Two finishes

We've been watching Breaking Bad, which means hand sewing and binding time . . . which means both the Orange Consequences Quilt, and the Red Christmas Scrappy Trip are FINISHED!!!!

First I attached a double band of hexies to the Orange Consequences Quilt

Then I bound it

And then I finished the binding on Lisa's Christmas quilt

The UFO list is getting smaller and the "done" pile is getting bigger!

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Orange is OK

I've never thought of making a mostly orange quilt before, but the FQ pack I chose for my Consequences Quilt came with an extra half yard of orange, so I knew that would be the sashing, borders and binding colour.

It's been quite a busy week, but I managed to steal a few half hours here and there, and have mostly assembled the strips I received back

Then yesterday we had an hour's drive to Portsmouth, so I took some hexi templates and some of the left over fabrics and tacked myself a whole pile of hexies

and have now stitched them together and auditioned them as a final row

I think I'm quite happy with the result!

Now I just need to get round to removing the templates and sewing them on, then I can add the border.  And d'you know what, I'm very happy with my orange quilt!

Fabulous February

Oh my gosh - February is pretty darn fabulous this year, and we're not even half way through!  At the very end of January (so able to be enjoyed in February) I received two surprise packages (blogged about here) then on Monday this week I received back my consequence quilt and I cant even begin to tell you how delighted I am

And this morning I woke to an email telling me I had won the instructions to this bag from Emma, from Liz's blog: Moments which ties in perfectly with a recent donation of fabric!

Where to start?

OK Richmond and Kew quilters - we all, all 13 of us, got our Consequence Quilts back.  I didn't get photos of anyone else's but they are all fab, and really diverse.

Mine, of course, is the best!

Just look:

I contributed the fabric together with very vague "any design - what is your favourite?" request.

Sue H made a row of these 1/4 log cabin type blocks, saying " I liked the effect this block gives although its very simple"  She's added some almost solids: great fabric choices Sue!

Julie made a row of crazy log cabin blocks with gorgeous (and prefect) flowers in the centres.  " I chose this 'crazy' design because I wanted to try something new (for me) I used strips to make it, without a pattern. Hope it works!?" - oh yes, it works!!!!

Ruth made a row of these "square on point in a square.  I loved the colours"  She added some calming greens too which work really well, as do the blocks

 

Sue B added a row of pinwheels with a lovely salmonny spraytime tying them all together.  She wrote "I like playing with half square triangles.  Also I think pinwheels always look fun and playful" - I was hoping someone would do HSTs - lovely to look at but I'm not a fan of making them!

And Hilary must have read my mind for my other 'hoped for' design.  She wrote "I love working with bright colours and wanted to introduce some of me own patterned fabric.  the curves in the block 'Drunkard's Path' contrast with the other blocks"  I had hoped for a few curves, but got prefect drunkards path portholes!!!!

In case you didn't realise, I am really chuffed with my returned strips!!  I'm eager to add some sashing and getting this finished!  Thank you all

And the bag - its this lovely every day tote - a PDF with loads of idiot proof photos

Thank you Emma and Liz

Good job I've got a week off next week - guess what I'll be making!

Clocks and Consequences, and Giveaway Given Away

I have done some more work on Plum's Consequences Quilt.  I can't show you now, but she will get it back on Monday so I can show you properly then.

The pixelated image of most of it looks like this!

My Christmas pressie from husband was delayed in the post, and was then cancelled by the suppliers, so it all took a bit longer than planned, but finally a box of clock parts arrived!  And now I have this gorgeous, enormous clock on my kitchen wall

 
And can I hear a Yay! and a Yippee?  I finally got a reply from the giveaway winner, so the scissor case is on its way to Margaret (aka Priscilla Precise) in South Africa, via her daughter in London!

Projects in Progress

I'm working on Plum's round robin, but can't show you as she visits here regularly, so instead here is pixelated proof that I'm doing *something* with her fabrics:

That's all folks!

As for other projects - if you can work out what needs doing here, you're a better detective than me!

