Sewvivor Sew-A-Long

Let me tell you a bit about my entry for the Sewvivor Sew-A-Long first challenge which is Nautical.

This one has been so much fun to do especially since i had absolutely no idea at all what i wanted it to be and zero grand plan, it was improv all the way which suits me fine, it's how i normally work and how i love to work. My first thoughts were to just try out various improv type pieces of patchwork under a Nautical/Maritime theme square them all up and make a quilt from them..... not how it ended up at all.

This first picture was just me starting to piece some scraps together in the hope I could make them look even slightly like the underside of a whale. I stitched together some randomly placed squares and half square triangles for the top half of the whale body and trimmed to a whale-like shape. I wanted the background to be simple square patchwork in low volume prints to make the whale really stand out when appliqued on top.

At this point i thought it would be nice to link the finished piece to Dundee and remembered the story of the Tay whale and the poem written about it. I soon realised i wanted to include some hand sewn words, so i chose these lines, "Small Boats were launched on the Silvery Tay, While the monster of the Deep did sport and play." They are from the poem The Famous Tay Whale by William Topaz McGonagall who was widely hailed as the writer of the worst poetry in the English Language!!! (Don't believe me, look it up). The whale swam into the Firth of Tay in 1883, it was harpooned, escaped and found dead a week later. The whale's skeleton is displayed in the McManus Galleries in Dundee.

I regretted the decision to hand embroider these lines pretty quickly.......it took SO long to do!

The surface area (or top section of the quilt) has some wonky improv patchwork for the sky, some strips pieced for the hills/land in the background and a couple of boats setting sail to hunt down the whale.

The quilting differs all over the piece. Some wavy lines on the darker blue sections, matchstick quilting on the underside of the whale, some free motion quilting for the sea area around the whale (I'm still a complete novice at this), and some zig zags to echo the shape of the hills up through the sky. A blue binding finished it off, darker at the bottom and a turquoise round the top. 

I'm pretty pleased with it and the reaction to it on Instagram has been so amazing, I'm totally overwhelmed by all the lovely comments people have left me about it. 

Sewvivor

Have you heard about Sewvivor?

It is a kind of online reality show type competition where the final 16 contestants are given quilting challenges every couple of weeks. The finalists finished products are posted on the Family Ever After Blog and put up for the public vote. 10 out of the 16 get through to the next round and narrowed down with each challenge until we have the Sewvivor.

There are some amazing entries for the first challenge "Nautical", sew anything quilted with a Nautical theme you can see the entries here. Pretty great huh!

Here are a few of my favourites.

Sea Breeze Mini - finished!!!

Here it is folks, the finished Sea Breeze Mini Quilt! I love the bright colours and it has been so much fun to watch everyone's pieces come together on Instagram over the weeks. A huge thanks to Angie of Gnome Angel fame for hosting and to Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations for the easy to follow pattern.

So what have i learned during this whole quilt-a-long.....
1 - My accuracy skills suck, they still need some serious work. I need to get some more practise with HST's and learn to follow a pattern!!! It's written that way for a reason Sandra. My finished mini is 22"x 23" instead of the 22.5" on the pattern (It's actually a lot closer than i though it'd be haha!).
2 - Learn that less is more, matchstick quilting is good sometimes but not always and it will make those nice straight lines pretty wobbly as you pull the fabric.
3 - The Instagram community are fab. Everyone has been so nice and encouraging to each other and made this whole thing so much fun.

Patchwork and Quilting Classes

Some exciting news! I'm going to be taking some evening classes in patchwork and quilting at the wonderful Kitschnbake cafe. The class is suitable for complete beginners, all you need is your own sewing machine and to be able to see a straight line with it, as easy as that. We will start by making some simple quilt blocks then move onto individual projects which can be pieced, basted, quilted and bound into lovely handmade masterpieces! If you are interested just get in touch. 

A Quilt For Joshua

My gorgeous little nephew Joshua arrived in January and I wanted to make him something special he could keep for years to come but I also wanted to make him something he could actually use. It was always going to be a quilt but I wasn't sure what colour scheme to go for - a nice mix of fabrics in paler shades or to go completely bold with it?!? 

I used a lot of my wonderful Maze and Vale fabrics by Leslie (who couldn't love them right?) and I mixed them with some new pieces I picked up on an Instagram de-stash sale. I tried to add lots of little details like these tabs, perfect for little hands to play with, the monkey pictured below has nice crunchy ears too, he should have had a squeaker in his belly but I forgot to put it in! This all meant the quilt could be laid on the floor and used as a play-mat too.  

I hand embroidered his name above the monkey and of course finished off the dungarees with a J. I must admit I really loved this quilt and was quite proud to hand it over to wee Joshua. I hope he will love it for years to come. 

I actually forgot to take photographs of the finished article for the blog so these are just some of my work in progress ones taken a while ago. 

And how cute is the wee man himself lying there on his quilt looking quite content. Proud Auntie alert!

Another Apology!

