Star Sampler Quilt - Finished!

I started this quilt back in 2013 and it is, at long last, FINISHED!

The journey began on this one because I had a lot of the blue scraps left over from another quilt I had made.  They are all from the same line - Chambray Rose by Shabby Chic. I didn't want another blue quilt so I searched around and found the red fabric, which seemed to match the shabbiness.  The red is Clermont Farm by Moda.  I kept the background nice and simple with Kona Snow.

It started of as a Combined BOM for 2013, using blocks from many different BOMs, but then I hit a stumbling block as there were some block designs that just didn't seem to fit, so as I found a block I liked, I included it in this quilt.  The early blocks all seemed to have a star-like theme so I continued to find other starry blocks. 

The quilt top was finished in June 2013 and I decided to quilt it by hand.  I found a cotton quilt cover in Ikea in a lovely Toile de Jouy print that made a lovely backing.  It was a fairly thin cotton with a not-too-tight weave, so ideal for hand stitching, and it only cost about £10, I think. I chose a luxury bamboo batting to see what it was like.  It's so soft and silky and quilted easily.  It's wonderfully warm, too.

  
I thought it would take me the winter to complete it.  How wrong was I!  It's easy to get bored with the same project, and I had other smaller projects that needed my time so it got put on the back burner for months at a time.  When the summer came it got put away completely.  It's no joke trying to sew in the heat with a quilt on your lap.

The quilting is fairly dense all over, and I realise now that it needn't have been.  Mostly it is straight lines following the patterns in  each block, but for the sashing I used a template.  For the border I went back to straight lines.

I didn't have enough of either the blue or the red fabric to do a binding, but then I came across this super easy flange binding.  Because the strips are cut narrower and then joined together I just had enough.  The joy of this binding is that it is all completely sewn on by machine.  Definitely will use this method again.

All of the pictures were taken in my daughter's gorgeous garden.

New Year's Goals Revisited.

Way back in January, half a year ago, I made some goals for this year.  I don't know why I make goals as I never stick to them, but it's interesting to see what I do fulfil and what gets left by the wayside.  So this is what I said on 1st January and what I've done towards them.

1.  Finish the Craftsy BOM quilt started in August (4 blocks to go, then sashing, backing, quilting and binding).  I've finished all of the blocks, using some different ones than those published as I didn't like some of them.  I want to machine quilt these using the as-you-go method so I can practice Free Motion quilting.  I'm a bit scared to make a start yet!

2.  Start "The Farmer's Wife Quilt" using "Marmalade".  Hurrah!  I've started this month. Read to the end of the post and you'll see what I've done so far.

3.  Join in Stitchery Dickory Dock's Sugar Block Club each month (using leftover fabric from my "Chambray Rose" quilt).   Some of these have been incorporated into my Starry Sampler Quilt which is now at the hand quilting stage.

4.  Make quilt for daughter using her old clothes (Cluck Cluck Sew's "Scattered" pattern). Finished and gifted, but I used Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trip Around the World.  

5.  Make a string quilt from old shirts using one of  Bonnie Hunter's patterns.  Not started but still in the pipeline. 

6.  Join in with the Blogger Girls BOM on Open Gate Blog (using available scraps).  Same answer as #3.

7.  Make a mini quilt each month from Kathleen Tracey's books (using available scraps).  I've made five mini quilts, not all from the books and one is a mug rug, but I'm counting that one in this group.

Actually, I've crossed more off the list than I first thought, and I've made other stuff as well, including a baby quilt, a couple of bags, a dress and some charity blocks.

This week I'm really pleased to have made a start on my Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks.  I bought the book for Christmas and had been stashing away fabric from the Marmalade collection by Bonnie and Camille.  I bought some yardage and added some plains but realised that it would cost an absolute fortune to carry on buying yardage to get the  variety of prints I wanted, so I bought a Layer Cake.  As these are only 6" blocks the layer cake should go quite a long way and give me the variety that I want.

I've read up a lot about the making of this quilt, and a lot of the pitfalls.  I want to rotary cut as much as possible, and to use different methods for making the individual units, so I've started by drafting out  the blocks from the book onto squared paper and using my own measurements rather than the templates on the CD.  I'm starting with the simplest blocks to see how it goes, and not necessarily in order.  So here's what I've made this week.

