W.i.P. - Quilting

The batting for our anniversary arrived on, well, our anniversary. I spray basted the top Saturday afternoon before we went to the wedding reception of my husband's teacher colleague. Whew, I had to move our sofa and the dining sewing table and still this 102'' square beast wouldn't perfectly fit on the floor. I huffed and puffed a lot but didn't let it defeat me.

I love this stage. Batting makes a finish so much more palpable. Don't you just love how a project feels much more real simply because it has more body to it? I've started hand quilting a few details on the solid strip before adding the backing and now it's time to start freaking about quilting this on my tiny machine. Uh oh.

I also finished this and my friend had the brilliant idea of adding a rattle for toddler interest. How come I didn't think of this before? I really appreciate the input by the non-sewing peeps in my life lately. She also asked whether I could sew the little one as if his belly were spilling over his trousers so I obligingly sewed a curve and it came out great. Maybe I should include curves in future projects, I seem to have eschewed them so far.

The stats before I'm off again.

Finishes - 1
one of three monsters

Ongoing Projects - 4
Anniversary quilt
square baby quilt
Red Riding -
cushion cover for the husband

Stalled Projects - 3
Grecian Waters/Emerald HST quilt - finished the top! - stalled until deadline projects have been dealt with
EPP hexies
EPP parallelograms/stars - once more stalled

Planning Stage - 2
Summer dress 2 - Darling Ranges
Skirt

Happy sewing!

TGIFF - People Without Blogs Have Finishes, Too!

Last week, on the night before my final day at my internship - I already miss my colleagues! -, I got a wonderful and uplifting email. Sandra from Queensland, Australia, shared a quilt she made for her son's birthday being inspired by my Yoshi journey and mosaic tiles around the web. I'm happy to say, though absolutely in no way surprised, that it was a huge success. Sandra doesn't have a blog but I think she deserves a big cheer for all her hard work so I simply had to share it here and at TGIFF.

Don't you just love that scrap-busting multicoloured binding? I wish I had thought of that instead of going down the safe route. Sandra made a surprise back egg as well choosing her son's favourite lime green and she made the whole quilt bigger finishing at 80'' x 100''. I think it turned out fantastic and am reminded that one day I really need to up my quilting ante.

Well, on top, I can also share a finish, if only a top finish. Here is the Echo anniversary quilt top all assembled with added strips in Klona dark navy currently measuring 98'' square.

At the moment the strips start just at the sides. Let's see how much the quilt will shrink after quilting and washing. I couldn't be bothered with pre-treating this time because I actually wanted to go for a crinkly look and it might just come back to bite me now. Sigh.

As planned from the outset I'm going to keep the quilting of the Echo body simple with horizontal and vertical lines (see?) but have decided this afternoon to add a personal touch and more dense quilting to the side strips. If I don't change the plan again until the batting arrives. You can never be sure.

Either way, I'm very happy how this is turning out. See how perfectly it fits my favourite bed linen? I might even keep my deadline (fingers crossed the batting arrives in time!). Is it really only another week until our first wedding anniversary and sixth altogether?

Happy weekend and happy sewing!

Link party's being hosted by Amy this time. Hop on over!

The Cuteness Paradox

Do you ever feel like your projects look too cute wherever you put them to actually finish them especially when, potentially, you have to part with them? Well, that thought certainly hit me when I looked at my bookshelf yesterday... They go together so well I'm can't even stop putting my finished dress there.

I am, however, steadily working on completing my pretties - despite the heat. Geesh, one must be seriously masochistic to be ironing when it's nearly 40°C outside, right? My sister definitely thinks so but she's no sewist and it's worth it. I've now finished three sections (two 9x10 and one 9x12) of the anniversary quilt. I have another row of wide strips that I will assemble, then cut in half and add to each side before assembling the section. Even then, the quilt won't cover the sides of the bed if placed like this, though.

As evidenced by the picture above. It should cover everything if placed sideways like this.

Then again, I haven't prewashed my fabric this time around so I'll have to expect some shrinkage which would mean that even put sidesways the quilt isn't a 100 per cent fit for our bed. I will have to come up with an idea to add some more width/length. Maybe a wide strip of solid on both sides (top and bottom in this picture)? I could probably even skip the narrow column on each side mentioned above and save those strips for pillows. Hmm.

Anyway, serious question - which placement do you prefer?

Happy sewing and check out these great linky parties!

W.i.P. - Slow Summer Sewing

On top of work summer is slowing my sewing down a little as I'm soaking up sunshine whenever I can. Now, this isn't a complaint. I'm definitely a summer girl that doesn't even want to mention the w-word before she has to and I am making progress on pretty things even if it isn't as quick as it would be at other times.