So it seems that I have yet again neglected the blog. It's not that I haven't done anything, but these days with limited time I tend to post photographs of what I'm up to on Instagram or Facebook and then am too flipping lazy to write a blog post about it too! I've also been without my camera for a few months now  and am a bit loathed to just keep posting lots of poorer quality photos from my phone on here, however that's what you are gonna get just now and until I get my camera back!

Here's a little picture of Sam in his quilt to brighten up this post for you and keep it vaguely interesting. Must try harder......

Crib Quilt Completed

So here it is, my first crib sized quilt is complete and I love it which means this will be a picture heavy post haha!

I love the colours and the quilted circles and the quilted wiggly lines and the fabric!!! It measures roughly 75cm x 100cm so was a great size to quilt up without getting lost under a whole load of fabric and tangled up at the machine. I think it would look pretty good as a wall hanging too if I added some loops to the top. Would love to know what you think since I'm still pretty new to this quilting malarkey. 

Can't wait to start the next one now.....

Little Quilt Eared Elephant

Firstly apologies for the lighting on the photograph but I didn't find enough hours in the day today to whip up this wee fella and take a pic of him too! Isn't he a cutie, he's even got a little squeaker inside him (found them in the cupboard whilst on the search for some toy stuffing). I didn't find a needle though so I'm going to have to go out and get one tomorrow to finish sewing him up - his poor little eyes are just pinned in place just now. 

Bunting Bunting Bunting

Tonight is project bunting night!

 I've been wanting to make some for ages but seemed to take me forever to go ahead and get some bias binding ordered to complete it. Last night I set about cutting out many many triangles and sewing them together, the part I dreaded most was the ironing, that was finished this morning whilst Sam had a quick 20 minute snooze, nice of him to give me some time. So tonight I just had to add the flags to the binding and sew it all together, add loops to the ends and sit back with a bit of cake and cup of tea. Need to get some made up for Sam's room - love the robot fabric, there really is some great fabric for boys out there too. 

Hope you like! 

The Finished Article

Right, here we go...... I am refreshed after my cup of tea and ready to show off my finished quilt! I really tried my hardest not to be too lazy and i started to quilt between all the triangles (Of course I regretted it after the first row but glad I stuck with it as I like the look overall).

The backing fabric is covered in little robots, spacemen and spaceships and is so cute for Sam. I'm going to have to get some more of it, it's so great! And look at this next picture, after reading up on many, many blogs and tutorials about how to make and bind a quilt I did it, my proudest moment haha! 

So that's it, my first finished quilt! A huge thanks to Shannon aka (Auntie Cookie) for the quilt-a-long, it's been a great learning curve, got me being slightly creative again and I think I've got the bug - I'm going to try another quilt, maybe even to my own pattern - watch this space. 

Oh and if you want to see everyone else's quilts then take a look at the Flickr group here. 

Quilt Progress

So in my usual blogging fashion I have been a bit lazy and missed out loads about the Quilt-a-long. I am now finished the quilt and I couldn't be happier with the result - don't think it's turned out too shabby considering it is the first quilt I have ever made.

The fabrics were picked to suit my little boy's room and the quilt fits his cotbed perfectly so I'm hoping it lasts a few years (perhaps putting a bit too much faith in my sewing skills!).

I also surprised myself by keeping up with the timescales for the project and snatched whatever time I could between Sam's naps and after his bedtime, think it would've turned out to be another of my great unfinished craft projects otherwise! 

I managed to do patchwork, quilting and even binding all on my own - feeling a bit smug that I managed haha. I will pop on some pics of the finished article for you to see too, after a cuppa though! 

Quilt-A-Long

Aunty Cookie is having a Quilt-A-Long! I am a big late with the blogging of this project but once again it's a case of better late than never, right?

So the plan for everyone involved is to get the "Fly the Flag" quilt pattern from Aunty Cookie (it can be found here if you want to give it a shot!) then week by week complete a stage of the project and end up with a great quilt. I thought it would be a good one to start with, the deadlines each week might keep me up to date and actually mean i finish something and the pattern is just so cute.

Below is the schedule, we are pretty far into it but will list anyway and hopefully post some photos of my work so far later on when i've got a bit more time on my hands.

Week 1. (Finish by 16 August 2013) Pick it! Fabric selections – in a show us your flags kind of way.

Week 2. (Finish by 23 August 2013) Cutting it! cutting out & making the flags – ideas for personalizing flags, tips on making it fancy.

Week 3. (Finish by 30 August 2013) Sewing it! yes that would be sewing it all together.

Week 4. (Finish by 6 Sept 2013) Quilt it! ideas and inspirations and techniques.

Week 5. (Finish by 13 Sept 2013) Bind it! And lets perve at your finished quilt….

Week 6. (Finish by 20 Sept 2013) QAL Wrap up & the awarding of awesomeness.

Ps Its now week 4 and i am actually up-to-date...... just a bit more quilting to finish - go me!

(Photos credited to Aunty Cookie's blog here).