evie's quilt

I had my week planned out with a lot of sewing lined up but as is the way of things, my plans were turned upside down.  I had to make a flying visit back up to Scotland to attend my Uncle Vic's funeral.  This was my third funeral this year and I am dearly hoping that it will be my last.  It was worth the 12 hour round car trip to hug my lovely sisters and squeeze my new nephew Ethan. 

Before I headed up the road, and after making a basic school girl error cutting out fabric for Sue's FQR Kinky Bee blocks (note to self: try read the bleeping instructions!), I decided that the safest option was to put the rotary cutter away and sew on some binding.  And so, Evie's quilt was finally bound, washed and dried in the late summer sun...

before the wash

lit up by the sun

It's made of 5 1/2" blocks of Flea Market Fancy, backed with some City Weekend (Oliver & S) and bound with kona red and some left over binding for JoJo's quilt (Innocent Crush I think).  I like it's patchwork simplicity.  I'd like it to have been a bit bigger but it is bijou.  It was a commission piece but as it's Evie's 1st birthday soon, I'm going to gift it to her.  She's such a cutie pie.

A big thank you to Sue for sending me some more fabric after messing up so badly - you're a star Sue x

tickled

So having procrastinated for long enough, it was time to jump in and start making the blocks for my Brit Quilt 3 swap mini quilt.  Having stalked my quite quiet secret partner, I decided I needed to cut into my (bought aaaages ago) stash of Innocent Crush by AMH.  I was also obsessing about the feather quilt AMH showed at the Quilt Market and decided to combine the two.  Now, I googled like mad for a pattern or template but to no avail so I had to reverse engineer the block from a photo hence the level of procrastination.  Despite the lack of concrete stitching, I dreamt about how to make this block nearly every night for two weeks and finally enough was enough.

mini version - working it all out

final string blocks - working out where to cut to make more feather like

So after lots of head scratching, fabric wasting and unpicking,  I made my first block...

voila!
(although it does look a little like a Zoom ice lolly!)

I used some of the Klona I bought from Alice Backstitch at the FoQ (natural I think) - I LOVE IT!

Despite Laughing Boy thinking it was a sail, I put it up on Flickr, all blushing with pride.  Then Linda pointed out that AMH has a pattern for the flipping thing on her blog!  D'oh!  My googling thought process didn't include checking out Anna Maria's own site #numptie.  Still, it's definitely all my own construction work and I did enjoy the "creative process" *shakes head, chuckles ruefully*. 

For those of you wanting the easy option here's a link to the proper pattern - http://www.annamariahorner.com/Feather.Bed.Quilt.pdf

And here's the finished quilt top...



with backing fabric (also AMH Innocent Crush)

I have no idea how to quilt this baby.  I haven't FMQ'd in anger yet and I'm trying to convince myself now would be the time to start.  Any ideas?

FoQ yeah!

This post is a bit photo heavy!

My MIL and I spent the whole day at the Festival of Quilts yesterday and it didn't disappoint.  I think that they've expanded into another hall too so it's even bigger.  Thursday seemed a good day to go as it wasn't so packed as previous visits and my ankles survived relatively unscathed from attack by mobility scooters and trolley bags, which was nice.  We had a plan going in - quilts first then shopping but half way down the first aisle, Carol pointed out that the stalls area looked quite quiet and maybe we should take advantage.  So we wandered off track for a while! 

I am really proud of how little I bought.  Previous visits to the FoQ have resulted in Liberty fabric buys that still sit in my fabric cupboard waiting to be turned into something fabulous. So despite stroking some lovely stuff over at Fabrics Galore's dedicated Liberty stand, I held my resolve and didn't succumb.  So here's my fabric haul...

hello my name is moira and I'm a fabric addict!

Most of this pile of loveliness was bought (over a couple of visits) at the Eternal Maker stall, which still is the loveliest stall there, hands down. Some echino, a bit of japanese cotton/linen joy and a couple of pieces of Scamper by Rebekkah Ginda for Birch Organics.  The bottom left is a bundle of Klona solids bought from Alice Backstitch's cute wee stall - a real bargain bundle.  I stroked lots of bundles at the Oakshott stand but didn't weaken - we overheard Michael saying that he won't be there next year as he wants to go on holiday with his children - bless.

