Come in number 268...

...your time is up.


With just three days to go until QuiltCon and five weeks of doing who knows what, it has actually, finally, unbelievably ARRIVED!

Again, thank you to everyone that left encouraging comments. I didn't get all the comments coming through on email so possibly haven't managed to reply to everyone.
I also discovered  (thanks Susan) there is a website for lost quilts. Who knew.

I know what it is like to be lifted by kind words, so if you have a moment,please go here and leave a supportive comment for a fellow quilter ;-)

Meanwhile, I can now get back to my original fretting that my QuiltCon quilt was neither perfect or modern enough.

A brighter day

...and just right for taking a photo of a quilt.

Or so we thought.

An old man we bumped into later said he'd seen us in the field. "What were you doing? Trying to fly a kite?"

Clearly too windy there.

And here.

We almost lost the quilt top over the edge.

And it's a long way down...

Things looked up when we thought we'd found the perfect spot.

Daughter No.1 : "I'm only doing this if no one is around. As soon as I see someone I'm losing the quilt. OK?"

Until we realised it was probably right place, wrong time.

 But then I think we did find the perfect spot.

Daughter No. 2: "Hurry up Mum. I think some people are coming."

This quilt came about thanks to Fiona who (along with sending me the best cushion cover e.v.e.r), also sent me some of her spare Drunkard's Path blocks. In the spirit of using up and because I still had some left over from this quilt I thought I'd try another variation on this quilt block. I used the Drunkard's Path template from Acuquilt to crank a few more out, all from the scrap bin.

Fiona - I can definitely spot one of yours in this shot!

And if you really want to look closely there's golf shoes in there too...

It was fun to make. I forgot about colour and just concentrated on dark/light values.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday

I would like to sincerely thank everyone that left comments on my last post. I have not given up hope of it appearing, especially after reading some of your comments. Annoyingly, a package I sent to the U.S.A. two weeks later has already arrived.

For all the disappointment, there is also a positive to be taken from it: at least I can stop worrying now that people were going to be looking at it thinking it wasn't modern or perfect enough :-)

Thank you again.

Lost

According to the Royal Mail website, an item posted internationally is not regarded as lost until 25 days have passed.

Today was the last day for quilts to arrive for Quiltcon.

Today it is 32 days since I posted this.

Frustratingly, like a computer download icon that doesn't quite move that final last bit, the message on the tracking website remains the same: "the item has been passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" (their caps, not mine).

I think it is LOST (my caps)

:-(

A favourite finish

I have a new favourite.

This one.

Some of you may remember that I asked back here for advice on how to join all the individual blocks. I received lots of differing advice for which I am extremely grateful

And I ignored it all.

Because all the advice got me thinking about possibilities that I'd never though of before. I knew I wanted the whole quilt to be made from just the one shape.

Each piece was individually cut, with the original inspiration coming from the book Material Obsession II.

It's been my main portable hand sewing project for the last 18 months and it just grew and grew as I made more blocks than the patterns in the book had. So that got me thinking about the possibilities of making the whole quilt from just the one shape. And then I thought 'borders.' It needs a border. But when I'd finished the first border it didn't seem to have the right balance so I carried on and did a second one.

Am I allowed to say I LOVE IT?
Because I do.

It is completely my kind of favourite quilt: a scrappy riot of colour where you notice the colours and patterns rather than it being 'this designer line' or 'that designer line'. These types of quilts are the best for hiding past dodgy fabric purchases. Indeed, this quilt disguises a number of dated and ugly fabrics very well.

I have seen this block on quilty internetland paper pieced but (imo) it's just as doable this way and you can skip the paper template part completely.

You may also remember that when I asked for help last time, I said as an incentive to reply, I'd send some scraps your way. I didn't.
So, if you're still interested, leave a comment and I'll pick someone to help reduce the level of my scrap bin.

Off to start hand quilting this one now.

I like you just a bit

I Like You is the new line by Amy Sedaris for Windham Fabrics.

I have to confess, I'd never heard of Amy Sedaris but I did Google her and it would appear she can turn her hand to just about anything. Clearly, with her I Like You line of fabrics, she is not averse to colour.

So with two charm packs to play with, I added in a whole lot more colour.

The solids and the black and white spot fabric are from my own stash - the rest are from I Like You

And more on the back.

And then I diagonally cross-hatch quilted it with a thick 12wt multi-coloured/variegated thread to add even more colour. For those interested, it is a Sulky thread and quilted beautifully.

