A Quilt Finish!

Yay! I have another quilt finish! This one grew from an idea I had whilst making this strip for the Strip Sewing Bee that I'm part of. 

The blocks were fun to make, but there was always the concern in the back of my mind that if I wasn't 100% accurate they wouldn't match up very easily. So I made the blocks using 2 charm packs from the same line, trimmed them and sashed them so that took all the worries about lack of accuracy away. 

I love the contrast of the grey sashing. I think it's Kona Mid Grey.

Crawling about on the floor, pin basting the sandwich was NOT fun in the 30 degrees heat we have at the moment. It became my own personal hot yoga studio!!

But sitting in the shade, hand sewing the back of the binding was sheer delight!

It will serve as a quilt in the guest bedroom until my Swoon is finished.

Quilt back is organic cotton by Nancy Mims from the Free to Grow line. It's no longer available unfortunately. I've had mine a good while and it was a great match for this quiilt.

The binding is also organic - just a solid aqua.

I've written up the pattern, and added it to my Craftsy store

Details: Used:  2 charm packs (Honey Honey by Moda), Kona snow for background and cornerstones,  

              Kona mid-grey for sashing.

              Quilted with straight line quilting 1/4" away from either side of the sashing

              and each diagonal seam line.

              Finished size: 57" x 66"

Swoon Block #1

You can't imagine how enjoyable making this block was. Prior to making this, I had been working on something with really small pieces and so to up the scale of things for this block was fun, relaxing and had me smiling from ear to ear!

This block is huge!! It's 24" square and there are only 9 of them in the entire quilt. I'm a ninth of the way there already!

This is my colour palette, two prints used in each block, so most prints will get used twice. I have high hopes for this quilt.

In addition to being fun to make, it also appeals to my frugal side. See my flying geese units all piled up here? (sorry, blue ones only - forgot to photograph the grey ones!)

As I made the geese I sewed a second seam line 1/2" from the diagonal geese construction seam line.....

 so that when I cut the fabric away through the centre of the two lines ............

it gave me a bonus half square triangle unit

And the really, really nice thing about these is that when trimmed they will measure 2 1/2" square, so they're a perfect addition to my bag of jelly roll oddments, and by the time I've made the other 8 Swoon blocks, this little pile

will almost make a baby quilt in itself!

Feeling Thankful

I feel very fortunate. The weather here has been glorious for the last few days, and I have been able to enjoy it, pretty much as I choose.
I've spent quality time with family and friends, and done some sewing.
I've been able to enjoy my garden to the full.....

and pick fresh, organic raspberries, strawberries, black currants and mange tout - one of my favourite delights of the summer!

And then on Saturday a Facebook post made me think "I am so fortunate!
The post was from LILY (Love in the Language of Yarn) asking for more knitted squares for blankets for refugee children.
This is what they said:

"The humanitarian crisis in Syria and neighbouring countries is at critical levels.1.6 million Syrians are now seeking shelter outside their homeland. Over half of them are children.

The number of registered refugees has increased 17-fold in the past year and the 2 millionth refugee is expected to flee this summer.

'LILY' with the help of our knitters and crocheters worldwide have so far provided warm, comforting, handmade blankets for 6,214 refugee children here in Turkey.

But the crisis is growing and we must reach more children. We urgently need your support to continue our vital work.

Our blankets are lovingly made by adults and children from all walks of life and many different countries around the wold. They provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to Syrian refugee children who have been made homeless by war and will send a message of concern and hope. Your participation is important in sending this message of hope, the thought that someone cares, that this beautiful, handmade blanket was created especially for them. It doesn't really matter what it looks like: even the most basic knitted blanket patterns will yield perfect results – a smile.

Please consider making a square or two, any spare wool you have can be knitted, crocheted or woven into eight inch squares and then we'll stitch them all together into a blanket. We get together every week to sew the squares together into blankets so that a child with nothing gets a warm and colourful, cover for their bed!"

Of course I had to knit some squares!! How could I not!

They didn't take long - I was able to sit and knit outside, enjoying the garden at the same time, so if you have a little spare time and would like to contribute some  8 "squares, I'm sure they would be appreciated.

The address to send them to is:  LILY c/o Dianne Jones

                                                Turkmen Mahlesi

                                                Unlu Sokak No 10  D4

                                                Kusadasi

                                                Aydin

                                                Turkey

And incase you're wondering, it cost me £3.50 to send these three squares to Turkey, which I will admit is quite a lot, but what price do you put on some warmth and comfort for a child who has had their world turned upside down? Maybe even more importantly, it's £3.50 to let them know that someone, somewhere, maybe in a far off land, cares about their plight and is willing o give time and effort to help them. You can't put a price on that!

The squares can be knit or crocheted however you prefer. You can of course just knit straight rows, but if you want to knit the diagonal square as I have done. It gives a nice finished edge to the square and the increasing and then decreasing makes it more interesting to knit

Cast on 2sts

Knit into the front and back of the first stitch, Knit 1    (3sts)

Next Row: Knit into the front and back of the first stitch, Knit 2    (4sts)

Next Row: Knit into the front and back of the first stitch, Knit to end    

  Repeat until the side edge measures 8"  (I was using double knit yarn and 3.75mm needles and for me       this was when I had 60 stitched on my needle)

Next Row: Knit

Next Row: Knit 2 together, knit to end

Repeat this row until you have just 2 sts left.

