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!

Quilty Bucket List!

There’s a great blog hop that’s just started.

Yes, you guessed it ‘Quilty Bucket List‘ over at The Tilted Quilt.

I LOVE lists, I am a list kind of person. It’s my way of trying to organise my very unorganised brain! I’m not sure how helpful it actually is as I tend to make a list, look at it once, forget where I’ve put it, things change, I revise list…and so on!!

I’m hoping this will help sort things out.

1. Improv Sampler Quilt

First on the list is an improv sampler…..like this beauty:

This pic led me to the hop as Heidi of Fabric Mutt is one of the first stops. I just LOVE it!

I’ve done the old City Sampler (no finished photos yet sorry!) so I’m looking for something more relaxed and a bit haphazard (in a good way)!!!

One year on……blogiversary and a giveaway!

HAAAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !!

Bit late…(no surprises there)….but last week was my blogiversary, yay!

One year on and I can’t believe what I’ve managed to cram into a year.

Here’s what kicked things off………..

This top and thoughts of more quilting led to my best purchase ever, my lovely Janome.

Janome enabled me to produce this baby…..

WIP Wednesday – Backstitching!

Remember this:

No?! Well, yes it’s kind of a distant memory for me too!!

I can’t even remember the last time I picked it up, but for some reason it feels right to go back to it now and I’m enjoying the change from quilting it gives.

The ghost of Christmas past!

The whole Christmas gift/decoration making has kind of passed me by this year!

This may be down to my preoccupation with November birthday gifts, or my preoccupation with the City Sampler  however I feel it is more likely my memories of past Christmas stress that is the cause. This goes back to me as a newbie let’s give it a go, let’s make my first ever quilt on a rubbish sewing machine three days before Christmas kind of quilter.

This time last year this is what I was doing………….

A Lovely Year of Finishes (and Starts!) – July Goals

I think this month is going to include more starts than finishes. There are lots of things I want to have a go at getting on with especially as the summer holidays are fast approaching which means fewer hours to play (in the crafty sense).

My main finish goal will be, of course, the next lot of City Sampler blocks. I’m happy to say I have caught up and even had my blocks done for the week on Monday..oh yes!

Block 16

Cou Cou Ca Choo – ATC finished!

First things first…I’ve finished my ATC…

Although I was planning on keeping it black and white in the end I couldn’t resist adding a little colour.

I’m really pleased at how it’s turned out, although the stitching on the back is dodgy to say the least!

Finishing Up For May!

It’s almost the end of May which means time to round up my finishes and despite the sewing machine hiccup things have gone pretty well.

Here’s what I’ve managed to get done:

A lovely year of finishes – mid month check in

Ok, so this is going to be quick(ish) because:
1. We went for a super long, super steep walk yesterday and it’s taken its toll on me today. Hence I’m writing under a blanket of tiredness……zzzzzzzzzz
2. It’s Sunday and Sunday = rest
3. The real reason…I haven’t done very much!

Anyway over the past week my little fingers have been working hard, but slowly which means I have finished my doodle embroidery….(I think!)

WIP – Textile Artist Trading Card Swap

Being without sewing machine I’m having to put a few projects on hold for now…boo hoo! So no Bloom Bloom Pow this week which I’m a bit sad about (you’re probably thinking what a relief), just hoping I don’t lose …