Tulips Cushion.

Last year I made my Mum and Dad a bed quilt for Christmas and this year I thought it would be fun to make a cushion to go with it as a Christmas gift.

After spending a morning being my usual indecisive self scouring the internet and all my patchwork books looking for the perfect  pattern / block(s),  I eventually found a pattern which I immediately knew would be just right. It was a sweet paper pieced pattern by Kristy at Quite play which I purchased from her Craftsy store.

I only had a small amount of fabric left over from the original quilt (which can be seen in the background) so I used it for the border and used fabrics from my stash for the rest. 

It was a great pattern to make but I can't seem to get through a paper pieced pattern without making loads of really silly mistakes! I love the finished result though.

Linking up with Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts.

Bye for now,

Maria.

Friendship X and + swap. November, part two.

I've received Jane's November and December blocks for the Friendship + and x swap.

Aren't they fabulous? Here they are with the blocks I sent her, will be sending her soon. It's OK, she knows I'm sending them with the December blocks.

Here are both our sets of blocks together.

Our colours for December are yellow, blue and navy so have a completely different look to these. The two sets of blocks look great mixed up together.

As I explained in my last post there are a possible twenty colour combinations from our palette so for the remaining months of the swap we decided it would be fun to pick two colour combinations each month and make two blocks from each.

For January we've chosen:

red, blue, navy

blue, yellow, green.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Maria.

 

 

Friendship x and + swap. November.

 I've joined a swap hosted by Susan of Patchworknplay and Carla of Lollyquiltz.

This is how it works.

You team up with a virtual blogger friend, or even a real life one.

You pick a colour palette.

Each month you pick a colour combination from the palette and you both make a set of four x and + blocks and a twin set for your partner, you then swap your twin blocks so you'll both end up with eight identical blocks each month. The block instructions are from a tutorial by Amybadskirt., she explains the origins of the block within the tutorial.

I didn't have a friend to swap with! I know its very sad, but Susan came to the rescue and played match maker and I now have a new friend, Jane from Jane's fabrics and quilts to swap with.

We both went to the design seeds web site and with the instant beauty of email we communicated across the Atlantic and soon came up with a palette which we both liked.

image from designseeds.com

We've since adapted the palette and have chosen:

Red

Navy

Yellow

Light green

Green

Light Blue

For our first month we chose red, light blue and light green. These are the blocks I'll be sending to Jane.

Unintentionally, they look rather Christmassy

For December Jane chose yellow, navy and blue.

My family will tell you that I have don't have a mathematical brain and I was wondering if we would have enough colour combinations for the eight months. Most of you will probably realise straight away how wrong I was. With the help from my husband we worked out that there are 20 combinations (correct me if we're wrong) so we won't be short.

Its not too late to join the swap if anyone fancies it. Its good fun.

Maria.

One man and a Jigsaw

Last weekend I read a post by one of my Strip Bee buddies, Julie from Mack and Mabel, about a new flat bed sewing table she had just purchased. These are such a great idea as a set in sewing table helps prevent sore arms and shoulders when quilting as you can rest your arms on the table.

This set the seed of a thought in my mind that maybe I could get my husband to set my machine into my sewing table.

There's no going back now!

Or now!

Yay! My machine is now in place. It sits on a shelf under the table made from a panel left over from when the kitchen was fitted a few years ago, I'm glad it hadn't been languishing in the shed for all that time for nothing.

We may fit a piece of perspex in the gap round the machine instead of using the machine's plastic flatbed.
I have to lift it out to change the bobbin but that's no hardship.
We set the machine quite a long way, about 10 inches, so I can rest my forearms on the table.
The new position may get some getting used to but it should make quilting much easier.

I recently finished my Siblings Together Quilting Bee quilt. So for one last time here's some more photos of this quilt.

Fabric: S'more Love by Cosmo Cricket, kindly donated by Moda.
 
Wadding: Kindly donated by Lady Sew and Sew.


Backing: Type by Julia Rothman for Windham Fabrics, kindly donated by Sew Fresh Fabrics.

 

S'more Love Quilt Top.

Thanks to the ladies of the Siblings Together Bee I've received all my blocks back very speedily and I've now pieced them together.

Aren't those fabrics cute? As I've mentioned before they're S'more Love by Cosmo Cricket for Moda Fabrics and all the fabrics for the quilt tops for this charity bee have been donated by Moda.

I'm planning on adding a light bright, narrow border and then a pieced border from the S'more Love.

The backing for the quilt has been kindly donated by Sew Fresh Fabrics and it arrived today. It's Type by Julia Rothman for Windham Fabrics.

