Fabric Love

Hello and thank you to everyone who commented on my last post it has really helped to motivate me, I have managed to complete another four blocks this week and this is how the quilt is looking so far (in mosaic maker anyhow)

I am really happy with how it is looking so far but I think I am going to use some larger scale prints and also introduce some more yellow and orange in the next few blocks. Luckily these absolutely luscious Joel Dewberry Fabrics arrived this week ( I ordered them in November but they got delayed in the christmas post). I can't tell you how much I LOVE these fabrics, they are so wonderful and vibrant and they make me so happy I just cant wait to cut into them.

This one is my favourite I just love the square flowers.

Only eight more blocks to go, I hope I can keep it up and get the top completed by the end of the month.

Aside from the retro flowers quilt I stitched up block number 7 for the Fat Quarter Shop designer mystery block of the month, another pretty block, I am so looking forward to the next one.

I also made this pincushion for the LMQG swap tomorrow. I kind of want to keep it!

Hope your first week of 2013 has been full of crafty goodness. Have a great weekend!



Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all, hope you had a good one and that 2013 will bring wonderful things for you all.

I have just signed up for the Lovely Year of Finishes over with Melissa and Shanna (flickr group here). I had decided not to sign up for anything new this year since I am so overcommitted anyhow but then this came along and it is just what I need so I had no choice but to sign up.

Obviously the goal is to get stuff finished. I made a list of all the projects I have going on and was slightly horrified to realise I am currently working on six quilts and have fabric for another three waiting to go - GULP! Clearly I need to get this under control.

This month my goal is to finish my retro flowers quilt top. I have four blocks done and I need to do another twelve to finish it. I don't know why I am taking so long with this since I love the quilt and love making the blocks now that I have got the hang of it. These are the blocks so far

I am really going to make an effort to get this quilt top finished by the end of the month. I do feel like I finished a lot of quilts last year but my problem is that I keep starting projects so my second resolution is that I will not start another quilt until I have finished the list below

1. Retro Flowers Quilt
2. Lone Star Quilt
3. Quilt for Molly's second birthday
4. Swoon quilt 2
5. Fat Quarter Shop BOM quilt
6. Grey and Yellow quilt #2
7. Tula Pink Beanstalks quilt
8. Star quilt (that has been hanging around for over a year waiting to be quilted)
9. Birds and the Bees quilt
10. Urban Life quilt in Notting Hill fabric

uuummmmm yes that is 10 not 9 - oooops! Wish me luck!

Last Quilt of 2012

I have been working on the super zig quilt for a while. I finished the front quickly but was undecided about the backing. I had enough rectangles left to make one zigzag stripe for the back and decide to team it with some Kona steel, a departure from my usual pretty florals but I am really pleased with it.
I quilted it simply, just following the zig zag. I am glad I did it myself but the basting was murder on my knees. I only have half the cartilage in one of my knees due to a series of injuries and operations and kneeling is ridiculously painful. I am definitely getting Debbie to quilt the next ones for me, at least until I have a house with a craft room and a huge, quilt sized table to work on!
I finished the binding this afternoon while watching sound of music - binding and watching tele bliss!!! Well off to welcome in the new year now - have a great one!

2012

Hello Blog, sorry I have been missing for so long, it is hard to keep up with working, crafting and blogging, especially in the busy festive season, but here I am again with a look back over 2012.

For me there have been two crafty highlights of 2012. First up joining the London Modern Quilt Guild which has been amazing. I have met a terrific bunch of people, had loads of fun, been to some brilliant talks and workshops (Lu Summers, Tula Pink, Liberty), took part in a mini quilt exhibition in John Lewis, been totally inspired by the creativity and originality of the members and had a great time helping Annie at the knitting and stitching show and at the opening of her shop.  Thanks to all the members of the LMQG for making 2012 such a great year for me.

My other crafty highlight was joining Bee a Lonestar(burst), totally the best bee I have ever been in! Another funny and welcoming bunch of ladies who made this Bee my all time favourite. I learned so much about paper-piecing and really developed my skills, looking back I am astonished to find I made 34 of these blocks. My favourites are the rainbow blocks and the pink and yellow blocks with the grey background. This Bee was definitely a challenge, keeping up with four of these blocks a month was tough, paper piecing was hard to learn and I often felt like dropping out but I am so glad I stuck with it, in fact I might have even shed a tear as I finished my last block.