Actually what clearly needs doing here is a LOT of tidying up!  So that's a plan for tomorrow!  

Good night x

Concluding Consequence

We have reached the final swap in the Richmond and Kew Consequences Round Robin . . . And I can't show you what I'm going to be working on!

 

I've finally received a quilt started by someone that I know, that I adore, and whose work I really love, but who I know checks in and reads my blog, so much as I'd like to show you the (fab!) strips that have been created by the previous ladies, all I can show you is the scrummy fabrics I can work from

 

Hi Plum - you didn't really think I'd spoil the surprise did you? You have to wait until the first week of February, and so will any other visitors to the blog!

 

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Piet Mondriaan Mission

Have you heard of Piet Mondriaan? I didn't think I had, but my recent Richmond and Kew Consequences Quilt challenge had me looking him up for inspiration.

I didn't know the name, but I certainly knew the images:

The request was for solid fabrics in geometric blocks: a wider scope than the traditional rectangles, and a bigger variety of colours: I went for paper pieced (EPP) hexies, whilst sticking to the traditional colours

However . . .

For all the other Consequences Quilts I have also completed a machine embroidered block, and I decided to keep the tradition going, and designed and stitched this very traditional one too

And all the contributed blocks so far:

Doesn't it look fab!

Happy New Year to you all :-)

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My Cousin and a Consequences Coincidence

The third month of the Consequences Round Robin from Richmond and Kew quilters has landed an Africa themed quilt on my workbench.  For the previous quilts I have made a patchwork block and also a machine embroidered block.  The embroidered blocks may not be what people want, so these are a sort of extra block which they can use or not, but I've had fun making.

For "Africa" this machine embroidered extra block could have been easy: elephants against the sunset, a lion's face . . . but I had an idea nagging in the back of my mind, and I was trying to see if it would be OK

Meanwhile I got on with the more traditional patchwork block.  This lady could have been paper pieced, or foundation pieced, but I created her by adding roughly shaped scraps of fabric together in strips (apron then dress then sides, bodice then arms then sides, face then hat then headdress then sides) then the strips added.

(inspired by a block seen on Pinterest, but I don't know where it originated from)

Meanwhile the 'other' idea kept nagging away.  My reluctance was due there being a long explanation behind it, but finally I thought sod it, it's an amazing story, and people can choose whether to read it or not!

I have a cousin called Kire: as well as being gorgeous on the outside (hang on I'll show you what I mean, guesses as to her age are welcome) she's gorgeous on the inside, and oh so talented.  Meet Kire Godal

She is a film maker, working with Discovery Chanel and National Geographic amongst others, and living, by coincidence, in Kenya.  She recently made a film about Lion Guardians, and it was nominated for a Wild Screen award ("considered the equivalent of the “Oscar” by wildlife film makers worldwide")  The film, a campaign film, is used to train Maasai Warriors who are becoming Lion Guardians.  Lion Guardians is an amazing conservation programme, re-educating the Maasai Warriors into a new relationship with lions

So my second Africa block tells the story of the Lion Guardians:

It's a fairly subtle embroidery: goldy orange on stone fabric, but it reads:

Lion Guardians

Traditionally Maasai males would kill a lion to 

reach manhood and warrior status - 

endangering the numbers in the lion prides.

Today the Lion Guardian conservation programme

recruits and trains Maasai men to track the lions,

collect DNA samples and produce identity cards

for them.  this confers a sense of ownership

and pride amongst the men, forming a vanguard to

prevent other Maasai men from hunting lions

The Guardians get  to know 'their' lion -

searching for it daily, and can warn cattle

herders if they are letting cattle graze too

close to the lions.  In searching for their lion

they also track and return stray cattle, and

can take groups of tourists to a pretty much

guaranteed lion sighting

I hope she likes them

R2D2 Done

My little R2D2 has now been finished, phew

From the back he doesn't look too great,

But I love him from the front

 As well as hand sewing, I have been machine embroidering a batch of these for a friend of Lisa's: 5 done, 5 to go

I love the design!

Now back to binding!

R2D2 Too?

I was being pathetic yesterday I know, but I really don't have the attention to detail skill that is needed for paper piecing (PP), however fantastic the design, and the designer.

I printed out the instructions and the PP sheets

I cut out most of the tiny pieces, having decided that fabric pen was going to replace some of the pieces

I sighed, shock my head sadly, threw them all away and cut out the second (spare) set of pieces (still using Kristy's design) and re-evaluated. 

I have long thought that a PP design could easily be done as an EPP (English paper piecing) -well the word *easily* has to be removed from the sentence, but I think it is doable.  So I re cut the sections to suit EPP,

 

. . . tacked the fabric to the card (and used the fabric pens for the cheating parts)

. . . and started to whip the pieces together - it's now looking like this

I think it's going to work

Copyright Conundrum

I know that the likes of Disney and George Lucas films copyright their logos in order to protect income from their movies,  and two project ideas recently have led me to investigate the law relating to logos.

Unfortunately it's all tied up in such legal mumbo jumbo that I haven't been able to find an answer.  So for the following two embroidery designs I used my own moral compass (both designs are being stitched just once, for a child, and I am not being paid to create or stitch them, and both children already have lots of things with the logo on that have been bought therefore bringing revenue to the copyright owner and I found both images as colouring in pages available from Google, not from the copyright owner or their website), and I hope I'm not going to be arrested!

For the Richmond and Kew Consequences Quilt (3rd round) the owner wants a Star Wars themed block.  I would love to make Kristy's paper pieced R2D2 but I don't know that my piecing skills are up to it, but I do know that my machine embroidery design skill *are* up to creating it for machine embroidery, so one block created, one block under consideration

And for fun it's stitched it in glow-in-the-dark thread!

My second design is from Disney: my great niece (I feel so old writing that) is moving from a cot bed to a big girl's bed, (so the twins can move from moses baskets into the cot).  As part of the encouragement, she was having her room decorated  with an Ariel theme: her favourite Disney movie, so I designed and stitched this for her pillowcase:

I hope you will come and visit me in prison if I get arrested!  I'm now going to tackle R2D2

How to BEEhave

I blogged a while ago about *my* consequences quilt, but a consequence of being in round robin is that I have to make blocks for the others in the group.

Mt first blocks are for Karen.  She has taken hexies and bees as her theme, and asked for blocks in yellow and grey.

Her fabrics and blocks are really inspiring, and gorgeous!

She has asked for two blocks from each of us.  I am going to paper piece some grey hexies for one of mine, but I had an idea for a machine embroidery for the other one so have done that first.

I really hope she likes it. It isn't paper pieced, but it certainly fits in with her yellow, grey, hexagons and bees theme!

Consequences Quilt

The Richmond and Kew Round Robin Consequences Quilt needed a box or bag to travel in, so I decided to have a play with the embroidery machine

The bag is based on Svetlana's drawstring bag: I just made it bigger for this one.

While it was stitching I had another play . . . I have a plan for a number of these bags, a few people could get them for Christmas!

Now I've reached the end of the school holidays (thank you all for your sympathy) and have to return to the day job which means far less fabric fun - I'll try and keep up with reading your blogs even if I don't get as much sewing and blogging done myself

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Consequences Quilt

I'm a member of the Richmond and Kew quilters group: we meet once a month. We are starting a Round Robin challenge on the lines of the game Consequences- we start a quilt then send it on its way to another member (with fabric, a sheet to pin the blocks to, and an outline of our plan) and in the meantime we receive the same from another member. We won't see ours again for nearly a year until it has gone to all the others in the group

Lisa brought me a FQ pack of bright fabrics earlier this year, with an extra yard of the orange, so I decided to use these fabrics

I cut a whole load of 2" squares

And stitched them together

My rough thought is for a strip quilt of all different blocks - people can choose their own favourite block and add a row of them, I'll probably assemble them with orange sashing from the extra yard

I just hope it's not too daunting having to make blocks for other people!

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