Next Row: Knit 2 together, cut yarn and sew in ends.

Remember, they accept knitted or crocheted squares, and you'll make someone's life a tiny bit happier :) 

Swoon 2013 The Colour Palette

I've had a really hard time trying to choose my fabrics for my Swoon quilt. I knew exactly what I wanted - it just doesn't exist!

This quilt is for a particular room. It will go on the bed that my eldest son and daughter in law use when they come over to stay from Canada, and I really wanted the whole quilt to be made with organic cotton. The room has been recently decorated and I want a soft teals and neutrals palette, a calming, not a vibrant quilt. I have spent hours (quite literally) trying to find some organic cotton to fit this palette and failed totally! Children's fabrics are in abundance, so too are bright modern prints, but anything low volume or muted, any blenders or subtle shades of solids are no where to be found.It has been so disappointing! I wouldn't have minded making the whole quilt from solids if I could have found the right shades.So, I have had to compromise - big time. But which way was I to go? Should I stick to my (organic) guns and compromise on the look, or stick to the colour palette I want and compromise my conscience? In the end the colour palette has won.

I had most of these fabrics in my stash and bought a few extras from the Saltwater range by Tula Pink. the batting and the backing will be organic, so that has made me a little happier, and I've also been reading up about Kona solids. The background fabric for the blocks will be Kona Solid Snow - I have a lot of this and use it all the time, but once it's gone it will be easy to swap for an organic from the Kona Pure range. Please Robert Kaufman, increase this range as soon as you can! 

Interesting though, Did you know the Kona Solids range with its wonderful range of solids is the only solid that has Oeko-tex certification? No, neither did I until the other day! This means that no harmful chemicals were used in the production, processing or finishing of the fabric. I guess this will be a good cotton for me to use when I can't find an organic to suit my needs, especial;y as I really like use solids!

So, it's going to be a busy week. I can finally move away from research on the laptop, and actually make a start on the Swoon quilt.

There is something I have to do first though, and just to make sure I don't forget, I left myself a note.

The reason I need to change it? Well I quickly made this little guy a blanket over the weekend.....

......complete with his name on, of course, but Oh! that comfy fleece wreaks havoc with the needle. I could hear it getting blunter with every stitch!

Looking back over the last month, and considering I spent the beginning of the month in Toronto, and the following week with jet lag, I've achieved far more than I expected.

I've finished my first strip for the Strip Bee, I've made a paper pieced cushion front for Le Challenge, made a dog blanket and sorted out my fabrics for the Swoon 2013. If the sun will just please continue shining today, I think I may just have earned a half hour 's quiet rest in the garden this afternoon!

Linking up with Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily Quilts

My Social Side

I seem to be flaunting my social side at the moment!

Over the last few weeks I've joined a quilting bee AND a quilt-a-long.

I was thrilled to be invited to join the The Quilting Bee by Maria over at sew love to sew 

and of course said "Yes"

The Bee is made up of 6 of us

Maria @ sew love to sew

Amy @ Cloud CouCou Crafts

Fran @ PatchyRose 

Sarah @ Quilt Candy 

Glinda @ Glinda Quilts 

Me!

and we are making one strip each. The finished quilt will be 40" wide and we can choose to make five 8"blocks or eight 5" blocks or whatever else will fill that width.

This is my finished strip

It's a disappearing pinwheel block using a couple of Amy Butler Soul Blossoms prints that I had in my stash. 

It is refreshingly liberating to start a quilt that you have no pre-conceived ideas about, as to overall colour or what room it is intended for.

My second social venture is a Swoon Along! 

It is being organised by Sarah @ Fairy Face Designs

I watched Katy's Swoon along take the quilt blogging world by storm last year and regretted that I didn't join in then. This time I'm on the ball! It only started yesterday, so if you fancy playing along, follow the link and join us!

Finally, I have some finishes to share with you.

If you are a regular follower, you will know I am stash busting my knitting yarn oddments this year by making baby items for  Greenfields Africa

I challenged myself way back in January to make 52 items (one for each week of the year) using only oddments from my stash (I'm including fabric stash too). well, we are half way through the year at the end of this week, so I should have 26 items. With the 2 fabric blankets I finished yesterday, along with a couple of knitted items from earlier in the month, I've made it - just!

These bring my year total exactly up to 26 items.

Phew! That bundle is quite big! By the time it gets to December this parcel will need a sizeable box indeed! But my otherwise not very useable stash will be zapped and a few more babies will be wrapped in something other than rags.

Right now, I'm off to choose the fabrics for my Swoon.

Have a good week! 

An Amazings Crafting Class Giveaway

                   

I love learning new techniques and new crafts, don't you?
Yes, of course you do, that's why you're reading this post!
Well today I have something very special for you - a free crafting class !!

