I am weak

Each time I sign up for an online swap I say it is going to be my last.

I grumble to myself over partners so silent they don't leave one crumb of a comment.
I tell myself I really shouldn't be spending all this time over a quilt for someone who is not the partner I had hoped they would be.

I imagine they will be chatty, leave encouraging comments, participate from time to time.
In reality the majority have not been.

And then the swap comes to an end and I get a lovely package from the person who was making for me (who I always forget about during the whole process) and then my niggled nerves are soothed somewhat.

My very own Guernsey cow made for me in the last swap I did - I love people who think outside the box

I forget my own gripes and moans and then before I know it, I've signed up for another swap.

This time it was the Schnitzelandboominiquiltswap on Instagram which I believe has over a thousand participants in it. With that large a number, I realise the chances of my partner commenting, leaving an encouraging comment, are fairly minimal and I'm fine with that now.

I think what drives me on, is looking at a person's comments about what they like and feeling challenged because they are so far removed from mine.

In this case my partner likes solids and a fairly specific set of colours. Without giving too much away, I was up for the challenge and off I went.

Hopefully the following photos will give you a good idea of the process.

First I decided on a pattern. I found this one on Etsy and asked the maker to reduce it from it's original 27" size to 24" as this is the maximum size allowed for this (and most) mini quilt swaps.

A colour palette (to my partner's likes) was picked.

To be that restrained was hard. Very hard.

Each block was made up of four separate paper pieced sections.

And some of the pieces needed their colour placement reversed.

Sometimes I got it wrong.

Sometimes I swore.

Sometimes I swore a lot.

Slowly it started to come together and that's when you get a bit of a second wind to carry on because you can see the emergence of something really quite spectacular.

Until you reach that 'oh wow' moment.

Until that is until you realise you've sewn the two wrong halves together...look at the middle bottom half square...it should have been facing the centre half square as I deliberately used a slightly different fabric.

Then the swearing recommences.

Lots of.

A couple of days break, the mistake is rectified and I am back at it with the quilting.
I decided to go detailed.

Like really, really detailed.

Like I'm never making this again so I might as well throw everything at it detailed.

And then finally, it was finished.

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday

And that's me done with swaps for a while.

I think.

A Quick One

Took my Bloggers' Bundle from Fat Quarter Shop

Actually, now I've posted that pic, I realise I've unintentionally left one of the fabrics out but never mind.

I took all the majority of the fabrics, made them into Flying Geese units, added random solid scraps to make each unit a square, played around until I got a design I liked.
Then I sewed it all together, cut out the pansy fabric individually, spray basted each one to where the solids intersected on the quilt and then secured them in place by quilting quite close (ish) together.

I wonder if I could get a job as a pattern writer...


And that was that.

Oh and I used a black polka dot for the binding.

And I found a rather funky backing fabric in a local shop here. It has the smallest selection of fabric I've ever seen but a rootling rummage did reveal a few hidden gems.

And you could probably knock the whole thing up over a rainy summer's weekend.

Because we know a thing or two about them round these parts.

I'm stumped

What am I supposed to call this post?

I Finished Another Quilt?

Here's Another Quilt I Made?

I don't name my quilts and I have long since passed the imagined necessity of making quilts because we need one on every bed in the house. And the people who have ever vaguely expressed a passing interest or shown any slight love for my quilts - they have got one too.

And what about the people I know who don't ask: who have babies and engagements and weddings and birthdays. I'm afraid they've all had one too.

So this is a quilt finish for no other reason than because I like making quilts.

You can see the original blurb about the making of this quilt here.

That was back in December of last year and it's sat in a corner of my sewing room because, to be honest, the one part of the quilting process I really do dislike is the laying out of the backing, batting and top and the putting of the three layers together, ready for quilting. If it's a fairly large quilt, I've got to be in the right frame of mind to do it...otherwise it sits to one side.

When I am feeling extremely lazy (as was the case this time), I lay the backing fabric on the floor, then the batting and finally the top. They're all kind of sitting on top of each other but I haven't done any of the usual smoothing out and I haven't used masking tape to adhere the backing to the floor...as I usually do.