#2 - Autumn Tints

 

#4 - Basket weave

Only two, but it's a start.  I'm only aiming for the lap sized quilt and as I've only got hand quilting on the go at the moment I want to get a few more under my belt before I start on anything else.

Molly and I are enjoying the sunshine whilst it lasts, so plenty of time is being spent outdoors playing, and I'm getting some welcome 'quiet time' when she's worn out and takes a nap.  These little blocks are ideal to work on during those breaks.

June Round-up

I always start my end of month round-up by making a collage of my finished projects.  This month that step hardly seems worth it as the finishes are very few and far between.  This is what I have achieved.

Two churn dash blocks sent of to Sarah for a Siblings Together quilt, and the last three blocks for my starry sampler quilt. I 've managed to sash and border it this week so it's now ready for quilting. I'm going to hand quilt this one so don't expect this to be finished any time soon.  Luckily Wimbledon is on at the moment so I can sit and watch tennis and stitch away to my heart's content.

Luckily, Molly is showing a keen interest in tennis, too.

And Finally, nos. 14,15 & 16.

I have made a big effort this week to get the last three blocks made for my Sampler quilt.  It started of as a Combined BOM for 2013, using blocks from many different BOMs, but then I hit a stumbling block as there were some block designs that just didn't seem to fit, so as I found a block I liked, I included it in this quilt.  The early blocks all seemed to have a star-like theme so I continued to find other starry blocks.  Now I have   sixteen I think that will be a nice size.

A very naughty puppy has managed to chew up my book that I draft out my blocks in, so I can't remember the names or sources of these last three blocks, so I've just given them numbers, not names.

#14

#15

#16

And finally here are all the completed blocks in one place.

Sorry about the quality of that photo.  I took it in the living room at the front of the house which doesn't get very good light owing to a huge tree opposite my house that blocks it out (it was a very small sapling when we moved here 30 years ago).

I'm going to add soft white sashings with red cornerstones now, and then think about border, backing and binding.  I'm going to hand quilt it, too.

Just to finish up, here's a photo of that naughty puppy, Molly, at 12 weeks, looking as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

March Round-up

March has been a busy old month for me.  Trying to keep warm, an outing to London, endless times waiting in with Dad for people to come and survey and give estimates for work to be carried out on his house, a few WI meetings, U3A, Walking group, Book club, Craft club, Darts practice to get ready for the new season, grandchildren needing cuddling, oh, and I managed a bit of sewing, too.

Here's the list for March.

1. Scrappy Trip Around the World - blocks sewn together, batted and backed, quilted and bound.  Waiting to be gifted to eldest daughter for her birthday at the end of this week.  Ta-Daah! post here.
2. Swoon 12" block drafted and completed. 
3. Starbright 12" block drafted and completed.  
4. Two drawstring bags from two Ikea tea-towels.  Blogged here.
5. Five Star mini quilt drafted and flimsy completed.  Now waiting to be hand-quilted.  Not blogged yet.
6. Quilted Tote bag made yesterday as an extra gift for eldest Daughter's birthday.  Not blogged yet.

I still haven't started my Farmer's Wife blocks, and I don't think they will get done in April either.  I want to do a bit of dressmaking to get ready for the summer.  A few dresses for my granddaughter, and a dress for me from a length of Liberty Tana Lawn that I've had in my stash for years, but  I've just found the perfect pattern for.  I need a couple more 12" blocks in the red,white and blue colourway and then I can complete the top of my Combined 2013 BOM quilt. (I must re-name that project as I've used blocks from all over the place, not just BOM's).

Linking up with Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet

Starbright

I have been so busy with non-sewing stuff this week, but if you just want to see what I did achieve in the sewing line skip through this lot to the end of the post.  I won't be offended :)

On Saturday I had a trip to London with my eldest daughter to see Judy Dench in a new play, Peter and Alice.  We bought the tickets about nine months ago and so it's been a long time waiting, but well worth the wait.  Judy does not disappoint.  I love walking around London looking at the fabulous buildings, so instead of using the Tube we walked from Waterloo over Hungerford Bridge, past Charing Cross and up to Covent Garden for a quick browse and some lunch.  Then on to the theatre near Leicester Square.  After the play we walked down to Trafalgar Square and went in the National Gallery because we love to look at Van Gogh's Sunflowers and his Chair, took in a few Monet's and Renoir's and marvelled at one of my favourites, Turner's The Fighting Temeraire.  Back to Waterloo via the South Bank food market, where we had oysters and bought some gorgeous Polish pastries to eat on the train going home.  A great day.

