Summer Charm Quilt.

Since I started quilting 5 years ago I have always admired charm quilts. I think the true definition is one where every fabric is used only once. However I believe it is common to use one fabric twice for a bit of fun and to see if anyone can spot it.

About a year after I started making quilts I decided to make my own charm quilt - I chose the thousand pyramid design. Because my stash was a bit puny I began to buy charm packs from sellers on Ebay and started piecing away mostly by hand. This is the result

I love this quilt and use it a lot when I'm reading alongside one of my cats on top of the bed. ( I know my cats are clever but it is me reading and the cats trying to sit on the pages- lol ! ) Anyway I like looking at all the fabrics and remembering what other quilts I used them in. Patrick who is 11 likes doing this too but would rather die than admit it in front of his mates :-) Now because I bought a lot of the fabrics in packs especially for this quilt there are loads of them ( nearly all ) that are JUST in this quilt and no others. Do you see what I'm getting at ? To cut a long story short ( you'll be glad to hear - lol ) I now want to make a charm quilt with fabrics that I have in my stash only with no extra charm packs bought in. As my fabric collection has increased a little since a few years ago ( here's the bit where my DH chokes on his coffee - lol !! ) I think I will be able to manage a nice size quilt quite comfortably.

I bought this book a short time ago and it contains patterns and templates for 36 different charm quilts. Everything you can think of - squares, rectangles, tumblers etc. I had to pick one. Eventually I decided on one called 3-D hexagons. It is basically a shape which when joined together in groups of 3 makes a hexagon like this...

I have gone through my scrap box and fat quarters and yardage and cut a bit off every one. This took a bit of time let me tell you but was great fun. I cut out the basic shape on freezer paper and pressed them to the backs of all my fabrics. I have piles of these all over the place but am slowly getting organised. I am tacking these over the papers and putting them into a box according to colour like this. I am trying not to repeat any of the fabrics but I'm sure one or two will get duplicated.

I couldn't resist sewing some up.

This is a great project to do in spare moments - nice and portable. Now and again I'll rip off a bit of freezer paper and cut some templates and leave them next to the ironing board along with my little piles of fabrics and press a few ready for tacking. Now when I say this is my Summer project I don't mean I will get this done THIS Summer - lol ! I'm sure it will be a long term thing.

It was great going through all my fabrics and chopping bits off - fun, fun,fun !! I would recommend this to everyone if you like hand work. And the book is a good one.

Other news is I have started the Summer round of the 4 seasons quilt swap but this time there will be no pictures as I KNOW the person reads my blog - lol !

Have a great weekend and stay tuned for next post - I am getting excited about this.

A little finish.

Here are the abandoned Dear Jane blocks from my last post. They really were a bit pale and uninteresting so I used my brightest prints to jazz them up a bit. Now they look much better. I replaced one of the blocks as I found another one in a basket that was a bit nicer.

I machine quilted some spirals in the sashing and hand-quilted the actual blocks. I was feeling very daring too and attempted something a bit different in the border. Normally I only do straight lines or meandering with my machine but this time I had a go at a leafy vine. I used a white cotton so it wouldn't stand out too much if it was totally rubbish - lol. Once I got going though it was fine. It came out not bad at all if I do say so myself :-) So next time I do something like this I may use a thread that you can actually see lol !

It measures about 20 inches square. I may put a hanging sleeve on this and pop it up on the wall by my sewing corner. It's very summery.

Since I started blogging the list of blogs I read has gone through the roof. It's fantastic to meet so many great ladies ( and a couple of chaps ) on the same wavelength - too much inspiration at times - I want to do it all. Anyway in order to cut down on the time I spend trawling round I've set up bloglines which is taking a bit of time. Once I've listed all my favourites it should leave me a bit more time. If I've not commented on your blog for a while it's not because I'm not reading it it's because I'm still getting organised. Blogging is such amazing fun - I never knew 'til I started my own.

So this is post 98 - I'm sure you know what I'm getting at - lol !! I'm busy arranging a little something but can't show pictures yet of course.

I also ordered the Civil War Diary Quilt book to see what all the fuss was about. It should have been sent out within 1-2 days. After 8 days of postman stalking I emailed them and only THEN have they sent it. It should be here tomorrow - I'm not very impressed :-( It's only travelling 40 miles - I could have walked and got the bl***y thing quicker - lol !

Keep stitching.....

Quick post.

A few of you have enquired about the warehouse I go to. Unfortunately a couple of the ladies who have asked about it are coming up as no-reply so I can't answer directly. It is called Abakhan Fabrics and is on the coast road near Mostyn, North Wales. They have a website and give directions on there. This is a great place to go if you are a fabric junkie - especially for dressmaking. Sometimes their selection of quilting fabrics is terrible but lately they have had some really nice fabrics. I bought a piece last week - I measured it when I got home and it was almost 3 yards long and cost me £3.04. I have said before that sometimes the fabric has a fault in it - a small rip etc. Out of the 3 yard piece there was just a tiny section measuring about 4 inches square that I could not use so really good value.

