Tree Fall

From first till last

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned  the fact that I made my first 'quilt' at the age of 22 and that I had no idea what to do  at all. It was, as far as I was concerned, a simple affair. You cut up the fabric, you sewed it back together and eventually (meaning never) you sewed a back on to it (sans batting). I literally did not know that there was supposed to be a quilt sandwich or that you then actually quilted it.
My lack of knowledge (and lack of talent!) aside, I really enjoyed the act of creating it and am relieved that I still have it, although up until a couple of days ago I don't think I'd had a proper look at it for at least 10 years.
But Paisley got me really thinking about it after she remarked that she'd like to see it. So I dug it out.

The first thing that hit me was just how big the thing is. I can't actually spread it out flat anywhere in my house!
Then there's the fact that there aren't even any actual blocks and that the pieces are all different sizes and shapes. It's all completely freeform.  Which is kind of cool.

This is my favourite bit. Which I can now  recognise  are pseudo nine patches, but I obviously didn't know anything about that at the time.

It seems absolutely crazy to me now that I just cut all the pieces freehand and measured nothing. How did I get it all to fit? Of course the lack of seam allowance will have helped with that!

Can you see that? There is totally no allowance there at all. I can't imagine how I thought it would stay together.
I just find it so strange now looking back at this and realising that I knew nothing at all. Except that I loved the fabrics and wanted them to be pieced together. Which I guess is enough.
This is my favourite of the fabrics. I think it may be from Hong Kong.

And in complete and total contrast, here is my most recent quilt.

This couldn't be more different. It's all about precision cutting and exact seams. It's completely structured. It just pretends to be freeform with the random choices of fabrics.

When I think about how different these two quilts are I find it both a relief and a little sad. It's such a relief to me that I've actually learnt how to do something properly. Believe me I have a long history of flying by the seat of my pants (there are some pieces of furniture out there that I'd recommend not sitting on!) and I now take great pleasure in the fact that I have proven to myself that I have the patience to do it properly. Although as I write this I realise that there is still so much for me to learn and that I know very litte - but at least I'm actually trying to get it right.
But I'm also a little sad that I now know the rules and often adhere to them. If I tried to make a quilt top like the first one these days, I might manage to not measure any of the fabrics, but I would want to use my rotary cutter and ruler. I think I'd have a hard time just going at it with a pair of scissors and a smile! And that's kind of a shame. And I think that's why as a rule I shy away from learning too much of the 'science' behind quilting.

I'm still much more about liking the way something looks rather than photocopying fabrics to see if their values are right. And I try not to worry too much about focus fabrics etc. And of course this could mean that I'll never be a great quilter, but that's ok because as much as I know that my first 'quilt' is all wrong I still love it. And I remember how much fun I had making it.

 

(bugger, I forgot it was WIP Friday. Must remember it next week!)

Mega Monday Post Part 3

The swap that I had with Blair recently was for the wonderful, wonderful book The Princess and the Pea. When I got it for her I knew immediately that I wanted to send her the mattresses too! Oh and of course you can't have the mattresses without the pea. I had so much fun making these. It made me very, very happy. I will definately be making more (for Bella of course;)).

I just want to make the princess now!

Here's a sneak peak of something else that I've been working on. Orange and red is so pretty!

Fields On A Sunday

(Can someone tell me whether it's better to have one super long post or several shorter new posts? I find that I sometimes don't notice if someone has a few new posts, so I'm not sure which is best?)

First off here's Megan's Quilt, finished. After such a shaky start I have to say that I've grown to rather love this quilt. I particularly like the combination of the white/blue floral and the torquoise/pink floral and would like to expand on that in a bigger quilt.

And here's the back,  showing the quilting. I machine quilted, as there's just no way I can find the time to hand quilt at the moment. Also I have to admit that I'm not that confident about my hand quilting and when I'm making a quilt that needs to withstand a lot of use/washing, I feel that machine stitching is just stronger.

