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.

A Curious Finish

There have been times over the last couple of days when I have felt like I was assisting in the lambing shed or competing in some sumo wrestling as I tugged the Man with a Curious Nature quilt through the throat of my machine.

I wanted it to have a squishy feel so that it was ideal for snuggling and so I quilted it 'lite' by simply echoing the squares and rectangles. It still took ages as I was continually having to reposition the quilt.  Ideally I would have liked to quilt it more densely.

But it's done...finally, and my first finish of 2013.

It was a surprise for my husband who had no idea I was making anything for him. Zaki and I took it to the riad so that we could surprise him but he had popped out for lunch so we took a few snaps while we were waiting for him.

I'm ashamed to admit that I made the quilt top in April last year! I used lovely Sarah's stained pattern as part of her QAL and Parson Grey's Curious Nature, which I still really love.  At the end of last year, I made the backing using Denyse Schmidt's Four Square (Hope Valley) and some Oakshott striped cottons from the FQ Retreat goodie bag. The binding is Flea Market Fancy.

After signing up to Leanne's FAL (Finishalong), I knew that I wanted this to be one of my first finishes. I love the stained design but I am kind of wishing that I had used a different solid as I'm not really loving the Kona herb which came with the FQs I ordered. However, my husband who is not known for his quilt enthusiasm seems to like it and that's what matters! It definitely has more of a masculine feel but it was fun to do something a little different.

I've  nominated it an early wedding anniversary present for next month - I couldn't keep until February.  I'm like that with surprises!

Quilt Stats
Quilt Front Curious Grey by Parson Grey and Kona Herb solid
Quilt Backing Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley Four Square and Oakshott Cottons
Binding Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy Medallion
Size 60" x 72"

WiP Wednesday

Quick quick, it's just about to end! I took advantage of Brenda's amazing 25% off everything coupon (MOVING) 3 times in the last couple of weeks.  Today's the last day to use it so head on over there - it applies to everything and she's just back from quilt market!

After months of buying very little fabric, my stash is looking a little pathetic.  However, before I started anything new, there were a couple of things that needed finishing.  With it feeling decidedly cooler here (it's been raining hard here today) this was the perfect time to buy backing and binding fabric for my man's man quilt.

Like a phoenix from the ashes, I resurrected my Stained Man with a Curious Nature quilt top, which I made back in April, when I joined in very last minute with lovely Sarah's Stained QAL. I used Curious Nature by David Butler aka Parson Grey and Kona Herb. I found I had some of the Kona Herb solid left over and so today I added a 2 and a half inch border round the scrappy border to make it just a little bit bigger and I like it a whole lot more now.

The photos are terrible as it has been really dark all day!

The backing will be Four Square from Hope Valley by Denise Schmidt.  While I love this fabric, it seemed a bit flat as it was so similar in colour to the front.  When I was choosing the fabric, I was looking for something manly and wish that I had gone for a real contrast.  So to liven it up a little, I added some of my striped Oakshott FQs that I received from the Fat Quarter retreat in the summer. The binding will be some Flea Market Fancy.

The backing will still be matchy matchy but more colourful matchy matchy!  So now I just have to wait on the batting which should be here any day.  I've had real problems trying to find batting which will ship to Morocco and when I do it's really pricey. So thank you to my lovely mum for sending me the batting I ordered from here.

Months ago I started a flickr group for projects made using Curious Nature.  It's called I Love a Curious Nature.  If you like this line, hop on over and take a look - there is some gorgeous eye candy! You can preview his new line Seven Wonders here.

Linking up to WiP Wednesday here.