Well I had a great trip on Sunday to the car boot sale. Not a sewing machine in sight but I bought loads of books as I read a lot and have trouble keeping myself supplied - lol ! I was on the lookout for anything I could use for quilting and got these

3 100% cotton shirts which I will have great delight in chopping up.

I got these 2 nice thimbles - picture is lousy sorry. I don't collect thimbles but took a shine to these.

And the bargain of the day was these

The pink is a Laura Ashley print and measures 46 by 68 inches and cost me 50p ( about $1 ) and the green is also a Laura Ashley print and is actually a pair of curtains. Each curtain is about 80 inches long and 50 inches wide. For these I paid a pound ( $2 ). Less than a loaf of bread - lol ! Not quite sure what they will be yet but I was really pleased to get them. They are pretty fabrics in excellent condition. I also bought a great little wall shelf which I will sand down and re-paint. There is another sale on Sunday in a differnt place so we may venture there too. The kids refuse to come as they say it is a load of old rubbish. Admittedly a lot of it is - I've chucked out better stuff than some people were selling - lol ! I'll be on the lookout again - you never know what you'll find.

Talking of finding stuff I came across these this week - a few abandoned Dear Jane blocks. I made about 60 and changed my mind about colours. The others got made into a quilt top but these are unloved and abandoned. I may just have a play with these....The picture actually makes them look nicer than what they are - they are very wishy-washy !

Not a lot of quilting done this week as I have been making cushion covers for a lady I know. I have been cursing the person who invented zips - lol ! Can't wait to do them then I can get back to the interesting stuff. :-)

Sunglasses at the ready...

I have finished my swap quilt for Kates ALQS and it's bright - lol ! MUCH brighter than these photos show.

I must admit I never used to quite see the attraction in miniature quilts but now I LOVE them. Because they are small it is nice to experiment with colours, techniques etc knowing that if it completely comes out rubbish you haven't wasted much fabric. So for this little quilt I decided to do a block I've always admired - the pineapple. I picked my fabrics and did one just to see. This is 3 inches finished..

Yes I liked this so I made some more.

Then borders which took me ages to decide on. I was considering a pieced border but the blocks itself are so busy it would have been overkill. Very simple quilting in the ditch with invisible thread inbetween the blocks. And some straight line quilting with ordinary thread in the borders. There you go - job done.

Just because I wanted to I counted there are 328 pieces - lol ! I hope **** likes it.

Besides this I haven't done a great lot of sewing this week - seem to have been running round like a headless chicken.

I was a bit naughty the other day and managed a little trip to the warehouse... I only went for some curtain lining - honest ! Only another 12 yards to add to my bulging cupboards :-)

Seeing as how I'm on a bit of a mini quilt fest lately I've also started one for myself. It is quite hard parting with these little quilts so I've made these little 3 inch stars to cheer myself up. With a bit of luck I will have time this weekend to get some more done. We are going car-boot sale hunting on Sunday. I have a dream of finding a Singer Featherweight waiting for me for about £10 - lol ! I live in hope.

Have a great weekend and I will try and post a bit more next week xx

PS . A few of you have asked for the pattern for these little stars. It's a free pattern from this site. There is some good stuff here for paper piecing.

http://www.forestquilting.com/freepatterns/freepatternspage.html

Fingers crossed !

I warn you now I'm feeling chatty - I think because I haven't managed to get to my quilt group for 3 weeks I'm having the urge to have a quilty chat with people who understand the lingo - lol ! My family - god bless them - don't really get it although they do their best. I can see their eyes glazing over ever so slightly - ha !

Anyway thanks for all the suggestions - the general concensus is for piano key border. A lot of you said I should finish off the edges with another goose to complete the sashing. You know what ? You're right ! That's exactly what I should do before I go any further. Only trouble was I knew I didn't have much of the dark purple left. I measured my meagre scrap and worked out I only had enough for 16 more flying geese instead of the 24 I needed. A visit to the fabric warehouse was called for. Now I was lucky a few weeks ago when I had run out of a particular fabric I needed so I was not optimistic this time. For those of you who don't know this place sells fabric by the piece and sometimes they only have ONE piece of a particular fabric. Off I traipsed and what do you know ? I found some more !!! YES ! It's about a yard and a half so I will have enough to use in borders as well. The quilting angel was smiling on me today - lol !

I also came away with these.

Look at that green print ! That will go great with the frog fabric I bought last week. I quite fancy a froggy bag although my kids will definitely disown me. Mereth had a fantastic old-fashioned bonnet on her blog recently. I jokingly commented that I must get one to mortify my kids. Now a frog bonnet would certainly do the trick - lol !! They already think I'm a few sandwiches short of a picnic :-) I really need to get out a bit more....

