QUILTING BLUES

Quilty Numbers

I feel like I have stalled a bit at the moment, not just with this quilt but with sewing and creativeness in general!! I have so much going on that I just can't find the time to sit down and make some progress and then when I do have some time I simply don't have the will! Do you think it is possible to have 'sewing' depression?? I am no doctor but I would wager that it could be an actual thing!!

Anyway sewing depression aside I have made a small amount of progress on Dad's Quilt....SURPRISE quilt I should say in case any of you bump into him..... oh bugger it and Dad if you have happened to remember the blog address don't scroll down any further!!
I wanted to make this quilt for my Dad as a present because he is turning 50 in a few weeks, the idea was to make it nautical related because he was in the Navy and loves all thing boat! But I also wanted it to mark the occasion it is intended to be a celebration of....50 years of Dad. So in between all the nautical and seafaring quilt blocks, I decided to put in some 'dates of remembrance' blocks in the mix.

Step 1 find a font you like, enlarge your chosen letters/numbers to the size you want, trace off onto Bondaweb. Remember they will need to be backwards so when placed onto the wrong side of the fabric they will be facing the right way around on the right side of the fabric?! Still with me? Make sense?

Cut out and iron into place, remember to leave seam allowance and space for borders etc

I prefer to use a simple zig-zag stich set close together much the same as satin stitch, whilst I know blanket stitch is very popular for machine applique, I just can not get on with it!!

I decided to throw in some hand embroidery for the story telling......

No Nautical/Sea themed quilt is complete without a few beach huts so feeling thoroughly inspired by Sue's work for our last meet up (previous post) I set to work on my own

The best part is.....it's paper pieced!! my bestest thing ever!! These little beach huts really were a joy to make, so easy construct and they come together really quickly. I went for various shades of red for the 'painted' wooden panels and picked out the deep blue that I have used throughout the other quilt blocks in order to tie them together.

This is where the pattern came from if you feel the notion to make your own.

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

WEEKEND ROUND UP!!

Sail Away With Me....

This week has continued to be all about paper piecing/foundation piecing!! I just can't get enough of it and there really are some fab patterns out there!! 

Carrying on with my Nautical theme I found a great sail boat pattern just from whiling away countless hours on Pinterest and Instagram, it was rather small at 6" squared so I set to work enlarging it....cue many glasses of wine and some colorful language but TA-DA 

With a total of 7 separate sections and some teeeeeny weeeeeeny pieces I wasn't quite sure how this block was going to turn out but I have to say with a bit of tweeking and a good iron I think it will be great sailing alongside the seagulls!!

Onto a favorite of mine the Mariners Compass, this really is such a gorgeous block, it comes together so easily and can look so effective depending on color choices and placements. I am not so sure about the black sections or the red actually but for now it can stay as it is. I will see how the rest of the quilt progresses in terms of color, fabric and design before I make any decisions on redoing it.

I will hold my hands up and admit that I did have to unpick a couple of sections here and there but overall I smashed those points!! The more I look at that red the more I am just not sure....

Quilting In The Surrey Hills...

Saturday meant a catch up with my crew for a good old stitch and bitch, they really are a talented bunch

Kerry Q and her sea creatures baby quilt, it is really beautiful in the flesh although driving her quite potty as she did all the quilting with invisible thread and is now at the stage of tying off ends!!

Sue was busy putting together some lovely beach huts in the rather gorgeous Salt Water by Tula Pink

And Caroline feeling thoroughly inspired by all the Modern Bee work that has been going on was dabbling with the rather beautiful Dakota Stars from The Vintage Quilt Revival

If you have any ideas on all quilts/blocks Nautical I would love to hear from you I am still (as always) looking for inspiration!! Leave a comment here or send us an email.

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

A TALE OF TWO SEAGULLS

2 Seagulls and a Lighthouse

It really has been an age since I have sat down and updated you on my shinanigans, whilst I may have been scarce I really have not been idol!! In fact this very morning I very nearly murdered 2 seagulls.....

I have had a project in mind for quite some time now and have actively been looking for patterns, ideas and inspiration on how to bring this together and move it forward. It had to be a nautical theme and have a fairly muted blue/grey/navy/ palette with maybe a few splashes of red, yellow and white thrown in for good measure.

If you are a regular follower/reader you will know how much I LOVE foundation piecing, I will use it wherever I can!! So when I cam across these patterns I just couldn't resist, it was almost to good to be true. These blessed seagulls soon became the bane of my life!! But I persisted and persisted and persisted... you get the idea. I really had trouble with these ones, I stitched them backwards, upside down, wrong way round and unpicked them more times than I care to admit and in the end one of them I am sure came out looking a bit drunk BUT I did them!

So many of the pieces were rather tiny which was a new challenge for me and whilst these blocks could do with a tidy up I am really proud of them!! 

Then I thought well they weren't that bad really so why not try something even more fiddley with even tinier pieces?? I mean who wouldn't think that right?? Bring on the Lighthouse....

I loved sewing this block, the instructions were really clear and it actually came together rather quickly, which is something I like, each section had enough going on to give a real sense of progress and achievement even though it didn't take long to sew up. The overall effect was really impressive, a block I thought would look good in this quilt has now become one of my favorites and I've found that now I am almost 'building' the rest of the quilt around it.

I have now reached over 2000 views of the blog, thank you so much to all of your for helping me make this dream a reality!! Don't forget you can follow me on various websites to make sure you always know when there has been an update!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx