Hatchlings

Hello, and Happy Monday!

My sister-in-law brought this little quilt over for some minor repairs today, so I thought I'd take a couple of photos and post them on here. I made this quilt for her when she was pregnant with her first child. It was a Christmas present, and I remember sewing the binding on on Christmas Eve.... Nothing like the last minute for getting things done.

This is the third quilt top I ever made, but my second fully-complete quilt. It was my first ever appliqué, my first time following a pattern and my second attempt at binding.

The original pattern was from a magazine, I can't remember which at the moment, and was in country colours with little bunny rabbits popping out of the hearts. I had bought the purple dragon print (click on the pic to hopefully see that better) to make the quilt so decided to turn the rabbits into dragons to go with it.

Unlike the talented Suzitee, who does a lot of blanket stitch by hand and does it very well, it really is not my forte. There was no way I was doing all that blanket stitch by hand, so I used my machine blanket stitch, which I was really pleased with. I remember I didn't have any fusible web like the pattern called for, so I used a light-weight fusible interfacing on the back of each shape, and the odd bit of hemming tape here and there to hold it in place while I stitched.

I did try a bit of free-motion quilting on it, aiming for some spirals, but only managed really tight little spirals which were no good at all, so in the end I quilted it in the ditch.

I kind of muddled my way through the binding, which I wasn't really sure how to do at all. I decided to do it all by machine, mainly because I was in a hurry to get it done! I stitched in the ditch along the binding at the front, catching it at the back a couple of millimetres from the edge.

The backing fabric I picked with the help of my hubby. It seemed to go well with dragons, and we thought it would be sure to keep bub warm, being all flames. :)

The best thing about this quilt is that nearly six years later it's being used for baby number three, and I'm sure that in four or five months when baby number four comes, it will be used by her too. The repair is just a little one - I didn't poke one of the dragon bodies far enough under the heart, so it's come out from behind. Just need to sew it down to stop it fraying really. :)

Gosh, lots of writing today, I must be feeling talkative. Thanks for bearing with me, if you did. :)

Bye for now.

ZigZag Love Pattern is Ready!

Hello everybody!

I am very excited, and more than a little nervous, to announce that the pattern for my ZigZag Love quilt is now up and available for purchase on Craftsy! Click HERE to see (and buy, if you'd like, I'd love you forever if you did). ;)

EDIT: Craftsy is no longer selling patterns from independent designers, so the pattern is now available on my website

I have done my best to ensure a comprehensive pattern, proof-read many times, with lots of diagrams and pressing instructions to help match the seams effortlessly. Different sizes are included in addition to the main little quilt, each using a pre-cut, with sizes going up to a single bed quilt using a layer cake.

Here is a block I made using my jelly roll instructions:

I am very grateful to all those people who have asked me about a pattern, giving me the push I needed to dip my toes into the pattern writing pond. I hope that what I have produced in response meets with your approval. It is a lot of work creating a pattern, but I am hoping to do many more - I have so many ideas I'm running out of paper to sketch them on!

Special thanks too, to Suzitee, for checking things over for me and making suggestions. x x :)

If you do happen to buy my pattern, and make something from it, I'd love some feedback and photos. My email address is included in the pattern. 

Well, here's hoping that all that time has produced something people will find valuable. It would be amazing to see little heart quilts popping up here and there. Fingers crossed!

Pattern Update :)

Just a quick note to say that the pattern for my little heart quilt is done, and in the process of being tested!

Getting there... :)

Spots, Project Life, and Patterns

So, a few things to talk about today. First up, here is a quilt top I finished on Thursday:

The two spots with low contrast bug me a little, but I'll get over it. The pattern is Spot On, from the book Simplify by Camille Roskelley. I changed a few things... First, I trimmed all the layer cake squares down to 9.875 inches, because they were not square straight from the pack, which makes it hard to sew an accurate quilt. Second, I made the sashing a little narrower, and third, I made the outside border wider. 

The fabric is all Etchings by 3 Sisters. I love their fabrics, wish I could buy them all! I ordered a 108" wide fabric for the backing, but ended up using a lot of it for the sashing and outside border, so will have to piece the back. The outside border is actually the back of the fabric. I just love the way it looks. 

Next up, some more Project Life. I tried something different this week, just one photo, some stamping and a freebie printable from Prima. The background is glimmer-misted too...

