Swapping, lesson learned

So I took the plunge and entered my first ever quilt swap the 3rd round of the Brit quilt swap. After several weeks of frantic sewing quilting and fretting my little baby (literally, the brief was a mini quilt) was posted on Saturday. Sitting mulling over the experience (accompanied by a chilled glass of rose) I wanted to record, mainly for my own benefit, lessons learned from the experience.
So what do I take away from this?
First off, yes I do tend to overcommit but that is not necessarily a bad thing, I was more than able to complete what was a quite complex quilt in the allotted time.
Secondly it's not the quilt itself which tripped me up but the peripherals which I did not consider until it was too late (well almost!)
What do I mean?
Well packaging for posting for a start, standing in Bonnybridge post office with half an hour till closing is not the best place to decide on what packaging to use.
Binding - I need to practice this, I do too much by machine and need to get hand sewn binding cracked.
Label!! Most of my quilts go to Project Linus so I do do much in the way of labels, I need to start, there were some beautiful labels in this swap, i must learn to do better ones.
But my partner loved it (well was polite enough to say she did :-) and I had great fun doing it. Here is the finished result.

 

And because I did two centers, one light and one dark, I had a spare with which to make a mini mini quilt.

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Swapping

It's been a while! Can't believe I haven't posted in August yet. Tsk tsk, I keep thinking I need to get better photographs, but if I wait till I am a better photographer then I will never post .... I am going on a course in October, fingers crossed that will improve things.
So I am dipping my quilting toes into the swapping waters. British Quilt Swap 3, it's a mini quilt.
I was intrigued by my partners mosaic and likes and dislikes. I quickly decided on a very traditional quilt. My partner mentioned she liked machine embellishments so the light bulb went off (doesnt happen often!) and the idea of the silk quilt centre from the Heirloom silk quilt crystallised.
So here is the progress, starting with all the different petals

 

 

 There are four different petals, you need to make four of each. I think my favourite are the lightest ones here. They are the most fun and least stressful to do.
Then you need to sew them all together in a circle.

The centre piece is next, I couldn't decide between the light centre

  Or the dark one

I let my partner decide, and dark it was



I have candlewicked round the outside and now just need to put on backing and binding. Oh yes must not forget the label!

Struggling

I was trying to find things to be grateful for today and struggled, really struggled. It's miserable, rain, cold, am on a train which looks like it is going to be late so I will miss my connection.
So I start looking through my pictures of blocks and finished quilts and realise I have a lot to be grateful for. Not least that I am still here and able to continue with a hobby that gives me so much pleasure.
I have finished off a few quilts recently and these two give me immense pleasure. They were the first quilt along online blocks I did when I started chemo last year. It was the Über fest QAL, quite a tight deadline there was one block per day, I choose to do it in batiks as I had a lot of batiks left over from an Amy Butler quilt I did.
I remember loving waiting to see when the blocks would benposted, it took my mind off what was going on and gave me a focus, thank you to the organisers for that.
I made the blocks into two quilts as I want to give them to Project Linus, I think a child will appreciate the bold colours and wild pattern. So here they are.

 
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Raspberry ripple ice cream float

I got the new book from Fat Quarterly Shape workshop, I loved the soda pop quilt in there, faux cathedral windows bright colours, right up my street. When I saw from Lilly's quilts that Sew Allegorical was having a quilt along I had to join in.
I had some packs of fabric from Festival of quilts last year, 6.5 inches square, so I decided to use these with some others thrown in for good luck.
I found this wild orangy batik which is brilliant for the pop it all reminds me of the ice cream floats I had as a child, hence the name.
Some initial work has been done, more to come!

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Over committing again!

Grey dreich Saturday morning, tea and toast in my uber chaotic sewing room. Just thinking yet again of my tendency to over commit. Currently I am doing five BOM s Farmers wife quilt (sadly neglected) Silk quilt, Soda pop QAL and I have at least three quilt tops to make up ..... Oh yes and that is without taking into account the drawstring bag and cross stitch bookmark I have to make for the rural.
I am not the kind of person who can just leave projects in drawers I need to get on top of this and it starts today.
Housework first then this chaos gets a good swift kick up the bahoukie.

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Old friends

Well its been an eventful few days. Checkup at hospital, all is still well, my long lost niece turns up and she now has six children! Christmas is going to be fun :0)
I have reconnected with some old quilts. While down at husbands parents I saw a lap quilt I made for his Nan who is sadly no longer with us. It reminded me of the pattern I used which I loved at the time. It was originally a quillow pattern, I did the first one in greens for my mother. When I was up at the weekend I managed to get a few pictures of that one.

  Now these are even worse pictures than normal! But the light was dreadful. Here is the one I did for husbands Nan, now this was taken on my mobile so quality not good but you get the idea.
I must try and get better pictures, I do love the softer colours I used for the second one.
Well I cant find that picture on flickr so we will have to leave it out for just now!

Saying goodbye

I love all my quilts, some more than others but I don't think there is one I don't like.
So it was with a heavy heart I took some quilts along to my new project Linus coordinator. When I was folding them up I realised I hadn't seen them for a while and I really didn't want to part with them. This batch had a couple of batik quilts in it, if you see my quilts you know I love colour and these have a whole lot of colour in them.
But when I got to see Nikki my new coordinator I realised I had done the right thing. One of the places she will be giving them too is a respite centre for children who have cancer. I can't actually write that without tears in my eyes. Having just come through six months of chemo myself it's hard to think of a child having to do so.
Anyhoo, these will hopefully give some comfort and cheer, they were made with a lot of love.
This is the top of one of the double bed sized quilts I made here are some more shots.




Now for the batiks! Get your sunglasses on!




This I think is my ultimate favourite of the batch, lovely and loud.

 

 

 

I hope they are enjoyed and bring some cheer.