Little news

I haven't posted much recently, it's been a bit busy.

DD1 came back for the week end a week ago. It takes her 6h30 to travel down from Glasgow. It was great to see her, but too fast .

I've been sewing , and knitting, so I've got lots to show, but I need to take photos first.

First for fun, my friend Fiona just came back from Australia and brought back some goodies:

The small bags are really good to keep parts of projects together, like this 

And the band aids say "quilted" on it.

Thank you again Fiona.

I'm working on some paper piecing as a hand sewing project, inspired by this book 

And this is my project at the moment, to make a baby quilt

I love the idea of using paper clips to hold the fabric on the card before basting. This book is very inspirational.

I put little stickers with numbers when I had decided the position of each star. I made 6 diamonds from each fabric, and used 3 of them for one star.

I have not completely decided on the edges, it will come in its time.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale

Another baby quilt for the hospital

On Wednesday 16th of May we gave all the coverlets and little quilts made by the ladies from the Golden Lion Quilters to my friend Belinda L who works for the special care baby unit in our local hospital " The Great Western" in Swindon. We were so suprised there were 30 coverlets and 7 incubator covers. They were well received and are now on the beds of the babies who are getting ready to go home (fattening up very often, especially if they were born early).

 And this is my second addition to this good cause, an incubator cover. I used a fleece bought in Ikea for the back, but it wasn't as thick as the one I had for my pink quilt.
To make the pattern I was able to borrow a special ruler from my friend Kandy who blogs here (although not very much at the moment, she is busy with DGD).

I have used children or bright fabrics for this little quilt, and was very happy to find this batik blue in my stash. I made one long pleat and cut it in 3 portions plus some left over that I will use at some point I am sure. I think the cutting took the most time. The sewing was straight forward.

 These photos are to show you my exercises on the quilting. I used the design on the front to make the big feathers, then made some smaller ones freehand, and finally made one on each side with a double centre line. I think I prefer these best.
I use any excuse to practise quilting free motion.

And for the binding I had a yellow fat quarter, kept the selvedge on when I cut my 2" wide strips. My binding is double folded so the bit of selvedge is hidden inside. no problem.

And finally I put a label on the back with a bit of binding to frame it.

I hope the staff and children in the hospital will have some pleasure from having these quilts with them. It was a pleasure to make them.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

Baby quilt for the hospital

Our patchwork group is working for a charity this year. We are repeating what we did 2 years ago and quilting for the hospital, more precisely the special care baby unit, where my friend B works.

 I have made this little quilt already and am working on another one, well maybe. We will give them on the 16th of May so the deadline is approaching.

 I started thinking of a quick project. Really I was kidding myself, there are a lot of half square triangles in this design, 8 per star in fact. Each is finished at 1".

 I used some purple fleece on the back, and only quilted around the star. It's a good size to practise free motion quilting.

At the end the back looks really interesting, and very soft.
The corners are rounded to be less dangerous for tiny infants.

I hope this little quilt will make somebody happy.
Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

I'm taking part in the Olympics !

Ok I'm not taking part as an athlete but my participation will be given to an athlete coming to compete into the olympics or paralympics games. This initiative is run by "Quilts for London" and is going on in Great Britain. The idea is to give a pennant to every one of the 12 000 athletes, and we have until the end of 2011 to finish our work.

 I chose a gymnast as their silhouette is so recognisable.

You can see the quilting on the back. I kept it very simple.

I hope that the person who will receive it will like it.
Each one of us in our quilting group is making something, and I should be able to show you the photos when we all get together ready to send them off.

Pascale.

Skinny quilt

This year I am also taking part in a challenge on BQL to make skinny quilts. It just means that we don't have to spend too much time on them, because they have a smaller size. The first challenge is to make a 12" by 18" quilt before the end of February.
This is my contribution :

 There are 24 log cabin squares with a blue centre, and light surround. Because of the binding, the size is a bit bigger than the one required, but that shouldn't be a problem.
I finished yesterday to put the binding, after embroidering a label at the back, and putting a sleeve for hanging.