I just hope that Megan and her mum like it now.

Here in the UK we don't have the type of thrift shops that you do in the US and we don't have house clearances or yard sales, but what we do have is Car Boot Sales. Every sunday, almost all year round, cars drive to a big field, open up their boots and sell their junk from them, from about 6am until midday.
I only really started going to carboots about a year ago, but I am of course completely and utterly addicted to them now. We started going just after Bella was born, when the chance of staying in bed on a Sunday morning was nothing more than a distant memory. We figured since we were up anyway, we may as well go out and do something.
Which is what we did this morning. And look what I got.

I know it doesn't look like much, but it certainly got my little heart thumping. Inside this box was all of this..

Oh my! Look at all those vintage buttons still on their cards! They are just beautiful.

And there's more. On top of all of these there was also a massive plastic tub of cream/white vintage buttons.
And these beautiful mother of pearl vintage buttons.

I wonder where these ones are from for the card to say 'Foreign' on it.

And I love these big buttons!

There was also all of this.

And this.

Egads!!! I almost died when I saw it all. I've never gotten this lucky before. Wow, wow, wow!

I also bought a few pieces of vintage fabric.

And last but certainly not least, I got this fantastic book about British houses in the very early sixties. It's all in black and white but the photo's are amazing. If I can get to the scanner tomorrow I'll post some pics from it. (I have no idea why there's a statue of a naked man on the cover - Jim seriously wondered just what I was buying for a second!).

I've just thought, are carboot sales what you guys call swop meets? Or is that something completely different?

Day of Work

I had a whole day of work today. We took Bella over to my mom's last night and don't pick her up until tomorrow lunch time. And as much as I miss her, it is so lovely to be able get up and spend the entire day in my pj's working, working, working. Of course I didn't achieve nearly half of what I'd hoped, but I did catch up on a few things.
I have now finished the commissioned playmat and cushions and am pretty happy with how they turned out - it's hardly cutting edge design, but they are pretty and pink. They have also led to an order for a second playmat.

I also finished a little surprise that I can't reveal yet, but here's a sneaky peak.

I'm very pleased with it, and hope that someone else will be too!

The other thing that I managed to get finished was Megan's quilt and I have to admit to being very pleased with the end result. I'll post a photo tomorrow.
Jim and I had a date tonight since we were temporarily child free. And seeing as we're old and tired, we chose to drink coffee and read magazines in Borders over dancing the night away! We then ate dinner at Ikea, followed by blueberry pie at home. Honestly we are such cheap dates!
We've spent the rest of the evening finally watching the first 5 episodes of The West Wing on tape. We've somehow managed to never see a single episode even though we bought the entire first and second season boxsets the christmas before last! Needless to say, we are now hooked and therefore up way, way past our bedtimes.

And finally, whilst I was basting Megan's Quilt today I looked up and realised that my front room was awash with beautiful pattern. I am still trying to decide on curtains and sofa covers and had thrown the various fabric around, and it made me feel very happy to see it all, especially with the sun streaming through the blinds.

Found the Solution

Late last night I cracked the problem of Megan's quilt. I spent what little time I had yesterday (when Bella wasn't practicing for her teenage years!) sewing on and ripping off every colour of border that I could think of. And nothing worked until I finally realised that it needed this.


A solid border made the centre piece look messy and half hearted. It would probably work  if the quilt was full size, but not when it's so small (cot size). I took my inspiration from the insanity of pattern that makes up a Kaffe Fassett quilt, which of course is very fitting, nay bloody obvious when you consider that most of the fabric used is by Kaffe (I met him last year by the way, what a nice man). And now I'm happy with it. I'm going to use another pattern for the binding (possibly a stripe) and probably the same floral as the border for the back.
It is such a relief to have gotten over the block I had yesterday. It really was making me miserable (amongst other things). I hate it when you can't escape your problems through work because it is one of the problems.
Thank you everyone for your suggestions and compliments about it though - I swear that was the only thing that stopped me from chucking it all together.

