euro bee stash

I could not resist showing you my growing stash of aqua, red and white fabric ready for my month of the Euro Bee.

My month is not until August, but I really want to get as wide a variety of fabrics as possible so have been slowly collecting bits as I have found them.

I think my biggest problem will be resisting the temptation to start using them before next summer!

Christmas Quilt

Today I began my Christmas quilt. It is going to be wonky stars made out of the most wonderful fabric designed by Comfortstitching. I cannot wait to make each star with a fussy cut center showcasing each little Christmassy scene. (If you click on the photo you will be able to see a closeup of her delicious fabric). The only flaw in my plan is that I need more fabric for the outside of each star, and as we have postal strikes in the UK at the moment (and more likely next week) I may be held up in my quilt making. Good job I started in October then!

made it!

I finished my two quilt challenge just in time. These quilts are for birthday boys and their birthday is tomorrow! Phew - there is nothing like a deadline to keep you motivated. The boys are identical twins and their mum has just started dressing them in different colours to make it easier for people to know who is who! As a lucky coincidence one boy has been given red/brown clothes and the other blue/green to wear. I didn't know this until after I had started making these quilts but it made it very easy deciding which quilt to give to which twin! Please excuse the poor photos - the weather was not cooperating today so i was unable to take any nice photos outdoors or even in natural light.

The only thing I am not happy with is the amount of crinkling on the quilts. I would have preferred them smoother. They looked a lot neater before they had their wash and tumble dry. I don't know why - maybe it is because smoother suits straight line quilting more. Never mind - it is a small niggle, otherwise I am very pleased. The fabrics are all child friendly without being too babyish - hopefully the boys will enjoy their quilts into toddlerhood and beyond!

Next challenge - spiderweb blocks and starting on a Christmas quilt for me and my boys to snuggle under this winter.

lovely stuff

I am having a really productive week spurred on by the fact that I have two quilts to finish by next week! They are a pair of cot sized quilts for twins. The first one is orange and brown and is being quilted at the moment:

The second is green and blue and here is the binding ready for folding and ironing:

I also made my block for the Euro Bee, but please excuse the terrible photo:

I am starting to feel like my sewing groove is coming back!

Quilt Festival

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting her Bloggers Festival of Quilts and this time I get to join in! Last time I had not even completed my first quilt and did not even have a blog - so much has changed since then! I don't have masses of quilts to choose from as I am still so knew to quilting, so I will tell you about my first quilt. It was made using a tutorial by Oh Fransson and was my first effort using a pattern, modern fabrics, binding and well everything really!

I loved the process of choosing my fabrics (the Amy Butler Belle is my favourite) and seeing my quilt slowly come together.

Surprisingly my favourite part was making and sewing the binding - I was expecting to dislike that bit but found it really relaxing.

So there you go - my first quilt! Have fun looking at all the amazing quilts at the festival.

rag quilt done

Well after much snipping I have finally got the rag quilt finished for a first birthday present. I am really pleased with how it has turned out but it was a lot of work - more than I was expecting! Cutting out all the squares (top, wadding and backing fabric) was a bit of a pain. Thanks must go to Katy - she sent me lots of wadding scraps a while ago which I was able to use in this quilt.

I am going to give it another wash and tumble dry just to fluff out the raggedy bits even more before going on to my next challenge - quilts for twin boys by the end of October - eek!

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