Quiet scraps for an improv quilt

 Sorry to anyone that is a Flickr contact, you will have seen these photos earlier in the week! 

As I've been working my way ever so slowly through the Geese in the Forest quilt pattern I fancied starting a totally free flow pattern, me thinks I'm rebelling against paper piecing, this isn't like me at all-I am a one project at a time type of girl! However it is what it is and I went with it :) 

I pulled some of my favourite scraps of quiet low volume fabric, little bits from past projects, some from swaps or scrap packs and then added some more chatty friendly prints into the mix.

I then stitched and added fabrics, stitched and trimmed and then added some more!

And this is what I left hanging in the sewing room last night 

I am really pleased with this little rebellious piece of patchwork. I'm planning on adding roughly 10" to the top and sides to make it into a good sized baby quilt, that said if it keeps growing it could end up big enough to fit on my bed! 

I really must get around to some basket photography soon, I've whipped up quite a few and also have my Sewing room swap partners fabric buckets ready to photograph...in fact they have all been sitting on the kitchen table since Sunday just waiting for me to get around to it. A fabulous display of being a lazy bugger if ever I've had one! 

*Almost* Wordless Wednesday

*Almost* because I'm too mouthy for just photos :) 

A morning beach walk today.

An unexpected use for my liberty fabric basket.

Madam has started sewing up her first quilt! 

And a large fabric bucket, first of a set, for my swap partner in the Sewing room swap 

More photos of this to come...once I make the rest of them! 

Geese in the Forest quilt Slooooow progress!

This is as far as I've gotten!

4 blocks out of 100, this is a slow burner :)

I am really happy with the linen as a background, I gave in and ordered from a UK based shop so should have some more to work with this week. 

In the mean time I thought I would pull together some fabrics for the geese parts and prep as much as I could.

So as soon as it lands on my mat I'm ready to sew...well once I've cleared this lot up

Why am I such a messy worker? I mean really even the shelves are trashed. I've got a lot of refolding to do in the morning! 

Just to cheer myself up I'll share tomorrows dinner recipe with you Gnocchi with pancetta, spinach and parmesan cream It's not going to make the skinny jeans fit any better but my word will it make me happy :D 

Turning Twenty Quilt finished

It is finally finished, washed, dried and photographed and I couldn't be happier with how this quilt has turned out. 

We headed over to the local park to take photos and I decided to make the most of the kids water fountains being turned off for the evening and threw the quilt over one to get some full length photos.

A behind the scenes shot :D 

Him in doors lending a hand, he's well trained bless him - he knew to keep his feet out of the photo! 

The flowers are still going strong so I thought I'd get them in on some pics too.

The roses in particular smelt ah-mazing! 

And to finish a close up shot  of the quilt in all of it's crinkly glory 

So the quilt details are 

Pattern - Turning Twenty

Size - approximately 75" x 61"as I left off the border.

Fabric - All sorts! Mainly Tula Pink Parisville and Joel Dewberry Hierloom.

Quilting - My fave serpentine stitch pattern running horizontally across the quilt.

Binding - Machine stitched binding in a lovely blue/plum that, I think, ties the fabrics together rather well. 

 It is now listed in my etsy shop 

 A full detail listing can be found Here

Hope you are planning a fabulous weekend! 

Start of my Geese in the Forest quilt

Due to an unprecedented amount of laundry (possibly due to the school holidays!) My Turning Twenty fat quarter quilt has only just made it into the washer today of it's first crinkling up wash. I have a plan to get some photo's taken tomorrow so I can share it but you know what they say about plans and the weather! 

My sewing everyday goal is going well with a good few more baskets waiting to be hand stitched, it takes me forever to get around to that bit as I don't enjoy it too much , however once they are done I'll share those too :)

I finally made a start on the Geese in the forest quilt 

The first set of blocks are hole punched and my trial block came together really fast (for me anyway) low volume background and scrappy geese...I don't like it.

Just too busy. Lower low volume may have worked but I was spitting the dummy out by that point as it  had looked so good in my head! 

One giant pile of scraps later and I remembered when in doubt use linen! 

I'm sticking with this one, calm background with wild geese :D 

I think I have about 1/4 yard of Essex dyed linen in flax left so I need to reorder asap, do I order from the US and pay pennies for the fabric and gouge my eyes out on the shipping or order from the UK and   declare bankruptcy by the end of the month...I need a cheaper hobby lol 

Turning Twenty quilt update

So I made the sensible choice and chose to quilt the Turning Twenty quilt before starting the Geese in the Forest, it has given me a chance to have a proper think on which fabrics to work with and I am thinking low volume background rather than white with either scrappy geese or hitting up my Anna Maria Horner or Amy Butler stashes :) 

Onto Turning Twenty :D Oh how I love these threads! 

