Swoon Sunday

On Monday.

I'm on the final stage of my Swoon quilt. I started back in January 2012 using Kona Coal and a FQ bundle of Tula Pink's Prince Charming. Sewing the blocks was fun, and the quilt top went together perfectly. Then for some reason I decided to hand quilt it. Which would have been fine, but I'm using sew simple cotton wadding, which has a scrim and is really tough to sew through. And my needle are mostly blunt as it's impossible to get suitable needles here. Gah. But I am making myself finish it, and am actually enjoying it now!

I have three blocks to complete the quilting on (two of these are in progress already, only one totally un-quilted block left.) I'm also quilting two lines of stitching to echo each cornerstone star. Some of these are done.

I'm using a combination of pearl cotton in size 8, and Aurifil 12 weight, with clover chenille needles in size 24. I think slightly finer needles would be better, but I haven't found the perfect ones yet. This past week I have decided that I do like hand-quilting, I'm just not using quite the right tools. I'd like to try more traditional style hand-quilting soon using finer thread and smaller stitches.

The biggest piece of progress for the Swoon quilt has been my decision to bind it before finishing the quilting. The edges were fraying badly and the whole quilt plus excess backing and batting was ridiculously bulky to work with. So I stitched just enough of the perimeter quilting to stabilize it, then edge-stitched the whole quilt, squared it up and bound as normal. I feels so much nicer to work with now :)

Goodbye Granny C

Not many words today. My Granny passed away yesterday. She is the one without a hat in this photo. It was taken back in 2006, but is the only one I have on  my computer. This is the last time both my grannies were together. My other gran still lives in Manchester. Granny C was 98 and died peacefully at the nursing home where she has been living for the last few years.  She will be missed.

I went for a riverside walk after breakfast and saw wild baby ducks for the first time. Dan and I watched a colleague of his compete in the Tri-Athlone triathlon. And I finished this spool pillow front. I'll be hand-quilting it at the Fat Quarterly Retreat.

I'm mostly working on hand-quilting my Swoon quilt this week. I'll catch up with writing about that shortly. 

Spools

I had grand plans for today. I'm trying to be a more active blogger, and have designated 3 days a week to blog about specific topics. We have...

~ Swoon Sunday...

~ WIP Wednesdays... and...

~ Farmer's Wife Friday (name subject to change, not sure how farmer-committed I am yet.)

Unfortunately my book hasn't arrived yet, so no farming going on just yet. I have been practicing my precision piecing with these spool blocks though, so I'm feeling ready for the Farmer's Wife project. My main plan for the Farmer's Wife (FW) is to use as many pieces of precious fabric as possible, and to keep myself sewing regularly, in small achievable pieces. I have a new squared notebook just for the FW where I'll be drawing my construction plans and recording dates, fabric choices and any other thoughts. My farm journal, if you will. I might be taking the farm theme rather seriously.

No deadline for any of my current projects, I'm happy with organic stitching. Sixteen spool blocks finished so far. Not sure if I like this planned arrangement, or if they need more room to breath (sashing). I really hate sewing sashing though so if I do it would need to be added block by block with cornerstones.

Summer

I have been a bit miserable lately. I struggle to stay positive a lot of the time, as most readers probably know, but sometimes I do lose patience with myself. I feel so acutely that I am wasting precious time with all the sadness and that I need to be doing something (almost anything) to shake off the flumpiness.

I am still fighting my dermatillomania (skin picking disorder). I do desperately want to be a whole lot better as soon as possible. Currently I am able to be pick free about one day out of three, which is definite progress, but I wish I was doing better. I want to post a photo for the Fat Quarterly Retreat intro link-up thingy but I'm too shy about my skin. At the moment my main focus is on getting my skin to look as good as it can for my trip. (Last time I went away I didn't pick at all for an entire weekend, so I am feeling fairly confident I'll be able to take good care of myself in London.) Also, I have new sandals (the kind I can't wear socks with) and I'd really like to wear them.

I sewed some happy blocks! Inspired by the Liberty Love 100 Spools Quilt, as well as the fantastic spool projects I'm seeing other talented quilter's come up with. I started sewing yesterday afternoon after exposure to this loveliness. Also here and here. Lots more spool block goodness out there but it is these three that made me start cutting. Fabric I have been hoarding for years is finally seeing the light of day!

