NEW YORK BEAUTIES

Triangles, Points and Piecing

It's no secret I spend hours and hours of my life on Pinterest, I mean who needs to iron and dust? Honestly?! It was on one of these 'research' afternoons that I stumbled across a picture of an amazing quilt, it really was just so beautiful I had to investigate further!! Enter Karen K. Stone!! 

The image I found was in fact the cover of Karen's wonderful book Karen K. Stone Quilts, which can be found at many great book stores and quilting suppliers, so can her program for EQ7 as it happens!! The title of the quilt is Cinco de Mayo and I am sure you will agree its just beautiful!!

So with no further ado I decided to drive myself even more crazy with these tiny little pieces of fabric and fiddly little paper sections and embark on a New York Beautie of my own!!! I still have a veeeeeeeery loooooong way to go and so far the design I have chosen is quite simple BUT I am really happy with it so far!

I have a real thing for batiks, so I decided to indulge myself here a little and only use them for this quilt.

The next step is of course to cut out all the tiny pieces of fabric, as this is a foundation pieced quilt they don't have to be very accurate and they can mostly be cut from scraps which is fab because not much fabric is needed. Each section is sewn separately and then sewn together in sections, making a stack of squares!!

The individual squares can then be placed in a multitude of ways to create really eye catching designs, I have been playing around with a few but haven't settled on anything just yet, I am still toying with the idea of adding in some other colors.....

It was very daunting making a start on this quilt but I have to say once I got going I found it really difficult to stop!! I am thoroughly enjoying it and now that I feel more confident I am looking forward to branching out a little and trying some more adventurous sections and borders.

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

A TRIP TO THE BEACH....

Come Together

This months British Queen Bee is the lovely Catrin, you can find out more about her in both English and Welsh on her fabulous crafty blog. Catrin made the following request for her block, 

"I'd love the overall color scheme to be beach related - blues, yellows, and neutrals - think beach in Summer. Happy with prints or solids, and the "white" of the block can be white / off white / pale neutral." she also very kindly produced this diagram for us...so totally stealing this idea when it's my turn!

The first thing I had to do was pick out the fabrics to use, it really quite amazes me how much I actually have in my stash....(don't tell my boyfriend, or my mother they will gang up and say I don't need to buy anymore!) I saw 'beach theme' and thought eeeeek what on earth have I got for that, I am going to have to go out and get something, but when I actually started to pull things I was surprisingly spoilt for choice!

This block is described as one that "marries the familiarity of sewing squares and strips with the new skill of making quilts with triangles", so the first step was to cut out said squares and strips!

And then sew them together...

The fabrics I chose reflected pebbles, sea foam, the sun, waves and wooden benches...well they did to me anyway! I really like the way this has turned out. Again it is not a block I was drawn to initially and not a theme or fabrics I would have naturally picked for myself but with every block I complete for someone else I end up in more of a pickle about what to do when it is my turn!!!

And here is the finished article and whopping 20" square!

Speaking of finished articles, the first bee block I did was for the lovely Katie, you can find that post here and you can see her quilt top placement below

I can not recommend joining a Quilt Bee enough, I really am having the most fabulous time doing this and learning a great deal about fabric, quilting, sewing and myself! I thoroughly recommend the book to!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

A PAINTER'S PALETTE - PART 2

A Challenge Met!

I had such fun creating this original design for Gina, I have to be honest and say I really wasn't taken with it at first and put it off for quite a while!! BUT once I decided to accept the challenge of making all the 5" squares a different design rather than a flat color block I really got into it.

The next step is to attach the background fabric triangle edges, this is done by adding 2" squares to each corner of each square - 24 in total and cutting off the excess. They should still finish up being 5x5 if all goes according to plan.

The rest of the background fabric shapes are cut and then added on, there are a variety of rectangles - some fat, some thin, some long..... resulting in 3 rows of lovely color wedged between sparkling Kona white in this case!