It's such a coincidence that Sew Fresh Fabrics are based in Ipswich, MA, USA and I'm from Ipswich, UK. Wikapedia tells me that Ipswich Massachusetts was named after Ipswich, Suffolk, UK in 1634. Just a bit of trivia for you.

Last time I showed a photo of some unexpected autumnal roses from my garden. Today it's the turn of the poppy. These beauties self seeded and have managed to put on a show before the weather turns really cold.

Maria.

Where's my Quilt Mum?

Ages ago I asked my son if he would like me to make him a quilt. He answered correctly by saying that he would.....he probably would have got one anyway even if his answer was no!

We chose the fabrics and I showed him lots of pictures of all different styles of quilt but he insisted that he just wanted squares. Well I couldn't just make a squares quilt for him could I? So I sugessted throwing some rectangles in too and he agreed. I used the Magic Numbers block tutorial by sew katy did, but I changed the sizes and added in rectangles.

 

So here it is in all it's unquilted glory, well nearly as some of it is draped over the washing line!

I must admit I finished the top a few weeks ago and the poor boy has been asking when his quilt will be finished. When his mother pulls her finger out and quilts the thing, that's when!

Just in case those colours aren't girly enough for some of you here's a picture of the last flush of roses from my garden. They smell wonderful in the room. I didn't expect to see any more blooms now autumn's here.

 

Maria.

Linking up with slow bloggers link up at Knotted Cotton

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Buzzy, Buzzy Bees.

The Siblings Together quilting bee's August bee was Collette. She sent us all strips of fabric from the Road 15 range by Sweetwater, as always donated by Moda, with which we were asked to make a Woven ribbons block. 

               

                

Collette has since finished the quilt which is fabulous. You can take a look at it here. It will make such a wonderful gift for a child in care who has been seperated from his or her siblings. The children are presented with the quilts at Summer camps arranged by the Siblings Together charity.

September is my month! The fabric I'm using is a super cute range called S'more Love by Cosmo cricket for Moda. I debated for ages on what block to ask for. As there's quite a lot of directional fabric in the range such as the rows of owls and campers and cars I went for a block with simple rectangles and squares which wouldn't need turning. The block is called Stepping Stairs by John Q Adams from the book Shape Workshop for Quilters by Fat Quarterly. The block in the book uses solid fabric for the squares so I picked out some of the less patterned fabrics and used those as a replacement for the solids.

The wadding for the quilt, and the other eleven quilts being made by the bee,  is being donated by Lady Sew and Sew and the backing for 'my' quilt by Sew Fresh Fabrics. Once I've received those and the blocks from the other bees then it's time to put the quilt together. These aren't just adverts below, they're all the generous companies who've donated the fabrics and wadding for to the bee.

       

            

      

Work has been going on on the Strip Bees quilts. The quilt tops have all had two strips added now and we're all about to add the third. I've just added to Julie's strip and have now sent it to Fran for her to add a strip. We agreed to not show what we've added but sneak peeks are allowed so here is a peek at what I've added to Julie's quilt top. I don't think that gives too much away.

Maria.

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Siblings Together July Block

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July was Jo's month in the Siblings Together quilting Bee. Above is the block I made. She chose a wonky log cabin block made from Simple Marks by Moda. I love this fabric, it's so bright and cheerful.Thanks again go to all the above sponsors who are making it possible for the group to make twelve quilts for the wonderful Siblings Together charity.

Back soon, Maria.

Maria.

Street Building.

I've finally finished my strip for the strip bees quilting bee.

The planner who designed this street did a very poor job. He, yes it was a man, gave the big pink house second from the left as you look at it too big a garden and when the council came to check his work they realised that the garden encroached over the border at the front. The council made the planner chop a piece of the garden off leaving the house with a very small front garden. When he'd nearly finished the planner also realsied the street wasn't quite long enough and he'd nearly run out of materiels for the sky, yes the sky is the planner's responsibility in this town, so he had to bodge together the end of the street on the right hand side. I think this planner needs to start planning and not just making it up as he goes along or else he might find himself out of a job pretty soon.

The builders have however built some more quite cute houses since last week.

I've also finished another Jazz Hands block.

The colour scheme of this one is quite different to the others.
I've realised most of them have a red/pink, yelloe, green/blue schemer. This isn't intentional but they must be the colours I naturally go for. Here are all the completed blocks so far.

 

Pat Sloan has put out a sew every day in July challenge on her blog. I thought I'd join in to keep me going as I've not done a great deal lately. Fifteen minutes a day counts so I should be able to manage that.

And finally, it's great when your neighbour's shrub grows over your fence and you can pinch some some of the gorgeously scented flowers for the house. I think it's a philadelphus.

 
Linking up with Fabric Tuesday, link in side bar.
Bye for now, Maria