Finally Finished: Summer by the Sea

It's finally done and has only taken two years and 8 months to complete. I may have gotten slightly distracted by sewing and DIYing for the new flat in the interim.

Summer by the Sea in the January sunshine

This quilt should probably be called "Summers in Aeroplanes" instead as it's been on more trips than your average Gap Year Globe Trotter at this point. Off the top of my head the list includes Barcelona (Spain), Bordeaux (France), Dubai (UAE), Estonia, Germany, Italy, Paris (France), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Salzburg (Austria), San Francisco (USA), Zanzibar and, of course, a whole host of places in good old Blighty. Possibly my most cosmopolitan quilt yet.

Summer by the Sea
Hoping that it'll shrink more when I wash it

Summer by the sea
All of the squares in all of the rotations
(oooo! New quilt design idea!)

Started: May 2016
Finished: January 2019
Size: 108 x 126 cm (approx. 43 x 50")
Quilt top: 1 Jelly roll of Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda
Backing: Sea Garden in seafoam - Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda (I actually bought backing fabric this time. Shock. Horror)
Binding: Stripe - Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda 
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Wool Batting
Quilting: 100% hand quilted using YLI hand quilting thread in white. Stencils from the Stencil Company 1.5" double cable and 1.5" shell border
Label: Scraps from quilt cutting as above

Summer by the Sea
Nautical quilting: Squares, shells, and a double cable

I've massively improved my hand quilting over the course of this quilt. My technique is probably completely unorthodox and 8 stitches per inch isn't really anything to write home about but I'm really pleased that much my speed and consistency has improved so much. I've tried out at least 5 different thimble / fingertip saving options in the process and finally found two that I really like.

Thimble Option 1: Metal fingertip shield

This fantastic fingertip shield from Colonial. You just stick it to your fingertip with the little sticky disks that come in the packet. Genius, but not great if you're quilting while travelling. I lost at least three of these but kept buying replacements because they are so good. A big thank you to my lovely friend Becca of BeccaSews who took me to the Great British Sewing Bee event at the Excel in London last year. I would never have come across these if I hadn't spotted them at one of the market stalls (Also you should check out Becca's jaw-dropping dress making skills. She bought stuff to make jeans and a jumper at this event and they turned out better than any I've ever bought in a shop! I'll just stick to my sewing-squares-together-and-hoping-they-match-up approach to sewing.)

Metal finger shield
Great at saving my fingertips!

Thimble Option 2: Silicone needle-puller
This silicone needle-puller comes a close second the above, depsite my hatred of all things pink (and especially this particular shade of pink). I found this even more effective for those tough bits where one is trying to quilt through a bazillion layers and seriously contemplating pulling the needle through with one's teeth. I found using these together with the finger shield above the best option.

Silicone needle puller
Stops me using my teeth on the tough bits
(naughty naughty!)

I'm also particularly pleased with this quilt's label, probably due to my love of boats of all kinds. While I've decided that this quilt is definitely on the "finally finished" pile, I'm seriously considering doing just a tiny bit more embroidery on the label because every boat needs a name!

Summer by the Sea
Sounds like a good name for a boat, no?

I have loads of this absolutely gorgeous fabric left and am already scheming for a bigger and more intricate quilt but in the meantime I'm enjoying snuggling up with this in my armchair while I toast my toes in front of the fireplace.

This is my monitor-lizarding-in-the-sunshine armchair,
not my toasting-toes-in-front-of-the-fireplace armchair,
but it'll do

Happy Quilting,
me x

P.S. Linking up to Finished or not Friday (because while today isn't Friday, I did finish this on a Friday), and Main Crush Monday (because I love this fabric so much that I'm already planning the next quilt for it)

Finally Finished: Forest Friends Baby Quilt v2: New Addition

After a hectic 6 months (new house, new job, a lot of work travel, and several pretty serious family emergencies) I've finally settled in with my needle and thread. My sewing things are still tucked away all over the new flat in various boxes but that will change in January when the builders come to build some exciting custom storage cabinets for me (need to save up my pennies first).