Evidence of said progress below (above is last week's work ut aside) - Echo rows I sewed yesterday evening after work. Often I don't feel like sewing then and prefer to wind down over some telly or a book. Not so yesterday! With a little luck I might even want to iron these and assemble them this evening. Or I might not and prefer to catch up with your makings over at WIP Wednesday and my blog roll. Or all of the above? We'll see.

With a second Jamie dress under my belt it's time for new adventures in fashion sewing. The darling ranges dress is up first and I'm looking forward to breathe life into the tiny brown on cream floral from this post.

And here are the obligatory stats.

Finishes - 1
Summer dress 1

Ongoing Projects - 5
Anniversary quilt - see above
Fish & HSTs
square baby quilt
Red Riding - quilting is making progress
cushion cover for the husband

Stalled Projects - 3
Grecian Waters/Emerald HST quilt - finished the top! - stalled until deadline project have been dealt with
EPP hexies
EPP parallelograms/stars - once more stalled

Planning Stage - 2
Summer dress 2 - Darling Ranges
Skirt

Happy sewing!

W.i.P. - For the Echo Lovers

No change concerning the stats, just some shifting from ongoing to stalled to ease my mind, but some definite progress with two projects. First, I posted a pic of my nearly finished summer dress on Sunday. Can't wait to wear it soon.

Second, there's the anniversary quilt. I've finished the first of three sections as well as a third of the other two each.

Here's the bottom right corner piece. It didn't fit into the other pic.

This top is coming together nicely and quickly. Guess I should order batting soon and make up my mind about backing. Maybe an all turquoise backing? Maybe a print? At the end of the day, there's a deadline to meet (a year ago today I had my final wedding dress fitting!) and I think I might be making a trip to Ikea soon in an effort to score some nice but cheaper fabric.

Stats

Finishes - 0

Ongoing Projects - 6
Anniversary quilt - see above
Fish & HSTs
square baby quilt
Red Riding - quilting is making progress


cushion cover for the husband
Summer dress 1

Stalled Projects - 3
Grecian Waters/Emerald HST quilt - finished the top! - stalled until deadline project have been dealt with
EPP hexies
EPP parallelograms/stars - once more stalled

Planning Stage - 2
Summer dress 2 - Darling Ranges pattern has arrived
Skirt

Happy sewing!

Sunday Stitching & Haberdashery / Yardage Woes

Considering how much I love wearing my hen night dress and how much I enjoy a quick rewarding sewing fix, I decided to give the Jamie dress pattern another go. Out came the pins for a few more alterations. Sides, armholes, back..

After manipulating the pattern pieces accordingly I spent yesterday afternoon cutting and sewing. This morning I attached the skirt and wanted to insert the zipper when I realised that even though I'd bought a zipper in the perfect shade, alas, it was a regular one. I prefer to use invisible zippers for clothing. I'm not a fan of exposed ones, even slightly. So at 10 a.m. I had to put my pretty away unfinished. Sob.

Not one short of projects I didn't grumble for long, though, and out came the Echo strips for some (tedious) layout fun on our bed.

I really really like this layout of alternating wide and narrow strips. Alas, I don't have enough wide strips to make it perfectly symmetrical! I'd need another 4'' WOF or a fat quarter of seven prints to achieve that. And you know it's pretty much impossible to get hold of. Let alone all in one place, quick and cheap.. which a quick google search only confirmed..

Argh. Now, am I biting the bullet and keep it like this with five rows wide and narrow each? Or do I cut one column of wide strips into two narrow ones (marginally narrower than the actual narrow column) to frame the whole quilt? Or do I add a row of scrappy vertical strips to the right hand side of the quilt? I can't just scrap a wide row because I need the overall width. Argh, zum Mäusemelken..

I've decided to not let this annoy me too much right now and will start stitching anyway. It'll all fall into place eventually. Somehow.

Happy Sunday and happy sewing!

Sunday Stash

Today is a stash post and not a stash post. It's a post about actually working with the pretties you've been patting every so often and holding dearest. Yep, I finally cut into my most beloved stash - seven yard and three half yard cuts of the blue, green and grey Echo prints. Such an achievement and very satisfying, too.

It has taken me well a year and a half to do so because a) I love this fabric so much and b) because I'd early on set it aside to be used for a wedding quilt. Actually, not just a wedding quilt but our very own. Therefore, the pattern had to be perfect and I needed time to execute it. Quite the stumbling block. Alas, my wedding came and neither had the pattern turned up nor would I have had time for it. So I decided to make it an anniversary quilt instead and continue to look for the right pattern.

