Oops I did it Again..

...I played with your heart.
Got lost in the game.

Sorry, I`m not a closet Britney fan but I did it again. I managed to turn a planned more muted block into a block with pink and green fabric in it.  Gah!!

Perhaps it was Jane Brocket leaving a lovely comment on this post about a quilt inspired by her book  The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making but yesterday I felt like I could do anything and felt like doing something different.  So I dug out the pattern for the Camelot quilt by Trish Harper - 16 different circular blocks, which I first saw on Nicolette`s blog. Nicolette is talented beyond words and as modest about her ability and lovely to boot.  If you have never seen Nicolette`s work, pop over and say `hi`.  You won`t regret it. My quilts until now have usually been made with square or rectangular pieces.  Not very challenging piecing wise but remember that yesterday I felt like quilting superwoman. So I dug out my Terrain FQs and got cutting.

You know disaster will strike soon when it`s going really well and you start composing your blog post in your head and then cue the needle scratching the record sound.  The instructions for the pattern are brief.  They assume a prior knowledge of piecing and that`s okay because I kind of have that and they don`t explain how to cast on when you buy a knitting pattern.  I pieced the star using my machine not appreciating that this is intended to be a hand quilting project...and this is why.

I had no idea how to attach these four segments to the star without the point puckering.  I machine pieced it to begin with and you`ll see that the result was unimpressive to say the least.  I looked on youtube - nothing, the flikr group The Camelot Quilters had a little advice but not much and in the end I emailed Nicolette and she was super helpful. Thanks so much Nicolette.

As it turns out, this is a practice block.  I don`t like the large floral in this piece at all - it was a total mistake which is just as well as I have learned that the pattern doesn`t include a seam allowance (?!). A lot of the blocks have this V segment in them so I shall have to get practicing if I`m going to attempt to make this quilt...perhaps next time not using one of my favourite lines of fabric.

Thanks for all the comments about the Red City quilt top.  In the end, I gave my mum the final word and she said emphatically, `Change It!`, so I did. I used Hadley`s great advice of separating the top two rows, which was genius as unbeknown to her, it was my weakest seam pointwise.  I flipped the top two rows round and it looks better I think.

Before

and after (no outdoor shots today as it`s raining cats and dogs)

I have three reject blocks (cut a fraction too small) so I think I`m going to leave it borderless and try and come up with a back so that I can, as Rhonda says,get that baby basted. So that`s it from this corner of the world.  Not much `occurring` (written in a Ruth voice) but I have so much to do, I just have to focus. If you don`t know Ruth, here she is singing a bit of Dolly.

A Thursday Finish, A List & A Spot of Housekeeping

My poor mum who has been here for the last couple of weeks has been horribly sick since last Friday.  She`s been up and down but really quite poorly and there have been trips to the doc, laboratories for blood tests and mild suspicion of Typhoid panics but it looks like it is just a virus.  Thanks for all the well wishes.  It looks like she is on the mend and will return home to blighty on Saturday as planned.

With my mum sick and unable to get out and about, I did a spot of sewing and have a finish. There`s one quilt I`ve been wanting to tick off my mental checklist for quite a while and it is the Marrakech Rose quilt.  It`s one I`m really pleased with, and here it is.

The fabrics for the top are from centre outward - Kaffe Fasset,  Amy Butler, Jennifer Paganelli, Anthology, Alexander Henry and back to Amy Butler and Kaffe Fasset.

For the backing, I used Songbird in Lime from Bonjour by Diane Kappa and for the binding I used two fat quarters of my new Heirloom by Joel Dewberry.

I straight line quilted it.

and I`m very happy. Have I said that before? The design is based on Jane Brocket`s Russian Shawl quilt from her lovely and eye candy ridden book, The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making. I have always found Jane Brocket hugely inspiring as her quilts are big, bold and fun and she always emphasizes that the quilt doesn`t have to be perfect and that we should enjoy our quilts. I like that philosophy.

It`s lovely that exactly 2 years after taking up quilting, I`ve finished my 4th quilt - hmm, an average of one every six months - not a great average but one I hope to improve on. So I can tick it off the mental list and the list I`ve drawn up for Sarah`s Winter Stiching, which I`m linking up to.  The idea is to write down a list of what you hope to accomplish sewing-wise between now and next spring.  The idea being that what`s written down gets done. I`m not one for lists and it frequently gets me into trouble but here goes.

Quilts, QALs and Community Blocks*

finish the Marrakech Rose quilt

quilt and bind Deborah`s Union Jack quilt

make a quilt for my mum`s 70th birthday 

make a quilt for Baby Landen arriving next month all being well

finish blocks, piece, baste, quilt and bind Red City Quilt for the Duo QAL

commit to theDrunkard`s Path QAL

keep up with the Bloggers BOM

make monthly blocks for Bee Blessed and Quilting for Kids

Swaps &BeeS
make the final cut for The Scrappy Swap 2011
make a goodie for The Scrappy Swap 2011
make a tablerunner for The Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap
make blocks for The 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee

Other Stuff
learn how to free motion quilt
finish Zaki`s rocket PJs using Susan`s `ugly` fabric
learn how to applique
learn how to piece curves

*last edited 6 November 2011

Have I forgotten anything?  Quite possibly.  I`m so excited to be starting on some new projects using some lovely stash. I`m linking up with Sarah at Fairyface Designs. Head over there and see what amazingly talented and creative people are planning for the next few months.

 

I`m sorry if you have tried to get hold of me by email and found I`m a no-reply blogger.  Thank you to everyone who writes and tells me that I`m one.  You see, I`m not meant to be.  I never edit my profile, my email address is listed and I`ve ticked the box but Blogger likes to randomly make me a NRB.  It`s highly frustrating as it`s completely random.  It`s a bit like a ferocious doctor`s receptionist (apologies to any doctor`s receptionists who are reading this post) - sometimes she`ll let you through, sometimes she won`t.  If anyone else has had this problem, do let me know what you did to remedy the problem.

A Spot of Retail Therapy

So we`re back in England...well we`ve been back a week now...

The T Station at West Bay

and as I had brought some quilting with me I thought I would do some today - now that things had settled down. However, my mum`s machine had other plans.  The handwheel felt stiff and it made a high pitched scream of pain when used. We knew these were not good signs.  Admitted to triage, we oiled it, we took the bobbin shaft out and oiled that.  We brushed for lint under the plate.  Nothing.  So we did what we should have done at the beginning and phoned the machine repairer.  There was an audible intake of breath as I explained the symptoms over the phone. His diagnosis? The shaft had slipped.  We were not to continue using it under any circumstances.  It was a job for `the mechanics` and would have to be admitted for a few days. We winced.

So I did what I always do when I receive disappointing news and went shopping...on the internet. 

I can`t knit. However, undeterred by this fact and inspired by  The Gentle Art of Knitting by Jane Brocket (which is unsurprisingly fabulous),  I had a fancy to make this beautiful cable stitch blanket...

but when I discovered it needs fourteen skeins of wool at £10 each and  I can`t actually cast on, it was just a little too much retail therapy for a Tuesday evening.  Undeterred, I ordered these funky needles from Loop...

KnitPro Symfonie 25cm Straight Wooden Needles

and a couple of skeins of this...

Blue Sky Alpaca Melange in Relish

...so that I can attempt to make this (suitable for beginners)...

Jane Brocket`s slouchy hat from The Gentle Art of Knitting

Clearly such an idea is ridiculously ridiculous.  It`s May. I live in a hot climate.  I can`t knit.  I`ll let you know how I get on.  For those of you in the knitting know, and you know who you are - stand by.  I may need your help!

Hand Quilting Again??

This quilt is rapidly heading for the Guiness Book of Records as the quilt completed in the longest time.  I started it in October 2009 and now it`s March 2011 and Z is significantly longer yet the quilt is the same size. It seems I never learn.  I`m handquilting Z`s quilt because I want to fill it with love so that when Z is snuggling in it he can feel his mother`s love wherever he is. 

At least I got to do some quilting this week.  I did the beastly basting a couple of days ago and started the hand quilting yesterday using masking tape as a guide for my stitching - a tip I picked up from Jane Brocket`s The Gentle Art of Quilting - it`s re-usable and doesn`t leave any marks. Super easy! I think I may unpick the stitching so far as I`m unsure of stitching at right angles to the pieces.  I think it might look better stitched following the length of the piece instead.

