Here's another one I began earlier...

...quite a lot earlier actually.  (Mmm, how many years, Gill?  Gill:  Not telling, just that it's the second quilt top I ever sewed!).  And yesterday I actually completed the backing - which is what you can see here, oh, and the trusty seam-ripper. 

There's also a glimpse of my beloved Juki - which I'm still getting to know.  This will be the first quilt I've quilted on this machine and I'm really looking forward to it.  I'm hoping to get a chance to sew this weekend.  I LOVE this machine - it's a dream to sew on.  And SO fast.

I upgraded from a 20-year old Elnita to a Bernina 440 QE when I began quilting.  Where's the Bernina you ask?  Well, attempting some decorative stitching last weekend, I forgot to change the quilting foot - and when sewing at Patchwork Corner this morning, I noticed that my needle was out of alignment.  It's due a service too so my Bernina, Bernina, Bernina has gone in for some tlc.   Which set me wondering, do I need another, light, machine for classes?  Then my Bernina can happily sit in it's Sew Ezi  table without being uprooted every now and then - and that answered my question - it's only now and then!  

Glimpses of Speed Quilt 1

Looking at this pic, perhaps I ought to have entitled this post "glimpses of quilting accoutrements" - as the quilt doesn't necessarily leap out as much as the tea, chocolate, cats and remote do - although perhaps the cats dominate this one.

The rest are all variations on a theme - me sewing on the binding - with assistance from my furry quilt police.  

Who'm I kidding - the theme here is cats!

Ferret's Speed Quilt courses are great fun - usually held as a one-day workshop.  Participants arrive with all their fabric and wadding pre-cut - and then a day is spent sewing it all together in the good company of other quilting buddies.   Looking at Ferret's blog this particular workshop was back in June 2010 - lovely pics of other's quilts on the blog.

Ferret is an inspirational teacher.  Her talent is awesome.  I don't have the words to describe her work - phenomenal is conservative.  I've been fortunate enough to see some of the quilts on her blog and the talent and artistry therein have blown me away.   I say she's an inspirational teacher because she's always encouraging her students to step out of their safety zones and take things one step further.  Students are also encouraged to work on their own designs in her classes.  Although I'm not attending regular classes at the moment (work and school commitments) - I still get to go when friends are on holiday.   I've just been to 3 classes and it was great to be back.  Classes are held at Patchwork Corner, so there's always the temptation of yummy fabric just across the courtyard!!!

I'd better go and get ready for work.  Have a good week, all. 

Bound with Crosshatch in Tangerine!

 

Front, 

and back, below:

 

Detail, below:

This quilt was begun in 2011, in one of  Ferret's  one-day "Speed Quilt" classes.   It's a quilt-as-you-go quilt, with minimal quilting.   I then reached an impasse with the colours I'd chosen.  (This is actually the second speed quilt I made - the first (the third quilt I ever made) went to my niece abroad, unphotographed.  Again, I shall have to remedy that.  This was an attempt to recreate that quilt for memememe.   

I adore the AMH innocent crush rose in the centre, but was concerned that the colour didn't link into the rest of the quilt.  Hence the butterfly - which I think needs tilting a little - it's turned out a little too uniformly placed.  It did take many months to arrive at this particular solution!

I outline quilted the central rose, which shows up nicely on the back (photo not uploading for some inscrutable to me reason). 

The quilt then sat for years, whilst I auditioned bindings.   And then, Architextures arrived, and everything fell into place.  

 

 And then the fudge, my favourite bit of this quilt.  I was actually binding it (yes I was) when I noticed a slight lack of linen....   I hunted around in my fabrics (more auditioning) and this virtually fell at my feet.

It was a scrap that had been used to wrap a Fat Quarter bundle from far away shores - reader, I keep them all!!   Of course then there was a slight diversion whilst I googled furiously in an attempt to identify it - Avant Garden from Modernology by Pat Bravo.

And this one's a keeper!  

Quilt Stats:  59" x 59"

Fabrics Front:  

Turn of Evens in Plum -Innocent Crush - Anna Maria Horner

Sandlewood in Tangerine - Love - Amy Butler

Clippings in Passion - Loulouthi - Anna Maria Horner

Sun Spots in Olive - Love - Amy Butler

Crosshatch in Tangerine - Architextures - Carolyn Friedlander 

Fabrics Back: 

Stof Linen

Doughty's White

Avant Garden in Blanc - Modernology - Pat Bravo

& the teeny strip of stripes is Wa-Modern by Hokkoh.

Right, housework beckons (joke - it never does).  My next UFO does though.  And perhaps some reading up of HTML codes!

Here's One I Made Earlier....

I'd fully intended to blog about the quilt linked tantalisingly to the last post BUT, as often happens when I make plans - somehow they don't always work out in real life like they do in my head.  May I just for the record state that I did finish a quilt yesterday.  I photographed it this evening, when willing arms were available, but the light was awful.   So I'll try again in the morning before willing arms head off to school.  I am realising that I will have to up my photography/camera skills.   

