1st of the 8 charm pack quilts!

 So! When I was at FOQ last year I may have splurged on charm packs .... I do love a charm pack! I have 8 patiently waiting for their turn, well 7 now I have used this one! Its the fig tree one on the right in the picture above.

The pattern is splashdown by 'A few scraps' Please be sure to download the ammended  version (its says its version 2) the original had a little cutting error. Its a great pattern though! I was pretty pleased with this layout.

But there was a bit of a slip between the layout and the sewing machine it appears!!! I spotted the errors below so had to do some emergency surgery!

A tense few moments ...

But all was well!

One charm pack down 7 more to go!!! (Im not including gifted ones in this calculation!

this one will go to Project Linus

Gifted charm pack quilt

 Well the weather here has been awful ... what does awful weather mean??? It means a quilt making fenzy!!!! I do always like to start the year with some charm pack quilts, they are quick and easy to whip up and a very satisfying make. I love making mine with HSTs its quick simple and gives you a variety of layouts. Also clearly perfect angles make them so much easier without all the marking down the center.

I started with the one above, it was gifted by a chum who has obviously had it in her collection for a while!

Add in a FQ or 2 and away we go!!

There were a few OOPS along the way with placement etc but eventually we got there! another cute one to go to Linus

First finishes of 2023!

Well!!First finishes of 2023! I had 3 charm packs ti wanted to use up so here they are these will all go to Linus. Above is Picking Petals quilt by Carried away quilting. I used a charm pack from Leicin called Memoire a Paris.

Above is the Marian Barn quilt by Fresh dew drops. I used a Zen Chic charm pack for this one.

Above is the Moda Love pattern, I've already made this in a layer cake size. I used a charm pack called Effies Garden for this one.

So how cute is the backing??? Its an IKEA duvet cover, this was the pillow case which came with it. Love it will need to buy more!

 

Finish along 2021!!

 OK ok, i know its all on instagram now but i like to keep up with the FAL on my blog too, just for me 😊 So what do we want from the finish along? Or more so what do I want to do with my quilting this year? We are in another lockdown, yup ok, so I need the quilting to see me through this. If I learned one thing from the last lockdown I learned that I need a mixture of challenging and simple projects. When work kicks off (as it will undoubtedly do! I need to either do mindless quilting that i dont need to think about or loose myself in a r4.5 inch block with 44 pieces and several y seams 😂 so with that in mind here is the FAL Q1 line up!

No 1 - Dear Jane, or blossom Jane as I should call her, my initial thoughts were i would motor on with this but that hasn’t happened, I seem to need breaks from this. Which is fine I am still making good progress.

Awwwww garden trellis in capel. For some reason I can’t seem to  start this one? Perhaps i need calmer times? I love capel so so much maybe i cant bear to start it in lockdown? Dunno, it will stay on the list for when i am ready.

Awwww I love a Michael Powell cross stitch, this was a gift from a lovely chum who found this and knew she wouldn’t finish it, I am slowly picking away at it in the evenings.

No 4, oh well we all know my weakness for charm packs! I love them but then never know what to do with them! I had such success using up 5my charm packs over the Christmas break I decided to put them all on my FAL list and clear out all the ones which have been languishing around the sewing room for years! this pair will become a disappearing 9 patch quilt, perfect for Project Linus

Mormor and grunge! A bold pairing! Lets see what these become, disappearing 4 patch perhaps?

These two have been laying around the longest! I think I bought them when my chum Irene was still going to FOQ and she hasnt been for a few years now. Another disappearing 9 or 4 patch for these.

Ditto these two, some lovely charms in here perfect for a more gender neutral quilt I think.

There is just one of these left, I can still see me buying this at Harrogate last year, that was such a lovely trip, little did I know it would be the last big event I would attend before all this kicked off, hey ho, this will be a sweet little Linus quilt hsts perhaps?

so thats it kicked off for this year, lets see where this adventure takes us.

Charm pack quilts for Linus

 Like I said many many times, i have an inherent weakness for charm packs!!! so I made them a feature of my last finish along list. for finish no 7 i simply wanted one charm pack quilt, but hey i got 3!!!

I had two charm packs of the same fabric line bought from a destash so I put them together using my clearly perfect angles which i had put on my sewing machine for the hunters star quilt. I simply made a bazillion hsts then started laying them out from the center outwards. I didnt have enough to do one final round so i used those hsts to make a second smaller quilt for Linus. Bonus!!!

I mentioned that i have been meeting up with a chum at Kaleidoscope fabrics I do want to support them so try to buy something every time we go, they have a great sale table and often have meters at greatly reduced prices. I bought some of this big blousy floral, perfect for backing!! poor scoobs he doesnt look too happy there does he!!! I think it was getting a bit nippy at that point.

I said I got three quilts! well the third one was a leader and ender project, I simply took another charm pack and sewed the blocks together, bonus extra linus quilt!!!