Although the outer edges currently look a wee bit squokny, they will be hexagonal in shape when other blocks and/or borders are added on.

Next up is 'Come Together' and a variety of calm, beach themed fabrics have been requested!! Heaven only knows what I can pull together for this one! 

Thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog so far, I am very close to 2000 views, something I really didn't think I would see when I started out doing this as I am/was a complete blog virgin. To make sure you don't miss out on my latest shinanigans you can follow me on Bloglovin', simply click the button to the side of this page.

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

ONE BEE IS JUST NOT ENOUGH.....

Hello Vinnie!!

You may recall a few posts ago I posted my progress on a quilt I was making for my friend who recently had a baby....well here he is enjoying his quilt!! 

This darling little monkey (I say little monkey but he actually weighed in at nearly 11lbs) is called Vinnie and he belongs to my lovely friend Debbie and her hubby Tom.

We last left off with having to quilt the top and add on the binding, due to all the Log Cabins and patterned fabrics I kept the quilting fairly simple and went for a modest 1 inch binding.

A Painter's Palette - Part 1 

As the title suggests I simply wasn't satisfied being apart of one fabulous Bee, I simply had to join another!!! This one completely home grown and only available to those of us in the UK. This month our Queen is Gina, you can find her over on Occasional Quilter it wasn't enough for her to pick the Painter's Palette block, oh no!! She had to go and make this as her example....

Ok!! Challenge accepted! Awhile back I saw a really cute little block made entirely from miniature tumblers, I just knew I had to do this!! So here we go.....

I made two of these one in red and one in purple, I thought the block as a whole would look quite cool if the colors were in pairs, so I also made 2 mini Log Cabins and 2 mini scrappy blocks.

I really enjoyed making these little blocks, they are all 5" squares and the possibilities are endless, there are so many others that I really want to try, maybe even a weenie little Mariners Compass??!! Anyway for now this is what I have... 

If you have any ideas on what else could look great in 5" I would love to hear from you!! be sure to come back and visit me to see how this block takes shape in part 2!!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx 

QALs and BOMs

Spoilt for Choice!!

There are so many wonderfully talented people out there, who keep making all these gorgeous quilts that I simply have to make!! If that's not enough soooooooo many of them are done as Quilt Alongs or Blocks of the Month AND they are free!! It is the perfect excuse to buy all that fabric I have seen, that I really, really need!! Here are a few that I have really caught my eye....

1. LAYER CAKE SAMPLE QUILT

First up is this little beauty courtesy of Amanda over at Material Girl Quilts the requirements are pretty much as the title suggests - Layer Cakes!! and of course fabric for backing and sashings. Each month the instructions and patterns are put up for 2 blocks with a range of alternate layout options, so you can let your creative juices flow!! i think this one is going to be a must for me!

2. BLOGGER GIRLS BOM II

Next a more traditional looking challenge set by Monique from Open Gate Quilts using mostly fat quarters and a background colour, this one comes with clear instructions and pictures to help those of you who quilt like me....nervously!

3. GLOBETROTTING

I do love a good mystery, and this one is shaping up to be just that!! Pat Sloan over on Free Quilt Patterns has put together this wonderful mystery block of the month based on various places around the world. Starting in her home town of Washington DC, stopping off in Venice, Chicago, London and finishing up who knows where??! I sure could use a round the world holiday.....

4. STAR LIGHT STAR BRIGHT

Melissa from Happy Quilting not only has this beautiful burst of starlight on offer but FIVE other quilt alongs as well!! This is my favorite of the bunch I never can turn down a shining star. All quilt patterns come with very clear step by step instructions, pictures/photos so you can see what you are aiming for and fabric requirements for a variety of block sizes.

I hope you find something here that sets your quilt soul alight, I would love to hear from you and see what has inspired you feel free to email me some photos of your achievements with a brief description and I will post it up here!!

Happy Quilting

Kerry

xx