A day of crafty :]

Today I was off work, being my weekend off, and I promised myself that I was going to have a relaxing day to myself - and I managed to achieve that :]

I made a matching pillowcase for my jelly roll quilt :

 Sorry for the mess on the bed - I dont have a lot of space in my flat so it's used as extra space to work at xD

 This is a close up of the back side, I only had 2 smaller widths of fabric left, so I had to sew them together, then I had the idea of over stitching a bit of left over binding down the middle. I think it looks okay. Better than a join down the middle.

 These two are pictures of it all on my bed :] I really like it, it seems really summery, even though its freezing here today! I can't wait till it's hot and I can just use it on its own. (again sorry for messy room)

I also decided to make my easter pressies today. Sounds weird, but my mum is on a cholesterol lowering diet so she can't have chocolate eggs, my sister is on a diet and I am trying to be healthy! So I was in the haberdashery shop in the village and I found not only do they sell fabric and wool, but also felt xD I was very excited by this prospect and promptly bought 6 sheets along with some of her new range of buttons and some broach backs. 

Armed with these supplies and my flower book I made these this afternoon:

 I have to say that the pictures dont do them justice! I'm going to see if I can take some better ones. The top one is turquoise and purple. Dark purple. It just doesn't look like it...

 These two seem okay :] they are the cutest to me, and the blue one will be going to my little sister and the red/pink one to my Mum :] I hope they will enjoy them. As for me, I'm going to keep the purple one as it didn't quite turn out as I wanted!

And now, as for me, I am off to rest, before I start my sister's birthday present tomorrow xD

thanks for reading

starrie x

Jelly Roll part 2

Today I planned to just post about my Jelly Roll quilt, but in my blog feed was this:

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/copyright-terrorism.html

I think it's really interesting and I then spent the next hour leafing through various other peoples blogs and comments about stuff - to me it's kind of sad in various ways and now I'm really scared to sell anything that I might make. Though I doubt anyone would buy it!

So I guess I need to say (or don't need to say? I have no idea now) that this quilt was designed with Terrain by Kate Spain for Moda Jelly Roll!

It's finished :D

I spent all of my day off on tuesday quilting it - it was a fab day off :] away from everyone just quilting. 

My actual stitches aren't amazing, but considering it's the first big(ish) quilt I have quilted on my machine - it was hard to manoeuve, just because my table isn't big enough! When I had it rolled up long ways it draped onto the floor and pulled it. So i ended up with chairs all around me in this weird kinda half circle catching the quilt so it didn't pull too much! Looked insane, but did work :]

So here is my "in progress" photo for the free motion quilting

 I think it looks pretty funky :] and I really found it very relaxing

 There are are couple of close up photos of my stitching, in the pretty thread that i got :]

Some of it was quite uneven, but overall I'm really proud of it and the effect that it makes on the texture of the quilt. I'm addicted to the feel of things, if they don't feel nice, I can't have them anywhere near me. But this feels so nice, because it's all 100% cotton, and the stippling makes certain areas raised and some not  xD it's great.

 This is the finished article :]

 

And below, my attempt at arty-farty photo taking to show the binding and backing more clearly

 

I had great fun making this quilt - and tomorrow I am making a matching pillow case with the pink fabric. And also some little gifts that are an experiment, so we will see how they turn out :]

thanks for reading

starrie x

 

1600 Jelly Roll :]

A couple of weeks ago on my last weekend off (maybe like 3 weeks now >.<, I'm so slow at getting around to posting things) my aunt (the good quilter) ran a private workshop for me and my friend Bekah at her house. She did a quilt top in a day the jelly roll 1600! For those who don't know this is a link to how it is done ->http://blog.heirloomcreations.net/?p=1897

We started the day with the first step and it took us till lunch to just sew all the strips together! We had cut off the selvedges and ironed before we came. I was very dubious at this point that we would even finish by the end of the day - let alone have a whole quilt top with only 5 seams sewing!

All I can say is that it was amazing! I still don't understand the process and why it works - the person who came up with it must have been a genius lol. 

But by 4.30pm (we started at 9am with 1/2 hour for lunch) all 3 of us had a quilt top! I don't have any pictures of my aunt or friends quilt tops, but I had a terrain by moda jelly roll. I'm still not sold on jelly rolls as you can't fully see all the patterns. I bought it because I fell in love with the bright flower prints in it - but when I opened it, some of them I just was *not* sold on! The crosses design I loathe with a passion, but I am trying to ignore it! But most of the are growing on me, some of them are very 70's which isn't me, but the bright colours and patterns definitely are me :]

So this is the finished product, all laid out on the only space in my flat where I can get a whole quilt on the floor:

So this is it all laid out, before I basted it - it's about 45" by 55" - not quite long enough for single beds, but I think it will do me fine, I'm planning to use it on my bed in the summer. I  can't sleep without something covering me, but when it is really really hot my summer duvet is too much, and a thin sheet is too little. So I'm hoping that this will be a better compromise :]

 

Above is the backing I chose for it, you can't really see the design, but it's all pink and swirly and pretty :] I'm not usually a pink fan, but this just caught my eye in the fabric shop and I think it will go really well. I'm hoping I can get binding and a pillow case out of it too - I bought 4 1/2 yards.

 I am planning to FMQ it with a large stipple. I had a couple of practises, on how big they should be and if I can sucessfully scale it up. The first attempt was horrendous - I'm not even posting it up! This was my second attempt. I played about a bit with the machine speed and the stitch size. I'm going for stitches that are a couple of mm long and I have my machine set to the right speed for how fast I move my hands :-s Now I've got to go ahead and FMQ my first ever big project! Its only for me so it's not too bad if I mess it up. But I'd really like to at least make a half decent job of it! I think the pin removing as I'm going could be problematic, but I'm really excited to start it! :D 

So right now I'm off to have breakfast and spend a couple of hours quilting it - I've got a really pretty thread from madera called petunia :] very excited now I can't hold it in! Yayy :]

thanks again for reading :]

starrie x

Cuteness :]

So, following my experimenting in free motion quilting I was trying to think of what to do for my friend. She is pregnant with a little boy :] It's very excting but my other friend had already made her a quilt/blankie for him.

So I was really puzzled, because I had already bought the *cutest* little boy fleecy fabric that I was dying to use lol. 

So I did what i usually do when I'm stuck for ideas. I trawled the internet xD I looked at Malini's blog -> http://malinisquilts.blogspot.com/ and saw her great baby changing mat :] and got some inspiration for what I did for her. It's a changing mat that I added a little strip at the top so it can be rolled up and put in a bag or something, so it's portable :]

I used the free motion stippling and I really enjoyed quilting this, it was really relaxing not to have to worry about the lines, and just go with the flow! The only bad thing was that I only bought one reel of quilting thread  in the brown and I nearly ran out - it was so tight at the end, especially since I had a couple of issues with the needle and tension at the start, and I threw a lot of it away! Next time I have learnt my lesson and I will be buying *two* even if I don't need them! Hehe.

My friend hasn't seen it yet (I'm waiting for her baby shower), but everyone who has keeps telling me it's too cute to change a baby on.. Which kinda defeats the object!!

Here's some pics:

 Oh and I forgot, I made her a little building block too, I'm hoping to make a few more of varying sizes for him, but not sure if they are good enough to give to her!

This is a shot of the finished product, the front side, where I did blocks, and below is the back where it was one fabric :]

 Below are two close ups of my quilting and the edges :] On reflection I should have done a bigger stipple with more space inbetween it,  but it worked out okay because if it is a changing mat it needs to be quite stiff and it should hold up in the wash xD hehe

Thanks for reading

starrie x