Furry Friends

I have been testing out two new paper-piecing patterns for Juliet as I couldn't resist them when she put out the call for testers!

First up

was this cute little Otter, isn't he sweet?

He was soon joined by

this spiky, little hedgehog. He looks a bit like an albino hedgehog in the photo, but he isn't really so pale in real life, I assure you :)

As ever with Tartankiwi patterns they were a breeze to put together and great scrap busters to boot!

I don't have any particular plan for the blocks, although the gorgeous grandson probably features in whatever they become :)

For the minute they will join the Falcon block that I tested for Juliet a while ago until I can decide what to do with them.

All suggestions welcome!

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Woodland Friends

A few weeks ago I volunteered to test a paper piecing pattern for Juliet, The Tartankiwi. Juliet has designed a set of patterns on the theme of Woodland animals, and I volunteered to test the bunny pattern.

At the time I completely forgot that my fabric stash was hidden away in the depths of a storage unit somewhere between the NE of England and Scotland! I have some fabric with me in France but not much in the way of scraps, but fortunately I was testing a 4" block so the fabric requirements were not very large and I had the remnants of a low-volume scrap bundle from Plush Addict so it wasn't all bad!

I have to admit to having three attempts at the ears, making a different mistake every time but other than that and despite the size of some of the pieces it all went together fairly easily.


As all of my pincushions are also hidden away in that storage unit I decided to turn my pattern test block into a pincushion. He looks rather sweet don't you think?

Juliet is hosting a QAL for her mini Woodland patterns with some great prizes up for grabs, you can find out more about it here


Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

A long delayed finish!

I have been waiting impatiently for what seems like ages to share this finish with you, so I am delighted to finally have the opportunity.

Sometime last year, I submitted a project to Fat Quarterly which was accepted and the publication date was set for February. Then the bombshell that was VAT MOSS landed, which meant (in a nutshell) that suppliers of digital files, such as quilting e-zines, to recipients throughout the EU now had to pay the VAT rate relevant in each member state of the recipients. The UK solution to this big headache involves quarterly VAT returns that require a working knowledge of VAT rates throughout the EU, so it was not surprising that the editors of Fat Quarterly decided to suspend operations for a while until the ramifications of the changes and an acceptable way of working with them were ironed out.

Thankfully that hiatus is now over and the latest issue of Fat Quarterly has just hit the stands.

Issue 20 is dedicated to paper piecing and contains, amongst some amazing patterns, my very first paper piecing pattern!

The pattern was inspired by a visit some time ago to the V & A museum in London, where some outrageous shoes by the designer Alexander McQueen caught my eye.

Designer Shoe Boot cushion

Sadly my budget does not match my desire so I decided to go for the next best thing and make my own version of a McQueen Shoe Boot. Creating the paper-pieced pattern was most definitely a challenge for my poor brain cells, but they managed to survive, just! Of course, I did make things a little bit more difficult for myself by incorporating a zip into the pattern, but it really wouldn't have been the same without it, believe me :) The skull charm is, for me, the icing on the cake.

So, if your taste in shoes transcends the contents of your wallet like mine, and you are looking for a way to scratch that designer shoe itch, now you know where to go. Whilst you are at Fat Quarterly check out the amazing Acrobat cushion pattern by Juliet, I am definitely adding it to the must try list!

Perhaps I ought to attempt one of the cushions as a future Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew project to add another gift to the pile of handmade goodies :) Don't forget to link up your Christmas and Holiday crafting this month over at Charly & Ben's Crafty Corner to be in with a chance of winning your choice of a mini Charm Pack from the Fat Quarter Shop

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

Not one but two finishes!

I am surprised to find that I have not one, but two finishes to report this week! I shall probably have to lie down in a darkened room for a while after writing this post to recover :)

First up is this paper-pieced patchwork pouch (that's a bit of a mouthful to say!), which I have been wanting to make for a while.

The pattern for the pouch is from Patchwork Please by Ayumi Takahashi, which I bought when it first came out a while ago, but this is the first project that I have actually made from it. I am delighted with how the pouch turned out, but there was some head-scratching involved in interpreting the instructions.

"Mark the centre points on both long edges of the panel 1.25" from either corner"

I still have not been able to work out this one!

Emboldened by my success though, I decided to have a go at another project from the book. Rather rashly I thought that I would have a go at the Embroidery Pouch, where I hit my first problem. The pouch in the book has a delightful patchwork star pattern for the front panel, but although there are several other paper piecing patterns for other projects in the book, readers were blithely instructed to draw templates on paper to create their own. Now, it may just be me, but I feel that if I have paid good money for a book of patterns then maybe it is not unreasonable to expect that the patterns might be included! As it was the templates provided to piece the star block front panel needed to be resized and given my recent problems with the photocopies I didn't really think that my son would take too kindly to another request :)

So, I decided to do my own thing instead!

I rummaged through my scrap basket to find all my sewing related fabrics and used them to create this front panel.

