January Cushion of the Month for IPS

Our Cushion of the Month project is going strong, and it's so nice to see all the various interpretations of the previous patterns at our virtual meetings. I'm hoping to see some January cushions at this month's meeting, too.

For people leaving in more continental climate this interpretation of January might seem strange, but in Ireland, this is what January looks like: there may be half a snowflake, but spring flowers are certain to pop up here and there. I have a snowdrop bud in my garden at the moment, and Dublin botanic gardens posted their first snowdrops back in December.

As usual, I made the sample with Moda Grunge fabrics, using the basic machine appliqué technique and free motion quilting. The quilting echoes the flowers with drop shapes.

I took the photos in my daughter's room, as the cushion fits well in its colour scheme; and sure enough the cat had to take part.

Here are all the cushions up to date:

To finish, here is a photo from the botanic gardens a couple of years ago; unfortunately, we can't go there (or anywhere) at the moment, but looking forward to visiting again some day.

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creation by Nina Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Christmas on the Cards

 A little Christmas post on Christmas Day.

This year's Christmas challenge at IPS Eastern branch was making a fabric postcard to be sent to a care home resident. I made a few and sent some to friends and neighbours too.

After posting the cards on Instagram I was also invited to take part in a fabric postcard exchange by some Russian quilters, and I made a special New Year  themed one for my exchange partner in Moscow.

It took some time, but the card arrived safe and sound, almost at the same time as her card came to me:

So, this is how I dived into the world of textile postcards and started to discover its possibilities. If you haven't tried them before, there is a little tutorial on IPS website, and Instagram is full of inspirational examples.

Forgot to show the backsides - here I got to play with some of the decorative stitches on my machine that I do not normally use for anything.

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

October Cushion of the Month for IPS

IPS Eastern Branch committee has come up with a brilliant idea to start a "Cushion of the Month" project for the members, in order to provide a sort of virtual connection while we cannot have our monthly meetings. I was asked to create the patterns and was really excited to do it, although I can feel the weight of responsibility, too. As curve piecing is not everybody's cup of tea, it was decided that the patterns should be appliqué featuring some seasonal highlights for every month. So, October = pumpkin, doesn't it?

I wanted to bring the same stylised Art Deco vibe into these patterns as in my recent quilts, and the colour contrast plays a big role in that - nothing like black background to make (almost) everything look classy. For my sample I used Moda Grunge Metallic, which has just the right combination of dress up and dress down.

I'm looking forward to seeing how other branch members interpret the pattern while I start working on the next month's sample. Speaking of which - choosing a symbol for November was not as straightforward, what would your choice be? I'll show mine when the November pattern is released.

Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Of Flowers and Letters

This project lies at the intersection of two of my interests - quilting and lettering. I heard about the #36daysoftype challenge in Instagram several years ago, but didn't have the time then, or the year after, or... until this year, anyway.

The commitment is to design and post a letter or number every day for 36 days, the reward is to enjoy all the beautiful, quirky, mind-boggling, sweet or provocative interpretations of the same letter posted by artists, calligraphers, animators, illustrators from all over the world.

I only found out that it started on the day that it started, so I didn't have the time to make a couple of entires in advance or even to think through my concept and it emerged gradually through the first couple of days. I think D was the first really nice one.

The concept, as it developed, was Art-Nouveau inspired illustrated initials with floral motifs. Three fabrics for each letter: a pastel background, relatively dark letter, and a lighter tint of the same colour for the flowers of leaves. Detail and stems were added with a thread, which more or less matched the main colour. The appliqué was done on Pelmet Vilene with the help of Bondaweb, then free-motion quilted.

I did the initial sketches in Procreate on my iPad, several at a time, whenever I had the time, so the process of making the letter itself did not take long and could be fitted into most days. I fell back a couple of times, but then caught up making two or three at a time.

Unfortunately, I ran out of Pelmet Vilene before the end of the project, and not just anywhere, but right after I completed the letter X. None of the scraps left was big enough to cut one last 6 inch square.

Obviously, I knew it was coming, and I had ordered more, but that was the beginning of the strict lockdown and the shop closed even its online operations, so the order was left to hang there for several weeks. I finally received my materials when the instagram challenge was over, but I still completed the last letter and decided not to go into the numbers this time.

So, here they are, all of them:

Lots Of Pockets

Another look back at the projects not featured on the blog yet - this was a first birthday present for my niece:

I rarely buy panels, but this one had bright colours, cute animals and lovely florals - everything I love, so I thought it would be great for one on my baby nieces. As they both had been supplied with baby quilts already, I decided to make a panel of pockets that can go on the side of the baby cot, rails at the the top of the stairs of on the wall somewhere.

I was sensible enough to buy a blender fabric from the same collection at once, so that was used for the sashing, and three baby fabrics from another collection went to the inside of the pockets, backing and binding. I used the quilt-as you-go method to put it all together, with the only difference that the pockets and pocket "lining" had to be quilted separately before stitched together at the edges. The pockets are slightly wider than the lining to allow for two little tucks that create the volume inside.

The quilting was very simple, just parallel lines in various directions, but it did take quite a lot of time. Putting the blocks together was easy, although handling the thing became more difficult when the rows were put together, because it's heavier and more unbending than a normal quilt with all the layers going on.

The corner triangles and loops at the back hold the poles, so that the whole thing keeps shape even if stuff is stuffed into the pockets, and the ribbons are there to tie it to the rail.

On the whole, it was quite a different project to what I usually do, requiring a lot of technical decisions rather than artistic ones, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Linking up to :
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Quilting + Bookbinding

= a new photo album

At one of our recent IPS Eastern branch meetings, a great teacher called Sidella demonstrated simple bookbinding techniques, and one of the things she brought was an album with a quilted cover. So I decided to make something like this for myself to house the photos from family photoshoots which were printed at about A4 size, some of them square. The phtotshoots were 6 and 4 years ago, and I still haven't been able to find a suitable album (and at a reasonable price, too).

For the cover I went through my (not very impressive) UFO bag and found this little panel, made before I took up patchwork for serious and so not a bit wonky. As I'm not a fan of the Sunbonnet Sue style, I couldn't decide how to use it and it's been sitting around for about as long as those family photos. But for an album of kids' photos it's kind of suitable, don't you think?

I added some matching blue fabric around the panel and quilted it in bright green.

The quilting shrank my cover more than I had expected, so it didn't fit the way it was supposed to (see the unquilted edge?), but, luckily, I had enough margin.

I also had to use gift wrap for the inside of the cover, as I couldn't find any other paper large enough. The album itself is 32cm by 32 cm (12.5'') and I wanted a continuous piece of paper for all of the inside.

I stitched the pages to the cover using the "long stitch" technique with bright green hemp cord to complete the look...

And proceeded to stick in the photos before I realised I hadn't taken any photos of the album. But it was fun to go through those beautiful pictures and realise how the kids have grown since.

That's a whole new way for me of using patchwork and quilting for practical purposes and it seems to open possibilities for Christmas presents...

Linking up to Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Christmas Mini Pouch

Speaking about last-minute Christmas gifts:

I've wanted to make a curve-pieced cup pattern for a long time, but never got round to it. Then, a couple of days ago, I though a cup would be nice to put on a mug rug (cup rug?) for a little Christmas gift, so I drew the pattern in Illustrator and printed it out. The handle bit is rather fiddly, but I managed it more of less OK:

Then I suddenly decided against a mug rug, and made it into a little pouch.

Some snowflake ornaments agreed to take part in the photoshoot, but I'm actually going to put something sweet inside when it goes to its new owner.

So, that's that - just a little bit of seasonal cosiness (though I hope it's not too Christmassy, so it can be used in other seasons as well.

Linking up to:

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River 

Wrapping Up Christmas Sewing - the Mug Rugs

Now that some of these have already been given and some have just a couple of days to wait, I'd like to give an account of (part of) my Christmas gift making - mug rugs.

These are 8'' and feature beautiful animal-themed fabric I have left over from a Christmas quilt made two years ago.

The next ones are 6'' squared and are a part of my poinsettia craze. If you haven't seen my tutorial for them yet, check it out.

Finally, the 7'' Nordic mug rug which featured in another tutorial, has a family now! Family shots:

Merry Christmas to all!

Linking up to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Finished or not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

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