Time Flies...

Just over 3 years ago, I tried my hand for the first time at curved piecing and made a Drunkards Path panel using a charm pack of Kate Spain's Central Park. It was a success but it was small.

Over the years....don't ask me when....I added some white sashing and a scrappy border of some of my favourite fabrics.

Back in to the WiP wilderness it went before I rescued it and added some more sashing and a last scrappy border of Central Park and some of Anna Maria Horner's True Colors.

I did a pieced back using some Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner fabrics which I picked up at bargain prices over the holidays....

....quilted it with some organic straight lines about 1" apart and bound it with some more True Colors.

Et voila! A baby/girl quilt for this little sweetie - my niece, Amina. She is my youngest sister-in-law's baby who I first met when she was just nine year's old and here she is all grown up 16 years later with her own baby.

I hope she'll enjoy kicking her legs while lying in the centre and later sitting and playing with her toys on it. I hope she'll drag it around and it will be a quilt she can grow in to. For me, well it's a first finish in a long time and a first finish for 2015.

Thoroughly Modern Maples (Marrakech Edition)

It's autumn.  My favourite season. It always has been - from my childhood when I grew up in leafy Warwickshire to my life now when it signals the end at last to months of extreme heat.

Back in April, I asked my wonderful Stitch Tease gals to make maple blocks for my second round. I wanted my own bit of fall in a country where there are only two seasons.

I suggested this tutorial for a 12¨ finished block but left them to make smaller blocks if they preferred.

There are some great variations in Lynne and Kerry's 500 Quilt Blocks. I asked for one block in traditional fall colours and the second in jewel tones - both scrappy with low volume backgrounds.

They sent the most beautiful blocks but summer quickly arrived and they were packed away.

Before we left for England in August, I made some improv. pieced low volume filler blocks and assembled them with the maple blocks in a random arrangement to give the impression of falling leaves.

Fast forward to last month when I basted and quilted it using organic wavy overlapping vertical rows every couple of inches. The batting is my favourite Dream Orient - it has a beautiful drape.

The backing is something I picked up in a Pink Castle $6 yard sale - it's Honeycomb in Sunglow by Freespirit and is very pretty. The binding is a yellow chevron. I wanted a paleish binding which allowed the leaves to be free rather than a dark binding which would frame them.

There was a bit of 'accidental perfection' with the last mitered corner.

Thank you so much to my bee mates Helen, Hadley, Susan, Katy, Ange, Di, Dianne, Val, Cindy, Jennifer and Trina for the beautiful blocks they made.

Now I have my small bit of fall - Marrakech style!

We're now in the third round of Stitch Tease and it was my month again in September. The blocks have started to arrive and they are amazing. I may have caused my bee mates some pain in making them for which I'm sorry - I'll show you them another day and the colour palette may surprise you!

For now I shall link up with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.

Lost

Well where to start? It's been a while.  I confess I've felt a little lost the last few months.

It all began with the small person who shall remain nameless dropping my lap top and breaking the screen so that blog reading and posting was impossible for a while.

But it wasn't his fault. The screen was easy to fix..but then there were computer glitches of the viral kind.

They got fixed too and after finding a spare moment to sew, I basted the scrappy trippy and started to quilt. Straight lines quelle surprise! Nothing fancy.

But a couple of lengths in to quilting, the needle fell down...and then again...and again...and again.  The quilt was thrown in a corner. By now, mojo was dissipating by the second. I was 1500 miles and several months away from getting the machine fixed or serviced. I felt completely lost. I couldn't read blogs. I stayed away from Instagram. I seriously thought about throwing it all in...  stopping blogging...trying something else.

But I missed the emails and contact with bloggy friends. After a couple of weeks, I left the pity party and tried to find a solution to the needle problem. I looked online and found a forum where someone had posted the same problem. Despite never having had to do so before, I tightened the screw using the metal key and it worked! I was surprised by how much further it turned than simply by hand. I quilted and bound the scappy trippy and have my first finish of 2014.

I love it! It's the biggest quilt I have made at 72" x 82" and I hope it'll fit in nicely on our soon to be re-modelled roof terrace. The front is pieced entirely from scraps and definitely a few fuglies! The backing and binding are Cameo by Amy Butler.

So that's it! Expect more from me...I'm not going anywhere for the time being and I'll be getting back to commenting on a regular basis...I promise.

Linking up for the first time this year with Lynne over at Lily's Quilts.

Something for the New Year

Back in April, I posted the first few blocks of my scrappy trip around the world quilt. For one reason or another, they were then put away in the WiP cupboard and that was that...

...until a couple of weeks ago when I found them and wondered why I had left them languishing?

