Christmas Through the Year - November

Yay, I finally got round to finishing my last Chrismtas name panel! I procrastinate terribly when it comes to finishing off projects - I hate binding - but then find it never takes as long as I think it's going to take.

Anyway, here it is, just in time for November's Christmas Through the Year challenge:



Check out what other folks have been making here. And a big thanks to Allie for hosting the Christmas Through the Year challenge! I never would have managed to get all these presents made without the encouragement and support of being part of this challenge.

Paint, Stamp, Stick, Sew

Well, I've been a bit more creative this last few days, I think!

For my index cards, I prepped up a bunch of cards with gesso and acrylic paint, then each day picked out a card and added stamps, collaged bits, words etc. This was a fun way to work, cos it's not practical to paint every day (I make such a mess!) but I like the depth a painted background adds to what I make. Anyway, have a look:



Sewing wise, I have made a start on the last of my niece/nephew name panels. This one is for my youngest nephew, baby Harry:



I have to add borders, then quilt and bind but I've done the tricky letter making bit, and love how it looks. Something about the way the "a" sits next to the "H"...

Otherwise, I have been beavering away hand quilting "Fenced in". I am quilting with big stitches in pearl cotton, and *hoping* to get it done with the next month or so ready for the winter but we'll have to wait and see. Hand quilting should not be rushed I feel :-). At least, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it!

Christmas Through the Year - August

This month I made another name panel for the Christmas Through the Year challenge:



I have now made panels for 5 out of 6 of my nieces and nephews. I just have Harry to go...

This week I also made a little present for a friend who has been poorly. It's a housewife needle case and the pattern is from Kathleen Tracy's book "Remembering Adelia". I didn't make it in civil war repros, as you can see!



Inside:



It may have been a mistake to use a directional print though, as the teapots and cups are upside down on the front (but not the back!) - doh!

I enjoyed making this and my friend loves it, so I'm thinking I might make a bunch of these for sewing friends for Christmas. Watch this space!

Unruly Nephew (and Wife?)

True to my promise to myself, I have made a start on my next present for Allie's Christmas Through the Year challenge. I am making name panels for all my nieces and nephews using Unruly Quilter Tonya's techniques. You can see previous panels here, here, here and here. This one is for my second eldest nephew, Charlie:



As you can see, it's not quilted yet. I think I will have to keep the quilting pretty simple given the crazy nature of the background fabric!

And, then I have this Unruly Farmer's Wife thing going on in my head. You will probably have seen all over blogland, peeps taking part in the Farmers Wife Quiltalong. Now, I don't really *do* making other people's quilt patterns, or following rules and templates but I keep seeing the blocks and thinking "ooh, that could be free pieced". So now I'm thinking "how about a liberated/free pieced/wonky farmers wife quilt?". And I could call it the Unruly Wife, which would be much more up my street!! I'm still thinking about it...but it is growing and growing in my head :-)

And I realised I haven't blogged about the ICAD Challenge for a while. I have still been creating an index card a day, although I admit it is getting harder to know what to do each time! Here's a few recent ones:

Cards inspired by my love of quilts:


Doodley ones:



Favourite poetry:


Cards reflecting my spiritual journey:


But of all the index cards I have made, none of them make me smile as much as this one made by my six year old son, Waif:



I love it!

Christmas Through the Year - May

Phew, another nephew's name panel finished for this month:





This time, instead of sewing on a hanging sleeve, I did "fast triangle corners" as recommended by the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative. The quilt is just a little one, 13 x 10 inches, so think this will be a fine and dandy way to hang it.

I have now made name banners for four of my six nieces and nephews - just Charlie and Harry to go.

Hop on over to Allie's blog to check out what all the other Christmas Through the Year participants have been crafting up.

And talking of challenges, I have decided that I will join in with Daisy Yellow's Index-Card-a-Day challenge this summer. The idea is to do something creative on an index card each day throughout the summer - be it drawing, painting, doodling, poetry etc. The boys will also be joining in on this one, so I will be posting updates on this blog as well as on my home education blog here. Why not join in too? It's achievable and should be fun :-)

Mostly Green

After last week's burst of yellow, this week's WIPs are mostly green :-)


Rather shamefully, I didn't manage an April gift for Allie's Christmas Through the Year challenge, so figured I would make an early start on May's. I have pieced another name panel, this time for my nephew Ben. I have quilted by hand and now all that remains is to bind it and add a hanging sleeve. I love these two fabrics together.



May's journal quilt technique is collage, and fabric collage is also the 3 Creative Studio blog's Technique of the Month so I have made a start on a collage background for this. I gathered together a load of green scraps, plus a little orange and gold shiny bit for "zing" and fused them onto Vilene. Next job is to FMQ all over this to secure the pieces, then I will be adding collage flowers. I am hoping for a lovely spring-like feel to this one.

Christmas Through the Year - March Finish

I have finished Ellie's name panel!



I ended up machine quilting cos the hand quilting spider's web with pearl cotton I tried went a bit pear shaped. I think the lines and spots on the fabric made me too cross eyed ;-)

I feel like I need a break from making name panels, so will be doing something different for April's present...watch this space...

Bees, Birthdays and Babies

Brenda over at Scraps and Strings will soon be celebrating a special birthday. She has put a call out for people to send her free pieced "B" blocks to make a birthday quilt. When I saw this, I thought "Yesssssssss! The perfect use for this fabric". Waddya reckon?