It was a bit cold for me too taking all the pictures 😀

Janet Clare mini charm pack quilt

 I have a great weakness for charm packs, it could be worse though! I love seeing Janet Clare at the festival of quilts she always has stunning booths. She also always has bowls full of her lovely charm packs, just waaaaaaay to tempting!

This charm pack of Freya ad friends has been kicking about the sewing room for years so i decided it was time to go on a finish along list. I have been having great fun meeting up with a chum at Kaleidoscope fabrics which is sort of half way between us both. I bought some lovely child friendly bunny and racoon fabric from there on a recent visit so that was used as borders and backing. Here we have a cute little quilt for Linus.

Poor Scoobs, he looks a bit miserable there doesnt he! 

this was finish no 8 from my finish along Q4 2020 list

Using up those charm packs!

Yup, another finish! i had a manic finishing session on holiday, this is no 9 on my Q3 FAL list  3 Janet Clare charm packs. Sometimes you just need to highlight the charms and not worry too much about cutting them up into teeny pieces!

Oh Scoobs you wee minx!

Thats better!

yet another charm pack quilt!

Its a good job my scoobs adores his #husbandsholdingquilts duties!!! on my 2 week holiday i had a manic finishing of quilts couple of days. This was  no 8 on my Fal2019 Q3 list using up 2 charm packs of Deb Strain Bee Creative. pattern by Sew Me - Sarah Elwood, super easy to use up these lovely charms with sashing in Japanese fabrics. Not great pictures, i need to work on that!

In other news, Scoobs has gone walkabout! off for nearly 3 weeks. I miss him but am so glad he is having lovely adventures!

Reveille part deux

No 6 on my 2018 Q4 FAL list I had a weakness for charm packs ... please note the past tense. My lovely quilty friends Ruth and Claire are under strict instructions not to let me purchase any more at the FOQ. I love them but what the heck do you make with them? the only patterns i could find meant you had to cut them up impossibly small, im just not up to that any more. I do have a few left to use up but this quilt did use up a fair few of them. The pattern is Reveille from 'Another bite of schnibbles" I love the big border i added to size it up for siblings together. Its an early Zen chic line. It gives it a fuzzy out of focus look which i love.

Doesnt everyone baste over the bannisters :-)

I played bobbin chicken and won!

FAL 2016 Q2 first finish!!

Yea!! My first finish!!
Guess which numpty didn't get a picture of it before it was donated ..... Flippity flip!!
It was the Reveille quilt top, I rolled it over from my Q1 list to my Q2 list! Then stoopid numpty that I am I got so excited that I had found a good home for it it forgot to take a pic.
I blogged about the making of it here
I wanted to donate it to the weaving Musical threads blanket appeal but totes forgot to take a pic of the finished article .... Does that disqualify me? Hey ho if it does then that's no biggie. It's gone to a good home.

This was the finished top before quilting.

Mini charm squares

 

I also bought quite a few mini charm packs … ! I loved this one, paired it with some nice Tilda Japanese pagoda pink fabric then some lovely blossom fabric, how sweet!

Charm packs

 

Again more using up of the charm packs! Simple just how simple are these but they let the fabric shine dont they?

Heart quilt

 I went through a real phase of loving charm packs, they are great but also quite limiting in what you can do with them unless you are really committed to a lot of cutting and fiddly block making.

This was my attempt to use up a mainly purple charm pack without too much fiddly cutting etc. i like it

Getting curvy, or the quilt that almost broke me

Here she goes! I am pretty happy with this little one, done from the winding ways pattern from Heather Hasthorpe. It did almost brake me though, all those curved pieces, bias edges etc. The fact I wasn't overly careful with the template cutting didnt help either :-) It's done though and I love it, I think there are at least 4 charm packs in here, good job I stocked up on some more at the festival of quilts ....

 

 

 

 

 

Table runners

I like making table runners, they are small, quick to make and use up all those lovely charm packs i seem to be addicted to buying. I seem to go through phases of making big stuff then small stuff etc. I have just finished a huge quilt, almost king sized so now is the time to go back to table runners. Here are some pics of ones i have made in the past, its always nice to see old friends again.

The one above is one of my favourites, the pattern is from Heather Mulder Petersons Little charmers series of patterns. I love these patterns but they are quite difficult to get in the UK. The fabric is a pack from the African Fabric shop, I love the colours and thought they went so well with this pattern and were great to work with.

 For the life of me i cant remember what this fabric was but it has an Indian inspiration, very rich, another great pattern from Heather Mulder Petersons Little charmers series of patterns!

Yep you guessed it, another Heather Bailey Mulders Simply charming pattern. This one is called Tilta whirl, the fabic was a fat eigth pack i got at the Birmingham quilt show, all i had to add was the dark blue, i do love the blue/pink combo, as with all my table runners this one was sold at the church sale of work to raise funds for the church.

mmmm hmmm its Heather Mulder Petersons Little charmers series of patterns again! This was a charm pack i bought years ago, could never decide what to do with it, its very bold, but I thought the larger sized blocks in this runner suited it very well, its bold its fresh and it makes me smile, what more could you ask for!