Taking a Trip on the Scrappy Band Wagon

When I first started quilting, I signed up to make a trip around the world quilt top at my local adult ed. I bought meters of lovely pink fabrics and looked forward to the course. Just before the day, the course was cancelled. The fabrics were used for other quilts and time moved on.
I have always fancied making a trip around the world, the one that got away..... Now blog land is a dangerous place. One little blog post here then I discussed with various quilty friends and then another post here and so many lovely ones here. I just couldn't resist any longer.

I rummaged through all of my scraps, beautiful fabrics from my mum's trips to Canada and some wonderful ones from my favourite shop in Brugge Delander.


It is so simple you cut your fabric into 2.5" strips then sew them together in a row of six. It is suggested that you cut your strips 16" long I have made mine 17" just to make allowances for wonky seams.



Then you sew the first to the last making a tube, cutting this into 2.5" rings.


You then unpick the tubes at varying intervals so that your fabrics "step". I seem to struggle with this so keep having to sew my tubes back up but eventually you end up with pretty blocks. I am up to 10 blocks and I think you will have to agree they are looking pretty!

Till next time
Arianwen x

Season's Greetings.

Hello, I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. Well it all came together here , despite my apprehension. Presents were made, the house was cleaned and the tree decorated, Father Christmas came and everyone had a good time.
When I was hanging up my favourite christmas quilt I realised that after I started it way back here I have never shared it with you the completed quilt that I finished in time for the following Christmas.

It is the only time Mario's parents have come during the Christmas Season and my Mil requested one straight away. I have to say I started immediately but then it got shelved for other things. Then last year I finished it's twin finally finished it's twin and forgot to show you that either. They are not exactly the same, the fabrics are different and how I finished them are also slightly different. I really do love them both. Mario calls them my Donkey quilts because he thinks Santa's little helper is too chunky to be a Reindeer. Cheeky!
I have to admit I do have a bit of a passion for Christmas quilts, I have two other hangings on the go. The first Santa's Helpers was from a Quilt Mania patten a couple of years ago. It still needs me to design a tree for it as I didn't like the original as it consisted of white rectangles and red buttons. A little minimalist for my liking.

The other a penguin was a a copy of a quilt that I saw in a magazine a few years back and fell in love with. They are both narrow enough to go on the back of a door. I had a little sew on on Christmas Eve but they are still not finished. I may try and complete the applique over the next week but I doubt they will be finished this year.
What I did finish in time for Christmas was a cute little hat for my Mum. It is pansy by Louisa Harding and it is not supposed to be worn quite like this but the crown was a little short for the brim to be turned but mum seems happy with it the way it is.

I also finished two sets of these snowball buddies.

They were really quick to make and really good fun. definately made by the bows and bells that the designer suggests you add.

here are some close ups
Rabbit

Bird

Mouse

Rudolph


I also got my christmas day cast on of Oriel by Kim Hargreaves but that will have to wait for my next post.

Arianwen xx

Where have you been?

Hello,
Just thought I would pop in a show you one of my latest creations. Made entirely from stash.

A birthday gift for the littlebluetortoise. A ginger tom cat based on one I know and that she loves.

A friend for the owl.

It has been done a while

I have to confess Inigo's quilt has been done for quite some time. In fact I am not quite sure when it was finished certainly before the summer holidays.
I pretty much fall in love with all of my quilts as I finish them but, this one I just love, love, Love! I am not sure if it is the combinations of batiks and plaids which work so much better that I could ever have hoped for or that although it was made for my lovable boy it is sophisticated enough for him to still enjoy it when he is a grown man. I think the biggest love has to be Inigo's enthusiasm for it. Every time the fabric was laid out, cut, sewn or rearranged Inigo was there admiring it and asking questions. He was adamant from the very start that he wanted cats on his quilt. Four cats in representation of the four that live in this house!
This was my biggest worry of the quilt four cats that didn't automatically make the quilt for a small child (I really want him to still love this when he is big).
I figured silhouettes would be the best option but not in black. I spent ages looking for the perfect fabric
it eventually turned up in the LittleBlueTortoise's stash (it is great having friends with the same hobbies) at one point I thought that I had mucked up one of the cats and broke the news that it might just have three.
"Don't worry" replies Inigo "there will always be a fourth asleep in the middle of the bed".

I originally wanted to quilt it even more heavily but, I weighed up the time it would take to add the extra quilting against the immediate happiness that Ingio would have if he could have the quilt that night and his smile won out.

Another little Owl

Well I told you that there was going to be another Owl in my future. This one I nick named Lucy as she has stars in her eyes. The little blue tortoise laid huge hints on me about the owl quilt she really liked the idea and as I really wanted to make another it seemed like it would be the perfect solution to her birthday present. She has just had her hall way decorated a lovely shade of blue.

A rummage through my scrap bag and I had found all of the blues , just enough. I think will have to start sewing with a vengence inorder to get collecting scraps again. Although this one really doesn't fit anywhere it my house I love the colours. It hung on my wall on the day of completion just so I could admire it. The little piece of Alice Butler on the wings really makes it. Will I make another owl sometime? Maybe...

64 Paddy Paws!

Way back in July 1996 when Elenya was a tiny baby. I was walking through Brugge when I stumbbled upon my first patchwork shop, Pineapple.

It was a funny shop in one of the back streets by the gates of the old town. After I had struggled through two doors with a pram and the shop assistant had watched me I realised that they really didn't sell much! A few fat quarters in baskets dotted around the vast white interior and a pile of old Quilters newsletter. Now I would probaly walk straight back out but, I wandered around collected a few fat quarters which were a wonderful 1930's chintz and then I spied the April 1996 Quilters newsletter.
The beautiful quilt on the front "Chaco's Paw" captured my heart and the story of how the designer had named it after her kitten who had helped make it captured my imagination. Though as I had never made anything remotely patchwork before I definately didn't have the skills to make one of my own.
The fat quarters were made up into a feedsack quilt ( my first quilt) when Elenya was three and the magazine was stored for safe keeping.
Then last year when I asked Inigo what sort of quilt he wanted he was definate that he wanted a cat one. Now as an eight year old boy I can see the attraction but, I hope that as a grown man he might still like the quilt that his mama makes for him and I felt that a seriously cat one might not make the grade.
Then I remembered "chaco's Paw" I was happy and so was Inigo though he still wants it to have at least one cat. It was a bit optimistic to think I would have the whole thing complete by last week however I have broken the back of it now with a little quilting help from Molly!

My Giveaway Quilt

I keep seeing Owls every where in the craft world.Little fabric sculptures. logos, fabric and knitting patterns though unlike the 1970's no macrame yet!
I think it is rapidly becoming synonimous with anything crafty which is why I decided on a wise old owl for my little quilt. It has been ages since I designed something completely from scratch but I felt as I was giving it away it had to be all my own work. An hour later and the whole thing was mapped out on brown paper( brown paper that somebody in this house has tidied up). I also wanted the fabrics to be cheerful, spring, Eastery type colours which took some serious scrabbling through the scrap bag.
I am pretty pleased how he turned out. I almost whipped up something else as he looked gorgeous on my wall! I think I might make him again as soon as I find the brown paper!

A hive of industry.

It is amazing how much you can get done when you don't have to work. I promised myself this holiday that we would have stay at home time and no visitors as every break we have I fill it with too many activities and too many guests. I love house guests you don't even have to procrastinate about things because you really can't do them when you are entertaining can you? Anyway this holiday is different. We spent a lovely planned weekend with our good friend J and all of her wonderful furry friends she has a huge kitchen and her and the kids got down to some serious baking. Then we have come back I have started clearing some of the wip's that are scattered around my house.
Yesterday with help from Molly,I finished Jo's give away quilt and parceled it up ( I have decided that I will show it once she has it) and I finished my quilt started last summer and then shelved when time became a premium commodity. 100 nine patches and countless other squares
we snuggled under it last night and I felt proud of my day's accomplishments. Today I have been working on a quilt that I started for Inigo, just as I finished Oriana's. I am hoping to have a quilt top complete by the end of the week. Or at least some interesting patches. A few more patches tomorrow but, for the rest of the day we are going to find out how to tame our dragon! What have you got planned for the rest of your holidays?

The Family Anthem

Does your family have a favourite song? One that when hummed by one, is sung loudly by all? Mine does.
I wouldn't say that I have ever been a Bob Marley fan, it isn't that I would have switched stations, groaning loudly, when he started to sing but,I wouldn't have turned him up either! Something more pop or rock were my tunes of choice.
When Oriana and Inigo started school, their first teacher loved Bob Marley and the two of them loved Mr Moss! So much so they invited him to their 5th birthday party -and he came!
At tidy up time the first few bars of three little birds would have the class rushing to tidy the room. After a few weeks Oriana had learnt the words and she could be heard lisping them all around the house "This is my message to youhoo". Her siblings soon joined her and three little voices from different rooms could be heard singing "every little thing gonna be alright". .

At the end of the year the school put on a play I don't remember anything about it except at the end every child in the school started singing. Three little birds sung by over a hundred little people was probably one of the most moving things I have ever heard.There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Last year when we decided it was time for Oriana to have a room separate from her brother I knew that I wanted to make them each the perfect quilt.
I found a small wall quilt in Quiltmania that Oriana liked. It just wasn't big enough I decided to expand on it but with what? ...then I heard Oriana singing and I knew she just had to have Three little birds singing sweet songs.
If your family has an anthem, drop me a comment I would love to know

Scrappy Nine Patch

A few weeks ago, I came across Crazy Mom Quilts and her one a day quilt along. I thought that it sounded like a good idea, one block a day, and a great way of using up scraps but, I had so much on the go that I probably wouldn't bother. I mentioned it in passing to my quilting buddies the little blue tortoise and J who got really enthused. We decided to pool our scraps so that we would all have a variety of fabrics. I had a major clear out of all the little bits I had pieces going back to my earliest quilts. Every Thursday for the last couple of weeks we have grabbed great handfuls of 2.5" square and handed over our nine patches. The rest of the week has been a frenzy of nine patch piecing as we tried to catch up. At the end of thursday evening the nine patches have then been spread across the floor and we have each picked one till they were gone. At day 53 we have 59 each and the target is 70 which makes a single bed size. We still have a lot of scraps and I am still enjoying the rhythmic piecing so maybe mine will end up a double.

Stuff

I have finally got all of the original applique onto Oriana's quilt the photos are a bit fuzzy but it is looking quite good and I am looking forward to deciding what happens next with it. I think it is going to be quite organic as a ton of pins doesn't really appeal to me.
Last Monday, Elenya broke her finger at school, the school didn't inform us and when it turned green later in the evening I took her to casualty. I phoned to complain the next morning. Two days later they phoned to say that some horrible boy had decided to squeeze it.She walloped him around the face and although I don't condone violence I think this would probably have more effect than the exclusion handed out by the school.So I then took her out of school for the rest of the week for her own safety.This week being half term so another week to rest it before anyone else grabs hold of it.
I realised last Thursday that gorgeous Kid Silk Aura is not the same as KidSilk Haze, it really is obvious if you look at it but I had picked the perfect colour for my Rowan Exchange gift and hadn't checked tension or yardage but just started knitting. I had been knitting for about a week. Stupid I know, I have never done it before and I will never do it again!! As after I ummed and ahhed about whether to buy more Aura or change to kidsilk haze I then had to frog it. A truly horrible experience. I am now way behind on my gift and having a bit of a panic.