Getting there...

The last week has been a bit all over the place.  I'll save you the details, but on top of the usual craziness, we had general strikes last week, public holidays, half day at school and then got some incredibly frustrating and disappointing news yesterday.  I'm trying to take it in my stride, but it's certainly not smooth sailing here at the moment.  In addition to the recent ups and downs I am very much in the early stages of preparing for an international move next February.

Twice this week I've had photos ready to go and been planning to blog when admin issues have gotten in the way.  Unfortunately I think this will continue and possibly increase as our move gets closer.  This will be our fourth international move and whilst we are certainly getting better at it, it is still a huge undertaking.  Quilting and blogging is my happy place, and I'm dedicated to it, the frequency may just drop a little.  I've totally got my head in the sand about the prospect of packing up my machines for two months when we move.  *Lalalalala hands over ears*

That's a very long winded way of explaining why I am doing my work in progress Wednesday post on a Thursday ;)  So, enough of the chatter, what am I working on...

My gorgeous helper and I have been working on a layout.

I've wanted to try wonky stars for awhile and I started this project as a cushion cover with all of the stars close together.  Then I pulled some additional prints and decided a quilt was in order.

I'm always amazed at how much a quilt shrinks as it's sewn together!

I'm actually thinking of putting a pattern together for this top.  I'm planning a lot of negative space and possibly a border or two (run with me here).  But I basically have had to shelve it for now as I ran out of Kona Steel!!! :(

I have ordered some more and am crossing my fingers that it's a perfect match.  When I realised that I didn't have enough grey to finish this top I sat down with some graph paper and worked out the most efficient way of piecing the stars together.  This quilt top is about as structured as I get but it still has that delightful look of improv.  I have all the cutting instructions written down and I thought this might be a fun project for those who like the look of improv but find it hard to achieve.  What do you think?  Would this appeal to you? :)  I'm really looking forward to seeing this baby finished, lots of possibilities for FMQ fun :)

I would be linking up late with Work In Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced except she isn't having the linky this week and it's Thursday LOL.

Are you struggling to keep up this week or ploughing ahead in leaps and bounds?

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Blogger's Quilt Festival: Blessings Quilt

Welcome if you're visiting as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  This is only the second time I've participated but it's so much fun that this time I'm entering two quilts!  You can find my Rainbow I Spy quilt here.  Make sure that you pop over to Amy's Creative Side and check out all of the awesome quilts in the Festival :)   Be sure to nominate your choice (17-24 May) and then vote for your favourite in each category (24-30 May).  I'd love it if you would consider my quilts (I'm entering two this round, you can find my second post here), but please, vote for your favourite :)

I'm entering my Blessings Quilt in the 'home machine quilted quilt' category.  I made this quilt a few months ago as a late Baptism gift for a close friend's daughter.  I was doing Rachel's Curves Class at the time (the color wheel is pieced not appliqué) and I decided to take her color wheel pattern and add some FMQ love to it :)  I am super proud of this quilting.  Yes, this quilt is technically a color wheel but it was a milestone and turning point for me in my free motion quilting.

I marked out the inner and outer lines of the diamonds with chalk and FMQed the rest.  I quilted each section of the color wheel with a different FMQ design inspired by one of the scrap pieces in that section.  I changed threads to match the section (luckily I have been collecting a rainbow of Aurifil in 50wt) and really had a lot of fun.

FMQ on back

As much as I completely and utterly love this quilt I do wish that I had not pieced the back.  I LOVE the quilting.  I really challenged myself to be creative with my free motion quilting and a whole cloth back would have really shown just how special the quilting is.

All free motion quilted with the exception of the inner and outer most lines of the diamond shapes

I actually started quilting the grey section with grey thread and ripped it out after a few minutes and restarted with a pale pink (Aurifil 2410 50wt).  I'm so glad that I did because it complements the grey negative space but also shows the design up nicely.  I've since used this thread and solid combination again as I love the affect so much :)

As I mentioned this quilt was a Baptism gift and I wanted it to carry a special blessing from my family to the recipient so I got out some perlé 8 and hand stitched a blessing.

For the binding I used a fun blue (Kona Lagoon I think) and matched the quilt design in the centre of the color wheel to the binding.  I packaged it up and sent it back to Australia.

I'm happy to tell you that the little Miss in question received her quilt a month or so ago and her big sister promptly stole it for a dolly's tea party.  Yes, it is being loved in it's new home and that is all we can ask for as quilters :)  (Just so you know, the sisters are now sharing it as best a young baby and pre-schooler can share.)


