Mirthful

More WIP

This fabric makes me happy:

So does this:

And these:

Not to mention these:

And this?

This puts a big silly grin on my face. Don’t know why. In fact, I’m considering whether it would be an idea to make a dress out of that last one.

For now, though, I’m combining it with the rest of them, as well as this lovely thing:

And these two:

Inspired by the scrappy hedgerow blocks from Oh, Fransson!

Note to self: Don’t start a scrappy quilt with all new fabric. It defeats the point, sort of. I didn’t have scraps to start with, but boy do I have scraps now.

So you can imagine how happy this makes me:

Which will be a present for a very special little lady who’s getting Christened in a couple of weeks. It should give little eyes something to investigate.

I’m in a quandry as to size, though. It’s already too big for a “baby quilt”, and that’s intentional, as I want it to be useful for a few years. But it’s definitely a quilt for a child, with the fabrics I’ve chosen, so it certainly needs to be useable nowrather than in ten years time. So how big is TOO big for a baby/toddler? My blocks are slightly larger than the tutorial suggests, they’ll be 13.5″ when sewn, and I have 12 of them. Even without sashing it will be 40.5×54 if I use all the blocks, and I’m thinking it will look better with sashing. Also, I need to quilt this one myself, and although I was thinking masking tape and straight lines, I still need to get the middle under my needle. How much fabric can I bunch up under the sewing machine arm before it becomes unworkable, I wonder?

Well, I’ll have to decide soon, I should get most of the work done this weekend if I want to finish in time…

More pictures

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the finished quilt – on the morning of the wedding… Here it is, bound and washed and lovely and crinkly.

It’s all done:

Binding:

Detail:

Front:

Back:

If you click through to a larger size of the front you should be able to see that four of the squares spell the names of the bride and groom and the wedding date in place of the “love”. Clever, eh? Even if I do say so myself. Considering this is only my second finished quilt, and my first on a large scale, I’m really thrilled at how it worked out.

Work in progress

I’m working with these:

Inspired by this.

And the results so far are promising.

Not quite the way I pictured it, but it’s working, and that’s a good thing because I don’t have time to change my mind. I need to finish the top and back – of a king size bedspread, no less – by Sunday, get it off to someone with a long-arm quilting machine by express post on Monday and hope I get it back in time to bind it before a momentous event on the 11th.

Leaving things to the last minute? Me? Never!

Edit: Well, I didn’t quite make it. The main part of the top is finished, but needs a border and the back needs a couple of more seams before it’s done. Going to be busy tonight… Hopefully I’ll still get it back in time to bind it.

Block one done

I’ve finished block one of the Leanne’s House BOM, and received two more in the mail, so a bit behind, but not too much. I still haven’t purchased additional fabric, and that is the main reason why I haven’t started block two, as I really want to start introducing my additions as I go. In any case, there really isn’t much time for non Christmas-related creating in December, but I hope to be able to sew a bit over the holidays, so I need to go shopping at some point.

Here’s the completed block:

And some detail:

I had a short length of thread left in the needle when I’d finished the stars. It was too short to be worth keeping, but it seemed a pity to just throw it out, so I added a lazy daisy in one of the checkerboard squares. I rather like the effect, so I think I might add some more, and do the same in the other checkerboard sections.

I got a treasure in the mail

I received my quilt from the Doll Quilt Swap on Thursday, but the first chance I got to photograph it in natural light was this morning (well, it is winter). Here it is:

Now, do you think any doll will ever get to come near this? Ha! It’s mine, all mine! Mine, I tell you. You dolls just keep your tiny little hands off!

I will have to find a scrap of wall to display it. This might prove difficult, but I have faith.

Here’s the back:

I could happily gaze on that for hours, too, how did my benefactor guess that I simply looooove these colours?

And look at the quilting:

I’m speechless with admiration. I need to get my sewing machine fixed and start practicing feathers. Oh, and the log cabins have nifty spirally quilting, which is even better than the feathers, if such a things is possible. Ok, let’s say they are equally brilliant, shall we.

And who is the master (mistress?) of this wonderful creation? Well, her name is Shelly Sutton, and she blogs here. She teaches classes. That figures.

‘Scuse me while I go gaze some more at this little work of art.

Done!

The doll quilt is done and on its way to *******.

Pretty happy with the way it turned out, since it’s actually quite close to how I pictured it. I ended up cutting off the top ray of sunshine in order to square off the top and only realised afterwards that I could probably have fixed it with a scrap of blue instead, but it works like this, no? I would have free motion quilted it, too had I dared switch the presser foot on my machine, unfortunately I dare not, as the part where you fix it is worn and needs replacing and I really need the macine to work next weekend when we have a workshop. After the workshop I am handing the machine in for service, I swear. Here’s to hoping the recipient likes the quilt!

Go have a look in the Flickr pool for the swap, by the way. Such a lot of amazing quilts! I haven’t received mine yet, I can’t wait to see what it looks like.

Doll Quilt Swap

I joined round 5 of the Doll Quilt Swap (though I don’t seem to be on the blogroll… Hm. Might need to email someone about that…) and I’m finally making progress. I had one design in mind for a while until I realised it was madly complicated and I had two months ‘ till deadline, not two years. I then had another idea, but needed more fabric. Once I got the chance to, I went shopping. I now had an idea and fabric. Then the lass fell ill (she’s fine now, but we had about a week of cuddling and not getting much done) and then I came down with a serious cold. Anyway. I have started, and I’ll probably manage to finish tomorrow so that I can get it in the mail on Monday. That should theoretically be enough, the deadline for reception is 1 December, but international mailing being what it is, well, uhm. I sure hope it gets there.

Anyway, pictures:

That was how far I got a couple of days ago. I now have all the rest of the bits in place, pinned or fused and tomorrow I will attach them, then back, quilt and bind. And voilla. That’s the theory, anyway.

While looking for the fabric I needed for this quilt I found some others that I just “had” to have (surprise!). These are from Jordbærstedet:

And these are from Sy Steen:

Lookie! Fishies!

And do you remember this WIP? I found my stars. Obviously what I now want to do is drop everything else and finish this, but I have TONS of things to do that actually need to be done by Christmas, so it will have to wait. But, you know, look! Stars! Proper stars!