Enough being silly... Here is what I came up with by using my charm pack.

It is Moda Allspice Tapestry and all I added was the 2 setting fabrics. I used a light and dark cream for a bit of variety. I think some of these fabrics are a bit samey so it needed something plainer to break it up a bit.

I tried to pick 2 contrasting charms and from each pair got 2 9-patches, 2 strips and 2 end bits. Like so :- Each 5 inch charm was cut into 4 strips measuring 1.25 inches.

Once the main middle piece was done I used the plain fabrics in the pack for the little border and pieced together the end bits and strips for the side border. Any squares I had not used in the 9-patches were quartered and sewn together for top and bottom borders. I'm dead chuffed with this. Any scraps left will go into the back. It only measures 18 by 24 so will either go on the back of an armchair or if Jason is very lucky I will hang it up by his computer - what a good wife I am. I told him this and he looked a little baffled - lol ! I want to quilt this soon probably by hand as it is nice and small.

I have also been doing a bit for my ALQS hosted by the lovely Kate. Sometimes when you have so much fabric you can be a bit over-awed about what to use - I know I am. So I decided to use an old trick taught to new quilters. Pick a nice fabric and pick out colours from it to use in the quilt. I'm sure you all know about this. Heres what I picked

I love this as I have a great fondness for paisleys and I think the colours of this are nice and cheery. So this is what I'm using as inspiration.

Forget to mention my lovely chicken.

Every time I go shopping I chuck my loose change into my pottery chicken that sits on my windowsill. When she gets a bit heavy I count out the coins and change them at the bank. Today I had a little count and got £55 ( about $110 ) bagged up. So really my little trip for fabric cost nothing. I have been driving Jason mad all day talking about my "free money". I told him I was buying him lunch with my free money etc. I know it's not really free but I do like to wind him up now and then - lol !

If you've made it this far well done and you deserve a coffee or some chocolate or whatever your vice is.

Take care xx

Well, things don't seem quite as bad this week. Thanks for your good wishes. Summer has arrived here with a vengeance. Hot, hot, hot ! Andyou know what I hate it ! Summer is my least favourite time of year. I hate feeling hot and sticky. I hate being unable to sleep at night. I hate flies and bees - I could go on - lol ! So I have been hiding out in my sewing room which is relatively cool and playing about.

First of all I got the main section of this quilt done.

Still not sure if I like it or not. I think it's growing on me. I do not know what to do for borders. Any ideas ?? As the blocks are scrappy I want to do a pieced border of some kind. I have loads of the dark green left. I don't particularly want to use any more of the lilac print. I think I will stew on it. I love the sashings and may do this again.

There was a lot of workings out to do on this as it is basically one I designed as I went along. Here is my pattern - lol ! On here is all the cuttings sizes and sashing amounts I needed etc. I kept losing this blessed thing... I made a few mistakes working out sizes etc but it all fit in the end.

I have started a new summer project but have no photos yet but whilst I was sorting out my stash for this I came across a charm pack I had bought some months ago. This is the first and last charm pack I have bought. I have sort of challenged myself to make something nice from this and have been having great fun with it. Here are a couple of pics.....

See you all soon..

What a funny week !

And I don't mean funny - haha ! We had some bad news last week which has rather knocked me for six and so any sewing has gone out of the window. Nothing life-threatening but bad news all the same. Anyway I'm hoping things will be better now and I can get back to my quilting.

I really want to finish the sashing that I'm making the flying geese for so that is my priority and hopefully will be done before too long. I'm about halfway done. Then I will looking for ideas for a border. To be honest I'm really unsure if I'll like this but I'm too far along to quit now. We'll see.

Also last week I got rid of 5 UFO's. Yes that's right ! I sold them on ebay. These were quilt tops that I knew I wouldn't get round to quilting at any point soon and to be honest I had no desire to anyway. I didn't make a huge amount of money but I was quite pleased and I know they have gone to people who will finish them and turn them into actual quilts. Plus there is now a bit of spare room in my drawers. Well actually there lies a tale.

As I was sorting through my fabrics I decided that I would put myself on a fabric no-buy for a month as really I need to make some space. Easy peasy I thought. Some of you know I have a small business going making curtains and such like for a few customers. I have a lady who wanted some cushions and curtain pelmets making and she had bought the fabric but forgot to get zips. I said I would get them as we were visiting my in-laws who live very near my favourite fabric warehouse. I got the zips and doings she needed and just had a quick look at the quilting section. Well who could resist these frogs...Sorry pictures so dark - Jason has done something to my pc and altered some settings. Men will not leave things alone will they ?

And a few other bits snook in too. All in all about 5 yards so not too bad.

So my no-buy lasted all of about - lets see - 8 hours. World record lol !

See you soon x