Nautical quilt

I like the colour brick pattern. This is the second one. This one is for my nephew. He is much more conservative than his sister. I have decided to add a border made from the left over bits of the fat quarters I used.  The is probably big enough for most people but they have Ikea beds and they do tend to be longer and wider than "standard" UK beds. I am not sure there is a standard really. I am off to the cutting mat.

Bright colour brick quilt top

 Well the quilt top is done. It has been for a couple of weeks but I haven't been able to get a good picture. I followed Stitched in color's tutorial. I like that is was easy to follow with good pictures. I liked using it for these fabrics as they have such large designs.

 Even now it isn't brilliant. Grey sky is the standard for this time of year. Also trying to hang the whole top would have meant possibly dangling it in the mud.

As it was the little black puppy tried to catch it every time the wind took it. She is so helpful.
The fabrics were all bought at Lady sew and sew. Lovely helpful staff. The border is Andover fabrics from about 4 years ago. It's left over from one of Daughter's dresses. I am off to work on nephew's quilt top now. Pictures hopefully tomorrow.

Finished the pink sampler quilt

 My pink sampler quilt is finished. It is less pink than I feared. Most of the fabrics are leftover from dress making.

 The shoo fly block and darting birds are all dresses and blouses I wore when I was at Uni. So they are 15 years old - OK I lied 20 years old this September. How did I get so old?

 The pink check and the white stripe material are left over from sheets. I used to love pink almost as much as my daughter. I used the check and stripe for the binding. Never again am I going to hand sew with that fabric. It is so densely woven. My mother tells me the fabric is percale. 

The back is from Ikea's Rosalie range. I used Mettler thread to quilt it. The quilt is 2m long and 1.35m wide.

Resolved to sew 2012

pink scrap quilt

 Very Berry Handmade is running a super competition. I thought it could be good to actually write down what I want to do in 2012.

Quilt for niece1

 1. Make quilts for the Aussie cousins. One quilt top is finished, backing has been bought. My mother is finding out what colours the younger ones like and I hope to start on their quilts soon.

summer dress for me

 2. Make a dress for myself. I make lots of dresses for my daughters and will probably do so again this year. They still like flowery dresses and I like making them. I have never made a dress for myself. I have bought the pattern and the material but that is as far as I got. So this year I want to make a dress for me. Fingers crossed it'll look good.

orphan quilt blocks

 3. Think of something to do with the Orphan quilt blocks...

hexagon flowers

4. Work on the hexagon quilt mark 2
5. Finish the man's quilt. I have half the blocks made and the need to get on with the rest. The problem is husband wanted me to use his old shirts. They are mostly blue and checked, so I am a little bored right now.
6. Actually join in with a quilt along not just look at them and think about it.
7. Be more self assured. I can make dresses, I can make quilts. People don't just say they like them to not hurt my feelings.

Now to fit all that in around housework, children, puppy and trying to build up my reputation as a freelance writer of scientific documents. No worries. :-)

progress report

This is taking longer than I had hoped.

I am about half now with the quilt top. I am loving it. Very bright but that was the brief. It is taking longer than I had hoped though. Puppy is very inquisitive and needs to help. I have stitched 9 rows, only 4 to go. I will also need to add a border as the niece has a rather large bed.

Bright colour brick

Just a quick update on the bright colour brick quilt. Sorry for the state of my bedroom (I am a really bad housewife - particularly upstairs where no visitors come. Downstairs is not spotless but heaps better). The picture quality isn't stunning but I was running out of daylight. Mind you in the UK sunlight is a rare thing this time of year, grey is the standard colour of the sky right now.

And now for something completely different

Bright!

My Sister-in-law has asked me to make quilts for her children. Of course I said yes. The eldest daughter got to choose some fabrics. This is what she chose. Very different from what my girls like. My daughters like liberty prints and flowers. In fact my big girl looked at me and said:"I hope that is not for us." I think I will use this tutorial to make her quilt. Might need some more fabric, too few colours.... what a fortuitous coincidence that a local shop has a sale on.