My colour palette is not limited to the blocks shown here. I just happen to love magenta and citrine, so I tend to reach for those first. I'm actually using most of the rainbow and making a stash archive project, with each spool 'thread' a unique fabric. Lots of precious scraps might appear for the last time (those pink seahorses are the very last piece I was saving). All the spool caps will be black-ish. Background fabric is kona snow. They measure 6" finished and I'm thinking of setting them in alternating directions without sashing. And possibly setting the whole thing on point. An ongoing project, but it's making me so so happy!

I find myself drawn to small intricate blocks which I can gradually sew, something to work on on a moments inspiration which can gradually build in to an epic fabric-showcasing project. For that reason I have decided to start a Farmer's Wife quilt. My book has been shipped, so as soon as it arrives I'll be working on that too. My plan is one block per week, and I'm hoping to sew the majority without templates, using either conventional machine piecing or paper piecing depending on the block.

Also on the Janey schedule... Swoon Sundays! Last weekend I was being rather melodramatic about my unfinished Swoon Quilt. So Dan decreed I should work on it for a while every Sunday morning until it's done. I am really close at this point. I decided to bind it even though the quilting isn't finished, as the edges were fraying badly. It's much nicer to handle now. I do hope to finish by the end of July. Expect Swoon related post soon!

Quilts!

Happy Sunday! I'm back with photos of the finished quilts which Dan and I took yesterday. I feel so much happier to have a quilt photography plan. Hoping to employ him for further quilty photo-shoots in future too. 

Centre City Color Hex. Ok... I finished this quilt ages ago, but have never been able to photograph it properly. The colours in this fabric line (Jay McCarroll's Centre City) are so lovely and saturated, but my camera really struggled to balance the deep purples and almost neon brights. But finally I am happy to share it in all its glory. I used In Color Order's Color Hex pattern, and it came together beautifully. The background grey is Kona Coal.

The quilt back is Moda Bella Solid in Eggplant, with a little strip of scraps from the quilt front. I quilted in straight lines using dark grey thread. Binding is a black cotton solid.

The second quilt finish I want to share is another Jeni B inspired baby quilt. My Salt Water Star is based on the Giant Vintage Star tutorial, with my HSTs and corner blocks finishing at 9" square and a 2" border added all around to make the star float. I used the green and blue colorways of Tula Pink's Salt Water line with a bright white solid for the quilt front.

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Quilt back is a mixture of leftover solids in white and natural, with lots of Salt Water scraps in a stripey layout. The binding is a Bonnie and Camille Marmalade stripe in beige and white.

I quilted the Salt Water Star in happy free-motion loops using white thread.

Both of these little quilts are available now in my etsy store!
Centre City Color Hex Quilt here and Salt Water Star Quilt here.

Early On Saturday Morning

I love early weekend mornings. I mostly get up first, feed the cat and drink my coffee in peace. Mostly I let Dan sleep in as he's not quite as much of a morning person as me. But today he was sweet enough to come to the river before 8am to help photograph quilts. Awesome :)

 It was pretty cold and drizzly for a Midsummer morning. We spotted a duck pile on the weir. Apparently ducks are not morning people either.

After the quilty photos we went home for bacon sandwiches (with peanut butter and ketchup for me) and hot coffee. The two quilts we took out this morning will be hitting the shop soon, and I'll talk about them here shortly. I have two more baby-sized quilt tops waiting for my quilting attentions this week. Madrona Road Houses, based on this pattern.

And a simple squares patchwork top I'm calling Midsummer Moonlight.

I'm excited to get these two quilted and finished. My machine has been acting up a bit this week though so I'm not 100% sure my free-motion quilting will work out, but I'm hoping it will!

Hey there!

I'm still here :) Just not been online much lately. My computer reacted badly to a Ubuntu upgrade and I lost the ability to connect to the WiFi. I like to use my laptop upstairs where there is no wired internet, so that was a bit of a deal-breaker for me. Luckily, it is all better now :) Almost. It might be on it's last legs at this point but I really don't want to admit it.

Also, we have been experiencing that thing called the Irish Summer. It strikes hard and fast, with ridiculous heat and beautiful long sunny days. I spent as many of them as possible outdoors and don't think I turned my oven on all week, Salad dinners are the future. Dan and I went to Dublin on Saturday where we enjoyed the perfect lunch at The Counter. I mostly went to Dublin for an interfacing re-stock. but they didn't have my preferred fusible woven type. I did buy some fusible canvas though. Hopefully I'll get time to play with it soon.

I hope to catch up on flickr-ing and such shortly. I am making progress with my Fat Quarterly Retreat projects. Just waiting for an interfacing restock (from the internet this time). Today I went for a doctor check up and left with a bit less blood than I went in with, so hoping someone will make me a delicious dinner soon so I can get my strength back for more stitching.