Many of you have heard of, and doubtless used, Craftsy, a US based learning platform, but have you heard of The Amazings?
I certainly hadn't until a couple of weeks ago, and the more I learned about this enterprise, the more I felt strongly about what they are doing.
We all know that there has been a resurgence in crafting and there is a whole generation of young (and not so young) people  without crafting skills, who are very eager to learn. The Amazings works on the premise that it is the retired and retiring age range in this country who have these skills in abundance and they should be shared.
Amazings Co-Founder Adil Abrar says:

"There's nothing better than learning from someone who has a 
lifetime of experience, sharing shortcuts that you won't find in
most books or websites, and dropping in little stories that make 
the learning experience really special. We've worked hard to 
replicate that amazing-ness so people can experience it online, 
all over the world "

The Amazings are based in London and now have over 200 real life workshops run by the over 50s encompassing a wide range of crafts from Italian glass art to kiltmaking. But demand has far outstripped what they can provide, so they have now started to offer on-line classes.

I was privileged to be offered a couple of these classes and found them to be entertaining and informative. They have a relaxed approach and you feel very much as though you are just sitting in your lounge (which you probably are!!) with the teacher by your side. The style is conversational, with both the teacher and the student in the video and it is heartwarming and encouraging to hear the student asking exactly the same questions that are on the tip of your own tongue.
There are 8 online classes to date, with more coming very soon. You can choose plant pot mosaics......

 ....or silver clay jewellery making.

 Perhaps if you watched "The Great British Sewing Bee" a few weeks ago, upcycling a man's shirt into a summer dress would be more your thing.

As someone who is very conscious of what chemicals are in my food, my fabrics and also my beauty products I was totally inspired by Judith's Natural Beauty Products class and I'm now off to have a go at making my own face wash and lip balm!

Although I have done English Paper Piecing before, I still learned a few tips and tricks from Virginia's Heirloom Quilting class. She has a very down-to earth, waste-not-want-not style, using recycled fabrics. This is refreshing in a world where avid quilters can so easily get caught up in the rat race of always wanting the latest designer fabrics for their quilts. Recycling is, after all, exactly why the first quilters quilted in the first place!

The classes are economically priced, but thanks to Farzana at the Amazings,  I have a very special offer for you. 

You can get one of the 8 online classes from The Amazings for free by using this link
The only hard part is deciding which one to choose! Be sure to let me know which one you go for, as I enjoyed my freebies so much, I'm sure I shall soon be buying some more :)

Have fun!

Julie

Mariner's Compass Cushion

Sometimes, no matter how carefully you prepare, things just don't go the way you planned.

When the June theme for Le Challenge was announced, I decided upon an idea (the theme is Maritime) and ordered some fabric from the US. I had plenty of time, and was fully expecting it to be here when I returned from Toronto, but, alas, it wasn't! A few emails later and the company informed me that my parcel had, for some unknown reason, been returned to them. They promised to re-send it, but this, of course, meant I had to completely re-think my project for the challenge. (This was Tuesday, so I only had 3 days in which to make something!!) I spent a day and a half dithering, wondering what I could make in the time, and then suddenly it struck me - a Mariners Compass block! I have wanted to have a go at one of these for a long time, but I certainly couldn't make a quilt in a day and a half. I settled on a cushion, found a paper piecing template and used fabric from my stash.

Time was short. I had to stay focussed and concentrate. No time for mistakes!

So, I selected my fabrics....maybe not my first choice, but what I had on hand....

I colour coded on an extra template and kept it prominently displayed on my desk

I made a list of which colour each numbered segment was, and kept that on my desk too

By the end of Thursday night 3 segments were done, and by Friday lunchtime all 8 were complete

Yes, the seam ripper did come out a couple of times, but they were only small mistakes !

Joining the segments together was a little tricky. Just how was I to cope with all those seams coming together at the centre?

They don't sit as perfectly as I would have liked, but under the circumstances, it could have been a lot worse.

I decided I didn't have enough time to make a cushion front and quilt it, as I had originally planned, so I decided to appliqué the compass onto an existing cushion cover.

Hmmm, Was this going to work? I only had a 1/4" seam allowance on the compass, and a lot of seams to turn smoothly under. No time for errors.

I decided to follow a technique used by Sarah Fielke in her latest book "Hand Quilted with Love"

                                       
You cut a cardboard template the size of the finished piece and place it on the wrong side of the applique. You then wrap tin foil around them and iron, pressing the seam allowance smoothly under.

I do recommend using good quality tin foil. Mine was from the "value range" and had a tendency to tear as I was pressing the edges as hard as I could with the iron. But nonetheless, considering all those seams, I think I got a pretty smooth curve to my circle.

Sarah suggests using applique glue to secure your piece to the background whilst you hand sew in place, but I prefer not to use chemicals where possible, so it was good old fashioned pins for me.

The cushion was finished by 7 pm - just in time to sit in the evening sun and enjoy a little celebratory drink (In the middle of all this fast sewing my son and his girlfriend had phoned me from their holiday in Cornwall to tell me they had got engaged !!!)

Cheers !!