Showing posts with label quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quilt. Show all posts

Saturday 20 June 2015

Quilts

I've been spending a lot of time making blankets the last few weeks..

I finally finished the quilt top for my flying geese quilt.  I'm pretty happy with how it looks but I need to get some kind of border on there and quilt it up



I also made another crochet blanket


I like to have something to do whilst watching the TV.....


And i finally dug out some fabrics from my last trip to the states.... I'm going to make a really quick quilt top with this bunch




Monday 11 November 2013

What I've been sewing...

So with Christmas fast approaching, the sewing machine has been super busy.  I finished off my Mother's lap quilt.  I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out.  I wasn't so sure about it when I was in the middle of it, but it looks OK.


And I've managed to make a lap quilt for the boyfriend.  I made it from imported fabrics.  He's a bit of a sic fi geek, so I've used a combination of star wars, star trek, spider man, wonder woman fabrics. I think he's going to be made up with this.

And I've also been finishing off the pin wheel table runners I started last year!

Pippa, as ever, keeping me company


I just love this reindeer fabric.  I wish I'd had it a bit sooner as it's too pretty to be on the back - but I guess at least I will know it is there.


They've turned out pretty good


I have a few more to do.  I figure I'll keep one - I made a mistake on one of the corners, so I'll be keeping that one - and give the other away as presents to our family.

It feels good to have actually started and finished these projects in a fairly timely fashion!
















Friday 25 October 2013

Oh Deer!

I went through my fabric stash the other night there and don't you just love it when you find fabric you forgot you had!  It's like finding a tenner in a coat you've not worn for a while... but better if I'm honest!

I found this gorgeous momo 'oh deer!' charm pack that I had and some plain moda fabrics.... so I thought I'd do something quick n easy.  So I picked out the pink/blue/purple tones (i've saved the oranges/greens/yellows for another project) and laid them all out until I found a pattern I liked.


Then I sewed them up into a 4 patch square


Using a 1/4 inch seam of course!


So my idea was to have two patterned against 2 plain....

Then I had a jelly roll left over from my last quilt top...so figured I could do a quick and easy lattice border!

I just love the deer print!  So into stags right now.  So once I'd sewn all the above pieces together in rows... it's a good idea to square your squares up before sewing them together!
The next step is to join your vertical rows together and to do this you need to make sure you line up your squares.... I mark the edges of the lattice then pin, pin, pin so that it stays in place through the machine.



Then voila!  A quick n easy quilt project!


What do you think?

I wanted to then turn it into a lap quilt... so I ordered another oh deer pack... as I didn't have enough of these tones left in the charm pack.  I'm hoping to finish it off tomorrow and have a quilting Saturday.

I have the quilt for my Mam to finish for Christmas... the christmas table runners and also another top secret project I'm working on!  My wadding arrived tonight.  I'd like to get these done this year so I can actually wrap them and have them under the tree!!



Tuesday 27 August 2013

Pinwheels

After finishing my log cabin quilt I wanted to do another quick(er) project.  I had a couple of charm packs I'd bought ages ago and not done anything with.  I thought I'd try and make a lap quilt for my Mother for Christmas.  So last night I got out the packs.
I've used here a block colour charm pack and a pattern one.  I've picked out the blue and pink ones and as I didn't have enough of both of those to make the size I want, I've put purple in to beef it up.
Here's Pippa choosing her favourite charms!  She is always curled at my feet when I'm quilting!  She's the perfect quilting company.

So I've laid out the colours that I like together.  I want one block colour and one patterned piece per pinwheel.




I saw a tip for doing pin wheels on Missouri Star Quilt tutorials  (which is a great source for quilting tips) so I've followed that.

You basically put your charms together, right side and then sew the whole way around the outside.






Then you want to cut them on the diagonal twice.




Here's all of mine cut up!


Next you fold these out.  I folded mine out to the colour block.  You want them all to go in the same direction so the pinwheels sit well together






I have about 18 pinwheels on my quilt top so it's a good idea to get yourself a system!  I sew all mine, cut them all together and then iron them all out.

Halfway through!  Man it's a lot of cutting and ironing!



You want them all ironed out and then you have to piece them together.  Be really careful here as it's so easy to sew them the wrong way!

Once you've sewn all the pieces together you should end up with something that looks like this!
And when they're all done - something that looks like this!!

I reckon all of that hard work deserves a cup of tea!


I shall finish these tonight and then start piecing together!  I'm not sure if I might put a lattice border through them beforehand! hmmmmmm......



Pinwheels are so fun tho and this method is so quick!  I just love to see the quilt top come up fast like this.


Sunday 25 August 2013

Log Cabin Quilt

Don't you just love those weekends when you have nothing to do!?  Well, for me they just don't come around often enough.  Between work, social commitments, family and of course the dog, I really have to work hard to squeeze in the things I love!  Like my hobbies.

I bought the fabric for this quilt when I went to Seattle Christmas 2012....I discovered JoAnn fabric store and fell in LOVE!  Why do we not have stores like this in the UK?  Hobby craft just pales into comparison.  And while we're at it - why is fabric just SO much more expensive in the UK and we barely get the range.  My local store is over priced and understocked!  No pretty patterns.

Anyway I think I spent like an afternoon in the store and packed a whole extra case to take home and even with the cost of the excess baggage I still saved probably £250/300 on what it would have cost me at home.  I bought some haberdashery products, more fabric than is in this quilt and honestly it was one of the highlights of the holiday for me!  I can't wait to go back to the states so I can go again.  I wish they'd start international shipping!


My first quilt was a double and it just doesn't quite hang properly on a king size bed.  I didn't know how hard this was going to be to do on my domestic sewing machine.  The top came together really quickly and log cabin pattern is so forgiving but when it came to the piecing - oh my lord - it hurt!  My arms are killing me!

So it became a version famous UFP in my house!  Not only was it tough to move but because it's light and dark I found it very difficult to get a suitable thread and ended up working with invisible thread which is really difficult!  Does anybody have any better suggestions on how to do this?  I love the contrast of light and dark fabric??


Yesterday I woke up and decided it was going to get done!  It took me from 1130am until 1am in the morning but I did it!  I'm so proud of it.  



And it's super cosy and now I intend to make some pillows from the scraps to go with it!


My next quilt project is going to be to finish off the Christmas table runners I started last year and then a lap quilt!