SLOW PROGRESS.....

Borders and Fillers

It's been an aaaagggee since I have had some spare minutes to sit down and update you on the various projects I have been working on. Life just really got in the way over the last few weeks, I have had some big life changes and upheavals which have really knocked my sideways - Oh and Festival of Quilts squueeeellll- but I am feeling much happier and getting back on track, so here we go.......

You may recall I have been working on something special for my wonderful Daddy who turned 50 at the beginning of August, unfortunately I am still working on it, hence this posts title!!

As this isn't a set pattern I am following but rather finding inspiration here and there, then putting together my own design I was finding gaps and spaces between some of the sections already quilted, that I really needed to fill. So I headed back to a previous quilt I had started as part of a class and took on the mighty chevron border!!

It looks very technical but in reality it is very straight forward and is extremely effective when finished.

The first step is to cut a pile of strips 5 1/4in in length in a variety of fabrics. I tried to get in as many of the fabrics I had been using throughout the quilt top for continuity's sake and also chose to cut mine in widths ranging from 1in - 2in to create a more visual border. You can of course use just one or two fabrics and stick to the same width.

(picture 1)

The fabric strips simply get placed on top of each other, one at a time, and stitched along the longest edge, alternating sides with each strip. With the exception of the first pair which is attached along the shorter edge (picture 1) The more you add, the longer it gets!!

So that was a few borders taken care off, now for some fillers...

At last months quilt group meet up, Carrie was cutting and stitching copious amounts of Pin Wheels, which looked ever so lovely and she assured me were very easy to make......lies!!! After a few of them took a dive out of my quilt studio window I found a method that worked for me and here it is in pictures.

And here are both these bits partially in action.....

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

DRESDEN PLATES AND HOLLYHOCKS

Sunday Shinanigans

This week seems to have just flown by, I have been making slow progress largely due to the fact that I am trying to many new things at once and there isn't a pattern I am following. I am really just making blocks that I find interesting or challenging, roughly the same size so I can smush them together with my eyes closed tightly, hoping it will magically look like a quilt when I open them!!!

So this weeks challenge was machine based applique, using the blanket stitch button on my machine...I think it will take a while yet for us to become friends but I am pleased with the result for a first attempt!

There are loads of flowers in the fairy fabric and I have used lots of floral fabrics already as my Granny loves them, so I thought I would keep up with the theme and make a block with Hollyhocks on it. I started by cutting out rough shapes that could be appliqued onto a stem like shape, in a variety of the fabrics I had already used.

I cut 21 squares using my main background fabric and mixed in one of my favorites- Moda French General, Feather- just for variety, it is such a lovely off white and blended in wonderfully. All squares measured 2 1/2 inches and were sewn together in 3 rows. 

All the 'flowers' were then placed along the stem getting smaller towards the top. I used Bondaweb to keep them from moving, as some of the pieces were very small I thought this would work better than pins!! It was very tricky trying to get the blanket stitch evenly around the smaller sections and admittedly I had to cheat in a few places but overall it turned out ok. Added on a quick border and that was another one done!!

I spend a great deal of time researching and 'just looking', I spend hours and hours on Pinterest, so much so that I am nearing 800 pins on my Quilty Pleasures board.......yikes!! One of the great finds I have had on there was a link to the Makeower website, where they have an abundance of free quilt patterns. I fell in love with one in particular- Dresden Plates and Downton Abbey- who wouldn't??

I started by cutting out all the pieces needed, this time I decided to use some of the lovely batiks I have collected for the fans and one of the large florals for the center quarters.

As I had 24 units to sew in half, the quickest and most efficient way was to chain piece them. A method I was taught that revolutionized my block making!! A great tutorial by Melissa Burt can be found over on Connecting Threads.

I followed the steps for construction as they were written and Voila! A twist on the Dresden.

I still have some places open in the Quilting Bee so let me know if you are interested and as always if you have any thoughts, suggestions or opinions about the post I'd love to hear from you.

Happy quilting!!

Kerry xx