A Mermaid Skirt for Me

 Things have been bus around here lately. I have been sewing, lots. With seemingly little to show for it. Not many finishes at the moment. It's all about process, slow and consistent, with lots of lesson learning long the way. I am currently working on two Holiday quilts, both of which I would love to have finished for upcoming C-day. (That day which I should not be referring to or even hinting at, no Sir.) I may or may not have a few handmade gifts in progress too.

But today I wanted a mermaid skirt. Yesterday I had a revelation. I am fairly small, therefore I can actually make a wearable skirt with only 1/2 yard of quilting cotton. I'd always assumed I would need two widths, but apparently not. So I worked out a plan for a stupidly simple skirt last night. I would love to make a tutorial, both to remind myself of the process and to help anyone else who wants a really easy pattern free skirt. Hopefully I will find decent light in the next few days and be able to photograph the process.

My skirt is made from a Spoonflower Heather Ross print on Kona Cotton. I'm not entirely sure that its the same as the version on the HR Prints CD, I printed mine a few months before the book came out. The kelp stripe is original Mendocino. I had a bit of trouble with the top-stitching on the hem and waistband. Not sure why but my Pfaff doesn't take well to top stitching. I'll try to figure out why for my next skirt.

Two Little Quilts

I have spent much of last month making and quilting small quilts. At this point I am not sure I will ever be entirely comfortable with quilting big quilts myself, but I have enjoyed completing these smaller projects and have many more planned for the next few months. I'm still trying to scale myself up to the point where I can balance a lap sized quilt without problems. Not quite there yet.

My first baby sized quilt finish was this little patchwork blanket in Aneela Hoey's ' Cherry Christmas' line. I added a few co-ordinating fabrics, all in a cherry red, pistachio green, turquoise blue, grey and white palette. It is definitely Christmassy, but hopefully not too much so. I would happily have these fabrics in service all through the wintery months anyway. I still need to figure out how to finish off my own Cherry Christmas Quilt. I used all of the fabrics from my quilt in this mini version. The back is a print from 'Little Apples' on white, which I'l be using on my big quilt too. I quilted along the seam lines with a grey-ish blue thread and used Kona Caribbean to bind.

My second small finish is the Battenburg Squares quilt. This time I tried quilting slightly wonky horizontal lines, with a few hand quilted lines here and there to add interest. I actually love the back of this quilt even more than the front. I didn't have enough of the Amy Butler wavy stripe fabric I had planned on using, so I use some leftover blocks from the font an improvised to fill the space. I really really enjoyed this part and love how it turned out! I used Moda Bella Solid Citrine for most of the front. Prints are a selection from my stash in pink and apricot tones and I used Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Raspberry Pink to bind.

Both quilts are listed in my etsy store now :)

Stitching Today

As I may have mentioned here and there, I have recently acquired a much bigger and better sewing machine. I am now the proud owner of a Pfaff Expression 2.0 and so far we are getting on rather fantastically. The main improvement is that I now have the necessary resources to give machine quilting a proper chance. Last week I pieced and quilted a simple crib sized quilt. I'm still waiting for the perfect binding fabric to arrive, then I'll be getting that one finished. In the meantime, the logical thing to do was to piece another small quilt. I'm planning to gradually work my way up to quilting grown up sized quilts.

This little top is almost finished. Inspired by my rather excessive stash of pink and peachy toned fabrics, and a huge piece of Moda Bella Solids Citrine which seems to be ever-lasting. There are still at least 2 yards left! Which is fine as it is my very favourite solid. I'm just happy to be feeling confident enough to jump into a sewing project without over-planning ever detail.

Back to the machine for me. Really determined to get the top done today!

Today is my birthday...

...and, as a convenient result, I have a new camera :) Thank you parents! Which means I can begin photographing the backlog of things that I have been making these last few weeks. I'm slowly getting to grips with the new camera. It's a wee bit more complicated than the old one, but I think we will be fine.

I have updated my etsy store just now with a few pairs of Blythe Long Johns. I intend to make them available to custom order in different stripe combinations soon too, I just need to round up and photograph all my suitable yarn colours. For now, the finished Long Johns can be found here. I really hope people will like them, because I am rather proud of them, and I love to make them. I only wish I had a Jane sized pair for myself, as it is getting chilly here.