I chose the pink one to help tie in some of the more erm...vibrant colours in the quilt top!

I feel the need to "keep it real" here and point out I quilt with loud music or podcasts on and a cup of tea or a glass of wine if I'm feeling cheeky. I have to wrangle quilts through my machine given the layout of the room and I am known to swear while doing so. 

I would just hate to think someone "out there" thought it was a breeze to quilt a 20FQ quilt on a home machine and then got a shock when they tried...It takes wine, loud music and bad language people! 

It is now waiting it's turn in the washing machine (after Madams laundry in the morning!) and I will show finished pictures once it's all crinkly and dry.

Have a great weekend! 

Temptation!

I have been loving the look of this Geese in the Forest quilt for a while, so I gave in and downloaded the pattern last night!

Do I start it ASAP or finish the 50% quilted Turning Twenty quilt first? Decisions, decisions! 

A fat quarter quilt

I've had these fabrics put together for a while now and since deciding to sew every day thought it was the perfect opportunity to do something with them.

                                        

While I was paring Tula with Joel I discovered a loft is most certainly not the place to be on a hot summers day so I decamped to the kitchen.

Yup more fabric baskets but they are another blog post!

Installing a cutting station on the kitchen bench under the watchful hinge of the armadillo bread bin (Poor thing is starving as we've not had bread in the house for months all it gets now are left overs to be turned into supper) 

I went with a Turning Twenty pattern as I know it off the top of my head and that was exactly what was needed, fast, hassle free, fun sewing :)

I then hacked and slashed the blocks into quarters and stitched them back together again, as you do. 

I managed a little of the quilting tonight and I have high hopes of having it ready for binding by late tomorrow evening, that is if Madams girlie sleep over party goes without any problems!

Please keep your fingers crossed that the girlie sleep over party goes without a hitch!

Edited to add -
Here is a link to the Turning Twenty book I have as I totally forgot to add the link when I posted!
Turning Twenty by Tricia Cribbs enjoy! 

Modernista Homemade{swap}~R4~Spicing up the bedroom!

I know, I know 2 posts in 1 day - whats going on! Utter madness here lol
I forgot to post pics last week of the swap package I sent out for The Modernista Homemade swap and the ensuing sewing that it inspired :) Because of the nature of the swap I don't want to give away who this package went to as the person hasn't reported it received yet.

 My partner seemed to like simple graphic shapes so thats what I went for.

A cushion or pillow-depends where in the world you live and a fabric basket.

This is the cushion with an ill-fitting cushion pad in it as I didn't have a larger one to hand.  HST, linen and scrappy binding featured quite heavily in faves and comment so thats what I went for, I hope I got it right! 

And the little fabric basket, made with a tutorial from Ayumi's blog Pink Penguin 

I've found they are a little bit addictive...I may have made some more slightly larger baskets since this one went to it's new home...

Three to be exact :)

They are just a perfect size for putting yarn in, or remote controls for game consoles or leaving at the bottom of the stairs to put "stuff" in to take upstairs later. I do wonder how the heck I've lived without fabric baskets in my life for so long. 

See how well my crochet fits in there, it makes me very happy as it stops 'Bella attacking my yarn while I crochet.

I have plans to make many, many more!

What have you been sewing that you've found addictive to make? 

Building a good habit or eating chocolate and whinging - August!

I'm putting this "out there" incase anyone fancies joining in or just prodding me to keep me on track!  One of the lovely blogs I read seaside-stitches sparked my admiration with a challenge she has taken on, it's a simple sounding challenge but one that we all know is harder to do than to say!

 sew every day Sounds simple yeah? 

Well I thought I would quietly try this through August on my own, because you just know how easy these things are if you don't tell anyone to keep yourself motivated-yeah right! I just really want to make a dent in the ever growing list of things to make. It is now the 5th and I failed! How bad is that?!? So I'm doing what any good modern lady would do, I'm eating (slightly melted) chocolate with a cup of tea and having a whinge about it before jumping on the band wagon again!

I have sewn 4 days out of 5 so far and hope to continue through to the end of the month. Would you ladies, I don't think any guys follow my corner of cyber space but shout up if you are, like to see sewing progress shots even though I can safely assume they will be of the above chocolate wrapper iphone standard? I hope to have a pile of finishes by the end of the month and a good sewing mojo in action rather than being surrounded by chocolate wrappers!

I will leave you with another photo, my lovely man "Him in Doors" knows I love Jo Malone so he bought me one of her candles 

I haven't lit it yet but when I lift the lid it fills the room with the most delicious scent of wild flowers and it looks super pretty on my dresser!

 I have been totally spoilt :D

P.S. any thoughts on the new Doctor?