STARTS AND FINISHES

Weekend Round-Up

It seems like only last week we had our monthly quilty catch up, but in reality I haven't seen my ladies in 2 months!! I can't believe how quickly that has gone and whilst I haven't been idol they have been stitching up a storm and I am in absolute awe of their talents.

Val has been working on her gorgeous version of Beside The Sea by Lesley Brankin for a little while now and today was the big reveal of the finished piece!

It is absolutely beautiful in the flesh, the amount of thought and detail Val put into her fabric choices really has paid off as has her patience at putting the whole thing together.

Regular readers may have noticed the beach huts! 

They are the same ones that I used in the quilt I made for my dad 2 years ago and the same pattern was used by Sue in a sampler she was making out of Salt Water by Tula Pink.

Speaking of Sue her efforts this week were focused on hand sewing the back binding strips of the gorgeous shabby chic style BOM she has been working on over the last couple of months based on Stonefields by Susan Smith. You can see the start of her journey here but for now lets just soak up the loveliness of all those hours of work.

And just a few more because I really couldn't resist this darling little Owl and The Pussy Cat block

Never one for making things easy Caroline was sewing the binding on her 'simple square' quilt, unfortunately it wasn't a simple square binding and caused all manner of blue smoke to emerge from Caroline's corner. 

That being said, she drafted the pattern herself and the outcome is lovely, looking like an English country garden in purples, blues and greens. 

Which just leaves me..... 

I have made a start on something new, it is in the beginning stages and at the moment is a load of drawings, scribbles and sellotaped pieces of paper but with any luck it is going to end up being a fabulous mini quilt for 1 of the 5 swaps I've got myself into.... oooops!!!

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