Late Summer Check In

I've been neglecting the blog this month. I'm mostly busy sewing, and also spending as much time outdoors as possible. Enjoying the warm weather and nice long walks. I've been a lot healthier since I stopped eating gluten earlier this year and it feels fantastic to have the energy to exercise again. 

With all the sunshine and sewing, I've only been online briefly these past few weeks. Mostly to stock up on fabric. This years Autumn collections seem particularly packed with must have fabrics. I love Violet Craft's Madrona Road. I've just received my FQ stack of the whole collection and have 1 yard cuts of both text prints to come. I'm now waiting for Anna Maria Horner's Field Study. So far I've ordered the Patina colourway but I'll hopefully be able to get the other two bundles in the not too distant future. I really really want some Tula Pink The Birds and the Bees, as well as some of the Liberty Lifestyle cottons. 

I bought some of Heather Ross' FFA III collection this week too. I had been trying to resist, but I'm really glad I finally have some. Those long-johns on the washing line! The fabric is a lovely soft linen/cotton blend.

My sewing this week mostly involves this stack of fabrics with a Christmas theme. I started with a red, green and aqua stack, added all of Aneela Hoey's Cherry Christmas, aswell as some Little Apples. I hope to have a finished quilt top in the next week or so :) Then hopefully a finished quilt in time for Christmas.

Giant Star Quilt

I'm back :) With a quilt to share. I made this quilt top back in January using Jeni's fantasic giant star quilt tutorial. The best thing about this pattern is that it actually makes enough HST blocks for two star quilts, so this quilt has a twin. The twin top is still in the WIP pile and will probably be staying with me, but this Star is a present for my sister. She's currently living in a tiny mouldy flat in Rathmines, Dublin, so the quilt is still living with it's buddies in my quilt pile. But she finally got to meet the finished quilt this weekend. (She is the black booted pair of quilt legs in the pictures!)

I hand quilted my Giant Star using both perle cotton and Aurifil 12wt (which I prefer to the perle cotton, though they look very similar and can happily be combined in any hand stitched project). I marked lines echoing in from the edges of the star at half inch intervals and stitched them in rainbow colours. The background space was filled in with baptist fans in turquoise thread.

The quilt back is a red cotton Ikea sheet which shows off the rainbow quilting nicely. The individual colours don't show up very well here but the yellow bands look particularly well with the bright yellow binding.

I've been labelling all my new quilts with the Spoonflower labels my brother designed. Makes them feel properly finished. I also have smaller labels for pillows and other smaller things.

A Little Update

I've been missing a lot lately. I haven't given up blogging though, I've actually been composing posts in my head all week. I've been a bit miserable the last few weeks, one of my latest reasons being that my recent fabric orders have been taking way too long, and I was convinced they were all lost. Then this morning the post man brought me 3 packages of fabric, which inspired me to take the camera out and do some blogging. Unfortunately, in the weeks since I've last used the camera I have managed to lose the cable which makes it talk to the computer! Gah!

But at least all my fabrics have arrived safely. My Spoonflower order, featuring Heather Ross' Underwater Sisters and my own custom quilt labels. And some Folksy Flannels and Aneela Hoey yardage from Pink Castle Fabrics. I've given up on quilting temporarily, just until I can afford the new machine. My current sewing agenda involves pillowcases. Lots of pillowcases. Which explains my current buying habit of 2 yard cuts of favourite prints. Enough for a pair of pillowcases plus a generous amount of scrap to be used for patchworking. My current sewing machine is happy enough sewing the pillowcases too.

The house has been distracting me again. On Saturday morning I decided to initiate a major furniture re-shuffle downstairs. The old kitchen dresser has been de-woodwormed and is now in the bedroom. The tallboy that was bought for the bathroom was kicked out of the bedroom and has finally settled in the bathroom. Dan's computer has been moved to the other end of the living room along with the dining table. Which means he is no longer using the giant tv as a monitor. Which means we are actually watching some tv! Result :) I'm sure there will be more rearranging in future, but I am a lot happier with this arrangement than the previous one.

I hope to be back again soon with actual photos of things.