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.

The World`s Postal System In Harmony

This is my 298th post and I have over 300 followers.  Surely we need to have a giveaway soon!

The postman returned yesterday.

Fabric enabler Di, or Super-Di, who lives in sunny Southern California offered to pick up some Denyse Schmidt fabrics and send them to me.  I said yes please, she did and they arrived! Thanks Di!

If you don`t know Di`s blog you should.  Hop over and say hi.  There is eye candy of all kinds over there. I only wish she was able to come to the retreat in June.
 
There were also X and Plus blocks from Kat and Kris in Australia for the Care Circle of do.Good Stitches.  There are 11 people in the Care Circle. These blocks are contributions from 4 of us. So we are well on the way to making a big quilt or 2 smaller ones. This quilt will be given to the Siblings Together charity, which you can read about here. Here`s a group photo of the new blocks with mine and Cindy`s.  They look very happy together!

A few weeks ago, an incredibly generous woman called Jennifer (Bessiemae on flikr) put a whole load of fabric stacks on flikr, which she was prepared to post anywhere in the world to people who had the time to make quilts but perhaps not the stash.  I quickly snapped up this pink and orange bundle and it finally arrived.  Thank you so much Jennifer for your amazing generosity! It will hopefully be backed with some fabric which is winging its way from another incredibly generous person, Katy!

I am responsible for piecing another Katy`s quilt in the round robin bee, Stitch Tease and she sent me her starter blocks, which are just so cool. Katy is after blocks which replicate the vehicles in her chosen fabric in yellows, teals, oranges and grey.

Katy`s block for the Stitch Tease bee

Katy`s block for the Stitch Tease Bee

How I`m going to do that in batiks and Civil War fabrics, I`ll never know!
Katy lives in Glasgow where my mum`s side of the family come from.  Knowing my love of Highland Toffee but unable to find any, Katy sent me some tablet and Edinburgh rock.  Tastes of my childhood.  As I said in an email to Katy last night, having teeth is seriously overrated. I couldn`t include the sweeties for technical reasons.  Uh em.

My winnings from Kati (yes, another one) arrived - These gorgeous cards based on Kati`s designs.

...and I whipped up this little Curious Nature pochette for a friend.  Why is it that one end is okay and the other is squishy?  Is there a sewing law that I`m unaware of?

Front

Thank you for all your suggestions for the Curious Nature stained quilt - I think I`m leaning towards a mustard colour for the binding at the moment...

Scrappy Stained Man (Quilt) With a Curious Nature

Ta dah!

Curious Nature by Parson Grey

 Okay, it`s a semi-ta dah moment as this is only the top but I finished up the Stained quilt top today. Sarah did an incredible job with the instructions for 4 different blocks of which multiples were made.  I`m a visual learner and Sarah`s wonderful diagrams enabled me to make this quilt top pretty quickly although I cut for every block, which isn`t very factory production like is it? I`m pretty pleased with the colour placement as I didn`t plan at all - just cut away merrily hoping I would have enough fabric and that the colours would look well spread.

Here it is chilling on the kitchen floor. To make it a little bigger, I added a 5 inch border of the Herb solid (I wish I had gone slightly bigger) and then I just had to add a scrappy border.  You know me - I love a scrappy border...as you can see from my header!

So there you have it. It needs a good press and a lot of threads pulled out. There will be a brief hiatus on this one as I have no batting or backing fabric for it and may take it with me to England next month.  There`s no worry.  It`s hotting up here and as this is for the hubster, he won`t be using it until the end of October at least! Any suggestions for the binding?  I feel it needs a pop.  A manly pop.

I`m waiting on so much post you wouldn`t believe.  Bee blocks, fabric, lovely winnings...the usual.  I did however have a lovely start to the week with a win over at Lynne`s yesterday...

 ...a set of Sew-Ichigo kitchen classics patterns by Kerry and Penny.  Thankfully, I didn`t have to wait long as they plopped into my inbox today!  Thank you so much Lynne, Kerry and Penny. Now I really do have to try out paper piecing....KATY???????

Man With a Stained Nature

Block 1 of the Stained Quilt using Curious Nature

After all this talk of dressmaking and enbroidery, did you think I`d abandoned quilting altogether?

I`m so late to this party, everyone is either stumbling in to a taxi or home and enjoying a hangover but today I hacked in to my Curious Nature FQs and ever so slightly belatedly joined Sarah`s Stained Quilt QAL! She`s very lovely and I`m hoping she`ll still have me.

I`ve been looking for a manly quilt design (is that an oxymoron?) and thought of Sarah`s design.  I had enough Herb solid and FQs and I`ve loved seeing my blogging friends show off their stained quilts.

This is a secret project for my husband.  Well I say secret.  I`ll be able to sew it in front of him, ask him to hold it while I take photos and he`ll still be none the wiser when he`s presented with the finished quilt. He lets me get on with my quilting.  Don`t hold his disinterest incurious attitude against him.  I would much prefer that than him clucking around asking if he can help! My mum will be reading this and thinking to herself, that isn`t going to happen in a million years!

This is the first of Block 1.  There are 3 in total and Block 1 is the largest.

I haven`t really read through all of Sarah`s very thorough instructions yet and haven`t done all the pre-cutting.  I`ve just gone for it.  No zip lock bags or Post Its here! Here`s hoping I don`t regret the planning stage!

I Have (a) Curious Nature

Firstly, I`m loving all the positivity about the dressmaking plans.  Thank you for all your comments. The books are ordered and a pattern too but they are going to my mum`s so not much will happen before we go back towards the end of May for you.know.what. We`ll be back in England for 3 whole weeks and just can`t wait!

Anyway, with pre-school hols there hasn`t been much sewing at all.

The postman made a welcome return today with this little package of loveliness.  I knew as soon as I saw Parson Grey`s Curious Nature that fabric diet or no fabric diet I had to have me some. I bought these 12 FQs from The Fat Quarter Shop and it came with a coordinating Kona Solid in Herb. I`m thinking a man quilt for my man and perhaps I`ll use my curved ruler.

Curious Nature by Parson Grey

Yesterday, I made a couple more x and plus blocks for the Care Circle of do.Good Stitches...it`s my month as quilter and the quilt(s) will be donated to Siblings Together.

...and the postie delivered a couple more from Cindy who hangs out on the emerald isle, and they fit in very nicely. Thank you Cindy!

Cindy`s blocks (top middle and bottom left)

 

 

I`ve been playing with embroidery stitches. I hope to be able to embroider my partner`s name on her tag for the FQ Retreat.  It`s definitely harder than it looks. I`m sure I must have embroidered initials on a felt purse or needle case as a young child at school, but I`m counting this as a first attempt so be kind.

I was rubbish at back stitch.  How could that be?

I was better at Stem Stitch.

Passable French knots

Star stitches

A wonky lazy daisy

and there were attempts at letters of the alphabet but that would be telling...

That`s all for now - hope you are having a great week!

Annabella