Friday finish

What a week!
I had the most fab time in Dublin with Ros, Sue, Anne and Letitia. It was my first time back in 15 years and it could not have been better. Ros had organised for us to stay at the Radisson Blu St Helens which is a little way out of town but all the better for that. The hotel has been converted from an 18thc country house. Many original features have been retained including marble pillars and staircase in the hall and a musicians gallery in the ballroom (now the sitting room). The gardens were immaculate with a spectacular fountain and beautiful formal flower beds. We ate out at Dun Laoghaire on the coast both nights and had a ball. The days were spent touring Dublin on an open top bus, lunch in Temple Bar, visiting Trinity university, seeing the magnificent Book of Kells and having brunch in Bewleys Oriental Cafe.

On Tuesday I attended a Trapunto class called "Sew it and stuff it" run by Barbara Chainey. More on this next week except to say that it is a technique I shall be revisiting.

So on to the Friday finish. Ta dah!!!!!

It is the quilt I made for Sam using a jellyroll of Hearty Good Wishes by Janet Clare. I blogged about it first here in more detail. I chose a wave pattern for the quilting which you can just about see on the border fabric. This adds a great texture to the quilt as well as keeping to the nautical theme. I've just finished sewing on the label and it is off to it's new home in Wiltshire this afternoon.

I'm linking up to TGIFF which this week is being hosted by Jo at Riddle and Whimsy and Can I get a Whoop Whoop? which is run by Sarah Craig at Confessions of a Fabric Addict If you can hop along to see what is going on. It is a great way of seeing what others are up to.

Have a wonderful weekend (it looks like the weather will be pretty reasonable here in the UK). I am taking the grandchildren to Malmesbury tomorrow for the Malmesbury Living History weekend when the town will be recreating life in the 17th century. Should be fun!

Catherine

Quilts for the boys; not one, but two!

I had such a busy weekend. We travelled from our home in Cardiff to Manchester for my friend Sue's 60th birthday bash and lunch with my parents on Sunday to celebrate their 61st wedding anniversary. Sue really loved her Miss Winkle scarf.

On the way up North we stopped off in Eccleshall, Staffordshire and visited The Corner Patch. It's a lovely compact shop with a well curated collection of quilting fabrics and notions downstairs with a light workroom upstairs for classes. The owner Jane was away at the British Quilt and Stitch Village at Uttoxeter Racecourse but Tracy helped me with a few fabric choices, a jellyroll of Moda Chance of Flowers, some Kona Ash and extra yardage of one of the Chance of Flowers prints. They have a great selection of classes and I signed up for a machine quilting course in June with Chris Franses. I've got to take the plunge and start quilting my own quilts soon!

I've got a couple of quilt tops to show. Firstly, Sam's quilt now has a border and is waiting to be quilted. I am so pleased with the fabric choice for this. It is just the thing for a growing boy with boats, birds and fish but not babyish in any way.

My second quilt top is for my 2 year old grandson Hugo who lives in the Lake District. Again I wanted to choose something that could be used for a few years. The jelly roll I chose is Road 15 by Moda. There are roads, houses and maps with toning low value prints in azure, acid green, black, red and beige. I chose a pattern called "Key to my Heart" which I downloaded from the Etsy shop called sweetjane. It's a simple pattern but shows off the fabrics well.

I decided to go with an Ikea fabric, Britten Nummer in black and white. It has a graphic print and what's more, it's really cheap at £3 per metre. The quality is OK, not the best but certainly good enough at this price for a quilt backing. It's also 150cm wide.

I've just got to choose a border fabric and binding. I think I'd like to go with a small black and white spot for the binding to tie in the back and front and possibly Kona Ash for the border.

My next project is for 3 year old Vivi(enne), Hugo's sister. I have been following the Triangle QAL run by The Sassy Quilter. It is too late to join the QAL but I thought it might be good to push myself and try a new piecing technique after doing the jellyroll quilts. Have a look at the finished quilts, they are inspirational!

The Sunnyside range by Kate Spain for Moda really appealed to me.  I've cut some of the 6" triangles from a layer cake after starching twice. I'm hoping to avoid stretching the fabrics so will handle them carefully too. The plain fabrics are Kona Azure, Bluebell and Cactus. I am shamelessly copying Paula's (The Sassy Quilter) own choice of fabrics as I loved them so much. There is a real 50's vibe to them.

The photo above was taken outside in bright sun so the colours look a bit washed out. Sorry about that.

I already have the backing fabric in my stash and I have been looking for a project to use it in. It is
 Annali Scribble lines in white on light grey. It is quite silvery and looks well with the top fabrics.

So that's it for my quilt projects for the moment. I'll be linking this in tomorrow with Lee of Freshly Pieced Modern Quilts

 I'm off to meet up with my quilting friends tomorrow for lunch. Should be fun!

Have a good week.


Catherine

Wonderful weekend

Flowers, sun and sewing. What's not to like? The garden was looking so pretty this morning that I took the time to take a few photos before a day of sewing. The Amelanchier is frothing with it's fleeting blossom but even when this has gone we can look forward to berries and stunning Autumn colour later in the year.

The rhododendron was flowering well and the air was full of buzzing from our honey bees in the pear tree.

This clematis is container grown. I just love it's simple, fragile shape.

It has been a sewing weekend too. I attended a "Jelly Rolls and Charm packs" class at Busy Bees in Newport yesterday. The guest teacher was Jackie Taylor of White Cottage Country Crafts
Jackie had brought a large selection of patterns and projects to cater for a variety of tastes.

I had chosen to make a quilt for my eldest grandson Sam. He is 9 now and so growing out of childish prints. I was looking for something to suit and thought that Hearty Good Wishes by Janet Clare for Moda fitted the bill perfectly.  Janet has designed seafaring prints with simple line drawing and a wonderful muted palette.

The pattern I chose to follow was Jelly Roll boxes; a simple but effective design. Once the introductions was over we were pouring over the patterns and organising fabrics. My pattern had the jelly roll strips paired in light/dark combinations and sewn along the length up to the fabric fold. The strips were then cut along the half strip into equilateral triangles. The strips were pulled apart, rematched to a different fabric and sewn again along the length. The half strip was cut into 4 triangles as before.

I think the photo below will illustrate the last paragraph better! These were the blocks I managed on Saturday

Jackie demonstrating.

 I spent all day today sewing from 10am until 5pm- madness! Still I managed to sew all the blocks so they are ready to make into the top during next week.

I plan to use the plain denim blue from the range as a border and the dark blue with sailing ships as a backing.

This week looks like being busy with the run up to Easter so I'll take a break from blogging until after the holiday.

I hope everyone takes the time to relax, enjoy being with family and friends, and eat lots of chocolate.


Catherine