I finally unpacked my trusty Singer in October and finished the second iteration of the Forest Friends Baby Quilt, "New Addition".

New Addition Baby Quilt in my new living room

I machine quilted this over the course of several evenings because, guess what, the new job means that I actually have time in the evening to do things that aren't work. This is a complete novelty and, as it turns out, I need to re-learn how to have hobbies. SO exciting! I've got so much stuff done!

Anyway, I digress.

Started: April 2016

Finished: November 2017

Size: 107 x 107 cm (42" x 42")

Quilt Top: Les Amis de la Forêt by Patty Slongier

Backing: Think this might be a Tula Pink fabric but can't remember

Batting:100% cotton

Quilting:Machine quilted in the ditch around and varied geometric designs within each cross. Top thread YLI machine quilting grey. Bottom thread YLI machine quilting teal

Binding: some grey fabric I'd bought to make a blue & grey quilt but given how many project I have on the go it'll be years before that happens

Label: none

I'm quite pleased with the way the teal thread shows off the quilting on the back even though I had to piece it together from leftover fabric. I could have sworn I had enough of the multicoloured/yellow one to back both of the Forest Friends quilts, but apparently not. Although, come to think of it, it's entirely likely that the rest of this fabric is hidden away in one of my unpacked boxes somewhere *sigh*.

New Addition Baby Quilt - back

I used grey thread for the front to match the grey binding and the grey in the various prints. I have a weird obsession with grey - it's just the perfect colour. I machine stitched the binding because I was in a bit of a hurry to deliver this one and while it's not perfect, it'll do (and do better next time!).

New Addition Baby Quilt - front

In other news, I've made some progress on Salt Air Summer by the Sea and various other projects but more on that later. 

Quilting love,

me x

Finally finished: Tiny's quilt(s)

So, remember how I was working on this quilt for a special little lady who was due to arrive on May 23rd? Well, she decided that she couldn't wait any longer and came 3 weeks early!

I saw her briefly in hospital but am going over for a proper visit this coming Sunday. Her quilt isn't quite finished (if you remember, it got a little out of hand), but I've made her a proper baby quilt instead, which I finally finished last night.

Finally finished: Tiny's baby quilt
Miserable weather - need to get a photo in better light

Started: May 2016
Finished: May 2016
Size: 110 x 110 cm (approx. 42 x 42")
Quilt top: Patty Sloniger Les Amis in coral, white sashing from RayStitch in Islington
Backing: Old duvet cover from my grandmother's house
Binding: Patty Sloniger "Les Amis" Star Pods in coral with scrappy top section made from off-cuts of all Les Amis coral fabrics
Batting: Cotton
Quilting: Machine quilted in offset squares (YLI machine quilting thread 40/3 in white), with randomly placed, hand-quilted hearts (YLI glazed cotton hand quilting thread in white)
Label: Sublime stitching "Kurt Halsey / Best Friends" embroidery pattern

The design couldn't really get much simpler - one big piece of fabric with some sashing. It's possibly the fastest quilt I've ever made; I managed to cut, piece, baste, and quilt it in a single afternoon (because what are you going to do while your sister is in labour - sit at home and quilt for your new niece, that's what!)

I hand-stitched the binding on the train on my way to see the little lady in hospital and then decided to spend a little more time making her a pretty quilt label. I'm really pleased with how this turned out (and really hoping her black hair isn't replaced by, say, blonde like her Mummy's, when it falls out)

Sublime stitching quilt label

I embroidered straight onto the finished quilt, which was a massive faff! I really struggled to bury my knots in the quilt sandwich and was really worried that it would all come undone. I've washed it twice now though and everything seems to be fine. The markings have almost all come out as well - a couple more washes and some baby vomit ought to do the trick.