The interior of the pouch includes a see-through vinyl pocket with binding. Given that vinyl is not a material that many sewers will have a lot of experience with, I thought that the instructions for the pocket were particularly sparse. Again, I never could get my head around the binding instructions, so after one failed attempt trying to understand them I gave up and did it my own way. It seems to have worked :)

Again, I am happy with how the Embroidery pouch turned out but I do feel that it was despite rather than because of the instructions.

I won't be put off trying other projects in the book, but I will be more wary of the instructions for the projects from the outset.

If you can make head nor tail of the marking instruction do let me know, as it has me completely baffled :)



Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

Sew the Library at Weekend Doings
     

Wallowing

Juliet, who blogs at Tartan Kiwi, is a phenomenal paper-piecing pattern designer. I had the privilege of testing her paper-pieced Falcon pattern a while ago, for her Birds of New Zealand series.

So, when Juliet put out a call for pattern testers for her latest Safari series of blocks I instantly put my hand up!

We had a choice of three patterns to pick from and as you can see I chose the Hippo pattern.

Those large pieces of sky were very unwieldy let me tell you :)

There were a couple of blips along the way, when I lost track of which tiny bump was hippo and which was sky, but apart from that it was really straightforward to put together.

You can see all of Juliet's patterns in her Etsy store.

I am debating what to do with this block now that it is finished, so if you have any suggestions I would be delighted to hear them :)

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

  

Fab Falcon

A couple of weeks ago the very talented Tartankiwi asked for a pattern tester for her latest paper-piecing pattern. Juliet has designed the most amazing patterns of some of the fabulous birds to be found in her New Zealand neighbourhood. Her latest pattern was of a New Zealand Falcon and as our local rugby team are known as the Falcons, and the males in this family are mad-keen rugby fans, well it was obvious that I should volunteer to test the pattern!


So I did and here is the result.

I don't claim to have his plumage correctly coloured but I am thrilled to bits with him. I am hoping to turn him into a cushion for our newly-decorated living room, but that will have to wait for a while. My sewing room is being stripped and repainted as I type so all of my sewing supplies are stashed in random places all over the house, it will take me days to find anything again:)

If you want to have a look at the other New Zealand bird patterns that Juliet has designed you can check them out in her Craftsy shop here They really are amazing patterns.

The falcon pattern should be available there too in the next week or so is available now!

I wonder if I left this block in the trees where it was photographed would it scare away the big, fat pigeons who are eating all of the bird food?? Just a thought :)

Hope you have had a good weekend too.

Linking up to Dandelion Dreams

and

 

Enter the stash cupboard!

Kristy's block for August in the  And Sew On BOM is a paper-pieced stash cupboard, actually it is a totally unrealistically neat and tidy stash cupboard :)

Although, as you can see, it is probably just as well that I was not attempting to paper-piece a pattern of what my stash actually looks like!


 It is also a pattern filled with tiny bits of paper-piecing! I am beginning to like tiny paper-piecing bits as even I can't scrimp on the fabric for them so my usual problems with paper-piecing and very scant seam allowances just doesn't happen, well alright maybe sometimes.

So here is my fantasy stash cupboard in all its glory. Only one more block to go with the BOM, I dread to think what size the pieces will be in that one :)

As you can see I had a bit of trouble keeping the seams straight when I joined the pieces together. Using the linen for the floor meant that the seams didn't iron as flat as they might have if it was all cotton, so I think I will need to be a bit tougher on this with the iron when I come to join all the blocks together.

Speaking of ironing, am I the only one who ends up with bumps of fabric where the seams of all the tiny pieces are joined? How do you get a block like this as flat as possible, I would love to know? 

So, with another BOM block completed here's how the WIP list is looking now

• In Color Order HST BOM - quilting started!
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks received, 2 more to be added by me
• Sunday Morning Quilt2 Bee 13 sets of blocks received, 3 more to come
• Sunday Morning Quilt2 Bee blocks sent (on schedule)
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (only 1 month behind schedule!)
• Scrappy Trip Around the World Bee Q2 - signed up
•  And Sew On BOM - eight blocks completed (On Schedule!)
• Paris Cushion - fabric received
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted  
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks 
• 20 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed 

I will be guest hosting the Slow Blogger link party tomorrow for Catherine at Knotted Cotton  so be sure to check back then and link up your month's projects, whether fast or slow.

Not sure whether you are a Slow Blogger or not?

Check out the Slow Blog Manifesto here

Linking up to

Squaring the circle

Having managed to dispatch hubby off to the Golf Course yesterday I found some time to sit down and finally get that Circle of Geese block finished, and here it is.

Thanks to Katy's FPPFTT course last year, I had already had a go at this block, so knew what to expect and apart from the usual attempt to squeeze a section out of a just too-small fabric scrap, it all went together swimmingly.

So I now have all 20 blocks completed and here they are together for the first time.

 

Forgive the un-ironed state of a few of them, they have been stuffed in a bag for ages waiting for the final blocks to materialise :)

The instructions for the Craftsy BOM use the same fabric as the background in the blocks for the sashing, but I am not sure about that. I am leaning towards a dark navy for the sashing but can't make up my mind, all suggestions welcome! 

I need to make my mind up soon if I want to take advantage of the upcoming sale in my LQS.