I think I like colour as much as Amy does.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday

A little bit of Glimma

Glimma is Lotte Jansdotter's third fabric collection and I've been able to play with a couple of charm packs before the full yardage is released in April.

I had wanted to do a deconstructed Dresden Plate quilt for a while and felt this would be a good way to show the fabrics off.

Glimma also works very well with Lotte's previous lines -I have used a turquoise Bella crosshatch for a few of the petals as well as the binding.

I managed to get two Dresden wedges out of each 5" charm square.

And with the tiny scrap offcuts left either side of these wedges, I sewed them together in pairs and sort of did a random border with them.

Quilting is monofilament over the Dresdens and then a variegated on the background.

And the back?
Not difficult to show; it was so windy the two shots above were the best of a bad bunch.
The rest look something like this.

These are beautiful, soft, muted colours to work with and I shall definitely be  keeping my eye out for some of my favourites when they're available.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday

Come on in...

Remember this?

And this?

They are no more.

it was beginning to become impossible to find stuff and not a nice place to sew in.

So, come on in and see what it looks like now.

This is the view you get as you open the door.

This unit holds a complete array of anything and everything and in no particular order.

Quilt books are on the top.
New rule: if I can't fit all the books on the top then I have too many and need to get rid of old ones before I can buy any more.

Swinging round to the left of this unit (ie the wall you can see on the left hand side when you first walk in is my 'design wall', aka the £10 open plan office divider.

I've pinned up the blocks I've been doing from a Material Obsession Block of the Month. When I purchased the BOM I didn't know what the end quilt would look like. When I got it, I didn't like it so I'm deviating from the instructions, doing my own thing and going to finish it a different way.

Then to the right of my design wall is this.

I repainted the wall white to try and enhance what natural light makes its way into this cranny of the room.
An old fruit and veg basket that is storing precuts as well as (on the bottom rung) the fabric needed to finish off the design wall quilt.

Large storage basket holds a bunch of what was described at the time as 'shabby chic' type fabrics - soft pastels.

Smaller basket is holding freezer paper, graph and tracing paper and fusible stuff.

Then if you turn right (the room is an L shape) you come to this.

The rainbow coloured unit on the left contains colour sorted tiny scraps (smaller than an FQ).

The sewing machine is set into the table with a small ironing station on the left.
The drawers are as yet unsorted.

This is the view if you look left out of the window - towards the centre of the island.

And if you look right, then this is the view - beyond the trees, it is the sea.

To the right of the sewing machine area is the cutting table, squeezed into the eaves of the L shaped room.

Underneath the table, I've sorted zips and all patterned blues and patterned greens. It was only by doing this that I realised I had so much green - there are two tubs worth of greens. No idea why.

Then on the wall directly behind the sewing area is the old office cabinet which is kind of vaguely sorted in colour order.

Top shelf is black and white and text fabrics.

On top of this unit are various bits and bobs.

CD player and discs, various sprays, a pile of plaids to remind me I want to make a quilt with them and a precious wooden box given to me by Daughter No. 1, made in her DT class at school.

And inside:

I couldn't possibly comment

To the right of this unit is a pile of stacked boxes kind of colour sorted. The top one is the scrap bin which is one big scrappy mess.

And finally, to the right of the cutting table and another reason why I had to sort the room out is this.

The power of the internet is such that back in November I read on a website that the shop that I used to go to as a child for school uniforms was closing down. You can read about it here if you are interested and why they had no cash tills.

It was a real 'Are You Being Served' kind of a place - a dying breed of shops, falling victim to the recession and no doubt the same internet that let me hear about its impending demise.

So when I found myself back there over the Christmas holidays, I popped in for a bit of nostalgia and then saw the above and thought it would make the most brilliant fabric storer.

Long story short, all the fixtures and fittings were going to auction and others before me had expressed an interest in the unit. However, an agreement was reached and the unit was shipped to me and yesterday was hauled up two flights of stairs to its new home.

It's just perfect.

They had already put draw dividers in so I kept some for smaller pieces of fabric.

And some I took out for larger pieces of fabric.

Granted it is missing a few handles -apparently they are called 'card frame pulls' - and I need to see if I can find any on the internet but that'll be the only tarting up I do. The names and labels are staying - they are all familiar memories from my childhood.

And that's it.

A little look in on my (currently tidy) corner of the world.

And before it goes pear-shaped, I'm  off to Leila's Where Do you Sew linky to check out how I rate in the tidiness stakes ;-)