Help Needed!

Okay, that was a bit of a lie...it's me that needs you.

This morning I basted my long forgotten Cameo Giant Star.  Don't even ask me when I made this quilt top but it's been languishing in a cupboard and today its number was called.

I pin basted it and then quickly decided that perhaps I should hand quilt it.  I make no bones of how I don't enjoy machine quilting and so I plan to hand quilt it using perle. I love seeing those colourful chunky stitches and I love hand quilting.

I'm not looking for help on technique but rather what colours you would suggest.  In the patterned sections, would you use a contrast thread or a similar tone? Would you quilt in straight lines across the quilt or in sections?

Whether you hand quilt or not, I would love to hear from you!

Blogger's Quilt Festival : Field Study Triangles (Throw Quilt)

If you are visiting from the festival then a huge welcome to this comfy corner of the blogosphere! I am a Brit living with my family in N.Africa and I have been quilting for about 3 years.

A triangle quilt has been floating toward the surface of my bucket list for a while now.  I love colour and dense saturated colour at that! When I was thinking about how I could best show off my beautiful FQs of Anna Maria's Field Study, I plumped for 6" triangles.

So a few weeks ago on a dreary afternoon and completely on a whim, I cut up my treasured 24 FQs in to lots and lots of equilateral triangles.  I didn't use a special ruler - I just used this tutorial.

I then randomly pieced them together. No solids. No negative space. Just a riot of colour and designs in pinks, purples, mustard, orange, greens, blues and brown and not forgetting a little leopard print - the way Anna Maria Horner does best.

Did I mention this is a quilt for me? Oh okay, perhaps I'll let the family have a snuggle!  I know it will be used, loved and appreciated. So I went for something pretty special for the backing; I used a gorgeous Loulouthi voile - so soft and luxurious, which I found for a bargain $6 a yard.  The burnt orange and duck egg blue Coreopsis flowers are beautiful and work perfectly with the front!

I used Dream Orient for the backing - it was the first time I had used it and it is gorgeous - a mix of bamboo, silk, cotton and botanic tencel (a man made fibre from wood pulp apparently) and it gives the most perfect drape and is super soft.

When it came to quilting, I realized I was running low on thread! Living where I do, it's impossible to buy good quality thread locally. Luckily, I didn't want the quilting to be too dense as I wanted to maintain the softness of the quilt. So I reckoned I had just enough of some taupe Gutermann thread to quilt it in vertical lines 1 1/2" apart and then go over every other line with a wavy line.  I did but only just!

I love all things blue at the moment and so bound it in Amy Butler's Folly in zinc from her Cameo line.

A couple of days ago I finished the quilt - just in time for the festival!

It measures 62" x 73" and it's being suspended here by my 5 year old son!

Unusually, it was a dull and miserable day here yesterday but the quilt definitely added some colour!

Thanks as ever to Amy for hosting this fabulous bi-annual event.

Hip to be Square

This quilt top is in making terms what Heinz baked beans on toast is to a snack.  Instant gratification.

I held out for 2 months but resistance was futile.  I started something new. Ever since I saw Katy's giant Indie star, I knew I wanted to make one.  I happened to have 8 fat quarters of Amy Butler's Cameo but I needed some background fabric.

Despite carrying only hand luggage for her trip from the States to Morocco, I asked (cheeky? moi?) my friend Elizabeth to play fabric mule and bring over the requisite amount of Kona Navy and she agreed!

It's a lovely size of 68" square and I love it! I've always loved square quilts.  I see more in my future.

As a very small thank you to my friend, I made her a travelling tea bag wallet using Charlotte's tutorial, which is excellent! Well what else do you make an Englishwoman in New York? Again, a super quick and easy make. The only thing I fell down on was the ribbon as I only had a white one and a pale blue, cream or yellow one would have been infinitely nicer but we'll ignore the ribbon and concentrate on the fabric, which matches my triple zippie.

Then I filled it with some Earl Grey, Chai and lemon verbena tea bags.

Instant makes?  You gotta love 'em!

Triplezipperlicious!

Thank you to everyone who commented on yesterday's post about my baby quilt quandary. I am ridiculously behind on my emails but will respond very soon. Your thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated.

I have put that little project away for a few days.  Today, I did some selfish 'me' sewing and joined in Debbie's Triple-Zip Challenge, which finishes this Friday.

I pulled some Heirloom, Hope Valley and Cameo and managed to find 3 vaguely coordinating zippers.

Now these pouches have been popping up all over the place and I have been taking on board everyone's tips as they took on Debbie's challenge.  I thought about making a boxy bottomed one like Hadley's but thought I would keep to the original format for the first attempt, following Debbie's tutorial with the exception of the last step when I went over to Marci's very clear alternative ending tutorial here.

Now let's keep it real.  Mr.Ripper came to visit a couple of times but that's because I didn't read Debbie's excellent instructions properly.  I used Leanne's tip of using a walking foot all the time rather than a zip foot, which has the advantage of not having to change feet.  My zips are by no means perfect but I don't think they would have been any better with the zip foot.

I used some Cameo fabric for the lining.

So my advice? Definitely give it a go - once you have done the first bottom zip you repeat the steps and by the top zip it all seems to start making sense!

Linking up with Plum and June's Let's Get Aquainted.

The One that Sneaked Under the Wire

We're in England!  Well we've been here almost 2 weeks actually and it's rained here almost every second. It was raining when we arrived, Christmas came and went and it's still raining. I understand now how difficult it is to take pictures in natural light as ... uhmmm, there is very little!

Converging Corners quilt

A belated but very Merry Christmas to everyone.

The first thing I did after arriving was to take my machine back to the shop I bought it from.  It's under warranty and they have promised they will fix it before we leave.

After sporadic periods of quilting, interspersed with shopping for presents and a trip to the local panto, I finished sewing down the binding on my mum's quilt on Christmas Eve.

I waited to share it with you as I wanted to wash it and show it to you in all its crinkly loveliness on some glamourous country location but the incessant rain have put a stop to that one.

You may remember this was secret sewing for my mum. With some Kaffe Fasset fabrics, I used Film in the Fridge's tutorial for her Converging Corner's block - when I showed a teaser here - most of you guessed right. These blocks are super easy to make but more time consuming than you might think.  With no sashing, you also have to make quite a few of them to get a decent sized quilt.  After 20 blocks, I called it a day and added a 6 " border.

For the backing, I used Amy Butler's Harriet's Kitchen from her beautiful Cameo line.

The binding is also from the Cameo line - Folly in zinc. I would love to make a shirt from this fabric.

I'm really happy with how the Cameo fabrics work with the Kaffe Fasset fabrics.

For the quilting, I did organic straight lines - while I like the effect, it took a long time to quilt!

So this is a very late birthday early Christmas present for my mum, and a satisfying late finish for 2012.

Quilt Statistics

Quilt Top Assorted Kaffe Fasset and Kona White
Backing Amy Butler's Harriet's Kitchen from the Cameo Line
Binding Folly in Zinc also Cameo
Batting Quilter's Dream 100% cotton
Measures 72" x 60"

Like a lot of people, I have tried to stay away from the computer over Christmas so that I can enjoy my time with family. After New Year, I am looking forward to getting my machine back and resuming some kind of normal service...