I then decided that it was a bit too boring and decided to hand quilt some random hearts into the squares. There are about 12 of them in total.

Hand quilting: getting more consistent

My hand quilting is getting better - I can comfortably load 6 or 7 stitches and they're becoming more consistent in length. Now if only the back were as pretty as the front is.

Finally, here's a photo of the scrappy binding I made - it's actually the coral star pods fabric from the same fabric line as the quilt top on three sides of the quilt. The fourth edge has an insert of these scrappy offcuts I ended up with from the original quilt. While I really like this style (I trialled it on the Charity Auction baby quilt), I think it'll look better if I make my binding a bit wider. I think I'll try 3" or 3.5" double fold binding next time. What do you think?

Scrappy binding insert <3

Quilting love,
me x

Finally finished: Forest Friends Charity Baby Quilt

I've finally finished the first of the Forest Friends quilts. This little baby quilt will be donated to my company charity auction in aid of mind, the mental health charity and the British Red Cross.

I'm hoping that with all the recent new babies in the office it will raise lots of money for these two great causes.

Forest Friends @ the Tower

 
As it turns out, a week's worth of tube journeys is enough to bind a 42" x 42" (107 X 107cm) baby quilt. I couldn't resist a quick photo of the finished product when I hopped off the tube at the Tower today.

I used some of the thread from the sewing box I inherited from my grandmother to handstitch the binding. It's basically invisible, which pleases me greatly. I bought these really great needles in this handy-dandy case, probably about 10 years ago. At the time I wasn't really thinking about stitching on the go in particular but I can really recommend them - so useful!

Supplies for binding on the tube
John James needle "pebble" and vintage MEZ thread

When it came to binding I noticed that I'd screwed up while I was basting and the backing fabric wasn't quite centred, leaving a gap on one of the edges. I can't believe I didn't notice this earlier. At first I thought I could just about get the edge into the binding but in the end I bit the bullet and hand-stitched a extra 2" of backing fabric the the edge. So annoying!

All fixed: backing fabric issues

Here's another photo of the finished product - will probably use this one for the charity auction.

FINISHED! Forest Friends charity baby quilt

I'm currently debating what to do about a quilt label. I could go all out and make an embroidered one (I particularly like the idea of using this gorgeous sublime stitching owl pattern), but I'm not sure if I can be bothered. On the other hand, it might encourage people to bid more if I offer to embroider the baby's name on it. What do you think?

Onwards to more forest friends - next up: finishing up Tiny's quilt.

Lots of sewing love,
me x

Forest Friends Take II

I've had a really productive couple of days at The Quilting Queen's house, resulting in

• 3 pairs of trousers taken up
• 2 shirts shortened for TQQ (she's a little lady at 5ft tall)
• 1 office dress fixed (new straps)
• 1 finished quilt top for Tiny, pin-basted and ready to quilt
• 2 finished baby quilt tops (~110 x 110cm)
• 1 handmade silk blouse almost finished (just need to hand stitch the cuffs and add buttons)
• and various little bits and bobs finished from TQQ's box of ongoing projects

Phew! Quite pleased with our progress. Had hoped to get some of the quilting done on TQQ's gorgeous sewing machine but, let's be honest, that was a bit over-ambitious given all the friends I wanted to see and other things I waned to do.

Here's Tiny's quilt - pin basted and ready for quilting. The binding is ready to sew on as soon as the quilt is finished.

Tiny's quilt - Forest Friends v1.0
Ready for quilting

Here are the baby quilts. One of these will go to the office charity auction in aid of Mind and the British Red Cross and the other is for the next little baby that appears in my circle of friends (there seem to be a lot of those lately and I'm always behind in making gifts). I'm adding a scrappy binding to these, which is almost finished. I need to go through my box of scraps back in London to make up the full length that I need. Interestingly, TQQ and I have very styles when it comes to fabric choice so it's quite hard to find anything that works in her stash.