On this occasion, I just scoop all three layers up and fix my hand quilting ring to the middle of the quilt (so it is nice and taut and smooth) and start lightly hand quilting.

Once it is secure, and the layers are together without any puckers, I then switch to the sewing machine. Especially, as in this case, I wanted to practice my mediocre free motion quilting skills.

The backing is not going to win any awards for creative application.

It was more a case of hunting through my stash and using some fairly old fabrics I had, which I thought went well enough with the limited colour scheme of the front of the quilt.

And that is it.

I Finished Another Quilt.

I think the actual colours are probably most true on this picture

Soy Amado No. 68

Soy Amado No. 68

Bright, primary (well if we ignore the pink and the purple) colours.

I am still enjoying making these.
I know I'm not going at them with the same intensity as last year but I think that's why I'm still enjoying them.

Each time I work on something else, or I have a little tidy and come across scraps of fabric, I cut them up into 1" and 1 3/4" strips, put them in a cardboard box, wait until it starts to look full and then pull out 20 blocks to assemble into a Soy Amado quilt and use up some of the strips.

Sometimes I have enough to go right across one section with the same strip of fabric but most of the time I don't and I actually think that works better with the whole scrappy feel to each quilt.

Soy Amado. No. 68

Thanks for your comments in my previous post about blogging versus Instagram.

Fear not, this is still my preferred medium.

Maybe not as frequently as I would like but still staying here.

Soy Amado No.67

Am I allowed to have a new favourite because I think it might be this one.

Complete cross-section of blocks from different people but the predominance of aqua seems to hang it all nicely together.

I'm also doing lots of other sewing in between but they're all at 'in progress' stages which don't seem to get further than a quick snap on Instagram.

Sometimes I think Instagram makes me a lazy blogger because when time is short it just becomes so much quicker and easier to take a photo and that is it.

Long term, I still prefer blogging; the ability to explain and share more, plus I think you can see greater detail in the pictures on blogs.

So, I'm still staying here.

And for the moment, this is Soy Amado No. 67.

Soy Amado No.66

Taken on the coast, on and around one of the many German bunkers that line our coastline.

A bright and happy quilt.

And this is the back

Soy Amado No.66

Colour

I like colour.

A lot.

If it's random colour I love it.

I'd had this pattern by Chris Jurd for a while and was keen to finally make it. Chris makes some absolutely stunning paper pieced quilts and I don't think it will be my last quilt of hers.

Now I know my style isn't to everyone because I think I muddy the waters when it comes to playing with values. So many times I see a quilt pattern that says (and this one didn't btw) 'take a dark, medium, light' or 'avoid big prints' 'for the best effect.

I disagree.

If you do that, you reveal the quilt pattern immediately and I find it's quite harsh on the eye.
If you soften the boundaries between colour values and sometimes merge those boundaries, you get a pattern that the eye searches to find and it slowly emerges.

And the whole time I am doing this, although it looks random, I am keeping an eye open for how the colours play within the values - and sometimes I get it wrong.

In the central flying geese block below, I had the idea to edge the block in a thin strip of lime green. I did it but it looked all wrong, stopped the flow of the quilt, so unpicked it and put a strip in of the same background fabric.

And I'm also actually thinking about the fabrics themselves.
My default is mad, large prints but a quilt with all those types of fabrics would look out of control.
So I've tried to use the big prints but mixed them in with tonal, quieter prints, just to give the eye somewhere to rest.

I also try to repeat some of the fabrics so there is some semblance of continuity within the pattern.

I just want to try and create quilts that have energy, are exciting to look, that hold interest and above all, have a feeling of fun and warmth.

All fabric is good fabric, including this kiwi.

And I still think the use of brown is key to the warmth I think appears in the quilts I make.
I wish more quilters embraced their inner brown.

Not sure how I'm going to quilt this one yet but it will get done as this is my new favourite 'for me' quilt.