Its Crazy

It's a crazy time of year, everyone is busy planning and preparing, making food lists, gift lists, 'to do' lists. Planning shopping trips, planning holidays and so the lists go on.  In all of your crazy life stop and spare a thought for those who are suffering in the run up to what is perhaps a normally happy time.  Stop and spare a thought for all the families, carers, and nurses looking after the terminally ill.  Just stop and have a moment for yourself!

I have now opened a tab on my home page offering some of my Quilts for Sale.  This is not a profit making exercise but a fundraising one.  All the quilts listed on this particular page are to raise funds and awareness of the charity Marie Curie Cancer Care.  The page has all the information needed should you wish to purchase a nice cosy quilt for the colder months ahead.  They would also make a loving gift for someone who has everything - except a quilt!  Please take a minute to have a look.

 

Crazy times, crazy minds leads  me to Crazy Paving a quilt I had great fun with, randomly picking and choosing fabrics willy nilly and piecing them into rectangular blocks not the usual squares.  I have used this pattern before a few years ago but it is such fun to do I thought I would try it again.  It's made up with  5 small patches with sashing in between.

Two  (3.5x4.5in), Two (3.5x2in) and one (3x 3.5in) all joined together with 1 inch sashing strips making a block around 9.5 x 7.  I used 20 of these blocks stitched together with a 4.5in border to give me a finished quilt of about 44 x 44 ins square.  Just a nice size for a lap quilt.  This will be added to my Quilts for Sale later today.  In the meantime I am off to get some crazy housework done. 

 

Crazy Paving

A Christmas Project

I am now working on the fifth of my Christmas projects for this year.  You may remember way back I made a little cathedral window pincushion with festive fabrics, it was really too early to start mentioning Christmas so I called it festive.  Wouldn't this be a lovely gift for a quilting friend for Christmas?

Cathedral Pinushion

I also made two festive table runners (I am counting this as one project as I did them together) with the idea of raffling them for Marie Curie Cancer Care.  They have been given away for this purpose and hopefully will raise some funds and brighten a table somewhere this Christmas season.  You can see them if you have a look in the tab above in My Quilts. 

We had two Christmassy tutorials at class earlier this month. One was a quick and easy coaster which was done in cool blue snowflake fabrics.  It's pieced on the front and has an appliquéd snowflake on the back.  The challenge was to get it done in an hour - yes we managed it!



Cool Blues Coaster

 

The other was a more complicated, rather striking Hunter's Star block.  I struggle with foundation piecing but thanks to a good teacher I managed to produce this.  We certainly didn't manage this in an hour, but the basics were taught in class and we finished it off at home.  It may be transformed into a cushion later.

Striking Star

Every year since I started on my quilting journey I make a quilt to decorate the house for the holiday season.  This year is no exception.  I don't usually start working on or thinking about Christmas and all the trimmings and trappings until after my birthday.  So last week I got the appropriate box of fabric out and had a rummage.  I talked about half square triangles a few blog posts ago and thought this year's design should incorporate them.   

I was unsure how this quilt was going to turn out, however I started cutting 5" squares from my reds, greens and festive fabrics.  I pieced them together with a gold/cream fabric which reminded me of snowballs or raindrops on a window, and low and behold the HSTs began to grow.  100+ blocks later and lots of trimming I was ready to make use of the design wall.  Oh what fun!  After many aborted attempts I finally decided on the design and took a photo.  Then techie came into the room and suggested perhaps it would look better with the opposite colour in the middle - oh oh!  Here we go again, we tried it out together, stood back and decided .....that we didn't like it, glad I took that photo!  It was much better the other way around.  All change again.  However techie has decided that HE would like to have a go making a Christmas quilt??!!!  Watch this space, I don't think he will have time to do it for this year but you never know maybe 2015?

It came down off the wall row by row and it stitched up quickly.  It is almost done now, here is a photo of the binding going on.  

The Binding

I hope you all have a good week hopefully I will have this finished to show you next week.

