Progress?

Two steps forward, three steps back. I think I've written before that this is the nature of my crafting progression, and it's still true. Whether it's failing to read/follow a knitting pattern exactly and having to frog back, or not thinking ahead when it came to piecing fabric strips for a quilt (both of these happened in the past few days), progress is sometimes painfully slow. But, progress is progress, and I've finally made some head way on some things I've been meaning to do for a while.

The top of a long long long overdue wedding quilt is now pieced! The pattern is Elizabeth Hartman's New Wave quilt. And this was where I did not think ahead when I was piecing.

Resulting in much cursing and ripping.

The other two small projects were pencil rolls (from Last-Minute Patchwork+Quilted Gifts). I'm pretty pleased at how they turned out, despite additive inaccuracies in the fabric piecing. The pencils are from Jolly, and I got them here.

So, onwards I go! There have been a lot of babies recently, so I need to get back on the baby quilt wagon. I'm thinking simple square quilts. Fast and easy. Famous last words I'm sure. There's also this shawl, that I intended to give to a friend before her wedding last June!! "Better late than never" has become my mantra!

fifteen | La Courtepointe Provençale

About a year ago, I started on a quilt that was to be a present for a wonderful couple, Redmond and Cora, whose wedding took place in a magical château in Bordeaux last June. I posted about the pattern (Marquee, from this book) and my progress a couple of times.

I even managed to finish quilting it sometime last year. But, for the past 6 months or so it has languished in a corner, awaiting the tedious process that is hand-sewing the binding.

Well, finally, I managed to spend a slightly hungover Saturday on the sofa, and I finished it!

And just in time too - Redmond visited us and picked it up last week, just after I managed to run it through the wash ad get a quick couple of snaps of it!


It's called La Courtepointe (French for quilt, of course) Provençale, because the bright colors strike me as a little French... R&C did get married in Bordeaux, but I'm taking a little artistic license here!

I am delighted with how it turned out, and must try another quilt with this pattern soon. I also have a pile of left-overs that I am determined to turn into cushions for our new sofa. Hopefully in less than one year. Yay!

The City Dreams Quilt

Nothing like a tight deadline to make me actually finish a project for a change! I made this quilt as a gift from our lab to the wonderful Erika, who left us to return to her homeland, Mexico, on the 31st of October.

It was inspired by this quilt. The maps (New York, Paris, London, Tokyo) are actually handkerchiefs, from Muji. The idea was to make something that would remind Erika of her time in New York... but because she's an incredible scientist who is sure to go far, I thought that including the other cities was appropriate; if she hasn't been there yet, she will go soon!

The process was really quite simple. As recommended by Abby, I trimmed the edges from the handkerchiefs before framing them with 1 inch of Kona Cotton in Coral (also used for the binding), and 1.25 inches of Kona Cotton in Coal. The sashing is Kona Cotton in Putty.

Because it was going to Mexico, I decided not to use any batting in the quilt, but backed it with flannel (from an Erin McMorris line). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the back! Finally, I quilted it with simple straight lines, 6 inches apart.

Erika was very happy with it, which made me very happy! And doesn't Simon make a great quilt model?!

Tomorrow is the marathon!! I'm feeling pretty nervous but I'm sure it'll be great. Especially the post-marathon rehydration pub session! Must go pack my bags... and make sure all the alarm clocks are set - I have a painfully early start, even with the hour going back. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Behind schedule

Surprise, surprise, I am considerably behind schedule on the epic five-wedding-and-six-baby-gift extravaganza...

...which is why finishing this quilt top seems like such an achievement!! It's Marquee, from the Modern Quilt Workshop. While it's a pretty simple pattern, it has taken a lot longer than I expected or would have liked. That said, I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. Bright and happy.

...but before I can finish this quilt completely, I need to make a gift for a baby warming next weekend. Well, it's baby shower, but I keep mixing up "baby shower" and "house warming" and now "baby warming" has just stuck. I'm using Anna Maria Horner's Folksy Flannels, and my intention is just to make a very simple pieced squares quilt, along the lines of the beautiful work of Ashely, of Film in the Fridge - one of my absolute favorite quilting blogs.

I suppose I should mention that today I became a lot older than I've ever been before... It's taking a bit of getting used to - I've now grown sufficiently old that it seems like it might be time for me to grow up too. Scary!!

IV: Baby Quilts

I'm going to ignore the fact that I failed to post yesterday, and go ahead and talk about some more FFOs - a pair of baby quilts. The red/green one has already found its way to its new owner, baby Luca, while the purple one will hopefully go to its home, with baby Abigail, in the next week or so. Luca's parents were really very grateful for the quilt, which made me so happy!

The quilts were made using Elizabeth's Simple Modern Baby Quilts pattern, which I believe is currently unavailable because she is revising it. I really have to own up to something though... when I started these quilts (in January 2009!!), I can't honestly say that I had babies Luca and Abigail in mind (I dare say that at that time, their parents may not have had them in mind either!). Instead, I was making them for two other babies, James and Seán, who were born last March. But, by the time I finished the quilts (April of this year!), James and Seán were already one year old. So I thought that quilts with trucks and other boy-things would be much more suitable than the baby birdies on these (Alexander Henry's Starling)...

So, I hope to get started on those boy-quilts really soon! Fingers crossed they will not take as long to complete as these did!

The first of the wedding quilts

Finally! One down and many more to go...

It's a New Wave quilt, as designed by Elizabeth Hartman, one of the many free designs available at her site Oh Fransson! Eight of the twelve prints are from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line (the Afternoon Tide bundle), the others were lurking in my stash - but I can't remember what they are.

The solid used for sashing on the front and for the back is Kona Cotton in turquoise. The other backing fabric is a batik I picked up at the City Quilter. The binding is a Carolina Chambray (I think!), but I can't remember the name of the color. 
I'm pleased with how the quilting came out - I just stitched in straight lines 0.25 inches either side of the seam with the sashing fabric.

It turned out smaller than I would have liked - I didn't really think about the finished size stated in the design when I started - but I think it will make a nice lap quilt for Sarah and Tim to curl up under in front of the telly.

Next up, Marquee from the Modern Quilt Workshop. This afternoon was dedicated to the arduous task of cutting the fabric - my second least favourite part of quilting, next to ironing! Hopefully it will be all fun from here on in!


[Edited 4/27/10 to include all the links I omitted when I first posted!]

A quiet weekend...

While Simon slaved away on his talk for the very-important job interview, I worked on the first wedding quilt.

I really like how the zigzag stitching is coming out on the back. I just need to finish the binding now.

It was shame to waste a beautiful spring weekend indoors, but next weekend we'll be letting our hair down... and tomorrow is Atoms for Peace. I can't wait!