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

CMYK quilt

Back to school - back to basics. I started the new season by assembling my tie-dye samples turned quilting samples into a little wallhanging.

It reminds me of printing swatches of the four colours used in most printing jobs - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (meaning black).

I wrote previously about my quilting practice on tie-dye pieces here and here, so I won't go into separate pieces again. I don't really like UFOs sitting around, so I decided to put them together the quilt-as-you-go method without any particular aim in sight.

Going by the smallest piece I started trimming the samples 10'' by 10'', until I reached the heart piece, which was a couple of inches wider... Fortunately the ladies from my sewing group practically stopped my hand in midair and made me find a way to accommodate the heart in full. I still had two pieces that could be trimmed to 10'' by 12'' too, so they formed the middle row.

I think it turned out lively and quirky, not sure if can be classified as modern quilt or anything else, definitely it's an interesting exercise in colour and texture.

Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Free Motion Mavericks at Lizzy Lenard Vintage Sewing
Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

Natural History

It could have been a Friday (or even Thursday) Finish, but I couldn't catch the light to take pictures. Even today is mostly overcast, but still - here it is, the Natural History quilt.

If you're new here and like looking at WIP photos, you can see its beginnings here and here, and even here for the humble beginnings.

The quilt is made with quilt-as-you-go technique and it was fun to play with the different sashings and the scrappy binding. I love how all of the fabrics I used, have some texture of their own, which makes them blend with some backgrounds and stand in contrast to others. It makes it ever so natural ))). Here are some close ups:

Here is a prove of how the colors blend in with the world outside)))

I hope I'll be able to take some better photos of it in the not-too-distant future.

UPD: We did manage to catch some glimpses of sun on our walk in Howth (again, see how colors in the quilt are the same ones as around it):

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Fab Tuesday at Quilt Story
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

#BraveQuilter October Wrap Up

The school break doesn't help sewing progress as we are trying to go out and about every day, still I think I met my October challenge of trying the quilt-as-you-go technique of putting blocks together. This is my progress to date:

I've put some of the blocks together to form larger blocks, but I'm still thinking whether I want to add something between those or just to trim them and connect as they are.

I found a lot of tutorials on the technique, many of them variations on the same basic process. This is the one I used a basis with a minor adjustment - I make the back sashing strips 1 1/8'' wide and stitch them down by machine. It's not as accurate on the back as hand-stitching (and this is why I don't usually stitch my bindings down by machine), but I just wanted it to go quicker.

I must say the block connection process was simpler than I had anticipated and technically goes very fast. It's all the design decisions like choosing the sashing for each piece and trimming down the blocks, which are all odd in size, that keep me back. I'm enjoying the work on this piece as it seems so unusual for me and I'm amazed how people comment on the color scheme in it, although it's very subdued and very natural - just the kind of colors you're most likely to see outside, especially this time of year.

A huge thank you is due to Julie at Pink Doxies, who has been hosting the #BraveQuilter challenge for a long time and has inspired me (and many others) to try out new things, share the experience and take pride in being a Brave Quilter!

Linking up to October #BraveQuilter Wrap Up Linky Party at Pink Doxies
Fabric, Thread and Yarn at France Nadeau
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts