WIP Wednesday

So far I'm having a pretty quiet sewing week.  I'm finishing up the binding on this quilt, which I'm really excited to finish.  It's backed in minky which is super soft and snuggly.

Since it's tricky to hand stitch binding to minky, I sewed it onto the back of the quilt first and I'm hand stitching it to the front.  I've used the same black and white dot print that I used for the narrow borders for the binding.  I'm mostly using black thread to blend in with the binding but since the white dots are so large I've left those bits unstitched and I'll go back with white thread and finish them up later.  Is that crazy?

I also got a knitting lesson from my mum this weekend and I've been knitting up a little sample to try and get my stitches right.  It still feels quite awkward but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually.  I've bought yarn for my first project, a scarf.

Have you been trying anything new this week?

Linking up with:

Planes, Bikes and Cars Quilt

A friend and colleague of mine is expecting his first child soon.  When asked if he and his wife had any requests for the baby's quilt, he told me, quite seriously, that he likes planes and his wife likes trains.  Um, right. Anyway, the plane idea stuck, but I wasn't quite sure how to go about it since the aeroplane themed quilt patterns I'd found weren't really doing it for me.  Then I dropped into a local quilt store to buy thread, and lo and behold they had just gotten the perfect aeroplane print Echino fabric in.  I picked up the car print at the same time and I already had the bike print (also Echino), so after that all I needed to do was add lots of different blues and greens from my stash.

I fussy cut the centres and then pieced each log cabin block with logs of slightly different widths, dispensing with the usual light/dark convention to get a really scrappy look.  These were really speedy to make up - I had all the blocks together in about half a day (and happily I have a lot of the strips I used to make the log cabins left over so I think I'll make some more soon).

 

The back is very simply strip pieced, mostly using fabrics from the quilt top.  I deliberately chose slightly softer colours to give the back a more peaceful vibe than the front.

 

I quilted this quilt in an all over square spiral pattern.  It looks kind of complicated to do but it really is not.  I used my mother's Bernina Aurora 440QE with the Bernina Stitch Regulator for the quilting. It was a bit strange since I am used to free motion quilting without a stitch regulator, but the back is much neater than I can usually get it and I don't have the little thread bobbles I tend to get when I stop.  I think it also helped me keep control of my quilting so it didn't get ridiculously dense.

The parents-to-be have a totally adorable (and very naughty) miniature dachshund.  I think this little fabric dachshund makes just the cutest quilt label ever! It was also much easier to write neatly on the upholstery weight fabric I used - it didn't move around under my pen as much as quilting cotton.

I'm so pleased with how this quilt has come out and I can't wait to give it to this little family.  I think the discovery that making quilt labels can be a lot of fun will encourage me to label more of my quilts (because I always think I should and then don't get around to it!). Do you label your quilts?

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Make it up as you go along scrappy log cabins

Finished Size: Approximately 36" by 42"

Fabric: Assorted designer quilting fabrics including Echino, Tula Pink, Kaffe Fassett, Lizzy House, Michael Miller and Carolyn Friedlander

Backing: Various

Binding: Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton (makes incredibly soft binding)

Pieced by: Me, on my domestic sewing machine
Quilted by: Me, on my mother's domestic sewing machine, using a stitch regulator.

Linking up with:

    

 

and with Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts.

Caturday Wisdom #32

"Sharing is caring. But keep one eye open just in case..." Roxy

Roxy (woof) and Jackal (meow) are friends from nearby. Both were rescued from the SPCA, Jackal came along many years after Roxy was on the scene but has quickly taken advantage of Roxy's gentle nature and superior bed. 

If you would like to see your cat featured on Caturdays (other pets are also welcome!), flick an email to adrianneonthewindyside at gmail dot com. Have a great weekend!

P.S. Some of you (I would imagine mostly fellow Kiwis) might know that a decent earthquake hit central New Zealand yesterday. Thankfully, we suffered no damage (except perhaps to Ralph and Ivy's tail-fluffing instincts).

Vintage Flowers Fabric Basket

I've been planning my items for both the Sewing Room Swap and Sew Sew Modern Round 3, and I think I'll end up making both my partners fabric baskets.  Since I haven't made a fabric basket before, I  decided to make a prototype to test out the size and pattern I intended to use.

 

I used the Nesting Fabric Bowls pattern from a cuppa and a catch up, and I think it was definitely worth the cost.  The technique used to make the fabric bowls is not that complicated, but the pattern explains all the steps in great detail, and it includes lots of variations if you want to add handles, pockets, and lots of other good stuff.

 

I am borrowing my friend Anne's Janome while my sewing machine is being serviced and I was tempted by the novelty of fancy stitches to add these to the exterior of my basket.  I think they work really well with the vintage flowers fabric (from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Shining collection and bought at Stitchbird but I'm pretty sure I snagged the last FQ).

 

I lined this basket with one of my favourite fabrics - its an oldie but a goodie from Joel Dewberry's Heirloom line.

This was a super speedy make (apart from applying the interfacing which always takes me ages - this is a job I would happily delegate to the sewing elves!) and gives a really satisfying result.  I'll be working on my swap baskets this weekend and I can't wait!

Do you have a favourite fabric basket pattern?

Linking up with:

and finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

Skills swap?

I'm really keen to do a skills exchange with someone who would like to swap a pair of hand knitted socks for a quilted item made by me.

 

Ideally I would like to swap with someone who is already an experienced sock knitter, who has a pattern they think I might like, and who even has yarn in their stash that would work for this project.

 

In exchange, I will make a quilted item using fabric from my stash and a design of the other person's choice.  I'm thinking that a quilted pillow/cushion cover or two would be a fair swap for a pair of socks, but I don't really know how long it would take to knit a pair of socks so I'm definitely willing to negotiate on this point.  By the way, I'm using a pillow/cushion cover as an example to show the scale of the project I have in mind - if you wanted to swap something different (for example, a mini quilt, a table runner, a laptop sleeve etc) just let me know.

I've included the pictures to give a flavour of the types of socks that have caught my eye.  I am by no means set on any of these patterns or yarns, but I can tell from the pictures that caught my eye that I like a bit of interest either in the texture of the knitting or the colour and variegation of the yarn.  I also love these socks, and these and these, all knitted by Amanda at hey porkchop.

All of the pictures should take you to the flickr page of the maker if you click on them - these are definitely not my own work.

If you are interested in this skills exchange, drop me an email at adrianneonthewindyside at gmail dot com!

P.S. If you're wondering "why don't you ask your mum to knit you some socks - clearly she has knitting skillz?", I have, and she has agreed to have a go even though she's never knitted socks before. I just thought this would be fun too!