Petal Pillow / Cushion Cubed

Before I went to London for the Quilt Bee meet up I knew I wanted to make something to say ‘thanks’ to the lovely Jen for hosting AND for making me not one, but two pants bags!!

I love a good cushion and had an idea I’d scribbled down on some paper that I thought would be interesting to try. So I set about trying to figure out quite how it would all go together.

I grabbed as many pink and purple (I had the inkling Jen likes pink) fabrics as I could lay my hands on and set about piecing some squares within squares. The idea being that I would make three interlocking squares to go across the cushion.

It wasn’t quite as easy as I expected, but got a lot better once I realised that I couldn’t just make the squares and put them together. There needed to be some planning…….and puzzling.

I finished the top, basted and decided that I didn’t want to go with my natural instinct to straight line quilt it. Instead I was going to try a bit of FMQ as I thought Jen would appreciate that more.

Not something I do very often and not something I know much about!!

To start off I opted for flowers within the blocks, I love the chrysthanthemums (thank you spell check!) so had a go at those first with pale pink. The thing is the pink didn’t quite cut it. Although I had wanted a subtle look, it just didn’t look great so I then tried the risky approach of adding darker petals around the lighter flower.

This went ok, which was lucky!

From there I really didn’t know where to go. It didn’t look right to stick with the flowers as the rest looked a bit bare.

I knew that I could probably spend weeks contemplating the sprial vs the squiggle, the pebble vs the loop and still not get any closer to making a decision. So I just repeated the petal pattern around the squares until it felt right to stop. You may have seen this process on my instagram.

After that I wanted something to break it up a bit but repeat the shape so I used a lighter thread to quilt the lines as you can see here…..

Then I went for a little super small squiggling which I love. I hadn’t tried it this teeny before, but it’s so fun to do and feels lovely!

I added some zig zaggy bias binding and pink elephants on the back and away we go.

It is now in its new home, soon to be moving a little nearer to its place of origin…. I hope it will be happy!!

 Cushion Stats

Pattern: I made it up

Fabrics

• Front: Scrappy – out to sea, briar rose etc
• Background: Metro Living Circles – Robert Kaufman
• Binding: Ziggy – Timeless Treasures
• Back: Elephants – not sure they were one of my first fabric buys

Quilting: FMQ by Me using Aurifil 40wt!

Size:   Around 20″ x 20″ probably. I forgot to measure, but BIG!!

 

Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes

And Crazy Mom Quilts!

Strip Bee – the big reveal

Back from a lovely weekend in London.

Peepo!!

You might remember that some time ago, in fact around a year ago I joined a strip bee. Six of us took turns in swapping quilts, each time adding a new strip to someone else’s quilt top.

For me it all kicked off with this strip and grew from there.

This weekend we all met up to return the completed quilt tops to their rightful owners!

It’s amazing how well all the quilt strips co-ordinate with each other. Everyone really considered the original maker and their tastes which has resulted in loads of fantastic quilt tops as you can see………..

The lovely host Jen’s quilt

Jen’s quilt top started off with the centre yellow and pink strip, it kind of reminded me of Fruit Salad sweets! It’s such a lovely bright combo and really reflects Jen’s sunny personality. I love the little economy blocks that Fran added at the bottom reflecting the bigger version throughout, it works really well.

Julie’s Quilt

Julie’s quilt is a massive contrast to Jen’s! She is a big fan of organic fabrics and I know I tried to include a fair number in there…unfortunately this meant I just *had* to buy some new fabrics, shame! Mine was the top strip and I think this was my favourite one to make, maybe because I got to make teeny tiny dividing lines, which for some bizarre reason I really enjoy.

Fran’s Quilt

I loved Fran’s starting strip, stars are always a hit with me and those llamas that Sarah added are just the cutest!

Sarah’s Quilt

Sarah’s quilt is such a pretty colour combination. I love the fabrics she chose for the snowball blocks and they are matched so perfectly throughout by everyone else. Jen’s mugs at the bottom are a really fun addition.

Maria’s Quilt

Maria’s quilt is really quirky and has a great theme starting from her houses and then carried along throughout the blocks. The birds of Julie’s at the top are just beautiful. It’s like a little street scene captured in a quilt…. a real story being told.

My Quilt

With me…..

Without me…..

Finally my quilt which is quite simply AMAZING, I can’t believe how well it has turned out. When I created my starter strip I really didn’t know what was expected, I now realise no one else was expecting my strip!! As soon as I saw a little peak of Sarah’s portholes I knew it was going to be fab and it definitely doesn’t disappoint!!

 The question is now…..how to quilt it?!

Keeping it Simple – June Goals

First things first…….. if any of you read this post you may be wondering whether my sister’s baby arrived…well she did in the early hours of Sunday morning. So now I have a beautiful new niece, yay!

We are going to visit this weekend so I will be taking my quilty goodies with me….quite excited. I’m thinking super cuteness!!

Anyway this month is a bit hectic so I’m not sure it’s wise to set any major goals. We’re pretty much going somewhere every weekend. Plus I am determined to try and make it to the gym at least twice a week (that’s twice as much as usual!) which is going to put the pressure on. Is that wise I ask myself?!

I did draw up a design for a cushion at the weekend AND started making it so I will be listing that as my main goal.

The pattern did take some working out, but I got there in the end. It may get added to the list of things to do for a tutorial that I’ll probably never get round to!

(Not a great idea to photograph on a cream wall!)

I actually used white, yes white as the background which is a rare event round here, but it’s being given away so no fear of getting ruined in our mucky household.

So that’s it, anything else is a bonus. I think I might spend some time working out what to make next, what to buy next and how to go about the next three journal quilts.

Linking up with ALYoF

and WIP Wednesday!