Well, with our first anniversary approaching fast in August, it was about time to realise that "the perfect pattern" doesn't exist and that a return to basics might be in order. Not least because the husband isn't into very busy or "weird" patterns... and anything can qualify as that. I joked the other day that he'd be happiest with a boring solid black something... So it's rectangles of different lengths.

It took all afternoon to achieve this bundle and some well-sorted scraps but I'm happy to have made the first step on the way to completion of a long-term project.

Yep, I threw out some of the fabrics I'd planned to use for the quilt but have kept the half yard of Secret Garden. Love is key, right?

Happy sewing!

Lots of Loot and a Giveaway

I've not been too well physically this week but the postman and Fiona of Finding Fifth have sure known to cheer me up! Plus, we've finally found *our* wedding bands!

First, on Tuesday I freed some patterns - snapped up at a sale - from Customs.

Only to come home to a delivery from the Fat Quarter Shop.

From left to right: Nursery Basics in Earth; Kona Cottons in Wine & Pepper for my Polaroid blocks; Kona Cottons in Blush Pink, Dusty Blue & Medium Pink for a Kirby pillow like this one; Cotton Couture in Nite and the Cotton Couture Colour card.

I've wanted to have a look at the Cotton Coutures for a while to check them out and ordered blue for the inside of my wedding purse. It looks gorgeous and feels so nice. The weave is a bit finer than the Kona Cottons - no reason to give up the Konas which still offer a multiple in colour options, but certainly a go to for the slightly more special project, I'm sure.

I'm glad to have finally invested in colour cards, did I mention that I got the Kona colour card a few weeks back? No more guessing at the screen - I feel so professional now. Ha! Also, I'm falling more and more in love with solids on their own and not just as complementory to prints.

And then, on Wednesday I wake up to an email by Fiona telling me that I won a layer cake of Sew Stitchy in her blogiversary giveaway. How exciting!

Well, with all that loot and luck on my side, I think it's time to pay it forward. As hinted at before, I'll be giving away one of my Echo sunflower pillowcases (sans insert to make posting easier). Either the brown or the multicoloured one, winner's choice! Measurements are 40cm² or approx. 16''.

For a chance to win simply leave me a comment and make sure that I can contact you by having an email address on your profile or leaving one in your comment. If I can't contact you there'll be a re-draw. Other than that, no hoops. I'd sure love if this went to a regular reader, but I won't make following me an obligation. Of course, you're free to share the giveaway with your friends.

The giveaway is open internationally and ends Saturday July 7 at 8:00pm CET (Central European Time). I'll announce the winner on Sunday July 8.

Good luck and happy sewing!

Pillow Parade

Finally, here they are.

The weather's back to bleary and grey so it's nice to have something more cheerful inside. Unfortunately, I'm suffering from a serious lack of pillow inserts which needs to be remedied soon. For the moment I had to make do taking pictures of one pillowcase at a time. The measurements are 40 cm x 40 cm (or slightly less than 16'').

The insert really isn't plush enough, luckily it has a zipper so I think I'll just add some filling. One more snap of one of the (un-ironed) backs with the bound edges.

Yep, that brown fabric is the same as the background fabric of the flowers. Told you the lighting is truly terrible today.

How do you like them? The fiancé's favourite is still the yellow sunflower whereas I couldn't pick a favourite amongst the flowers. I like them all but am head over heels for the HSTs.

Happy sewing and don't forget, one of these will be given away soon!

Linking up to Manic Monday at SewHappyGeek.

Pillow Progress

My pillow fronts are all quilted and trimmed now and ready to be turned into proper pillows.

Here are a few pics of them, still untrimmed and before erasing the water soluble pen lines I drew on for orientation, detailing the quilting. First off, my triangles.

 

Second, my sunflowers. I told you that I wanted to add interest to the brown sunflower so I echoed the applique line at 0.5/1.5/3 and 4.5 cm (roughly 2/5, 3/5, 1 1/5, and 1 4/5 inch) and also added a second line to the circle at 0.5 cm / 2/5 inch. I fell in love with the texture created by the dense quilting and had to do the same with the yellow sunflower.

 

 

Because I didn't want yellow thread showing on brown fabric and vice versa, I chose a different approach for my multicoloured sunflower and echoed each petal's outline.

 

I'm more than happy with each of these. They've been a long time coming but I'm awfully glad not to have rushed decisions. Back with a ton of pictures tomorrow when these babies are finished, off for some lunch and sunshine now.

Just to emphasise my love and for the sake of circularity, let's have another look at the lot of them.

Happy weekend sewing!