I managed to see some of MM's Ruby Star Vinyl in real life (I have some on order from Annie at The Village Haberdashery). I don't know why but I was a little surprised by the light weight of the fabric - much more Ruby Star Spring Bee than Ruby Star Shining Typewriters, if that makes sense.

After lunch (BTW the food hall bit has moved to the opposite end of the hall from where is was last year for those going at the weekend), we did the quilts and here are some of my favourites:

winner of the miniature quilts section - super small flying geese!

a Spanish outhouse in the pictorial section

those trees were machine stitched and are just beautiful

this was much brighter in real life and just stunning

inspired by a walk on the beach in winter time,
each of the foot prints had shoe tread marks which tickled me

a wedding quilt, liberty fabrics and heirloom table clothes with brilliant bicycle quilting
- surprisingly my favourite quilt there - this photo doesn't do it justice

trudi's quilt - the quilting on this was great - the words to Jerusalem

a group quilt inspired by The Secret Garden - so clever and effective

Laura Gunn loveliness

great colours

I was a little confused that some quilts that were really traditional looking were in the contemporary quilts section and vice versa.  For example this one was in traditional quilts....

only solids, modern feel, no brown!

It just goes to show that we're all confused as to definitions.

So we got there at 10 and left at 5 and still didn't quite make it round everything but had an excellent day.  Lots of inspiration and a hint of an idea about maybe possibly submitting something in the future (eeeek!).

Under pressure

I'm not sure why I do this every time I have some time off to sew but I've overstretched myself again and am under pressure to catch up.  The plus side is that I had a grand time (if all too short) in Scotland last week - I just love being able to talk at my natural speed :)  But that visit coupled with living the Olympic dream has put me right behind.  I have managed to crack on with a couple of things....

continuing my machine applique craze, I zhoozhed up a t-shirt for the wee man...

I finished Evie's quilt top...

40" x 40" FMF, obvs :)

this baby was pieced, backed, sandwiched, basted and quilted all in one day - I amazed myself.  The binding is ready to be attached.

Leona's block for the QATWII bee...

She wanted a christmas block using modern designers' fabric.  I don't normally have any "novelty" fabrics but remembered the cute little freebies from the Fat Quarterly Retreat which was perfect for this.  I kind of made it look like a chrimbo tree too and it's totally scrappy, which is totally out of my comfort zone but was fun to pull together.  I hope it's what Leona was looking for - I'll make another if it's all a bit too "hot mess" for her.

I'm also nearly 3/4 of the way through hand quilting the Sparkler.  It's all down hill from here =)

Now I need to crack on with my two other outstanding bee blocks as well as finishing my quilt for the Brit Quilt 3 swap.  No photos yet but soon I promise.  I also need to prep my fabric for the FQ Kinky Bee as I am Miss September for the Bumbles.

Ending on a high, I got really lucky in the In the Frame swap - lovely Rachel (mammafairy) send me a load of goodies...

Laughing Boy scoffed the chocolate... honest!

And, I won the giveaway on Kelly's blog...

So it's always good to remember how lucky I am when feeling a little stressed.  And I do have the rest of the month off on holiday.  Oh and it's the Festival of Quilts this week and I'm going on Thursday  #squeeeee.  It's all good :)

Where did July go?

I think I must have blinked and missed it!  It has been such an unproductive month sewing wise for me that I wasn't going to link up with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day this month but I had a change of heart.  Starting back at work after 10 month's maternity leave, dealing with poorly boys, visiting family and Wimbledon/Olympic distractions have all called on my time this month but I'm hoping to get my rhythm back soon so as a spur I looked through and saw that I made a few things....

Mostly bags, b-day gifts and swap/bee makes this month.  I have been beavering away at hand quilting the Sparkler but that is slow going.

Although I am not feeling so bad about the limited productivity this past month, I do feel a little upset about my lack of commenting on the blogs I have been reading.  Time is alluding me at the moment and so I'm sorry for not keeping in touch as much as I have been.  Due to the vagaries of accruing annual leave whilst on mat leave, I need to take 4 weeks holiday before the end of August and so I have a month of sewing (and blog hopping) planned.  I'm quite excited about that :)  And if I can even touch the hemline of Lucy in terms of her current productivity and its quality, I'll be well chuffed.

Linking to Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet