Quilt of Joy!

My do.Good Stitches quilt is finished!!!!!

I really love this quilt!

For about a year now I have been a member of the do.Good Stitches Bee on flickr. I really love being part of this bee. Each month we make a couple of blocks for a quilt that goes to good cause. I'm part of the Joy circle. August last year was my first month where I designed the quilt that was to be made. I showed my lovely Joy ladies this mosaic and this sketch and referred them to this great tutorial. I asked them to make 2 blocks. They could choose to do girls or postage stamps, and it looks like they had a lot of fun making them!

Every block I received is just gorgeous, and I have to show a close up of some of the girlie blocks that were sent to me. I am so touched by the thought and detail that has gone into them

Look at the bow in her hair, and her pet duck!!!


Love the flared dress on this girl :)


I think this girl is off to a wedding - look at her fascinator!!!


this one actually has birds on her arms and head like Mary Poppins!


Look at those spaghetti straps on her dress!

My quilting is more than a little bit dodgy, obviously I need a LOT more practice, but that's okay. I didn't make this for inspection by the quilt police. This quilt destined for Project Linus and will go to a sick child in hospital in my local area. Hopefully a little girl will be too busy falling in love with all the wonderful details in this quilt to notice the wonky quilting :)

A HUGE big thankyou to all the lovely ladies in the Joy circle, and to Rachel who runs do.Good Stitches

And I just ticked off one of the items for Rhonda's Finish Along. Now I'm off to put my feet up with a glass of wine :)

Edited: I've linked up with Jenna's Manic Monday linky thing - never done that before, but it's fun seeing what other people have been up to :)



Hope you had a good weekend
Fiona x

Prince Charming Cushion

My sister asked me to make her husband a cushion for his birthday. I got mixed up, and thought I still had a while still to make it, but no, his birthday is today!!!

Cue frantic emergency cushion sewing this morning!

I hope he likes it!

Fabric is Prince Charming by Tula Pink bought from the Fat Quarter Shop.

I was inspired by this beautiful pillow on Flickr.

Happy Monday!
Fiona x

Hand Quilting

A while back I asked advice about how to quilt my Loulouthi quilt and got some really great ideas from some of you (Thankyou!) In the end I decided to hand quilt it, using perle cotton in a random, butterfly garden kind of thing and I thought you might be interested to see how it going

I am so glad I decided to hand quilt this. I am totally head over heels in love with it and snuggling up on the sofa with this on my lap, doing a little bit of stitching in whatever colour takes my fancy is a perfect way to spend a winter's evening :)

I chose to back it with a print from Heather Ross's Mendocino line (that I got on sale) and it is the softest backing I've ever felt!. The kids keeps squirrelling themselves under it while I work on it because it's so soft.

I did make a rather big error of judgement when I basted this though. I decided to give spray basting a go. It was after I'd spay basted that I decided on hand quilting. I have found that spray basting does not make quilting with perle easy. It is hard to get that needle and thread through the quilt!
But I'm getting there slowly. I've zigzagged it all round the edges so it can be snuggled under without too much worry while I'm working on it.

I've also finished my Brit Bee blocks for the lovely Judith she asked for any kind of log cabin with the centre of it to be our own fabric to remind her of us. I hope she doesn't mind a little bit of embroidery :)

And I've finished my blocks for do.Good Stitches. It's my month again this month and I chose a snowball design for a boy's I Spy quilt for Project Linus. I've already received some blocks from the lovely ladies in the Joy Circle and can't wait for the rest to arrive. I think this is going to be such a cute quilt!

It's a big day in our house today because it is my daughter's 6th birthday! I can't believe she's 6 already!!! How did that happen?!? We got her a new bike and she is chuffed to bits with it! It's her favourite colour turquoise, it has a stand, gears, suspension  and a bell and best of all it has a glittery saddle! I want one just like it for myself!

She took it out for a quick spin this morning before school :)

Happy Birthday Baby Big Girl!

Fiona x

Finished Swoon Cushion

Finished Swoon Cushion, a photo by fionapoppy on Flickr.