In the meantime, as promised, here's a quilt I made a few years ago for a friend's special birthday.  Completed as per the date on the photograph - ahem, her actual birthday (many, many last-minute late nights).  I seem to remember in one of my earlier blog posts I hinted that I had a self-imposed rule never to sew late at night - well that's tosh.  I do, often.  I like that time of day, when the house and all in it are sleeping, and I'm quiely sewing the wrong sides of fabric together.  Yes, I do make more mistakes in the wee hours.  But hey, that's why seam rippers were invented.  And I have many of those, because at that time of night I can never find one once I've put it down...

On to the quilt:

 A simple colour brick pattern.  All the fabrics in the blocks were gifted to me by a work colleague who'd given up quilting in favour of knitting and crochet at which she is phenomenally talented.  Although I love the fabrics here, they're not my colours - but they are my friend's favourite colours - so just perfect for this gift.  The brick-coloured background fabric I bought from Hobbycraft.  The colours are actually more vibrant than these photographs show.  The quilt went together really quickly, as you can imagine.

  A closer look.

The back.

And detail - simple stipple quilting. 

I didn't measure it - I should, and I will.  It's a comfortable lap quilt and currently covers a two-seat sofa in my friend's house. 

I shall complete my previous post soon - and here's a little part of it. 

Movin' to Bloglovin'

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I'm sure by now you've all heard that Google Reader is retiring on the 1st July 2013.

My Blog is moving to Bloglovin', and this is my boring but necessary post to claim it.

I'm not sure why their logo remains as HTML but I've been assured it will work!

To follow my blog just click on the button in the right-hand margin - and thank you for your patience with my obvious learning curve with all things bloggy.

Happy Easter all 

An entire blog-post about a colour? Let's see....

Last week a little piece of heaven (along with some other lovely pieces of colour and design) arrived in a small parcel from http://www.thevillagehaberdashery.co.uk/    .  The two Summersville FQ's in blue and green were an unexpected but very appreciated addition - thank you.    

In case anyone's wondering, I know I showcased the above green Lizzie House print in my quilt top in the Pantone Emerald Quilt Challenge 2013  - (which I thoroughly enjoyed -see previous blog post), but I found myself really really liking these particular greens - and I've had an idea for another quilt using these colours - so I'm currently stashing for that as it requires half yards as opposed the FQ's I had collected. 

Pearl Bracelet - just because!  I like Pearl Bracelet - it's got to be one of the most versatile fabric designs I've ever used - it just seems to work wherever it's placed, and more than that, it makes the fabric around it work harder too!   When I added this particular one to my budding Pearl Bracelet collection I found that..... it's already there!  Ssshhh!  One can never have too much of this particular good thing.

And now, on to the "little piece of heaven" that is............................

this!!!  

 Crosshatch in tangerine

 - and what a colour this is.  It sings.  It makes my heart sing AND it makes all the colours in the quilt I've just bound with it sing too!   (Quite noisy round here then).   Even Truffle likes it. 

And where's the quilt with this wonderful binding?  Almost complete - I just have to try my hand at needle turn applique (eek, my skill with a sewing needle is non-existent) to tie in all the colours.   And there's also a little fudge on the back which has turned into the best kind, looking as if it was meant to be.  

Watch this space!

  

Pantone Emerald Challenge 2013

Up until now I've posted no more than once a month - a few posts about some of my quilts and blankets - and shared within a small, cosy circle of family and friends.  

Until a few weeks ago - whilst indulging in one of my favourite pastimes, browsing all the yummy quilting blogs out there, I came across the  Pantone Emerald Quilt Challenge 2013, being hosted by Ali at a(squared)w .  I love the colour, I love the challenge - it presented a deadline which, true to form, I maximised to the hilt.  More importantly, it also challenged me to take the scary step of putting me and my quilts "out there".  So here I am, quilt top in hand.  Actually, it's my eldest son holding up the top.

I'd never sewn kaleidoscope blocks before and when my search for a template produced "foundation by the yard", I thought it seemed a great, time-saving idea.  Next time I'll paper piece, the layers of fabric all moved around a lot. 

 

Truffle helped with choosing colours, fabric placement etc.  I had such fun with my son's coloured pencils - and I spent hours colouring in! 

Slowly (it's always slowly with me - I ignore my own rules - don't sew after 10pm, you'll only have to unpick the next day - or I unpick the wrong block!) it's started to come together.  

And then, with hours to go, a quilt top.  (Photographs not so great, indoors, evening, phone camera).  

 I was going to use many more fabrics than this, but somehow they all ended up being Lizzy House (whose fabrics I adore).   The neutral is Kona white and the accent is a Lizzy House Jewel print - the detail not so easily visible in this pic. 

The quilt top measures 40.5 x 48.  

Thank you Ali for hosting this competition.   Now I'm off to learn Flickr!