On Tuesday I went to Portsmouth for the day to the Spring Meeting of Hampshire Women's Institute.  The key speaker in the afternoon was Clarissa Dickson-Wright, a celebrity cook and TV personality.  Another enjoyable day.

I've been trying to make life easier for Dad now he is getting old.  He is extremely hard of hearing now, even with his deaf aids, so I arranged for the Sensory and Occupational Assessors to come and see what help he needs.  I was amazed at what is available.  I spent most of today installing two new amplified telephones, one in the living room and one in his bedroom, with an extra loud extension bell in the kitchen.  He also needs two new extra loud smoke alarms, with a vibrating alarm to go under his pillow for when he's in bed and not wearing his hearing aids.. He's also going to get a portable Loop system for the TV so he doesn't have to have it turned up so loud and annoy the neighbours.  I've also been seeing about getting the bathroom made into a Wet Room as he finds getting in and out of the bath a bit of a job.  His stair lift needs replacing as the present one doesn't meet the newer regulations.  He's getting a motorised scooter to help him get around easier, so he needs a ramp to get over the step into the house, and a hoist to get it in the back of the car.  He's also going to have a Rollator for places he can't use the scooter.  All of this has required surveys, measuring, estimates, phone calls, form-filling, ordering, trips to various retailers to try out things, and waiting for people who say they are coming, and then don't.  The Wet room is going to take about 10 days to install so I shall have to keep Dad busy and out of the way whilst that takes place.

I was really getting serious sewing withdrawal symptoms after all these goings-on.  I just had to do some sewing, so when I saw this square on  Heartspun Quilts this evening I quickly drafted it out on squared paper, cut it out and pieced it.  About an hour and a half from start to finish.  Pam doesn't say what this square is called so I've named it Starbright.

Ooops, that looks a bit blurry to me.  Might try to take a better picture tomorrow in daylight.

This will fit in so nicely with all of the other starry blocks.  Fabric is from the Shabby Chic's Chambray Rose collection, Clermont Farm by Moda, and Kona Snow.

A Trip to Ikea

Today's finish started with a trip to Ikea.  Whilst viewing quilting blogs I've noticed that several people have used Ikea fabric for the backs of their quilts, so I thought I would check it out.  The fabric in Ikea is cheap, and comes in wider than normal widths, so makes a good, cheap backing.  I had seen the Numbers one used before

                                BRITTEN NUMMER

                                                        Fabric, white/black

£3  / metre

but I fell in love with this one

JULITA

Fabric, white/black

£4  / metre

I bought 3 metres of each because I couldn't decide which one I like best.  I will probably use the Julita for my Scrappy Trip quilt.

Of course, a few other things dropped into my trolley as I went round the store.  I'm not sure how that happened, but when I got home I found this lovely pair of  Tea Towels in the shopping bag.

EVALILL

Tea towel, rose

£4.75  / 2 pack

As soon as I saw them in my kitchen, I knew I would never use them.  They are far too pretty.  I would be mortified if they got stained or burnt by using them as an oven cloth.  but I didn't want them languishing in a drawer never to be seen.  I needed to ponder so went and had a shower.   I washed my hair, and after I spent five minutes untangling the cord of my hair dryer from other cords and bits and bobs I realised what I could do with the tea towels.  A neat, storage bag just for my hair dryer.

I used a super tutorial by Jeni from In Color Order, just adjusting the sizing to make it bigger.  Jeni uses a very easy method of lining the bag, sewing the outer pieces and the lining all in one long strip and then turning it right side out through an opening in the bottom of the lining.  I didn't square off the bottom as I don't think my bag needs it. It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish.  I used a piece cut from a pink tablecloth for the lining, and I'm really pleased with the final result.




My daughter saw it and immediately said "Can you make one for me?"