A Finish as Promised

Making quilts is a wonderful hobby.  I think I might have told you that before.  Why would I be telling you all about it on this blog if I didn't?  I am a quilter, in fact I have been told that I am a 'topper' as I love the cutting and piecing of the top most of all.  I make quilts - I have tried my hand at other quilted items but they just do not float my boat. Ladies at our class each week produce wonderful items, cushions, bags, wallhangings, pincushions, Christmas trees and decorations and so the list goes on.  Me, what do I do different -  eh! Nothing.  If you have a look on 'my quilts' page above you will find that very rarely do you find two quilts of the same pattern, I like things which are a bit different and unusual. I enjoy trying new techniques, and I need the variety of different colours and patterns to inspire me.  Although when you look at my quilts seemingly most have green in them.  

As I complete a quilt I wonder how many hours have been spent piecing it all together, but I never have the answer.  I start off with good intentions I take a note of the start date and write down how much fabric I have for the project.  How long does it take for each stage though? The planning, the choosing, cutting, stitching, trimming, more stitching, trimming, layering, quilting, trimming, binding, even more stitching, preparing the label, and finally taking the photograph still remains illusive as I usually miss timing a step as I go.  The stitching is the hardest to keep track of as I quite often dip in and out as my mood takes me, sometimes only for 10 minutes and more likely a bit longer.  As long as it all goes smoothly without hiccups it is a calming process and I love it!

 

I have been trying to keep track recently because I have a few quilts for sale. I will soon have another tab at the top of the page which will link to a For Sale page, I hope you will have a look.

Here is one of the finishes I promised you last time - Not Quite Union Jack

 

The Selected Fabrics

 

 

 

Making the Blocks

Sewing the Strips Together

 

 

The Finished Article - Not Quite Union Jack

Missed Opportunity

I missed a really good quilt photo opportunity this morning when the sun was shining.  Time overtook me again.
 

I have another two finishes to show you apart from the ones below but they will have to keep for another day when the sun shines and I can get the photographs taken.  Unfortunately I have not found an ideal place to take photos indoors. That would involve me learning a little bit more about my camera, flash and appropriate lighting, and I am not quite ready for that just yet.

I am delighted to report that two more babies have arrived this week.  Twin boys, I only know them as hiccup and trouble! The names their Mum gave them before they appeared into the big wide world on Monday.  These were the little quilts I was delighted to make for them, commissioned by their Grandmother, a very special lady who helped nurse Mum.  The remit was pastel shades, not identical, small and suitable for car seats and bouncers.  These were a joy to make.  I used the same fabrics but made the placements different in the split nine patch pattern.  I am sure they will help to keep the boys cosy while travelling in the car.

 

 

Hopefully I will be back later in the week with photos of the Crazy Paving quilt.  Have a good week ahead. 

Update - My Quilts

You can't teach old dogs new tricks - wrong!  This old dog has been getting a few lessons on adding photos to the Quilt Gallery from techie.  He has got a lot of patience with me. Unfortunately my brain does not absorb information at the rate of knots he explains the process. My head was buzzing after 10 minutes, however I listened and watched hoping some of the information would stick in the grey matter.

It's been quite a while since the quilt gallery here had been updated and I was told I needed to be able to do it for myself.  HTML is just another language - gobbledygook!  Well I decided I really didn't need to know what it all means.  After a lot of downloading or is it uploading of photos, cutting and pasting lines of code,  a couple of aborted attempts and furious note taking, I managed to add twelve new photos to the gallery.  I won't leave it so long next time and now I have an idea how it should be done I will try,  when I take the photo of the completed quilt, to add it to the gallery.  Hopefully I won't lose my notebook with all my scribbles, I just hope I can translate them.  Have a look and see what you think.

Sewing for Myself

Sometimes in life we get all caught up in doing things for other people.  That's ok it's good to share and help out, but sometimes we should just stop and have some 'me time' and be just a little bit selfish.

I have been thinking of trying out some Modern quilting for ages and have browsed many sites and flicked through a few books on the subject.  My findings are that Modern quilting has got many attributes which need not all be used in the making of one particular quilt. Modern quilting usually but not wholly uses solid fabrics, negative space and sometimes uses traditional blocks made with bold patterned fabrics and colours.  These quilts can be freemotion quilted using complex designs and patterns but may also be quilted using straight lines and simple patterns.  Still with me here ....? Yes well as far as I can understand and in my opinion - anything goes, as long as you like it, and enjoy sewing it together.  I suppose I am a little step closer to understanding and making a wholly modern quilt.  I have read books by Angela Walters, Jacquie Gering, Elizabeth Hartman and the Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe, this particular book of patterns is inspired and created by lots of well known different bloggers all bundled together and shared in one book. There might be a project here just for me!