Hope she likes it! And if you want to make a letter "B" for Brenda, you have until 6th April to get it to her.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine is expecting a baby this summer and I have promised her a quilt. I have decided to keep it simple, with a Chinese coins design and have sewed the first strip of coins:



The fabrics are all from my stash, although quite a few are leftovers from charm packs I bought for making my hexagon charm quilt so it does have a bit more of a "co-ordinated" feel than most things I make. Once I have five strips of coins, I will add white sashing. Although I love liberated and free pieced quiltmaking, it's sometimes nice to sew together pieces that are all precut the same size, just to get into a mindless rhythm.


I have made a start on my March journal quilt but it's just not quite right. I scanned it into the computer to see if I could play with it and work out what's wrong. I need to integrate the red square somehow - not sure if it's repetition of colour, or shape or size I need; or something else entirely?! I am hoping if I look at it long enough the answer will come to me :-)

Unruly Letters for My Unruly Niece!

I've pieced the letters for my next Christmas name banner. This one is for my niece, Ellie. Ellie is a bit of a pink princess - but more warrior princess than Disney princess :-)- and she loooooooves bugs, so this pink spider fabric is just perfect for her. I might even hand quilt this one, cos I've been itching to have a go at some Baptist fans but too scared to try on a big quilt. So, I'm thinking pearl cotton (what else?!) but should I go for pink cotton, white, or a different colour entirely? Hmmmm....decisions, decisions. What on Earth did I spend my time thinking about before I started quilting?!

Christmas Through the Year - February

This month, I made a couple of Christmas presents. The first was a couple of luggage tags (posted about here) and I have also made this name panel for my nephew, Ewan:



My sister reckons he'll be thrilled with it cos it's hard to get hold of things with his name on in the States as the name isn't popular over there. Let's hope he likes it as much as I enjoyed making it :-)

And the word is...LOVE

Over on the Lib Quilters list, we have had a challenge to make "LOVE" blocks using Tonya Ricucci's unruly letters methods. These are to go the wonderful Clare who makes charity quilts for leukaemia patients. The quilts are red and white and made up of 8.5 inch blocks, if you fancy having a go yourself :-). Do have a look at the Quilts 4 Leukaemia blog and see all the wonderful quilts.

Houses, Rust n Holes in Hearts

This week on my design wall floor:



Now that I have finished Gman's quilt top, it's time to turn to Waif's. The planned layout is a strip of wonky fences, then house blocks, then more wonky fences, more houses, lastly a strip of wonky fences. So I can see from laying it out that I need to make a load more fences. Then I can sew the middle together and see what I need in the way of borders.

I've made a start on my next Christmas present for Allie's Christmas Through the Year. It's going to be made into a name panel for my nephew Ewan. I am just loving this crazy swirly orange fabric:



I have also had some fun rust dyeing a few bits and pieces for my next journal quilt. I collected together some random fabrics - white patterned quilting cotton, wadding, open weave cotton, ricrac and lace - laid them in an old washing up bowl and covered with random rusty stuff - old washers, nails, a toy car, plus some steel wool:



Next, five year old Waif enjoyed spraying them with a mixture of vinegar and water:



Then we placed the tray in a bin bag, weighted down with some books and left overnight.

Next day, we had an assortment of rust dyed fabrics to play with:





To set the dye, we soaked in a salt water mix, then washed as usual.

I was disappointed with the quilting cotton, this didn't really take on much of the rust but just LOVE the effect on the open weave cotton, the wadding and the lace.

I am going to integrate some of these pieces into my next journal quilt, which I have made a start on:


You might also notice the holey burnt hearts. Yes, I have a new toy - a heat gun :-). Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Christmas Through the Year - First Finish

Thanks to Allie, I have been motivated to start making Christmas presents early for this year!

And on 25th January, 11 months ahead of time, I completed this:



It's a name panel for my youngest niece. Here's the back, showing a hanging sleeve so she can put it on her door, her wall, or wherever:



I hope she likes it.

As this was such a small piece, I was able to quilt by machine and thanks to a top tip from my mum, was able to quilt a pattern onto the black fabric without having to mark. You trace your pattern onto greaseproof paper, pin that onto the quilt then just sew right throught it. When you're done, you can just tear it away. How cool is that?

Lily - Take Two

OK, I admit it, I couldn't really live with the previous attempt at "LILY".  It was just too damn straight.  So I tried again with bolder colours; without using precut strips; using scissors instead of a rotary cutter; eyeballing the shapes...and it is sooooooooooooo much better!  The previous attempt was ok but not really "Auntie Viv" enough ;-)

Hope Lily likes it!

Not Very Unruly Letters

I had my first go at making some unruly letters a la Tonya.  It's the beginnings of a name panel for my niece:



I think it's maybe a little bit toooooo ruly!  And I'm not altogether happy with the Y...should have used wider strips for the top part...but I'm liberated, she's 3 years old, who's judging?!!

I am planning on making little name panel quilts for nieces and nephews for next Christmas so hopefully I will get this one quilted, embellished and blinged up in time for the end of January to share over on Allie's blog.  Then I can start on the others.  I did Lily's first because she has the shortest name - lazy, moi?