There were a few little bits of tea towel left over, so rather than them going to waste I quickly made another little bag for my granddaughter to put her hairbrush in.

Aren't they just the sweetest little bags.   I see a few more drawstring bags in my future.

The only other thing I've managed this week is another block for my 2013 Combined BOM quilt.  I drafted out the Swoon block by Thimble Blossoms on squared paper and re-sized it to 12".

February Round -Up

I can't believe it's the end of the month already.  It feels like only a few days ago I was writing up the January Round-Up, but no, here we are, about to enter March.

It's been a funny old month sewing wise.  I haven't had as much time to sew as I would have liked, due mainly to my aged father being unwell and having to take him to doctor and hospital appointments and generally keeping an eye on him.

Here's what I've done this month:

1. One mini quilt started and completed  (blogged here).
2. One 12" block to complete the blocks for my 2012 BOM quilt (blogged here).
3. Six 12"  blocks for my 2013 Combined BOM quilt (blogged througout the month)
4. Ten 12" blocks to complete the blocks for my Scrappy Trip Around the World.

So, that's one mini quilt and 17 quilt blocks for this month.  I had wanted to make a start on some Farmer's Wife blocks but never got round to it.  Hopefully this month I will.  Hmm, I think I said that last month!

Linking to:

Small Blog Meet at Lily's Quilts

Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts

Road to Oklahoma

This is a traditional block, usually made in multiple amounts to make a large quilt, which I have altered in the way it is cut and put together to make a stand-alone 12" block.

The traditional block is only one quarter of this, so you would need to make four - 6" blocks to get a square this size.  I only wanted one 12" stand-alone block so I pieced it all-in-one to eliminate the centre seams.  The red pieces in the middle of each edge now become rectangles instead of 2 small squares, the star points become stitch and flip triangles on a large square instead of 2 squares and 2 half square triangles, and the centre becomes a single large square instead of 4 small squares.  I much prefer the look of it without the centre seams, and it lays flat nicely.  I think if I was making a large quilt I would make the blocks like this.

I love working from a picture, drafting it out on squared paper and working out the best way to cut the pieces.  So satisfying!

Abundance

I found this block, called Abundance, on Humble Quilts blog.  It is actually taken from a little pattern for a doll's quilt, but it is perfect at 12" as a block to go in my Combined 2013 BOM quilt.  There is a tutorial too, which is very easy to follow.

I love the star within a star effect on this one.

Starburst and Rose Charmer

Two more blocks are finished for my Combined 2013 BOM quilt.  Actually, I'm not just using BOM blocks, but also other ones I find that I like.  I'm choosing ones that have a star-like quality to them, rather than more modern, graphic type ones.  I'm saving those designs for another quilt, perhaps when I can afford  a more modern looking range of fabrics.  I'm getting a bit low on the Chambray Rose fabrics, but with careful cutting I hope to make at least another three to bring it up to twelve blocks.  With sashings and border that should be a good sized lap quilt.

The first one this week is Starburst by Melissa Corry.  She has a very good tutorial for making it here, but it is sized for 22", 32" or 40" blocks.  I resized it for a 12" block.  I'm really pleased with my colour placement on this one.  The red really explodes out of the star which was the effect I wanted.

The second block I've called Rose Charmer.  My inspiration for this block was Lynn Wilder's block for the Country Charmer Quilt-A-Long that so many bloggers seem to be doing.  Again, I wanted it to be more star-like so I changed the central panels and resized it to 12".

I'm so loving making these starry blocks.  The next one has the fabrics chosen and is waiting to be cut.

A Heavy Cross

I took a break from making Scrappy Trips to make a block for my 2013 Combined BOM Quilt as I love the fabrics I am using for that so much.  I chose to make the one from Aurifil called A Heavy Cross.  I debated with myself for quite some time as to whether or not I would make this one.  It has a lot of small pieces in it, lots of triangles, and the example square shown is in very busy fabrics .  I couldn't see the design of the square through the fussiness of the print and it was difficult to pick out which parts I wanted to highlight.  You can see the pattern here. In the end I decided to just  go for it.

