Bloggers quilt festival - Quilt #2

My second quilt entry for the Bloggers quilt festival is my scrappy rainbow.  This quilt came about by my need to do something about the ever growing pile of scraps, the design  was inspired by the missing 'U' quilt in the Sunday morning quilts book.

I went to town on the quilting, channelling my inner Angela Walters and custom quilted each of the rainbow blocks individually.  Using large pebbles on the skinny borders and swirls on the large borders.

close-up of custom FMQ

close-up of custom FMQ

Backed with more Ikea numbers and rainbow offcuts.

I am entering this quilt in the Scrap quilt category. 

Quilt stats:
Pattern - Inspired by the Missing 'U' quilt from the Sunday Morning quilts book.
Fabrics - Various scraps for blocks.  Kona Coal for small border and Architextures Crosshatch in grey for larger borders.
Binding - Architextures crosshatch in black.
Backing - Ikea Britten Nummer and large rainbow scraps.
Quilting - Various FMQ patterns by me.
Size - approx 65 x 75"

Bloggers quilt festival - quilt #1

I love the Bloggers quilt festival and am all excited that I don't have to decide between my two favourite quilts this time as you are now allowed to enter 2!

So my first entry is Wink which was made after I took the Caro Sheriden pictures to pixel quilts course on Craftsy.

 I chose to make an eye quilt and used my graduation pic as my eyebrows were nice and tidy for a change and I was relatively wrinkle free back then.

Quilt process

I cropped and pixelated the picture and then used a spreadsheet to work out the quilt details, using a bit of artistic license when it came to eye colour.  The fabrics I picked were Kona solids in  Snow, Ash, Medium grey, Steel, Coal, Charcoal, Pepper, Royal, Water and Caribbean.

I quilted on my home machine using a walking foot and a curved grid design and then used Kona steel for the binding to give the impression of a picture frame.

I have entered this into the wall hanging category of the festival.  If you are new here thanks for visiting, if you are already a follower sorry for the repeat ;-)

Quilt stats:
Design: My own - made as a project after taking the Craftsy course 'Pictures to pixel quilts' by Caro Sheriden
Fabrics:  Kona solids - Snow, Ash, Medium grey, Steel, Coal, Charcoal, Pepper, Royal, Water and Caribbean.
Backing: is a mix of the Kona solids and Ikea number print.
Binding:  Kona Steel
Quilting: Curved grid design using a walking foot on my Janome Horizon.
Size:  Approx 62" wide and 45" long.

Cushion overload

A spurt of activity yesterday afternoon and then this morning has meant that I have the 'commissioned' cushions all done and ready to post.  As these have been on my mental to-list for the last 3 months, it feels good to tick them off.

 I was going to quilt with a cross hatch pattern and then decided on wonky wavy at the last minute.  I use my walking foot, increase my stitch length to 3.5 and loosen the foot tension and then wiggle.

Close-up of the quilting

 For the backing I used some Spot on in Pond, which was as close to duck egg blue as I was getting.

Hidden zippers for the closures - I learnt this technique from Fiona's fab tute and always refer back to it.

I hope she likes them, but then again I am not making anymore so she will have too ;-)

Has anyone seen my rainbow?

I appear to have lost it!  I seem to be in a green and blue phase with my makes at the minute.  

My latest project being another of those 'commissions' for my best buddy, who requested 4 (yes 4!!!) cushions for her brand new sofa.  When I asked about colours, the words 'duck egg blue' and 'brown' came out of her mouth,  I quickly directed her to our nearest Dunelm Mills.  Again after a lengthy convo/argument she agreed that I could do what I wanted with a blue/green combo.  I like it when they bend to my will ;-)

Having picked out 32 fabrics from my stash (mostly from my Pink Castle fabrics stash bundles), I chose a simple patchwork design and mixed in a bit of Essex yarn dyed linen in Flax.

I have my wadding in the tumble dryer after it's pre-wash and then I can get on with quilting them.  I do love a simple project!

Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday

Le Challenge - Wings (Aeroplane bag)

I just missed out on entering last month Le Challenge, this month I was determined to be finished in time.  As soon as I saw the theme 'Wings', I commented on whether my Aeroplane bag would count on the Le Challenge blog and Nat confirmed that it would - woo hoo I had a plan!

and here it is...

I used Melody Miller Sparkles mixed with some Essex yarn dyed linen in black for the exterior ( no surprises there then!).

I used a Comma bar code print for the lining.

I really love this pattern, my only regrets are not using a stiffer interfacing on the top half as my bag is a little floppy for my liking.  The zipper was also a bit of a bugger, but as I can't talk about it without wanting to rip my hair out, the less said the better.

Not content with one bag, I had to make a couple of matchy matchy little extras using this pattern.  I made the telephones sling bag and then decided it was still too big, so reduced the pattern to 75% and tried again.  It is a great pattern with very clear instructions and is a very quick make.

The little bag is perfect for carrying my phone, keys, purse and passport.  So now I am ready to travel - not that I have any plans! 

Linking up with Le Challenge

SMS Giveaway winner!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the giveaway and to all my new followers, but there can be only one winner and Mr Random Generator has spoken.....

Congrats Liz - I will be emailing you shortly!

LMQG - The Village Haberdashery class giveaway!

Annie is giving away a slot in Katy's class over on the LMQG blog - if you live in the UK, get yourself over to the blog and enter for a chance to win.