Number 8

Many of my quilts have a gestation period of a walrus (15 months)...very occasionally they have less than that of an opossum (12 - 13 days). Ta-dah, the uneven coins quilt is done - the 24 hour quilt!

Yesterday morning at about 10 AM, I thought I really should get on with making a quilt for my new nephew. He was born a couple of weeks ago. However, there hadn't been a rush as my husband's brother and his wife live right on the other side of the country.  Still, my husband would be going to see them later in the month and I wanted to send something with him.

The colours I chose for the quilt top were inspired by the backing I was going to use - this lovely blue Valori Wells' flannel owl fabric, which was part of my SMS winnings from sweet Rebecca. It gets really cold in Morocco during the winter nights and this has the perfect snuggle factor.

So I pulled some  yellowy green and blue FQs and added in the Chicopee plaid to balance out the black/grey of the Silent Cinema print.  Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that this is not a palette I use often (despite blue and green being my favourite colours). As to the pattern I was going to use, a coins quilt has been on 'the list' for ever and so I set to. By lunchtime I had a quilt top..a small one, but a quilt top nonetheless.

I had some leftover Orient Dream batting from my Field Study triangles quilt, which also adds to the softness and drape of this baby quilt. I quilted it 'lite' by doing some horizontal straight lines either side of the seams.

For the binding I used some blue Caravan fabric from Jenean Morrison's new line Beechwood Park (which I have and miserably failed to show you in my recent happy mail post). I wanted to bring out the blues in the quilt and I think it is perfect.

I am still a little hesitant about the Chicopee plaid but I think I tilt towards it working - it looks modern and adds a touch of manliness. This is probably the smallest quilt I have made - it measures 34" x 34" so will be perfect for kicking about on over the next few months and will make a nice blanket for the next couple of years.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Getting My Last Fix

There were a gagillion things I should have been doing today but instead I made a quilt...well almost, I still have to bind it.  I'm no superwoman - this is a baby quilt for my new nephew and it's fairly teensy. I shall reveal all tomorrow...hopefully :)

Extreme Handsewing & Happy Mail

...okay, not so extreme...but I seem to be doing a lot of finickety hand sewing at the moment.  This is essential hand sewing though as it is an EPP block that Marguerite has been waiting for...for too long!

Marguerite designed this 9" block herself and it is made up of lots of tiny pieces. She wanted the inner and outer tips to be a contrast to the centre pieces.  Now I have got used to the basting of those itsy bitsy triangles, the block is coming together quite nicely and I shall get this off to Marguerite next week I hope. This is my second attempt, having mislaid my first partially completed first attempt!

I have received quite a bit of happy mail over the last week or so and so I have a couple of thank yous.

A very cute little pincushion from Helen that I won some time ago, and my mum  forwarded to me in a recent parcel. Thank you Helen!

My low volume layer cake from the recent swap organized by Rebecca - she kept a super close eye on the fabrics and as a result, this is an incredible collection of beautiful fabrics. She sent a 'just because' FQ of one of my favourite Loulouthi fabrics, and my winnings from her recent SMS giveaway - 2 yards of owl flannel which will be perfect for my young nephew and niece (I have a new nephew!) Thank you Rebecca!

and a couple of quilt backings from Julie at The Intrepid Thread. The blue is from Amy Butler's Cameo line and the green is Pagoda's Lullaby for Free Spirit.

There was also mail in the form of a couple of textbooks I need for a course I am starting next Monday - not that happy but necessary. I won't be around much over the next few weeks as I have been told by the course director to forget my life for 4 weeks - yikes! I am doing an intensive course (in a real classroom here in Marrakech) so that I can teach English as a foreign language.  Yes that means grammar and syntax and lexis and other things...so I shall definitely be missing my machine!

Let's Get Acquainted Link Up..

...is here this week! I was so happy to be asked by Beth to host this week's link up. Let's Get Aquainted is one of my favourite link ups and a great way to be inspired and find some new blogs...just in case your reader isn't full enough ;-)

Did you know that this summer Beth is hosting another blog hop for new bloggers to take part in. If you want to take part, you can read all about it here.

If this is your first time visiting then welcome. I'm a Brit living with my family in Morocco - a vibrant, colourful, kind of crazy place to live, which definitely inspires me to create with warm saturated colours.

It gets ridiculously hot here in the summer months and that's the time when the machine gets a holiday and I do a little hand stitching.

Block 15 Camelot 

This week I continued to work on my Camelot blocks, which are handpieced and circular. I made my first block here, which came together pretty easily. This one was way more challenging! Above is a flattering photo of the block - trying to insert that star with the inset or Y seams was a bit of a nightmare to say the least - it's puckered and doesn't lie flat. So I may EPP a replicate hexagon for the centre and applique it on top as I'm pretty happy with the rest of it.

I have been wanting to make a pouch to keep all my hand stitching kit in for a while now so when I saw this pattern by Aneela Hoey I knew I wanted to make it. I bought the pattern, a PDF, but then saw that I needed extra firm interfacing for it.  This is a big pouch (10" x 12" closed) and needs the strong interfacing to keep it rigid.  Fast forward to this week when I received my gorgeous winnings from Heather's SMS giveaway (thank you Heather - I love my winnings!) as well as the interfacing.

Here's the pouch I made with some of Heather's fabrics and I love it!

It's huge and easily big enough to fit my Camelot pattern, EPP templates, an 8 1/2" embroidery hoop and other bits and pieces and still closes really easily.

So now I'm all set for a bit of summery hand stitching on the go.

Now it's your turn. Do you have a recent finish to share or something you are working on?

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Fresh Sewing Day

I'm become a bit of a slow blogger.  I'm busy creating and loving the slower pace of hand pieced projects which I hope to share with you soon.

So May's big finish was my Field Study triangles quilt, which now lives on our bed. My seventh finish of the year but who's counting?!

There were the usual bee blocks - some super pretty improv. blocks for Di in aqua teal and turquoise and some HST blocks in shades of grey with pops of colour for Christine.

May saw the beginning of some more hand stitching when I completed my first Camelot block and am really pleased with it. I'm half way through the second block, which is proving a lot more challenging! I also began sewing my aqua, orange and grey hexy flowers together.

I have had lots of lovely happy mail this week, which I shall show and tell soon. In the meantime, I'm off to make a project book for all this hand sewing!

Linking up with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.