterly E-Zine, I'm not following the pattern exactly but using the style as inspiration.

My first block is a 6 inch Constellation Star block using scraps from my stash fabrics in colours I think my partner would like. The background in Kona Ash.

The fabric in the background is Echino Story, it's a linen, cotton mix. I plan to make more stars in different star patterns up to a maximum of 9 inches. I may even try one smaller than 6 inches. 

I posted a picture on the flickr group and was thrilled at the lovely comments, however one member raised the question of whether the fabrics in the star go with the Echino. I've had a think and I'm going to go with using all the fabrics as although the blues aren't in the Echino I think they all blend in OK.

Any thoughts dear readers??

Bye for now, Maria.

Siblings Together

I read on Lynne's blog, Lily's Quilts, about a wonderful charity called Siblings Together. The charity runs camps for siblings who have been seperated by the care system where they can spend valuable time with their brothers and sisters. Lynne put out a call for quilts which could be given to the children at the camp as a personal momento to remind them of the wonderful time spent with their siblings. Lynne has written an excellent post here about the quilts etc. and Delma who runs the charity gives a very moving account of the charity and the camps.

I was concerned that there may be a lack of quilts for older boys (the age range is 7-17) and I had limited fabrics to make a whole quilt so I decided to volunteer to make a quilt from donated blocks.
 This is part of the discussion that I posted on the flickr group which explains my reasoning for wanting to make a quilt for a young man.

"Hi, I'm Maria and i would like to make a quilt for a teenage boy. It probably won't be long before some of these boys reach the age when they leave the care system and have to make their own way in the world. I am guessing that many probably don't have much in the way of personal possesions to take with them to their new home which, ( I'm guessing again) may be a bedsit or a room in a hostel. Perhaps his own personal quilt may give some comfort to a young man in his new home."

I thought simple 9 patch blocks would be quick and easy for the volunteers to make. A wonderful bunch of quilters from England, Canada, Holland and Isreal sent fabulous blocks and the lovely Charlotte volunteered to provide the backing and binding and quilt and bind the quilt. Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey fame donated some fabric which I made into blocks. In the end we had enough blocks to make two quilts in two colourways. I put the quilt tops together and Charlotte quilted the blue one and I quilted the brown one. Here are the completed quilts.

I haven't got a picture of the blue quilt quilted but there is one on flickr here...............................I pressed publish and then remembered that I made another quilt! This one is certainly not for an older boy!

Bye for now, Maria.

Starts and Finishes.

A while ago I promised to make a quilt for my parents bed. They left the choice of design up to me but said to choose an easy design which wouldn't take too long, not so they would get their quilt quicker but to make life easier for me. I spent forever looking at quilt designs but couldn't make a decision as to what to choose. It felt that if I chose something too easy I wouldn't be putting enough effort in, I'm sure they wouldn't feel that though. In the end I decided on a medallion style quilt which I would make up as I went along. I know they like this medallion quilt I made a while ago.

This time I went for a storm at sea design for the centre panel. I love how storm at sea blocks create a secondary curved design but you don't sew any curves, admittedly the effect doesn't show up very well in this photo.  I've now added the first border which starts to turn the centre design into a medallion, it's made of  flying geese blocks but I've not taken any photos yet. The fabrics are a really pretty range called Flora by Lauren and Jessi Jung.

I've been delayed in getting on quicker with this by finishing the Siblings Together group charity quilts.

They're now all finished and hopefully will make too young men happy and cosy. Below is the one I've just finished, the other was quilted by Charlotte aka the weepixie and can be seen here.

And finally.......here are some roses from our garden and an attempt at artistic photography!

I'm linking up to Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.
Maria .

Just Playing

I've been playing with picmonkey .........

 These were taken last year at Alderburgh, Suffolk.

Off to sew now.
Maria .

Swapping anticipation.

I've bitten the bullet and signed up to the Brit Quilt Swap 3 over on flickr. This time it's a mini quilt swap. There's some fantastic inspiration mosaics ready to frighten our yet to be allocated  partners. I'm excited to find out who my partner will be, we find out on or around the 1st of July. I hope what I make her won't disappoint, it's a bit scary.

 This is my mosaic of gorgeousness. Sadly I didn't make any of these, credits to the talented makers can be seen here.