Forest Friends Take II
Finished quilt tops

I'm not sure which I like better - the scrappy quilt or the crosses. What do you think?

Much love,
me xx

Finished quilt top: Forest Friends baby quilt

After my grand plans to finish off this quilt back in February, I  ended up on a pretty ... intense ... project at work for six weeks. Forest Friends languished in my living room for the duration. I've currently got a couple of days off and am spending most of them sewing with the Quilting Queen. I had my first go on her gorgeous new all-singing-all-dancing Bernina today. It's a whole new world of shiny computerised high-tech sewing. 

Anyway, we finished the quilt top today, found a suitable old duvet cover of my grandmother's to re-purpose as backing fabric and pin-basted it all up for quilting tomorrow. It's big enough for a single bed so Tiny can still use it when she gets a big girl bed in a couple of years. In the meantime it's good for playing on when it's folded in half. Here is the finished quilt top in all its glory:

Forest Friends finished quilt top
(also check out TQQ's gorgeous log cabin in the background)

I've also started work on the next project, which I'm planning on finishing before I head off to Paris on Tuesday afternoon. Given my plans to see various friends while I'm in town and looking at the list of other sewing project I brought with me this may be slightly over-ambitious...

Forest Friends - Take II

I'll just see how far I get by the time I have to leave on Tuesday. Now to decide how to quilt Forest Friends v1.0. Very excited about using the cool quilting attachment on TQQ's new sewing machine tomorrow!

Much love,
me xx

WIP Wednesday: Forest Friends baby quilt - borders

I actually managed to do some quilting DURING THE WEEK (!!!) and the borders for the baby quilt are coming along nicely.

Forest Friends baby quilt - 1st & 2nd border

The plan is to add a 1" white border, a 1" border of the fox print and then a 2nd wide white border before binding with the coral fabric.

Excitingly, the fox print arrived in the post from BobbieLou fabrics today and the lovely lady at RayStitch in Islington was so kind as to post me the white fabric after I stupidly left in on the counter in her shop after paying last week. So scatterbrained!

Gifts in the mail today :)

I'm hoping to finish the borders this week and piece the backing over the weekend. 

Love,
me xx 

P.S. Linking up to Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

WIP: Forest Friends baby quilt

The Quilting Queen came over to visit last weekend and we had a wonderful time. Despite a jam packed weekend including a musical, afternoon tea, and an extended shopping spree, we did, of course, manage to do some quilting.

We're working on something snuggly for a little girl that will be arriving very soon.

Forest Friends - finished quilt top

The Quilting Queen and I had a great time playing with the layout. As usual she spent rather a lot of time fixing my mistakes although I like to tell myself that I'm getting better.

The Quilting Queen having fun

I've also got some secret plans for these bits. I'm linking up to the exciting projects at WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

I have exciting plans for these offcuts

Just waiting for the backing fabric to arrive from Miss Ginger and then I can get started with the quilting. This may actually get done in time for the little lady to arrive (this may well be a first)!

Love,

me xoxo 

Ellie's Quilt

My friend S recently had an adorable little girl named Elizabeth Eleni (Ellie) in October. This is the quilt I made for S's baby shower.

Ellie's Quilt

Ellie's Quilt in progress

Started: 10th September 2013
Finished: 5th October 2013
Size: crib size 102 x 142 cm = 40" x 56"
Quilt top: I roughly followed this pattern:  Bricks in Bloom by Tracey Jacobsen of traceyjay quilts. I used Heather Bailey Fresh Cut fabrics from a couple of fat quarters. Machine pieced on my little Singer.
Backing: pieced from Jungle Babies panel and print by Patty Reid designs, which I picked up from a bargain bin at a quilt shop in Pennsylvania for about $3 back in 2009. It's been sitting around waiting for a baby quilt ever since and there was only *just* enough of it.
Binding: 2.25" double fold binding, hand stitched to front.
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 poly/cotton blend.
Quilting: Horizontal lines in the ditch and at a 45° angle with Guterman 100% cotton thread.

