When Inspiration Strikes

I woke up early Saturday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed (so to speak). The house was peaceful as everyone else had the sense to sleep later than they did on weekdays. As I eased myself into the day I suddenly had inspiration for a quilt. No idea where it came from as I had just been sat reading the news online when the pattern popped into my head.

So I drew it out in Touchdraw - as you do. It was as simple pattern and I very soon had the fabric requirements sorted and was happily delving into my stack of rainbow charms. I eliminated the pink and purple charms as this quilt was to be for a boy, and once I had pulled enough fabric I trimmed the majority of the charms down to 4.5". Made some HSTs with the rest, combined with some Kona Charcoal, and got piecing. Sometimes these things just come about quickly and efficiently and this weekend was one of those times.

By Sunday lunchtime I had a quilt top measuring 48" x 64".

I feel really happy with this endeavour after my weeks of little to no sewing time.

Once I finished this I went about adding the borders to the Wee Wander quilt. I confess that I kept the dimensions for the side borders slightly narrower so that I could cut WOF fabric strips for the top and bottom borders.

The borders bring the final size to 43" x 56". Part of me thinks it should be bigger but the other part of me thinks that a four year old will be perfectly happy with this - and I can always make her a bigger one in a couple more years time. Who knows what fabric lines I will have fallen in love with by then.

Susan

The Light At The End Of Tunnel...

... is not a train headed towards me but, in fact, the light on my sewing machine. I finally got a chance to sew again and am optimistic that I may get other chances over the weekend.

This panel now measures 33"x 42". I know the quilt won't be a full on single bed size but after I whack on nice fat borders I trust that it will be big enough to fit a growing four year old over the next few years. Really fat borders.

Susan

A Small Part...

... of a bigger project.

I was really thrilled to be asked to participate in making some blocks for a Christmas quilt for Fat Quarterly last summer. I made them right at the end of August with the fabric Lynne sent me. The hardest part was having no idea what anyone else was making for their blocks and just hoping like hell that my blocks would fit in, oh, and not look like the dogs dinner beside everyone else's.

Photo nicked from Lynne

The pattern is in the latest issue of Fat Quarterly and I am in awe of Juliet's reindeer. The other people involved in this project are Lynne, Nicky, Joanne and Joanna. My strip in the quilt is the snowball stars. Not the most exciting strip but it does fit in better than I thought it would. Phew!

Susan

The Start Of Another Gift

I have a pattern to write. A quilt to baste. Bee blocks to make. So instead I hauled out my precious hoard of Wee Wander fabrics yesterday. I love this line, and bought what I could of it, which while not being the line in its entirety is more than enough to make an interesting quilt for a certain lovely four year old in Sweden.

Then I unfolded, laid different cuts beside each other, looked at my solids, sketched, dithered - and did nothing. The prints on these various cuts really vary in size and I was stumped on how to show them off to their best.

What a difference a night's sleep makes. This morning I got a window of opportunity - that won't happen again until Monday at the earliest - and just started cutting and piecing as I went. I don't have a pattern I am following. Not even a sketch to guide me. I am making decisions on the fly and so far so good I think. It seems to be my preferred method of sewing much of the time.

Shown above is the first 18" x 27" of the main part of the quilt. I am basing all my cuts on factors of three inches. Because of the narrow 1" cut white sashing between the blocks of fabric I do not have to add seam allowances into my maths. I am now working on expanding the mosaic. I have a feeling I will eventually bring the quilt up to an appropriate size for a four year old with some wide sashing, but we shall see how big I get this first.

Actually, how big does a quilt need to be for a four year old?

Susan

HoHoHo?

I did it! I made the first Christmas make for 2014. I am so chuffed with myself it is ridiculous. Not that it was a huge item or anything, but I can tick one small Christmas present making list box.

This pouch is for my sister-in-law. She is spending Christmas in Hong Kong where her son is spending half this university year studying. I thought I could fill it with travel miniatures (and maybe chocolate too). She could open the gift before she leaves on her trip and hopefully like it enough that she takes it with her. The pouch is massive so she should be able to fit everything in and then some.

I used a piece of my long owned and very occasionally used flamingo fabric, because I love it so much. I paired it with hot pink Stof linen, a lime green zip and a pink lining. I used line green thread to top stitch a little, but I didn't do much as I used fusible fleece.

I love the various flamingos. Whoever designed it is genius - a flamingo snorkling? Come on, you've got to love it.

So now my mind is turning to all the other things I would like to get made over the next few weeks. Lets hope that I find the time.

Susan