This is my downsized Swoon test block that I made, before chopping up my fabric for a quilt in Katy's Swoon-along. I've made a new rule for myself, I have to finish something before I can start something new. So now I can get going on my Swoon quilt.

I made it into a cushion/pillow just for me and I really like it :) I'm going to go and put it on my side of the bed quickly before my daughter tries to swipe it!

Fabric is Mendocino by Heather Ross and it's an 18" finished cushion

Are you Swooning too?

Fiona x

Swoon

I couldn't resist........

The lovely Katy posted over the weekend that she was hoping people would join her in a Swoon QAL and I couldn't resist!

I bought the pattern a couple of months ago when I realised that my FQ bundle of Joel Dewberry's Heirloom would be my perfect fabric for a Swoon quilt. I even bought backing and binding, but I couldn't decide on background fabric so my fabric and pattern sat patiently waiting.

A little voice in my head wondered if my beloved stash of Heather Ross's Mendocino might be the perfect fabric, but cutting up those treasured FQs requires bravery that I'm not sure I have, so the pattern waited some more.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to size down the block and use some of scraps of Mendocino (I just couldn't cut anything bigger than a scrap!) I thought if I decided to go ahead and use Mendocino for the quilt, it would be a pretty co-ordinating pillow.

I'm so glad I made a wee block first! The Swoon quilt is not "The One" for my Mendocino. I love this little block, and can't wait to quilt it and turn it into a cushion, but now the Mendocino Swoon thing is out of my system I can proceed as planned with the big pile of Joel Dewberry :) and I've ordered some white poplin for the background.

If you fancy Swooning too you should hop over to the group on Flickr. There are some gorgeous blocks, fabric and fully finished quilts in there already!

Our schools and nurseries went back today, so I have a peaceful empty house for the next 45 minutes! I'm off to have a coffee and sew some Bee blocks :)

Happy Monday!
Fiona x

The sun came out.....

Finally after weeks and weeks of gloom and storms the sun came out!
Just in time for me to show you the quilt I finally finished :)

I started this in January 2010 when John the Quilt Dad ran the Bloggers Block a Palooza QAL. I really enjoyed doing the QAL but couldn't decided how to piece the top, then I was too scared to quilt it, so it got put in a bag and buried as I got distracted with other things.

The quilt was at the top of my To-Do list this year and I am very pleased with myself for finishing it :)

My youngest son is also very pleased because it's for his bed :)
It's really hard to get a photo of a quilt on a bunk bed!

3 of the quilt blocks ended up in the back of the quilt. I think my son actually prefers the back to the front!

I finally got brave and tried FMQ again, and I really enjoyed doing it!!!!
There are a fair few mistakes and jaggy bits but I'm really happy with how it's turned out, and they say practice makes perfect.
And I've got lots of WIPs to prectice on!

Fabric is Make Life by Sweetwater
Backing is Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt


Fiona x

Finishing up!

I discovered yesterday that Rhonda Quilter in the Gap is running a Finish Along on her blog and it's exactly what I need to help motivate me to finish some quilts.

So I'm going to play along. I've chosen 3 things I really want to get finished and am going to try my ultimate best to crack on and finish them up.

First up is a quilt top that I completed well over a year ago, possibly 2 years ago, I don't even know! I loved this fabric line when it came out and was so excited to buy my first ever jelly rolls and get cutting and sewing, but as soon as it was finished  I fell out of love. I think I might love it again once it's a quilt so I'm going to pull it out and get working on it again

Second up is a quilt that I started using the lovely Susan's 'ugly fabric' that she kindly gave away for someone else to use. This is destined to be a quilt for Project Linus and I feel really guilty that a child does not yet have a quilt because I got distracted by something else. Also my daughter is helping me make this one and I think she'll love to work on it again with me

Third is another charity quilt destined for Project Linus. The blocks for this quilt have been made by the lovely ladies of the Joy circle of do.Good Stitches and sent to me from around the world. I think this quilt is going to be amazing when it's finished and again I feel really guilty that I haven't finished this before now.

So there we have it. Three quilts that I plan to finish this quarter. I think I'll do it :)

Fiona x