As well as Lone Starburst I participated in way to many other bees

Made a load more bags

Finished some quilts

 

 

still have a few projects that I am working on

 



and did a bunch of other crafty stuff

Overall I would say that 2012 has been a busy and productive year for me as well as being lots of fun. I am sad to see 2012 draw to a close but wish you all a very happy new year and hope it will be as happy and productive as 2012 was.

Bee Blocks, Bags and Quilt Tops

Sorry I have been MIA for some time. I decided that I was spending way too much time on the internet, what with blogging, reading blogs, being active on flickr and hours on pinterest and other sites I was spending about 4 hours on the computer for every hour crafting. Not good. Also hours on the computer = ridiculous amounts of fabric purchased and starting multiple projects to add to my already too long list of things to do. So I decided I needed to focus more on craft and less on the computer. (I hope that doesn't sound too worthy I fully intend to go back to my old ways as soon as I have some stuff completed).

So this is what I have been up to.

 

I used the gorgeous Perfectly Perched fabric that I was lucky enough to win from The Village Haberdashery to make this quilt top using the Super-zig quilt pattern from Monica Solario-Snow.

 

I used my jelly roll of delicious Marmalade to make this Over and Under Quilt top from the book Scrap Basket Sensations.

 

 

Finished my Art Student Tote (the perfect bag for Autumn)

 

 

  



I made more Bee blocks

And a BOM block

 

 

Used some fabric scraps to make this Gum Drop Pillow (thanks Ruth for the pattern).

 

and finally..........

 

 

Finished the swoon!!! (more about that later)

Feeling much better about my crafting / computer balance now. Right off to spend a couple of hours on the computer now.

Thank you

Thank you for all your helpful comments about my swoon quilt. I decided to go with some more solids and bought a bunch but when they arrived today I realised they are not going to work either so the Swoon and I are no longer friends remain at an impasse. I have spent my whole months fabric budget and spent quite a lot of the food budget on fabric as well so I will need to wait until November now before moving forward. Honestly how can I have so much fabric and none of it be right for this quilt???

So anyhow I have gone back to the stars and made this one for Lyanna . It was so easy for me to put it together it almost made me laugh. I may have mentioned that these blocks were terrible when I started and I nearly left the Bee, I can hardly believe how quickly I can make them now.

I also got some more blocks from my lovely bee-mates and laid them all out on my bed to look at them. I love them so much!

 I am thinking of making either a rainbow stripe or one big rainbow star on the back. Do you think it needs sashing? I am thinking sashing but I also like them close together. What do you think?

Hope you are having a good week.

Swoon Trouble

I have been working hard on getting my swoon quilt finished these last couple of weeks. Trouble is I just don't love it. I adore the pattern, it was on my list of quilts to make for so long. I spent ages collecting the fabrics for it and although I like all the fabrics individually and thought they would look good together they just refuse to play nicely. I am really disappointed because I so want to love this quilt but it just isn't working. Worse still I can't see what I need to do to make it work. I am very frustrated with it.

SIGH!!! So now I am in a dilemma over what to do.

Option 1 - abandon it, stick all the blocks in the cupboard and ignore them. Not my preferred option but then at least I could get on with the other projects I am itching to make. This bundle of gorgeous marmalade arrived in the week and I am desperate to start on it.

Option 2 - remake some of the blocks. This is what I think I will probably do. Trouble is I cannot for the life of me see how to make it better. Some of the fabrics just look wrong. At first I thought the addition of a solid to some of the blocks would make it work, and it has helped but the blocks with two different fabrics still either look too busy or too similar to me. It is hard to see this on the photo above so I made a mosaic that better shows the problem.

The blocks that are causing me trouble are the three corner blocks. I just don't think they work. I am thinking of remaking them in different fabrics. Probably not solids but I am not sure what to choose.  I need a fresh pair of eyes to look at them. What do you think? Any suggestions would be very welcome as I feel totally stuck on this one.