I cut up a bunch of strips and started making blocks; Instagrammers encouraged me and soon I had 42 blocks. Ignoring housework, visiting guests and internet shopping, I sewed them together.

...

And now?  Well now I have a flimsy measuring 72" x 84" ready for the New Year when we get back from England.

Without sounding like a creative lovey, I feel like I have gone back to my quilting roots with this one. Little or no negative space, bright and bold.  That's me.

I Shall Tease You No More

As some of you will have gathered, I have been struggling to find a balance between family life, work and blogging these last few months. My new teaching job has taken up much more of my time than I thought it would with lesson planning replacing any sewing and blogging time. I've missed sharing everyone's makes  - the highs and the lows.  Still, I'm hoping that as this semester winds up, things should improve and I resolve to be a better blogger!

Still, I have a finish to share!

Almost 2 years ago, my sweet blogging friend Di invited me and a few other friends to form a new round robin bee.  We picked a theme and over the course of the next year, we secretly made for each other.

I asked for scrappy curves, and my bee mates didn't disappoint.

Di assembled my blocks perfectly and in spring this year I received my gorgeous flimsy - an eclectic, one of a kind quilt top!

I quilted it with alternate 1 1/2" and 2 1/2" diagonal crosshatch straight lines and bound it using a couple (on the basis I never have enough of anything) of different Anna Maria Horner Drawing Room prints.

I wanted a darker binding to frame the blocks, and I think the colours work perfectly. I used a bamboo and cotton batting from my mum's local quilt shop and the backing is Pagoda Hill by Tina Givens. The quilt measures 72" square.

It's such a pretty quilt, and I can't thank my bee mates enough.  It really is one of a kind!

Top Row (left to right):  Di's wonderful Drunkard's path block, Katy's beautiful abstract appliqued blocks and my clamshells.
Middle Row: Susan's gorgeous portholes in her signature bright colours, Helen's amazing Dresden block that reminds me of millefiori every time I look at it, and Di's beautiful lemon and limes block.
Bottom Row: My lozenges using my quick curve ruler, Danny's beautiful appliqued pebbles and Hadley's exquisite New York Beauty!

Thank you my friends - if I'm not checking your blogs....know that I'm thinking of you every time I look at this quilt.

Linking up with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.

Stash Defining

Make a scrappy trip around the world block or two and you soon see the colours in your stash so no surprises here - pinks, purples, greens and not enough blues.

Wall flower? No.  Pale and uninteresting?  Definitely not pale.

Loud, mismatched, colourful, in your face, scrapbusting...?

Not everyone's 'cup of tea' but I like it! Blocks 1-12 of the scrappy trip around the world quilt.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

If You Can't Stand the Heat Stay Out of the...

...sewing room! Well if I had a sewing room that is. And that's what I've been doing the last few days...well mostly.  It's still silly hot here but due to cool next week.  The heat hasn't stopped me from wanting to dive in to lots of new projects.

I've been looking at EPP (English Paper Piecing) projects and am really tempted to make some rose stars.  However, the propect of drawing the templates, printing them off, cutting them up and basting seemed too much like hard work and I have an existing EPP project which is far from finished.  So I have started joining my aqua, orange and grey hexy flowers in to rows of 8 and 9 - no real plan just taking a colour from each pile in a fairly random order.

There are lots of fun BOMs around (Block of the Month mum) and I made April's block for the Aurifil BOM using Chicopee and some of my low value charms from Laura Jane's recent swap.

I'm not sure now whether to continue and catch up or hop on to the Virtual Quilting Bee, which I also like the look of. I've a feeling this may be made in to a cushion for the small person.

Inspired by last week's episode of The Great British Sewing Bee (you can watch the first 3 episodes on youtube here, here and here if you have missed it), I did a bit of make do and mend.  At the beginning of the new year, Zaki went through the knees of nearly all his jeans. I loved a particular pair of skinny jeans from Gap and so cut them in to shorts and put a camouflage cuff on the bottoms - et voila! Ignore the dirty summer feet and open zip!

*edited to add: I was inspired to make these after seeing these jean shorts in Zara.

Lastly, I like to leave a few months before jumping on a bandwagon but this morning I had an overwhelming urge to start a scrappy tripalong quilt top.  I have lots of large scraps which I've had for ages and would like to see the back of or at least made in to a quilt. So following this tutorial, I cut up lots of strips and soon had the first four blocks done.  I'm not sure I have the scrappy tripalong vibe on just yet...I understand from the good folk on Instagram that it best works if you have a similar colour running through the middle of each block...as you can see I hadn't quite worked that out when I made these blocks.

And lastly, I really want to get this pattern by Jen Kingwell after Jess blogged that she was doing the Steam Punk QAL.  I have found it for sale in the States but wonder whether I should or not.  Has anyone done this pattern?