To make it more interesting, hopefully, I inserted little triangles of fabric between the rows.

Now the next stage for me will be at the end of February, when we have to choose our 5 favourites little quilts, and then Kandy will swap them between us, with a priority in choice to the first people to have finished their pieces. She has found a way to make us work faster, and not wait for the last day at midnight.

On Monday I have also spent most of the day tidying up my sewing area and my stock of fabric. I am happy to have finished, although I have more boxes of fabric in our bedroom, there is less visible in the lounge where my sewing machine is.
It was nice to sometimes rediscover the fabric I bought. There were even 4 fat quarters bought twice! I have sorted some of the pieces by colour and have boxes for : white, dark, blue, green and red. The rest fills 3 drawers. Maybe I could do some projects using only some colours.
I also need to finish some of my projects, including 3 quilts which are more or less finished tops. One is for DD2 and she reminds me sometimes that she is waiting for it.
I would like this to happen this year.

A late birthday present

This was a late birthday present for my friend Katherine. We have been running together for the last 6 years (already). We are trying to go out twice a week at the moment.

2 years ago we were together in Bath in the fabric shop, and she noticed this panel. I bought it for her but it's taken me all that time to make it, and she received it after her birthday (you know how it goes, you start a project really early, then get distracted and it is not finished in time).

The panel is printed and all the quilting was done by hand, relaxing. I have put a photo of the back as I was hoping the photos would show more of the quilting, but I am not sure it is enough.

Iris wallhanging for my Mum

Now for something I have made, and am proud about: my Mum's Birthday present. She was born before Christmas, and as we go back to Paris around that time, she gets a second cake, with the candles, presents and family. She deserves it.

This year I wanted to give her something I made, and used the pattern I bought some time ago (ok a few years...but I knew who to use it for). It is "Iris" by Gail Lawther, and is a stained glass patchwork pattern. Go down on the web page about 2/3 of the way to find it.

http://www.hbweb.co.uk/gqpv3/pattern_packs_regular.asp

Now I can promise that the wallhanging is straight. It's just that it was folded when travelling.

I used this opportunity to practise my free motion quilting on the feathers in the borders. It doesn't look too bad on the photo.

I regret that I didn't have time to buy a bar to hang it on the wall. This being Christmas time I was pretty busy. I hope that she has found the time to hang it properly. I'll see in February when I'll be going on my own to my god-daughter's first communion.

I enjoyed this pattern, the second I've made by Gail Lawther.

Now back to this UFO list, to shorten it, and then I need to make something for my DH's Birthday.

Japanese plates table mat

Ihave finished my japanese plates table mat which was previously shown as a work in progress.

Once the 12 blocks were hand appliqued, I sewed them together by machine, and added some strips of fabric on 2 sides to fit the table. That's the only bit not done by hand, with the first seam on the binding.

All the quilting was done manually, and

again I enjoyed that.

I have even put a label on, with the name of the designer,etc...

This is beautiful if I may say so, I love it. It will be what is sometimes referred to as an heirloom that stays in the family.

Future finished project

I am currently working on a small quilt, to be put on a very nice table inherited from my grandmother. In fact it is a sewing table, with little compartments to put your things away. I would like to use it but at the same time I know it is too small for all the little things I use for sewing.

It is currently covered with a Christmas theme little quilt, made with the technique of reverse paper applique, and has been for 2 years. It is time to change it, until next Christmas.

This new project I found in Quiltmania n65, spring 2008, and it has a little Japanese air to it.

I have made 6 blocks so far, so am halfway there. Each little flower uses a bit of my left over fabrics.

I copied every piece on freezer paper (in my case the paper wrapping copier paper), which is then ironed on the fabric.

The flower is hand sewn together, and then appliqued by hand again, not omitting to take the freezer papers away before closing the last petal.

I hope to be soon able to show you the finished product.