No days specified this time, no lengthy write-ups, just a list. I think I like doing it this way.

And finally, I am writing a pattern for my little Marmalade heart quilt. I'm calling it ZigZag Love. I have had some requests for a pattern, and started writing something by hand quite some time ago. That proved too laborious, so now I've done it all on computer. Nearly finished, just a little bit more to go then it is ready for testing and proof-reading.

Oh, I haven't actually blogged the quilt yet, so here it is:

I'll keep you posted, and be sure to tell you all about it when the pattern is ready. I want it to be just right, so bear with me. :)

Edit: ZigZag Love Pattern now available here or here. 

Project Life Week 2

I was very keen and eager to get my Project Life done this week. I had my photos all printed, except Sunday's, earlier in the week so was all set to go this morning.

I was wordy this time for some reason, and used four pages rather than two. It is very easy to be flexible when using a notebook though, so that was fine. Once again, simple and no-frills is the way I went, except this time I used some colour for the writing, just because.

Here are the first two pages:

And with the Craftsy card 'open':

Here are the last two pages: 

Nothing terribly exciting, but that is the way my life goes thank goodness. ;)

All done for another week. Roll on week three! I am ready to cut and stick and write some more!

Project Life Commences - Week 1

Helllo, long time no blog! I am going to be a bit wordy here, so be warned. ;)

I finished 2012 as I do a lot of years, struggling to think of what I had achieved over the previous 12 months. I couldn't think of a lot really, and as a solution to this problem (for surely I have done more than I thought) my friend Susan suggested, or rather insisted, that I should start doing Project Life.

And because we should always take the advice of our intelligent and insightful friends, I did! Instead of using the kits and page protectors and so forth that are available, I decided to do mine in a very no-frills way in my 'Scrapbook', an A4 size, hard cover notebook, properly bound with pages tied together, not just glued into the spine. I have had this book on the go since November 2000, filling it with everything from photos and letters to chocolate wrappers and movie tickets. It went overseas with me. I also put some thoughts in it which are quite amusing and slightly embarrassing to read back on. I stopped doing anything in it in 2008.

So, what better place to document the everyday and get all those blank pages filled? I have not done much at all in the way of embellishment, and it went quite quickly. I don't know what I was thinking with that bit of colour in the bottom right, but it's there now, so she'll be jake.

You can click on the picture if you'd like to read the words. It should come up big enough.

Because I am still in awe over those ice crystals I mention in the bottom right, here is a bigger picture so you can see. Aren't they amazing? Unfortunately it was so hot that the hexagon stack started to keel over through melting by the time I took the photo. Aren't the partial hexagons cool too? (No pun intended)

Well, there it is. My first week of Project Life. Already I am looking at things differently, and keeping a journal every day so I don't forget anything. I have always admired Susan's Project Life pages, and thought of how I'd love to do PL myself. I always thought I just wouldn't have enough to put in it though. Now I realise that they don't have to be 'important', or even particularly interesting or unusual things - it's about life. Life is made up of so many small details that really, we should never run out of things to document. And since it's being documented for me, not anyone else, there's no pressure.

Bye for now :)

Liquorice Allsort - A Miniature Sampler

A couple of weeks ago, I made one more miniature Farmers Wife Sampler block, and finally assembled all nine I'd made into a very tiny quilt for a very lovely friend. 

And here it is, with the book that started it all: 

This little quilt is roughly 20cm square, or about 8 inches. It was so much fun to put together, and I definitely have plans for more! I already have two more blocks made, so I have to make more, right? 

The small blocks are a little fiddly, but surprisingly quick to put together. I suppose that when the longest seam in a block is 2 inches, with a finished block size of 1.5 inches, it isn't all that surprising it should go together quickly. 

Having made these tiny blocks I feel like the regular size blocks made as per instruction are not that small at all. See, they're quite big really, almost covering the little quilt:

I ended up calling the quilt Liquorice Allsort, because that's what Susan was reminded of with the stripes, the black and the bright colours. I think of fizzy drink and lollies when I look at it. :)

I am very pleased with this little quilt, and if I hadn't been making it for the express purpose of giving it away, I think it would have been very hard to part with. 

As it happens though, after I'd dropped it at the post office I was on a high that lasted till it arrived at its destination, at which point I was on a SUPER high because it was received with such excitement and heartfelt thanks. 

It's true what they say, that the joy is in the giving. ;)