Although this isn't a finished quilt top or even quilt, it certainly feels like a finish to me so I am linking up to  Crazy Mom Quilts

 

Nearly there

Last year, like many others, I signed up for the free Craftsy Block of the Month class and happily plodded away making blocks like this

that grew into this

and then became a pile like this

but then things ground to a halt!

The last two blocks for this BOM have been on my WIP list for ages and although I can't tick this off completely just yet, I am pleased to say that I am nearly there.

The final two blocks were paper-pieced blocks and, as you know I have been on something of a paper-piecing roll recently, it was definitely the time to get these blocks back out and finally sort them out.

So, I give you the Friendship Circle block

It needs a bit more ironing into submission with all of those seams in the centre, and I have to admit to taking two attempts to get the centre seams lining up, but it is finished!

So why only nearly there? Well the final, final block of this BOM is, as you can see, not quite there yet :)

One half of the Circle of Geese block to go! If only the husband and son weren't so insistent on eating this block would have been finished by now, and that was with them doing the cooking too! So, hopefully, with no other distractions this might be a finished block soon and then I have to start thinking about the sashing :)

I discovered yesterday that my LQS, Cotton Tree, is holding a 20% of all fabric sale starting this Saturday, so that is where I will be heading for my sashing and backing fabric, because as you know I do love a bargain.

Then with a bit more of this weather

although please not on the Monday of the Test Match when I am looking forward to a whole day to myself as husband and son watch the cricket :), I might even get this quilt top sewn.

So, here's how the WIP list is looking now

• In Color Order HST BOM - quilting started!
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks received, 2 more to be added by me
• Sunday Morning Quilt2 Bee 13 sets of blocks received, 3 more to come
• Sunday Morning Quilt2 Bee blocks sent (on schedule)
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (3 months behind schedule)
• Scrappy Trip Around the World Bee Q2 - signed up
•  And Sew On BOM - seven blocks completed (On Schedule!)
• Paris Cushion - fabric received
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted  
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks 
• 19.5 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (only a half block to go!)

Look forward to catching up on your progress too.

If you are looking for details of the Holiday Memories Mini Quilt Competition you will find them here or by clicking on the link at the top of the page.


Linking up to WOW

More paper piecing!

Quiet Play's little houses have fired up my paper-piecing mojo, so I decided that it was time to try and catch up with Kristy's And Sew On BOM. If I didn't get any blocks made this month I would end up three months behind, and probably never catch up before the last block is posted in September :)

So as some light relief from the ironing which was threatening to take over the kitchen, I set to.

Naturally, this being paper-piecing there were a few hiccoughs along the way!

Hmmn! This is what happens when I stop concentrating and start congratulating myself on how quickly it is all going together, I forget to turn the second piece over and iron before I attach the third piece!

I had intended to make each hexagon from a different fabric but then realised after (naturally!) I had sewn the three pieces together that I had used the same fabric for the edges of the two hexagons that overlap a strip. I was not going to get the seam ripper out to change that :)

When I had finished this block I was congratulating myself on actually finishing a block for the BOM in the month that it was posted. Premature congratulations as it turns out. When I checked up to see which blocks I was now missing, I discovered that this block was posted in June so I still had July's to make.

Fortunately the paper-piecing mojo hasn't deserted me yet so I printed out July's block and set to. Some of the pieces in this block are tiny!

I have yet to mark out the grid lines on the cutting board but I will probably embroider them at the end. I am thrilled to bits that the rotary cutter is actually recognisable too!

The March block is now the only one I am missing, so with a fair wind I might even manage to get it done before the end of July and finally have caught up with this BOM. I have said that before though, so I am not holding my breath :)

As we are still (just) in July there is still time for you to link up here to this month's

 Bloggers have been trying out everything from ballooning to wigglegrams, and if you don't know what that is (I didn't!) then check out the links to find out :)

Linking up to

 

Time for Tea

Kitchens are still top of my list at the minute, so even although my swap for the Crafty Cooks Apron Swap is complete I still had a kitchen project to tick off of my to-do list.

A few weeks ago Gemma at Pretty Bobbins asked for pattern testers for her new paper-pieced patterns. Rather foolishly I volunteered myself even though I was due to go on holiday in the next couple of days. Still, when Gemma sent me the pattern for her Very Triangle Teapot block I knew I wanted to have a go at it.

Needless to say it took me rather longer than I had wanted to complete the pattern, but it is now finished and ready for use.

As well as one layer of Insul-Brite wadding I also added a second layer of bamboo wadding so this teapot hot pad will protect my tabletop from the hottest teapot. The pattern was really straightforward to put together, although I did have some problems matching up the points on one row, but that was entirely self-inflicted :)

I thought I might have problems with quilting the pad through two layers of wadding, but it all went swimmingly. I quilted in the ditch around the teapot and then FMQ'ed swirls of steam for the background. 

You can see the quilting better in this photo.

The teapot pattern is available as a free download at the Pretty Bobbins Craftsy  pattern store.

Next up Kristy's Retro coffee pot pattern but before that I have some birds to sew for my day on the


I have a plan, I just need to get ahead and do it!

Linking up this finish to 

Crazy Mom Quilts