Hello to anyone visting from the swap. Are you nervous too?

Maria x

Ballerina Quilt for Siblings Together

As well as the group quilt I am co-ordinating  for the Siblings Together project I am making a very sugary girly quilt. It's made with some yardage of ballerina fabric and some scraps I had left over from when I used to make items to sell. This seemed like the ideal oppurtunity to use the fabrics for a good cause.

 

Now to the quilting but first of all I need to do the basting. My least favourite part of quilt making.

I usually lay the quilt out on the living room floor to baste but this is what it looks like at the moment!

It looks like I'm off to move furniture in the dining room for some floor space.

Maria x

Geese Around the World Mini Quilt

I recently finished a mini quilt taken from the book Quilting From Little Things by Sarah Fielke. The quilt I chose to make was Geese Around The World. It's a paper pieced flying geese design. I found the instructions well written but the only critisism I had was that if you sewed on the printed side of the pattern as the instructions in the section on paper piceing at the back of the book tells you too, the geese would be flying in the opposite direction to the ones on the quilt which does not match with the diagram in the instructions.This confused  my little brain.

I used similar colours as sarah's quilt but didn't have any spotty fabric for the background which was a shame as it looks really cute.
Here's the quilt from the book.

And here's my version.

I don't know what happened to the bottom pink goose, it seems to have lost it's point! I loved the binding Sarah used on her quilt. I would never in a million years have thought to have used that fabric with the colour scheme of the quilt. Luckily I had a similar fabric left over from another project and am really pleased with how it looks. It  reminds me of a wooden picture frame.

Bye for now, Maria

Siblings Together

Yet again I'm starting a blog post with the phrase "It's been a long time since my last post". Never mind it's a free country. I have a couple of small finishes to show but they can wait until another day.

Over the last week I've become inspired by a flickr group called "Siblings Together". A group of quilters are making quilts to give to siblings seperated by the care system who are to attend a summer camp.

If you would like to know more this is the website for the charity and this is the starter post by Lynne of Lily's Quilts who put out the call for quilts.

Some of us are making quilts and some people who may not have the fabric or time to make a whole quilt are making blocks which will be sent to one person who will put the quilt together. I've set myself the task of making a girl's quilt from some ballet fabric I've had for ages and a boy's quilt from truck fabric.

I was concerned that there may be a lack of quilts for older boys (the age range is 7-17) and I have limited fabrics to make a whole quilt so I decided to volunteer to make a quilt from donated blocks. I thought simple 9 patch blocks would be quick and easy and I'm using muted blues, browns, greens and greys. Here is the flickr thread with more details.
 I have had some wonderful volunteers who have already made or are going to make blocks and a hugely generous member of the group has volunteered to supply the backing and wadding and quilt it, she's going to bind it too. How brilliant is that?
Talking of generous the wonderful Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey fame has donated loads of fabric and she is sending me some fabric for the quilt.

If anyone fancys joining us and making some blocks, that would fantastic as I need about 42 for the quilt, leave a comment and I'll let you know the details.
Here is an example block.

 Sorry about the photo, it's taken with my phone in poor light.

Bye for now, Maria x

Unroll that Jelly Roll!

I was lucky to recieve a Jelly Roll of Joel Dewbury's Heirloom line for Christmas. This is my first venture into the world of Jelly Rolls and as cutting is probably my least favourite part of quilt making, (apart from basting), I was excited to get started sewing with these lovely fabrics without a load of cutting first.

I recently bought Jelly Roll Quilts: The Perfect Guide to Making The Most Of The Latest Strip Rolls by Pam and Nicky Lintott     and was waiting to get my hands on a jelly roll so I could have a go at making one of  the quilts from the book. The book uses Moda Jelly Rolls which consist of 40 strips and mine had 30 so I  had to add a few of my own fabrics.
Before I could start I had to take the big step of opening the perfectly formed roll of fabric candy which wasn't easy! It was great to see the fabrics all layed out though.

Hopefully soon I'll show you my progress with the quilt.......I have however been sidetracked with another quilt that needs finishing. As the saying goes variety is the spice of life.
 I just wanted to say "Hi" to Ruby if you read this, I've been told that you do!
Maria .