Little Sign of Snow

Despite me being a day ahead of myself and thinking it's Friday today, I have had a good couple of days of sewing.

Yesterday, I re-did the granny squares I had made using Kona White with Kona Snow.  Here's a group photo of the grannies placed on an old sheet.

I was quite surprised to see how much orange and green were in the blocks but I'm very happy with that.  There's also quite a lot of purple - another surprise. I have loads of 2.5" pieces of fabric cut so I guess I shall keep going until my meagre supplies of snow run out.

Today I added a border to James' quilt -  a monochromatic Union Jack in shades of blues and varied neutrals. This is the first time I have shown a full view of this quilt. Don't ask me why as I have absolutely no idea - like days of the week, clearly.

After gathering all the solid scraps I could find and the improv. blocks I made the other day I pieced a backing.

I'm hoping this will be another finish for February using resources I already have. It really depends on the thread situation. This was not on my FAL list but with granny progress slowing, this may be a substitute finish.  Are they allowed?

Thanks for all your comments on quilting style - some more polite than others *cough*. It seems many of us are unsure as to what our style is, are still trying to find one or are simply embracing the fact that quilting gives us the opportunity to do the same thing but differently.  I like that.

Over Two Years

Have you ever forgotten your birthday?  No, I haven't either.  However, it appears I have forgotten my blogiversary, which in blogging terms is forgetting your birthday. Clearly I was too busy entertaining a 4 year old on his holidays and making quilts.  It was on January 20 apparently.  Yep - one week ago marked two years since I started my little blog.  My witterings.

I have also been hovering around the 400 follower mark for a while now.  So together with my blogiversary I think that calls for another giveway.  I shall get back to you on that one very shortly.  I have a cunning plan.

Today, I assembled the blocks for my second Care Circle quilt top. Last October, I asked the circle to make bright blocks using Elizabeth's Patchwork Wheel block.  You can find the super easy tutorial here.

I still can't get over the fact that these blocks were made with lots of different stashes - they just go so beautifully together.

This won't be a very big quilt - it will be 48" square. Once made, the quilt will be donated to Project Linus UK and give comfort to a young sick child.  I'm hoping to make the back, get it basted and start quilting it tomorrow or Tuesday and perhaps there might be one last finish for January.

I'm not promising as I have some important bee blocks to attend to including a paper pieced one.  Have I paper pieced before?  No.  What am I paper piecing?  A Union Jack from the book, Modern Blocks. Off to find my seam ripper...

Linking up for the first time with Plum and June and the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up!

Cool Brittania

It has been pouring with rain here the last couple of days and thoughts inevitably turned to home.

You may recall that I recently received a lovely order of cool blues and neutrals from Pink Castle for a quilt I had in mind for my 11 year old Godson.  I was thinking of an improv. quilt but decided in the end that he might prefer a Union Jack.

So yesterday, as the rain pelted down I made this monochromatic top. I wanted it to have a fairly retro feel to it. I used various shades of blues and neutrals. If you make a Union Jack quilt, you definitely have to concentrate so that you get the quadrants in the right order.  I won't lie.  The seam ripper came out more than once.  But it's done.

Now before you accuse me of being a serial topper, the batting has arrived for my Man with a Stained Nature quilt and I'm all set to go.  Except for the bad back that is! Oh and the mountain of other things on the to do list.

If you are missing all that election fever on the other side of the pond,  Perri Lewis author of Material World  and craft writer for The Guardian, shared the US best election craft which you can see here.

Have a great weekend!

A New Project

My lovely mum left earlier this week but hot on her heels was my dear friend Deborah who arrived in Marrakech two days later along with her sweet daughter Elicia.  Deborah is great fun to be with.  We`ve known each other for an unbelievable 23 years when we first met at law college.  Was it really that long ago?? Am I really that old?  She`s huge fun and like my mum loves and supports my interest in all things quilty and she found just enough space in her suitcase to bring this...

...several yards of these Liberty print fabrics for a quilt for her daughter Elicia...just like this one here. 

Elicia is half French half English  so perhaps I`ll have to make a tricolor quilt top next time (I think it would look fabulous)...

I`m always a little nervous as I take my rotary cutter to fabrics which I have bought but I think my hands will be quivering just that little bit more when I start cutting these beauties...I`ll be posting some progress photos but I think this quilt is going to be machine pieced and quilted.  Well Elicia is only 10 and she will probably want it before she goes to college!

I'm a Quilter Not a Quitter

Detail of Union flag quilt

A year or so ago I found myself languishing; it had been a tough few months - my second career had hit the buffers and there was nothing new on the horizon. Watching too much daytime television I was feeling a sense of frustration. My intuitive mother had noticed - even though we were separated by seas, oceans and mountains . It was during one of our regular phone calls that she suddenly declared, "What you need is a project!" A couple of weeks later a parcel arrived in the post - a beautiful Moda Arcadia layer cake and a "wedding cake" quilt pattern, as well as a rotary cutter, ruler, cutting mat, sharps and thread. Everything I needed to begin my 'new project'.

With a renewed sense of vigour, I studied the pattern. And studied the pattern. I was daunted. Did the pattern include seam allowances or not? Hmm. What was I to do? I'd lost so much confidence that I was baffled by a straightforward quilting pattern. Should I cut up this beautiful and expensive material and risk losing the whole thing? Or make something simpler? I plumped for the latter and decided to make a small quilt for my young son and one which could be used as a lap quilt when he grew bigger. The blocks were simple - approximately 10"x10" made up of three rectangles. It was then that I started a new chapter in my life. I started to make my first quilt.

A few months later, my husband and I went out to dinner with our good friends to celebrate a birthday. Their teenage daughter was with us and bored with the conversation of middle aged parents and friends, she started to flick through the photos on my iphone. She came across pictures of the nearly finished quilt top and cooed enthusiastically. My friend asked, "Could you make us a Union flag quilt?" The answer to such a question was clearly "No". I'd never finished a quilt, let alone such a complicated design as the Union flag. I'd never basted a quilt, I'd never bound a quilt and had limited experience of piecing. "Yes. Of course I can make you one!" I replied.

Mille grazie to Jennifer Klie who has a wonderful pattern for a Union flag quilt at her Etsy shop. With a copy of Quilting for Dummies becoming bedtime reading and a few tutorials on YouTube, I made the first cuts into the stunning pastel fabrics from Tanya Whelan and Amy Butler and 6 months later it was finished. My first quilt. Completely hand pieced and hand quilted. Not one machine stitch, which makes me a quilting purist apparently (the truth actually being that I couldn't find my machine as I'd lent it to my sister in law). It wasn't all plain sailing...there were tantrums along the way ( difficulties cutting out long strips of fabric on a small cutting mat, not following the pattern correctly, completely unpicking the quilting stiches on a quarter of the quilt after deciding they were too close)...but it was all worth it when it was handed over to its new owner and her smiles said that she loved it. But that's not the end of the story is it? What became of 'the project'? The first project that my mother sent me? Well I've returned to it like an old friend but that's for another day. My confidence is back. I didn't quit and I've found out that I can quilt!