Quilt back: some puckers

This is the very first quilt I've made all by myself without any help from anyone, whatsoever. As you can see in the photo above, I'm not very good at basting all by myself yet. I ended up with some serious folds in the backing fabric; they were simply too big to be called puckers!

Embroidered label

Quilted and trimmed and ready to bind

I had a bit of a near fail getting the quilt done in time for S's baby shower and was doing some desperate last minute applique-ing in the train, only to realise that I'd forgotten some of the bits- namely, the trunks for my stylised trees and the big E for Ellie that was meant to go next to them. This resulted in me dashing to John Lewis, buying some ribbon and actually finishing the quilt right there in the shop. Luckily, JL has a sewing corner in its haberdashery department and the ladies that work there were absolutely lovely and more than happy to lend me some scissors.

The tree trunks did get sewn on in the end or rather at the very last minute (see below) but the E for Ellie didn't make it onto the quilt, unfortunately. Here's the finished product. Unfortunately, I only have photos taken with my crappy blackberry so they're not very good.

Ellie's Quilt: finished

I also made S some fleece backed burp cloths and a swaddling blanket, which I used to figure out how to bind a quilt before ruining the actual quilt. This was super easy and made a great present for the baby shower. I'm sure I'll be making them again for the next new baby. I bought this pack of 6 muslin squares from John Lewis, cut each square into thirds, layered them on top of each other with Heather Bailey's super soft Freshcut paisley dot fleece fabric and self bound them. After doing two I got bored and really needed to get a move on with the actual quilt so I didn't bother backing the remaining 4 squares.

Burp cloths and a fleecy swaddling blanket

The swaddling blanket is made from two layers of Aqua Rose Bud flannel from ladysewandsew, bound with Heather Bailey's Freshcut Crest in red. Making this took less than an hour. I meant to embroider Ellie's name on one of the corners but I forgot. Whoops.

Quilting love,
me x

First post - first quilt

I've decided to start a blog predominantly as a record of my sewing/quilting/embroidery shenanigans. Maybe people will read it. Maybe they won't. It's the 21st century version of what my mother calls her "Quilting Brag Book". Hopefully it will mean that from now on I won't spend hours and hours on a project for someone, give it to them, and then realise that I've completely forgotten to take any decent photographs of it.

So, here's to ALL of the (mostly undocumented) pretty projects I've made so far and to all of those to come. Now all I have to do is learn to take decent photographs.

I've been embroidering and hand sewing since I was a little girl but only recently took up quilting. I am very lucky because my mother is The Quilt Queen (not the actual Quilting Queen of blogosphere fame, it's just my nickname for her when she rescues my latest project) and always seems to be able to fix my latest quilt nightmare. Unfortunately, she lives in another country so this usually results in half of my luggage allowance being taken up by some doomed sewing project or another.

I digress. Here's the very first quilt I made:

Samuel's Sunbonnet Sue & Sam Quilt

Samuel's Sunbonnet Sue and Sam Months of the Year Quilt

Started: January 2009 
Finished: June 2010
Size: no idea but somewhere around 60" long, given that I'm 5'6" tall.
Quilt top: Blocks hand pieced and needle-turn appliqued. Sashing and borders machine pieced by my mother.
Backing: Ralph Lauren Los Cabos
Binding: Ralph Lauren Los Cabos
Batting: no idea, possibly 80/20 poly/cotton blend. Whatever it was that my mother hand on hand at the time.
Quilting: Machine quilted in the ditch along sashing. Blocks hand quilted to enhance design.

Quilt back and label (WIP)

So, I started making this quilt when my friend O told me she was pregnant back in 2008 (!). I've always loved Sunbonnet Sue quilts so this seemed like the perfect excuse to make a months of the year unisex quilt. Unfortunately, little Samuel was born WELL before this quilt was even approaching finished. When I finally got it to them in July 2010, by which time I had already moved to the UK, Samuel was crawling. Erhem. Whoops.