Pages from Quilting Modern and Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe

More 'me time'. I have just finished a rather nice quilt which I think I am going to keep for myself for those nights when I have cold feet and I am feeling the need to snuggle up.  This is another top I made when I was on holiday, and I have to admit it was destined for one of the charity fundraising quilts.  However I messed this one up big time!  Yes it looks ok in the photo. The front it's pretty neat and even.  I always have difficulty seeing how a quilt should be quilted but I knew this one had to have motifs in the light squares.  I thought I would try hand quilting for a change.  Oh oh!  I decided to use perle cotton thread so I needed a bigger needle to accommodate the thicker thread.  As usual I sandwiched it with warm and natural with fleece backing - mistake - if you are going to hand quilt. It was much too thick to get the needle through and the quilting stitches did not show fully on the reverse as they disappeared into the fleece  - not a pretty sight!  So this quilt is going nowhere I'm keeping this one, just for me.

Flowers in the Windows

Remember the farmer's wifey quilt blocks I blogged about way back in August? Well I hadn't done a single one since then.  Tut tut.  I decided that since it is almost a year since I was given this lovely book I should perhaps make a few more of the blocks.  This is what I did yesterday afternoon, another four added to the bundle.  I have still got a long way to go and I have told myself I need to do more of these on a regular basis.  This quilt too will be a 'me' quilt as I was given this book as a gift, but I don't have a clue how long it will take to finish with all the other ideas I have on my virtual sewing list.

Country Farm, Bouquet, Birds in the Air and Contrary Wife

I see Jack Frost has been at work overnight here. Everything is covered in white this morning, I guess that's the end of the lovely flowers in the garden for another year.  Keep warm and enjoy your week.

Three More Quilts Donated to the Cause

I met with Murray Easton today for the first time.  It's always good to put a face to the voice on the end of the telephone.  Murray is Fundraising Manager for Marie Curie Cancer Care based at the Glasgow Hospice and has always been there when I have had questions about helping to raise awareness and funds for the charity.  I am very new to fundraising so it was good to have a chat over tea and cake this morning and discovering how small a world we live in, realising we each know and have worked with the same people in the past, although not connected in any way at the same time.

Three of my completed projects left with him to be used in the Christmas Shopping Ladies Lunch and the Glasgow Hospice Christmas Fayre, scheduled for later this month.  Sunny Days - the blue and yellow quilt, Bright and Breezy - the one I have just finished and a simple Festive Table runner.  Hopefully they will catch someone's eye at these events and go to good homes adding a few more pounds to the funds. 

Sunny Days

 

Festive Runner

Bright and Breezy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the first time you have seen the table runner, but I suppose as we are now into November and Halloween and Guy Fawkes nights have just passed I am now allowed to  mention Christmas!  I have made a couple of festive projects so far.  One I particularly enjoyed doing with our class was the holiday coaster a quick and fun idea to brighten up any coffee table.  This was taken from the book Modern Holiday by Amanda Murphy which has lots of lovely quick easy projects all with a modern twist but could be made using traditional fabrics too.  I chose these winter fabrics from Stoff.  The reverse of the coaster has an appliqué snowflake cut from the spotted white fabric sewn on dark navy stars, so whatever your mood you can just turn them over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time for bed, another busy day tomorrow.

A Sunny Sunday

It's so nice to see the sun shining through the windows this morning!  Although it does show just how dirty they are.  It has been very windy and rainy the past couple of days and has blown all the leaves around whipping up all the dust and grime.  The garden is looking a bit bedraggled but the colours are still hanging on in there on some of the shrubs and trees.

I have another finish today, Ups and Downs - 

 

I seem to have used similar fabrics and colours in this one as I did in Bright and Breezy - why is it we seem to go through stages of using the same colours.  This little quilt measures 35in x 44 in and was lovely to sew together and such fun.  Half square triangles are so versatile.  We tried a little experiment a few months ago at class.  Here are some of the designs we came up with.  I think I might be using some of these in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time for a cuppa now, enjoy what is left of your weekend.