The front is an Arcadia Moda layer cake and the backing is Cloud 9`s `Clearing`, which I thought had a retro `50s feel about it, which complemented the front.

There is a link to this post on Lilys Quilts Fresh Sewing Day  - a new project by Lynne to celebrate her blogaversary.  Each 1st day of the month, Lynne is having a fresh sewing day when she is encouraging everyone to share with others their favourite or latest project and to create on her blog a link showing it.  Lynne explains it much better so hop over to her blog and share something you are doing at the moment...oh, and visit each others blogs and share the love.

Happy Weekend!

The Marrakech Rose Quilt?

So with the way I was feeling on Wednesday, I was all set to take my best dressmaking scissors to my husband`s collection of checked summer shirts (of which he has many and wears few).  This was not the premeditated actions of a woman scorned but rather my impatience at the length of time it was taking for my fabric to arrive from the US. Actually not an inordinate length of time as these things go - just two weeks but when it`s coming by plane, why does it take even two weeks??

I`ve always been impatient where sewing is concerned  - ask my mother. When I was a teenager, I made a lot of my own clothes  - I thought I was the bee`s knees as I wore my long straight skirts with buttons up the length of the back with a big baggy sweater,  and ankle boots - so eighties.  I would make a skirt in one sitting - no breaks until it was done and late into the night blood curdling screams would fill the air as I realized I`d made some mistake.  It had to be ready to wear the next day to college.

Anyway yesterday, much to my husband`s relief that he would have something to wear this summer, it arrived. Here it is washed and dried and ready to be cut up and sewn back together again.

Alexander Henry

I have to admit that I have been wondering to myself why I chose these fabrics.  It`s not that I don`t like them. Clearly, I love them but why reds, pinks and oranges?  They are just not colours I am naturally drawn to.  I`m more a blues and greens girl, and so I am thinking that maybe I was subconsciously drawn to them because they are colours that suit the light here in Marrakech.  Unlike the coastal towns in Morocco where all the buildings are painted white, here in Marrakech (which is on a plain at the foothills to the Atlas Mountains) the buildings are painted pink. In my design innocence, the last duvet cover I bought for our bedroom was a pale sage green.  I reckoned that it would cool me down in the summer months here.  I was wrong.  It looks terrible (and doesn`t even cool me down) - just as the reds, pinks and oranges of these fabrics might not suit the light in Scandinavian countries.  So now I`m asking myself  - have I subconsciously bought fabrics for what could be the first Marrakech quilt?

Kaffe Fassett

I plan to make a quilt based on the log cabin design of Jane Brocket`s Russian Shawl quilt so this afternoon I`ll be planning it out and will hopefully start cutting tomorrow. I`m going to piece by hand as I just prefer it that way and find it more accurate.  I`ll post some photos next week.

Oh by the way, I changed the name of this blog as it`s not just about quilting and my life has thankfully had a very rich pattern but that`s for a post another day.

City Quilts

I love receiving brown packages in the post.  There is something uniquely exciting about seeing a parcel with your name on it. One of the many advantages of living here in Morocco is that there is little if any junk mail. Apart from the odd bank statement and utility bill, our postman has a fairly light load and for the most part, that suits me just fine.

About a week ago, I ordered City Quilts by Cherri House and it arrived yesterday- a book showcasing quilts designed and made by Cherri and inspired by the urban landscape.  I`ve never been able to decide whether I`m a city girl or a country girl.  Before I went to college, I grew up in the countryside in a Victorian farm workers` cottage in beautiful Warwickshire surrounded by cornfields, with a wood at the bottom of the garden and a spinney at the top of the drive.  If it sounds idyllic that`s because it was although of course I didn`t appreciate it at the time.  After college I moved to London and then on to Marrakech so for the second half of my life, I have lived in cities...and there is definitely something about the city.  Perhaps that`s why I was drawn to the title of this book.

Like The Gentle Art of Quilting by Jane Brocket, and Kaffe Fassett`s Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts, Cherri shows us how stunning quilts can be made using simple shapes with beautiful fabrics.  However, unlike the fabulously funky designs of Kaffe Fassett and the bold florals so often used by Jane Brocket, Cherri uses the best quality Kona cotton fabrics in solid colours by Robert Kaufman.

I had previously and foolishly dismissed solids for the quilts I plan to make, but after reading City Quilts, I have been googling Kona solids to find stockists who can dispatch fabrics to me as quickly as possible. Cherri often uses black in her quilts, not something I would necessarily have chosen, but it works - making the colours in the blocks truly pop.

One of my favourite quilts, City Tracks

By reading Cherri`s book, I have learned a lot about colour and how to use it to its best effect in quilt design and she has left me inspired. `Nature is the best teacher...take a walk and really see the colors around you...I say that if it works in nature, it will work in a quilt!`, which is what I guess I was trying to say in this post. Each quilt can be easily adapted to suit individual tastes and many of the quilts would be great presents for the men in our lives who may not appreciate Amy Butler and Kate Spain as much as we do!

City Bank quilt inspired by a building in the film The Bourne Supremacy

This is a lovely book.  If you`re looking for a book to explain quilt making in detail, this is not for you.  While Cherri gives lots of great advice on the basics and using tools and resources, this is really a book about inspiration -  and contains 12 fabulous projects for those of us dipping our toes into the world of solids.

You can buy or order City Quilts from your local book store or from here.

The Bahia Quilt? Perhaps?

About a year and a half ago, my cousin Sybella came to visit us here in Marrakech.  It was her first trip to Morocco and Marrakech can easily overwhelm with sensory overload.  She is an artist and she preferred the new to the old but not knowing this at first, I took her round the narrow streets of the medina (the old walled city) and souqs and we visited the Bahia Palace.

The Bahia Palace was built in the 19th Century and is full of small tiled rooms with painted ceilings and courtyard gardens with trickling fountains.  

Despite being closed  for extensive renovation, it still looks a little tired at the edges.  Ignoring conservation issues, this kind of adds to its charm.  There are tiled steps for unscheduled rests....

My son (who looks so young) sitting on tiled steps at the Bahia Palace

..and big mirrors...

 It was during this visit that I started snapping tile designs for quilt inspirations.

A typical Moroccan tile design

This could be a green quilt with blue hexagons and white applique

Applique ideas from intricate Islamic plasterwork

When I looked back over these photos, it is this painted ceiling that really caught my eye - I think it would make a great quilt top!

It reminds me of Jane Brocket`s Russian Shawl (Matryoshka) Quilt, which you can find in her wonderful book, The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making - as she says, it is really only a large log cabin design and the beauty of it for me is that it grows quickly. I think some big Philip Jacob florals in yellows, greens and blues could look great and the centre could be appliqued.  What do you think?

The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making

The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making by Jane Brocket

Last December, my aunt mentioned to me that she'd recently visited the lovely Persephone Books in Lamb's Conduit Street where Jane Brocket of yarnstorm was there with copies of her new book, The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making. A sucker for quilting books, I treated myself to this amazing book while I was back in the UK for the holidays.

Inspiration for the floral frocks quilt

For starters, it's absolutely beautiful and looks like it could be a lovely journal you keep by your bed. But beauty is not only skin deep - as you peep behind the covers, it's beautiful there too. Full of fantastic advice and stunning photos of the gorgeous quilts designed and made by Jane.

Throughout this book, Jane seeks to inspire us with colour and design and to not get hung up on technique. She helps us believe that stunning quilts can be created using simple geometric designs using beautiful fabrics in gorgeous colours. Jane explains in the introduction to her book how in the past she had felt daunted by the prospect of making a quilt. I too was unsure that I could ever create a worthy quilt...would my points be sharp enough, my stitches even, my corners correctly mitred? But as Jane's friend tells her, patchwork is basically cutting up fabric and stitching it back together again. This book is not for quilters who want to learn tricky techniques but for those of us who want to have fun quilting and at the same time, produce stunning quilts which we'll both love and use.

The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making is completely inspirational and has made me look at colour and my surroundings in a totally different way. Now I just have to decide which of the wonderful 15 designs to create and with what fabric.

You can purchase The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making here and you can visit Jane's blog here