Finished Christmas Quilts

I wanted to take some pretty photos of my all finished quilts today while I was off work (and had natural daylight for the first time this week) but the weather turned out to be absolutely terrible and it might as well have been night time it was so dark here, so I am so glad that Chris has been out earlier to buy a daylight bulb, this thing is awesome!

First up is Felicity's Big Sister 9-patch;

And then Baby Hannah's Not-So-Mystery Mix Tape;

Two partially matching quilt for two sisters, now just to wrap them up and let them finally go home!

J x

Big Sister in progress

Next on my list of quilts (on my Winter Stitching list anyway) is Fifi's Big Sister quilt. My god daughter is soon to become a big sister for the first time and as she never got her own baby quilt (she is 4 and I have only just finished my first quilt) this is her big sister quilt. It is designed to loosely match the Mystery Mix Tape, but as she is no longer a baby- I didn't a want a typically baby quilt.

As a ballet-loving girly girl, I have gone for a range of pinks and reds, but I am keeping the grey sashing and 6" blocks from the Mix Tape.

Using the mix tape layout of 5 x 6, 6" blocks, I need a total of 30 blocks, 15 of these will be 9 patch combinations (7 of these shown above) and 15 will be single colour blocks; the central single block with have an F monogramed onto it... if I ever complete the embroidery tutorials!

Jx

Winter Stitching Update #1

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)
                no update to report

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia
                fail!

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue
                maybe next week?

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli
                no embroidery yet, but my hoops are on their merry travels to England!

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee (and finish October's this week)
                woohoo success!!! I finished October's block this morning and it is on it's way to Laura, I will             .              do a post on the blocks after she has received them.

6. enjoy the local quilting festival on Sunday 23rd, by Lutterworth Piecemakers
                check out the post that I did last weekend to see some of the great quilts I saw, it was a lovely             .               exhibition!

7. quilt and bind Numero Uno
                quilting - check, binding - nearly!

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)
                no chance, must buy more batting

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape
                ditto

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

                nope

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

                started, but very little progress.

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

                I think I have decided, been researching like mad this week, but I need to try it out myself              .               before I inflict it on the lovely Bee ladies!

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

                I'm sure I will get around to this eventually...

14. write my winter stitching list

                another checked item!

so the updated list looks like this;

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee

7. bind Numero Uno

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape 

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

I thought I had made much more progress than this :( better luck next week!

Jennie x

An achievement... or two

Having had an awful time at work the last few weeks, I have finally had the courage to stand up to my boss and tell him that I am not coming back in until he sorts himself out, which means I have had a week off to play and while the first few days were all about sorting out the house and looking after my family, friday was all about me and I certainly kept myself busy!

First, I dragged out the Baby Mixtape quilt which has been sitting quietly in my dining room waiting for me, and I have 100% finished the piecing for the top.

Now I just have to go out to buy the sheet for the backing (that might have to wait a few weeks until payday though as I allowed myself to buy these beauties online...)

             

I have been eyeing up Etchings for ages and I just couldn't wait any longer, who knows when it's going to arrive- but at least I can be happy that it is on it's way!!!

But in the meantime I need to practice my quilting on this guy...

who has been in the wings for far too long, but I am so pleased that I still like him! Originally this was going to be the front of a double sided quilt in matching fabrics, so I have been adding borders to the back panel to get the sizes right, but now I have changed my mind and I am pretty sure I need some extra quilting practice so I bought plenty of neutral backing to make two yummy lap quilts that might actually get used.

Part of the decision came when I realised that I think I prefer the back to the front and I don't think I could bear to use it if I liked both sides- I am not that confident that my seams will hold!

Notice the extra pieced borders, I should have measured the length before going to buy fabric; note that 44" isn't as long as you think and that a quarter probably isn't enough... lesson learnt! 

Hopefully, quilting this is on the cards for today, after a long walk over the fields with this guy,

He needs a bit of tlc, but the lucky guy does have his first costume all ready for Halloween. Now, normally I am dead against dogs in clothes (unless they are supposed to be useful, like a snuggly fleecy jacket for a short haired dog in the snow) but I saw this toddle pumpkin costume in Wilkinsons and decided to take my first stab at clothing alterations. It turned out to be dead simple; just a few ripped seams and some alterations to the sleeves and waistband, with an additional tie ribbon around his middle and he's all set to go...

Not sure what to do with the matching hat though...

What do you think?

Jx

PS. Don't worry Miss October, your blocks are works in progress, hopefully I will get them done tomorrow!

Now off to walk this doggy and try to shift my cold!

Mystery Mix Tape

This week I finished the 6" blocks to make up my new Mystery Mix Tape quilt, which is based on the Mix Tape pattern by Oh Frannson, this was my original inspiration from The CraftyBlackbird.

for my God-daughter's new brother or sister. Making a gender neutral quilt was really difficult to choose the colours for, but I decided that I couldn't go wrong with a variety blues, yellows and lime green and the simple 6" blocks should be easy to make a semi-matching quilt for the new big sister.

I broke Oh Fransson's pattern down into 4 block types
Block A

Block B

Block C

and Block D

I made a variety of these blocks from my 10 materials until I had a total of 30 blocks and rotated some of them 90 degrees in the layout so it didnt end up too regimented. (Please excuse the colours on this one, it was dark, honestly they aren't quite this vivd!)

Now all that's left is to choose the sashing colour, I am thinking a light grey, but I am not sure. I think it needs something to give your eyes a break after the yellow and green, but white doesn't sound sensible for a baby quilt. Then I can make my binding from this fabric;

I absolutely fell in love with it when I first saw it, and to be honest the colour scheme for the whole quilt was taken from this fabric!

J x