Here are some photos of the individual blocks. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of all of them, which is, in retrospect, rather sad.

January:
My mother had to help me add a border to this one because it was much smaller than the other blocks. This is the first block that I made for the quilt. In the final version I quilted it to give it more depth and a horizon. Apart from the background fabric this block is made entirely from scraps.

January: Frosty the Snowman

February:
No detail photo, which is a pity because this is one of my favourite blocks. Apart from the snowy sky background, everything in this block is made from scraps.

March:
Again, this block was much smaller than the others so my mother helped me add a border to it. Little Samuel's mummy is Irish so there had to be a St. Patrick's Day block! My favourite thing about this block is the little net ruffle on Sue's bonnet.

March: St. Patrick's Day

April: April showers....
This block was changed quite a bit before the end- I added some rain clouds (stuffed with scrap batting to make them three dimensional and interestingly textured), a puddle, and the words "April showers...." I bought a far eighth of wood print fabric for the tree and bright yellow for Sue's raincoat. This one really reminds me of the yellow Macintosh I had for my American Girl doll when I was little.

April: April showers... bring May flowers

May: ... bring May flowers
This is the first pieced block that I made and I was instantly hooked. Apart from the green background fabric and Sue's polka dot dress everything is made from scraps, mainly men's shirts.

May: April flowers... bring May showers

June:
No detail photos unfortunately. By this time I really wanted this quilt to be finished before little Samuel could walk so the last block, June, shows Sam & Sue swimming in the lake and is quilted with ripples.

July: 
Again, no detail photos to be found at the moment. I might go trawl my flickr stream and old computer back up CDs and see if I can find some. Anyway, this block has the quintessential American little red waggon. I actually bought fabrics for this block because I wanted the background to look dry and summery.

August:
Sam and Sue go to the beach! This is the first block that I embellished and my ice cream cone and shovel turned out a little small, didn't they? By the time I realised this though there were such big holes in the fabric from the embroidery floss that I couldn't really rip it out and start again.

August: Sue and Sam at the beach

September:

Picking apples. I originally had a gorgeous block of Sue flying a kite for this one but then I found out that O was having a boy and thought I needed more Sams and fewer Sues for this quilt. The apples are little red buttons and I found some cure squirrel buttons to add some more texture. I hand quilted the sky with swirling lines for wind.

October: Hallowe'en 

Sadly, no close up pictures again. I love the orange on brown print and really wish I'd bought more than a fat quarter!!

November: Guy Fawkes

Samuel's Daddy is British so the quilt needed a Guy Fawkes block. I used metallic thread for the fireworks and the sparklers. I HATE working with metallic embroidery thread because I can't seem to get the thread tension even and it's always tangling and pulling apart, usually at the same time.

December: Christmas

Lots of embroidery on this one. Unfortunately, the red DMC embroidery floss I was using for the wreath's bow bled a bit when I washed the block. Sad embroidery panda.

December

Homeless Blocks:
This quilt generated a couple of homeless blocks as my plans for it changed. Originally, each Sunbonnet Sue/Sam was meant to be appliqued on white backing but then I discovered pieced backing. Anyway, this block didn't really fit in because I love the "April showers... bring May flowers" thing too much so, if I remember correctly, I just appliqued it to the backing. Or maybe I turned it into a cushion. I honestly don't remember.  

May V1.0

My favourite thing:
My favourite thing about this quilt is probably that about 90% of the fabric is from scraps or from my own stash of fabrics, which was very small at the time. Luckily my mother let me paw through her scrap box. Making a quilt without spending a fortune on new fabrics is SO satisfying!
I also really enjoyed embellishing the blocks with ribbons, buttons, embroidery and bits of ruffle. I love things with interesting textures! Mainly though, I was just pleased as punch to have succeeded in finishing a quilt, albeit with a lot of help from my mother.

Onward and upward!
xx E