One good thing that came out of being so stumped though was I started planning a whole new quilt for Megan just incase and came up with this combination.

The butterfly fabric is a Japanese sheer. Isn't it beautiful? I haven't been sure what I was going to do with it until now.
I think once I finish both quilts I'll decide which one to give to Megan.

Megan's Quilt

I've been working on this quilt for the last two days. It's for Bella's bestfriend Megan and I'm finding it a lot harder and a lot less fun than I had hoped it would be. Megan's nursery is predominantly lilac which is not a colour that I would naturally work with.  Megan's mum, Kate, doesn't now I'm doing it, and she'd appreciate a quilt regardless of what it looks like (she' a sweetie like that!) but I want it to match Megan's room, and that's causing me to struggle.

Work in Progress

I feel like I'm so behind in my work at the moment. Having a whole weekend off  (except for crafting for Bella's birthday) has really taken it's toll. I have so many things to get in the post and a lot of apologies to make! Toni, there will be a parcel posted to you this week, honest! Blair, your book will be posted tomorrow! And the four people still waiting for small bundles of fabric will be getting them very soon, I promise!! I never realised before how time consuming blogging is!

Thank God I made a start on the commissioned Playmat and cushions last week, or I'd really be panicking. The playmat top is finished and shall hopefully be quilted by the end of the week. And the cushions should be quilted by tomorrow.

And as a little thank you for the order I also made this bib to include. It's the first bib I've made and I really like how it's turned out. I was inspired by this book

But I just used one of Bella's bibs as an actual template. The next one I make will be a little bigger - but since the baby this is for is very young I think it should fit ok.

At some point in the future I do intend to start working with different colours again! As much as I love red and pink, I have a pile of new blues and greens that I'm desperate to start playing with.

Birthday Party

Thanks to everyone for all of Bella's birthday good wishes! After weeks of being being pretty pissed about how my family and the in-laws were dealing with Bella's birthday it actually turned out to be a really good day.
We just had close family and a close friend (who has been travelling since I was 4 months pregnant so this was the first time he'd met Bella) plus lots of food and  pink champagne! Bella got lots of presents and really enjoyed herself.
I managed to get Bella's quilt finished enough to be able to wrap it up (it still needs the binding finishing) and I'm very proud to say that she really did throw herself on it when she saw it. I didn't expect any kind of reaction, so I was really pleased that she liked it. It's a shame she hasn't been able to sleep under it yet though.

I have to admit that I'm really very happy with how the quilt's turned out. And I'm really glad that I didn't add sashing, I think it would have spoilt it.
And I am really, really in love with the back of it! I used a piece of Paul Smith (!) fabric that I've been saving for a while now. It's one of those pieces that absolutely nothing has been good enough to cut it up for.  I started off with a different backing but it just wasn't special enough, I wanted the back to be as striking as the front. I think I succeeded!

I so want to make a full size quilt exactly like this one  for our own bed!

I also managed to make a good few meters of bunting and used the templates in this months MSL to make a birthday banner. As well as having red and cream balloons and hanging up the first outfits Bella ever wore.

So all in all it was a success. Thank god.

Four Seasons

I haven't managed to achieve everything that I wanted to, but I've made a start and its been lovely. I just can't believe how quickly the day has gone - I haven't even managed to have a shower yet (eek!).

I have made a big dent in the Four Seasons mini quilt thing though.

I really like the way the winter one is turning out. The fabric that I've used for the ground is a vintage print that my mother has had for years. I'm supposed to use it to cover a basket for her, but I'm sure she won't miss a tiny bit. ;)

And this is the winter block with the card tree template on it. Doesn't it look great? I'm going to have to play around with this idea. The card and the fabric are so, so pleasing to me. And I love the shadow being cast by the card.