inky fingers: February 2013

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Quilt crisis!

Could I first say welcome to a few new followers!
I had fun moving the completed squares of my quilt around to get a balance of light/dark and the different patterns.

Of course I could plan my quilts carefully beforehand but I don't work like that; I like them evolving as I sew. However, this stage did involve many different options, a few of which are here.

Pepper was a great help! and Barney as well!

He was fascinated by my sewing machine so I sat him on my knee while I joined the rows together. I started machining and when I got to a pin Barney took it out for me. The final arrangement is below and that's when I had my first crisis! I thought it was too busy and was close to unpicking the whole quilt, so left it for a few days!

Coming back to it, I decided I did like it (thank goodness) so planned the border and bought the cotton wadding and a striped fabric for the backing.

Tacking the 3 layers together is never my favourite job.

Then I starting quilting and did a lot of wavy lines (about 35!) along the length of the quilt before I had the 2nd crisis....

which resulted in this becoming my favourite tool....

I spent 2 whole evenings unpicking the quilting as I realised it was far too busy and was going to be too stiff for a bed quilt. A lesson learnt; think more carefully about the quilting!!

I decided to echo the large squares with black quilting lines one way and red lines in the other direction and

to stitch inside the small squares. Nice and simple.

I like the simple effect of the quilting on the stripes.

Barney has a 'baby' doll called Max and I thought I'd make him a little quilt with the same fabrics but a different pattern.

It's fun to make something small - very quick! Both nearly finished.

Sunday, 24 February 2013

New baby!!

The last couple of weeks I've been feeling a mixture of excitement, anxiety and anticipation, as the due date for the birth of my daughter's 2nd baby approached. This is the hat I knitted for the baby (unknown gender), the pattern was from Gina.

Barney was born by emergency C section at 33 weeks but to our great relief this baby stayed in!! He was born in a great rush on Feb 18th at 3 minutes before midnight, just 3 minutes before the due date.

After a few days in hospital, his first minutes at home and first cuddle with his big brother.

Barney is so excited about his baby brother, William Henry, and is so sweet with him. A few ups and downs but both proud parents and baby doing well. As for Granny, or Gaga as I'm known, I'm excited and very tired!! An emotional and busy time.

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Creative juices flowing

Barney's quilt is well under way, I decided on modern log cabin squares, making up 2 squares of the same fabrics. It was going to be 18 squares but I had so many lovely fabrics that I ended up with 28! I've chosen picture fabrics for the middles; animals, birds, letters, numbers and boats plus plain black and red and black and red 'graphic' fabrics (lines and spots). At this stage I just made up squares I liked with no definite plan for the finished quilt. Machining the pieces in strips makes it quite a speedy process.

lots of lovely squares to play with!

One day when I needed a break from the quilt I played with some screen printed fabics to make a couple of sketch book covers. I cut out and fused the birds and suns onto the tree fabric and then quilted it....

....and made it into a cover, quilted in black and yellow; here's the front...

...and the back. A bit of fun.

While on a roll, I'd wondered what to do with a piece of linen I'd printed with my modern trees. I made it into a simply quilted cover for my new small sketchbook that goes with me in my handbag.