I was blind, but now I see

I have always been a prints girl.  Whenever a new collection comes out, I look for my favourite print.  I love dots, checks, little flowers, swirls, paisley.  Prints, prints, prints.

When I see "solids" on a fabric website, I think background.  99% of the time I think cream or white.  To go with my prints. Prints, prints.

The first time I saw solids in a different light was when I saw this quilt by Judith:

In the flesh it is totally amazing.  It is called Comet and the back shows the comet "exploding".  It is quilted with 2 different variegated threads.  Perhaps that's why I like it so much, I thought.

Then earlier this week I chanced upon THIS:

Totally solids, totally groovy.  I LOVE THIS QUILT!  I am such a child of the 70s.

Alyssa at Pile O'Fabric is hosting a Totally Groovy Quilt Along of this amazing Groove quilt.  I so want to join in - I have printed off all of the Kona solids from the Village Haberdashery website and have pulled out 2 sets of 5 that I think would make an amazing quilt.  If I could get hold of a Kona colour card I think I would be a bit less nervous about which colours to choose.

I am teetering on the edge of joining this fabulous quilt-a-long - the only thing stopping me being my duty to not buy any more fabric and instead chop into my stash (which, obviously, is all prints!).  I am not even scared of the curved piecing!

Help me decide!  Argh!
Gertie xxx

Hiatus

Very quick post to apologise for the lack of posting, which also reflects the lack of sewing ... this is due to a snotty, mildly feverish, and teething 18-month-old who is keeping me up for large portions of the night and being very clingy in the day.  Hopefully this will pass soon!

Beatles in stitch!

Have you seen these Beatles stitcheries on the BBC and the Liverpool Echo websites?

Photo courtesy of Liverpool Echo website

My favourite band combined with my favourite hobby!  Love it!

Gertie xxx

Progress mid-July

Not much going on in the Pye household this week aside from waiting for the Summer Holidays to begin.  I am keeping everything crossed that this 3 and a half months of rain might finally be coming to an end just in time for the school holidays.  That would make things much easier!

Stitchy progress has been slow but not entirely static.  I haven't done any Apple Crisp or Dolce Jelly Roll quilt, but I have been plugging away at the Union Jack pillow.  It is now all quilted on the top, and the backs are cut & lined and waiting for binding strips to be attached before I sew them onto the back of the pillow:

I really must sort the lighting in my photos.  The quilting is probably clearest on the green but basically in all of the coloured areas I have straight line quilted according to the fabric pattern.  The border is only lightly quilted on the main red and green horizontal and vertical lines.

Also I have been building up the hexagons but I am not loving it so I am tempted to turn this into a cushion:

I should then have enough hexagons to make another cushion to keep it company, and perhaps a Christmas stocking as I have Camille's "Merry" pattern - see the hexagon stocking in the foreground:

 

Off to do a bit of hand stitching on the baby's Bucilla felt applique stocking now - here's the kit from the Colray Crafts website:

I have modified it slightly because on the kit, the name is on the reverse of the big candy cane in the corner.  However, on daughter #1's stocking, the name runs across the top cuff of the stocking and so I don't want daughter #2 lamenting that her name is hidden whilst her big sister's is emblazoned for everyone to see.  So I have converted the top into a red / green / very thin white strip and cut out a strip of white with the name on in the centre.

Although Christmas seems a long way away, I only actually have just over 4 full months until the beginning of Advent so I can't afford to slack on this one, especially if I keep getting waylaid by hexagons.

Gertie xxx

Hexagon trauma

I have been steadily making hexagons in the evenings over the last month ... I am up to about 150 now.  I had not made them before and was quietly impressed with how quick it is to get a little pile going:

I then printed out some hexagon paper as suggested by Bonnie at Quiltville, whose epic hexagon medallion quilt is the inspiration for my hexy layout:

I really like the effect that Bonnie gets from using just 3 colours, as I have only 3 colours too.
So, today I did my first hexy rosette, which will form the very centre of the quilt:

Now I like this very much.  But goodness me it took a very long time.  I am trying to make my stitches nice and small so that you can't see them but it just seemed to take an age.  Maybe I have been spoilt by the super-zippy hexy basting stage.  I was hoping to do a quilt as big as Bonnie's extended epic but now I think I might just do the central hexagon:

 

Maybe I'll just see how it goes.

Gertie xxx

Finish-a-long Q3

I was very happy to stumble upon the Q3 Finish-a-Long over at Rhonda Quilter in the Gap because there's nothing like a little peer pressure to gee you along with those pesky WIPs that just won't do themselves.

I am only going to put down those projects which I think are achievable, and the first in particular is one that I have sort of fallen out of love with, but I was in love with once, so surely I can be in love with again if I can just get it finished.  Okay, here goes:

(1) Rouenneries - Apple Crisp

This picture was taken when I had done 18 of the 63 blocks.  I have now done 60, so I am on the home straight.  All borders etc are cut, so I expect the only tricky bit will be deciding the layout as this is quite a big quilt and I don't have a design wall, unless you count the spare bed.  This old friend has been rumbling along since January 2010, so I really need to knock it on the head.

(2) Union Jack paper piecing

Since this photo, I have machine quilted all of the central red area and all but 2 of the green triangles.  I then want to quilt the border a little, then get it made up into a pillow.

(3) Dolce Jelly Filled

This is a jelly roll pattern for my daughter's bed which I have chopped from Dolce by Tanya Whelan, so it is all ready to go.  I think I might try to involve her with making it too.  Once this one is done I am going to do an identical one for Siblings Together.

Other WIP
These are things that I am going to continue working on, but which I am not putting on the list as I know I won't be able to get them to completion by the end of Q3:

(1) Hexagons - just going to keep plugging away at these whilst deciding final layout
(2) Bucilla felt applique stocking - for daughter #2 - before she notices her sister has one and she doesn't
(3) Bee blocks - I am quietly impressed that I managed to turn July's block around in a single sitting and so am feeling a bit less apprehensive about blocks from future months sidelining my other projects

Gertie xxx

Bee Block July

After the FQ Retreat, I have to admit I felt a little bereft when it was all over.  It was similar to the feeling I had as a child being taken home after a birthday party.  I wanted the fun to carry on for a while, even though I knew I had to go back to reality and we would all have to wait until next year.

Jersey Sue confessed that she had "Bee Envy" after the Retreat, and I knew exactly what she meant.  We had seen the charismatic Brit Bee group all together in person for the first time, holding up Terri's Project 51 quilt:

It is just the most wonderful creation.  I wish photographs could always do justice to the wonder of needlecraft but unfortunately they can't.  Even my close up doesn't show how vibrant this quilt looks in the flesh:

The back was funky too!

Sue put feelers out asking if anyone would be interested in starting a new Bee group, with a view to meeting up again next year.  So many of us jumped at the chance that we have 2 separate groups within our Bee - the Bumble Bees and the Honey Bees.

I am in the Bumble Bee group, and our first Queen Bee is the lovely Kelly of Jeliquilts.  Yes, she with the Melody Miller viewfinders bag that I wish to steal:

For July, Kelly has asked us all to make a huuuuuuge 19" block with random circles appliqued on it.  Now even though I have read a zillion online tutorials about how to do machine applique, I have always been too chicken to try it.  Until now, that is - here is the block I made this morning in Kelly's lovely rainbow colours:

In fact one of the main reasons I chose to join a Bee is to get me out of my little comfort zone and to try new things.  I thought this would take me hours and hours and be littered with mistakes, but in fact it is a really straightforward technique (thank you Mr Bondaweb) and I really enjoyed it.

Gertie xxx