The all important stats:

Category: Home machine quilted quilt
Size: a little under 40" x 40"
Pieced and Quilted by: Me on my Bernina 440QE
Wadding: 100% cotton wadding
Threads: Aurifil threads (50wt) for machine quilting and perlé 8 for some hand stitching
Fabric: scraps (quilting cottons) and Kona solids

Thank you so much for stopping by and considering my quilt as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

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Blogger's Quilt Festival: Rainbow I Spy

I love the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  If you don't know about it make sure you pop over to Amy's Creative Side and check out all of the AMAZING quilts on display!  Be sure to nominate your choice (17-24 May) and then vote for your favourite in each category (24-30 May).  I'd love it if you would consider my quilts (I'm entering two this round, you can find my Blessing Quilt here), but please, vote for your favourite :)

This quilt was 8 months in the making and I only finished it recently.  I fussy cut 243 prints (I may be out by one or two, it's hard to count them all!) then laid them out in rainbow order.  I initially cut sashing at 1.5" and sashed two sides of each print.  I then spent days working out the placement.  It was worth the time to get the layout right.  I used every novelty print in my stash at that time and didn't double up (for example, there might be two chairs but they are different prints).

I seriously underestimated the amount of white sashing required but one of my favourite quilty friends was so encouraging of this project that she sent me some yardage so I could keep going.  (She also convinced me that this quilt was too special to sell and I'm glad she did because my son loves it.)  Because the piecing of this quilt was very much improv in method I ended up with some sections of white sashing that were quite large.  I used two of these sections to quilt my son's name and the year.

Can you see 2012 outlined in the gaps among the pebbles?

I love a good back.  I love making a quilt that is double sided, a back that complements the top and gives the recipient options.  I stuck with the rainbow theme but used Kona Steel for the back with a large scrappy rainbow strip.  I LOVE the back and think I'll do a similar design for a top one day.

I wanted this quilt to be truly double sided so I used a grey thread (Aurifil 2605 50wt) in the bobbin and a white (Aurifil 2024 50 and 40wt) top thread.

I pebbled my heart out and had a lot of fun.  It was a bit of a brain teaser working out my quilting path as I only quilted the sashing, not the prints.

I really wanted to take the rainbow right to the edge of this quilt and in addition to the rainbow sashing I quilted some pebbles among wavy lines in the border.  I spent a long time considering which category to enter this quilt in and decided on ROYGBIV quilt because it was all about the rainbow; getting the perfect placement, matching the borders, the quilting and the stitching.

My lovely friend Fiona suggested that I stitch words in the border to match the prints.  At the time I didn't feel confident writing with my machine so I used some verigated 12 wt Aurifil thread and got hand stitching, again keeping the colours in sync with the rainbow of prints.

This part of the project really slowed me down, but I'm so glad I did it. I stitched 40 words in the end but am yet to add a label!  Thank you for your great idea and encouragement Fiona!

This quilt now lives on my six year old son's bed.  He was previously using the sofa quilt but now all three of my precious babies have quilts made especially for them by me.

Walking into this room I always think of the 'three little bears' :)

The all important stats:

Category: ROYGBIV Quilt
Size: 80" x 62"
Quilted by: Me on my Bernina 440QE
Quilting: A mix of FMQ and SLQ
Wadding: 100% bamboo wadding
Threads: Aurifil threads (40 and 50wt for machine quilting, 12wt for hand embroidery)
Fabric: quilting cottons (I fussy cut every novelty print in my stash at that time)

Thank you so much for stopping by and considering my quilt as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

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TGIFF

Prepare to be inundated with posts from me today :)  I had to post a TGIFF (although it's a small one) as one of my quilting besties is hosting today (love you Ms Midge!).  Later this afternoon I will be posting my Blogger's Quilt Festival posts. I wrote the posts last night but am holding off posting them until the US ticks over to the 17th LOL.

Before I go any further I just want to say that I'm so terribly sad to hear of Kathreen and her partner.  I didn't know Kathreen but we had been emailing over the past week or so and I cannot stop thinking of her today.  When you share your life online, this whole blogging thing, social media, sharing quilts and thoughts and lives.  It's all hit very close to home.  My thoughts are with her two children.  As we go about our usual busy days today I will be holding my babies a little tighter and appreciating every second I have with them.

My finish this week is a simple one.  A cushion cover for a newborn.  It's such a fun cushion I am sure he'll love it.  I used some lovely bright boy prints for the front.