I started by giving my fabrics a really good starching so that it wouldn't stretch too much on all those bias cuts. The cutting out was a bit of a nightmare.  With so many small pieces to join together it was obvious that precise cutting was manditory as  there would be no room for fudging.  Some of the pieces are measured in 16th of an inch. My quilting rulers only measures in 8ths and so I had to hunt for an old school ruler to measure that one. To get a good point on the rectangle I cut it a bit larger and then trimmed it to size after cutting the triangle wedge off.  I labelled each set of pieces so I wouldn't get muddled up.  Here's all 61 pieces cut, labelled and ready for sewing.

I followed the plan for the piecing, making sure that my seams were a scant 1/4 inch.  For the first time ever I didn't press each seam as I sewed it but just finger pressed each seam open as I didn't want to distort the fabric in any way.  With all the starch I used this worked really well.  I finger pressed open seams because I wanted to get those joins as flat as possible.  In some places there are six different pieces in one intersection.
I also shortened my stitch length to 1.5 so that the pieces didn't pull apart at the ends, which was fine until I needed to use the seam ripper to unpick a few times when points didn't match up properly.  This block took me about four times as long as it usually does to make a 12 1/2 inch block, but I am reasonably pleased with the accuracy of it.  I pressed right at the end and had the minutest bit to trim off when I squared it up.

It was a very challenging block to make, I like the pattern design, but I won't be making another!

Pathways

I made a version of this block for last year's BOM quilt and like it so much I've made another one for this year's quilt.  It is called Pathways, but I can't remember where I copied it from.

I'm really loving making these  12" blocks in this colourway, with the Chambray Rose collection by Shabby Chic, and the Clermont Farms red stuff.  I've found a load more patterns that I want to make, as well as the new blocks from the February BOMs, but haven't had much time to sew this past week.  Hope to put in a good bit of time over the weekend at the sewing machine.

January Round-up

So ends the first complete month of my blog, and I thought I would take a look at what I've achieved this month.  When I think about what I have done it doesn't seem very much.  I have spent a lot of time looking after my aged dad who hasn't been too well this month.  Taking him to hospital and doctor's appointments have eaten into my time, as well as the extra shopping trips for him, and let's not forget shovelling snow, and just keeping him company.  He's 88 and is generally quite active, and likes to get out and about, but his jaunts have been curtailed this month and it makes him grumpy.  Still, he seems to be on the mend now so should be a bit happier.

Let's see what I've done then.

1. Doves in the Window mini quilt (blogged here)
2. Little Red Schoolhouses mini quilt (blogged here)
3. 7 blocks for the 2012 Crafsty BOM (blogged here and here and here)
4. 14 Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks (blogged, here, here, here and below)
5. 5 blocks for the combined 2013 BOMs (blogged here, here, here, here and below)

In the last couple of days I've made a couple of Scrappy Trips, bringing my total up to 14, so only another 10 to go.  Here's what they look like so far.

I saw this block on Dizzy Quilts blog.  It's designed by Bonnie and Camille for the FQS Mystery BOM. and is called Lime Sherbert.  I copied it onto squared paper and made it in my combined BOM colours.

Here are the 5 blocks I've made for this quilt so far.  I'm rather liking how they look.  So glad I added the red to the Chambray Rose fabrics.

So, two completed mini quilts and 26 blocks for three different quilts.  Not so bad after all.

I haven't started any of the blocks for the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt so I hope to make a start on them in February.

Linking up with Lily's Quilts.

The Block With No Name

Whilst blog-hopping I came across this block called Jumping Jack Flash and thought it would be a good one to try and would fit in nicely with my varied BOM Sampler quilt.

I printed out the pdf instructions from the Aurifil site, had a good look at them and decided that I could make the sections using alternative methods.  There is a good method for making four flying geese blocks at once, with no waste, here, so I thought I would give it a try.  I also made use of this tutorial to make eight Half Square Triangles at once, too.  So far so good.  When I came to assemble my units I couldn't get my block to look like this.  I'd obviously done something wrong.

Of course, I'm using different fabrics and colours to the ones listed in the tutorial, and I got confused when I transposed my own fabrics and cut some pieces in the wrong fabric.  Instead of remaking the units I re-arranged my units in a way that would work, and I've come up with this.

Can you see where I went wrong?

Now I have a dilemma.  Is this already a known block, or have I designed a new one?  If you know the answer to this please let me know.