Caturday Wisdom #39

Not all greens are good for you. Ivy

Hope you get to enjoy some good food this weekend, green or otherwise.
As always, pet advice submissions are welcomed at adrianneonthewindyside at gmail dot com.
Send me your little pet faces.

A Letter from Lotta Quilt - Finished!

I'm embarrassed to say that I've had this quilt top made from Lotta Jansdotter's gorgeous Glimma fabric (available here and here) sitting around, unfinished, since January.  January, people.  That's months and months ago and in the end it took me about 2 and a half hours to quilt it up.

I did have fun with the quilting.  I wanted to make sure the quilting emphasised the envelope design, and I used tiny pebbles to outline the "address window". 

Lots of different sized pebbles quilted in the envelope part make it feel like one of those padded envelopes.  I love imagining that there's a special treat inside.

To go with the envelope theme, I quilted mini envelopes in the border (totally inspired by this quilt).

All the quilting is done with Aurifil 50 weight thread (colour 2600).  Quilting this quilt was my first time using Aurifil (although I've since used Aurifil for my Blackberry Winter Blossom Quilt) and I had been saving it to use for quilting.  I will probably do a more complete review of Aurifil once I've spent a bit more time with it, but on an initial encounter, I'm quite smitten.  First, this colour is fantastic - it seems to go perfectly with all the fabrics in the quilt top and the backing.  Secondly, I can see why people say Aurifil is really good value for money.  This quilt made a much smaller dent in the spool than I was expecting (and we all know that pebble quilting uses HEAPS of thread), plus the bobbins seemed to last for a lot longer than usual.  Happy.

I think Nat's post about zigzags and chevrons influenced my choice of backing fabric, and I'm so glad it did, because I think this print from Cloud 9 Fabrics Simpatico collection is just right.

Quilt Stats
Pattern: my envelope quilt pattern

Finished Size: Approximately 30" by 40"

Fabric: Lotta Jansdotter's Glimma collection, Robert Kaufman Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Black 

Backing: Chevron in Minty from Cloud 9 Fabrics Simpatico collection

Binding: Pearl Bracelet in HiHo Silver

Pieced and quilted by: me

Linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

This quilt is the sixth and final of my third quarter goals that I've finished.  Six out of eight ain't bad!  Link up now with Leanne at she can quilt as part of the 2013 Finish Along - the link up is open until 7 October, so you have a little time.

(Nearly Wordless) WIP Wednesday

Quilting my Blackberry Winter Blossom quilt with Aurifil 50 weight thread, colour 2021. Loving this thread and the process.

 

 

 

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

Tidbits from my weekend

I had a very nice weekend, which included a haircut, a quilt guild meeting, and lots of time sewing with my friends.

I had hoped to have this quilt finished to show you today but I'm still finishing the last of the binding.  It will be my last finish for the 2013 Finish Along.  Are you ready to link up your projects?

I also went shopping for fabric to make my Ruby Dress. I wasn't actually terribly successful on the dress fabric shopping, but this lovely knit caught my eye and I had to get a metre of it.  I think I'll just sew it up into a simple cowl, and it will make a lovely soft spring scarf.

Caturday Wisdom #38

You've gotta be in to win. Ralph

Thank you so much to everyone who entered my giveaway for a Fat Quarter Shop gift voucher.  I've drawn the winner and the random number generator picked lucky number 19, Melissa!

Congratulations Melissa!  As you can see, Ralph is very excited to see that you won!

By the way, I actually picked another winner first, but when I went and checked it turned out she was a no-reply blogger who hadn't left an email address in her comment.  Sad.  So if you're not sure if you're a no-reply blogger and think you might be, check out my tutorial on how to switch to being a reply blogger.