Tomorrow, Zaki will be back at pre-school after his 2 week holiday and so I hope to get on with basting and quilting Cindy's baby quilt.  Hopefully, a finish before the month end!

So I hope you have all had a great weekend - need to go tidy up the mess!

Spot On

A final finish for March and just in time. I've rushed to take these photos as the light is dimming so they're not great but you get the idea. My scrappy granny quilt is finished. Ta-dah!


I started these blocks back in March 2012 when grannymania had taken over but then other things got started and projects needed finishing and they lay abandoned in a heap until early this year when I added them to my FAL list.

The blocks are made entirely from scraps and I really love the deep saturated colours! I used Kona Snow for the background but wish I had been a little more adventurous.

Aftersashing the blocks and adding a 3" border to all sides, I kept to the KISS rule (Keep It Simple Stupid) and did 'organic' straight line stitching 1/2" apart and it took ages!

For the backing I used some Hopscotch fabric from Amy Butler's Cameo line and some Robert Kaufman Spot On in navy for the binding, which I love.  All my bindings may now be spotty and navy from now on!

I think it was Jude who said that scraps are the memory keepers of quilt making and she's absolutely right - there are some of my favourite fabrics in this quilt - either because they are my favourite colour or design or remind me of a swap, QAL or a person who sent them to me.

I love this quilt.  It's sooo last year but it's very pretty and perfect for spring.  It's a quilt for my mum's room so now she has two quilts!  She was in Marrakech just recently after bringing forward her trip but it's on her bed waiting for her when she's here next.  In the meantime it may just get a snuggle or too...or not as it's warming up here and my quilting days at the machine are shortening.

Statistics
Front Scraps, Kona Snow
Back Hopscotch in Lake, Cameo Amy Butler
Binding Spot on, Robert Kaufman
Batting Quilters' Dream
Size 60" x 60"
Quilting Vertical Straight Line

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it!

Solve

Solve the equation. What does n represent? 

n = x + y (+Care Circle) 

Ughh.  Algebra. Mathematics and I didn't get on well at school and it was only when I had to teach the subject to 6th graders that I started to enjoy it.  6th grade math is. as. far. as. I. go.

I've been a little quiet over the last week or so but I have been a busy bee I assure you.  Last weekend I decided to have a computer and sewing machine 'lite' weekend so that I could have some time doing fun stuff with Zaki.  Then on Monday he appeared with his 'dossier' - a huge tome of all the things he had done since September.  It had a whole end of term feel to it and yes, he was on his holidays (having only been back at school for 2 weeks).  Somehow, we hadn't got the note. If I checked my husband's coat pockets, I'm pretty sure I might find one in there as he usually does the last school run of the day (there are three as Zaki comes home for lunch). Thanks honey!

Anyway, I have had Zaki at home and have been sewing although trying not to be chained to the machine.  I do have another, yes another finish for you!

I know, I know, I'm starting to spoil you as this is my third finish since December 24, 2012.

n = finish!

Last year, I was a quilter in the Care Circle of do.Good Stitches - a really lovely group of women.  I asked the circle to make super sized scrappy x and plus blocks based on badskirt's original tutorial but a bit bigger.  They did good.  Very good.  So on Tuesday, I whipped up a quick back using a couple of spare blocks, basted it and then started quilting it using 1" straight line quilting.

I finished the quilting on Thursday.  As I too go to the school of  'we'll cross that bridge when we come to it' I then had to figure out some binding.  I ws thinking of going scrappy to  match the whole scrappy vibe going on but then found a half meter of some Sherbet Pips' fabric in amongst the huge box of mystery fabrics I had bought from Lynne when she had a destash last year. I like how the binding kind of just blends in.

So this quilt was destined for last year's Siblings Together appeal by Lynne. Siblings Together is a UK based charity which provides camps for siblings separated by the care system. However, for one reason or another I didn't receive all the blocks until July and the moment passed.  Lynne has just started her Siblings Together appeal for this year and I'm very happy that this is done and will go back with my mum after her visit here in April and to the summer Siblings Together camp.  I'm really hoping this will make a young girl very happy! If you want to join in by making a quilt or donating fabrics or batting then the flickr group is here.

Oh, and I almost forgot - this is my second finish of the first quarter of Leanne's Finishalong!

Quilt Stats

Quilt Design x and plus blocks

Quilt Front Fabrics Scrappy!

Quilt Back Fabrics White sheeting and 2 blocks

Binding Sherbet Pips

Measures 55" x 65"

Linking up with TGIFF over at Nat's, who is hosting it this week...even though it's Saturday :-/