The back features the recipient's name and a few more fussy cut planes.  I love the bright blue kona, I think it's called Lagoon.

Did you squeeze in a finish this week?  Wishing you all a lovely weekend with your families and friends xxx

I'm linking up to TGIFF at Ms Midge.

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WIP Wednesday; lonely star

Last week I was super productive, I started and finished a quilt in a week (you can see it here in progress)!  This week... Not so much.

A large chunk of Mother's Day was spent searching for the back cover of a school diary, it has an envelope stuck to it and the envelope holds important papers.  In the midst of all the searching we decided to finish off the big tidy up of the basement.  I was desperate to sew  and decided to start a new project, a wonky stars cushion cover (now I'm thinking it might be a quilt).  So I selected some pretty prints and got cutting.

This is only about half the prints but doesn't my sewing space look pretty right now?
I just added those frames but will have to move them when quilting:)

I managed to sneak in one whole star before I had to start dinner and exhaustion set in.  Three days later and this is my design wall...

Lonely wonky star on a very sad design wall...

I did, however, manage to find the time to get started on an order today.  These prints will be used for a cushion cover for a gorgeous newborn baby.

Going to get my ricrac on!

If it weren't for school pick up, making dinner, a husband that isn't home until after 7pm and teaching Mr 6 about the Holocaust I would have finished this cushion cover this afternoon.  Oh wait, that caught me out too, a 6.5 year old asking about gas chambers?!  Turns out last week was a public holiday to commemorate the end of the war (remember, we live in France), I think Mr 6 was having a bit of an identity crisis.  Although he appears to be completely French, he knows that he is Australian and I think he was trying to figure out where he fit in the history lesson that he got.  Luckily today was a day off school and I had the time to sit with him and talk it out. Turns out he was scared that he would turn into Hitler because he isn't French and he is white and thinks he will have black hair when he's older.  I'm expecting much more discussion on this one.  But rest easy, I think we got to a point where he understands a fair bit but won't have nightmares tonight.

But back to quilting (that's why you're here!) :)  I have a finished cushion front and am working on the back.

My other work in progress is working out which quilt to enter into the Blogger's Quilt Festival which starts in a few days.  I really enjoyed linking up for the first time last year and am excited to do so again.  I'm thinking that I will enter Mr 6's Rainbow I Spy quilt.

Although I am super proud of my quilting on the Blessing quilt.  I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

In fact, I just updated my Gallery page and added a Patterns page, so everything should be easier to access and view now :)

I'm linking up to Work In Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Have you got a major wip this week or balancing smaller projects with daily life?  (And if you have any tips on explaining the big issues to 6 year olds I'd love to hear them!!)

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Sunday Stash - a beautiful bouquet

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there :)  It's not an easy day for everyone, but I hope that whether you're celebrating with your loved ones or thinking of those that you can't be with, that you have a special day.

The closest I got to flowers was admiring this bouquet.

I did spend some time photographing quilts which was fun :)

Top to bottom: Colour Therapy, Kitchen Windows, not yet blogged, Rainbow I Spy

If you haven't received anything for Mother's Day yet Craftsy is having a sale on classes I'm thinking about Angela Walter's FMQ class, I have her book (I reviewed it here) and love it.  I'd love to hear what you think of her class if you've taken it :)

Recently I went on a bit of voile and Art Gallery Fabric bender at Hawthorne Threads and Pink Chalk Fabrics.  How can one resist?  So soft an lovely!  I've used both for dress making before but I decided that I NEEDED to make a voile quilt.  But before I get onto the voile, this Sunday I want to share my new stash of Art Gallery Fabrics.  How can one resist these pretties?

I love Pat Bravo's line Indie.  I'm slowly building a collection and happily added to it.  It's getting harder to come by though but I'm resisting that urge to buy absolutely every yard I come across ;)

Art Gallery Fabrics are so rich in colour and I find them to be so versatile, I've already used these two.

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash over at Finding Fifth.

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Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Winner!

I've seen lots of posts in my reader today announcing winners, so exciting!

I was completely overwhelmed with the number of entries I received!  I loved reading all of the comments and a huge welcome to the new followers :)  I'm looking forward to the next Giveaway day already :)

But without further ado, the winner of the novelty charm squares is:

who said:

Congratulations Nikita!  I've sent you an email and I'll get these charm squares in the post once I hear back from you with an address :)

Bonne weekend a tous!

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