The freedom quilt

I have been working on this mini quilt for months, and finally it is finished and hanging in my living room!

I think I might have shown it to you when it looked like this... but maybe I forgot.  The words are improv pieced (my favourite technique and one I'm teaching tomorrow at the East Midlands Modern Quilt Guild) in shades of blue Kona solids, and the background is scrappy low volume.  

I put a 2" border around it using each of the colours I'd used for the words.  I then auditioned a potential scrappy low-volume border v. a blue binding.  The blue binding won. It was at this stage I realised I'd made the border to the exact size and it would change as I quilted it!  Off it came and a new border went on.  Yes, my pjs have sheep on them.

It was also at this stage that I realised I'd forgotten something rather important....

Credit.  These lyrics are from She Bangs The Drums by The Stone Roses, one of my favourite bands ever.  I embroidered the names of the two co-writers using the fonts on my Janome Atelier 5.

I bound the quilt in a blue Alison Glass print and added hanging corners.  I then got my Dremel out and cut a piece of dowel to size.  It's hanging from some yarn - I need a better solution than that!  I completely forgot to measure it, but from memory of doing the borders, I believe it is 33" wide x 39" long, so bigger than Silent Scream.

I took down Silent Scream from above the mantlepiece and put up The Freedom Quilt in its place.  Silent Scream was how I felt during depression.  My depression lifted shortly after my husband left so this Freedom Quilt is an expression of freedom both from him and from it. 

This seems to be the only close up picture I took to show the quilting and the binding.  I was planning on free-motion quilting it, but I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do, so I had a go at straight line quilting instead and quilted a grid.  It was fairly quick and easy, but I have to say I prefer the look of FMQ.  

I have a confession.  I didn't bury the threads.  In fact, I didn't even cut them off on the back, I just left them there.  This is, after all, a quilt whose back will always be facing a wall!  Don't think I'll be winning any quilting awards any time soon....

Now to decide on my next lyrics as I'll be starting a new quilt tomorrow.

Quilting with words

Last year I made a quilt about my depression called Silent Scream, and started working on a second.  It was a cathartic exercise and made me feel happy whilst I was making them.  Fast forward 6 months or so and I'm feeling good.  The depression is in remission.  My mental health is the best it's been for years.  I'm happy.  Time to make a quilt to express that.

It is now my belief, and that of my family and friends who can't believe the change in me, that my marriage was making a huge contribution to the depression.  Now I'm free.  Now the future is mine.

This is a lyric from She Bangs The Drums by The Stone Roses (if you don't know them, go and have a listen on Spotify, you won't regret it!) and sums up how I feel perfectly.  It is improved pieced using various shades of blue for the words and a low volume scrappy background.

I've also been sewing together scraps of low volume to help make the background around the words.  It's now time to start putting it all together.  I really enjoy this method of patchwork.

This rather blurry photo shows the tools of my trade.  To the left of my sewing machine (I'm left-handed) is my cutting mat with my rotary cutter and my mini iron, essential for flattening all those seams, I'm pressing them open to reduce bulk.  If you haven't tried this technique, I'd urge you to give it a go!

bunny quilt

I have been collecting bunny fabrics for a few years now.  I haven't actually bought many this year as I already had so many (a noteable exception being Critter - linked to a random UK shop as I can't remember where I bought it!).  I have over 100 FQs or scraps with bunnies on:

Some I've bought, some were bought for me by Mr CA one Christmas and some were gifts from friends and quilt buddies.  I sorted them into rainbow order.

Then at October's EMMQG meeting I began sewing.  I had to figure out the dimensions I wanted as I'm not following a pattern.  I started with 2" and 3" centre squares, I just couldn't make it work with one size only, but as I only have a vague plan, I'm sure it'll be fine!

I stitched some of the greens and all of the purples into polaroid blocks.  They will be set wonkily into background squares.  I bought some navy spot fabric for this project, but now I'm wondering about Kona solids in a variety of colours... I'm sure it'll be a while before I've finished them so plenty of time to think about it!

I can't see the purple ones in this picture, I hope I didn't leave them at the guild meeting!  I only have about 5 as it's hard enough to get purple fabric, let alone purple fabric featuring bunnies!

silently screaming

I've posted about this mini quilt a couple of times, you can see it here and here.  It's only a mini so you would have thought one post would be enough without me harping on about it for months!

I was stumped by the quilting.  I took me ages to think of a design, then when I started quilting it, my new machine had a hissy fit and I had to give up.  I got it done in the end though.  It shows up really nicely on the back which is a non-branded blue with white polka dots.

Here's a close up of those swirls and pointy bits, it was a bit annoying having to do inside the letters.

Then came time to bind it - I made a length of scrappy binding using some of the Kona reds I'd used for the text.

And low and behold, it was finished!

The lyrics are from Broken Strings by James Morrison.  It's a love song, but it screams depression at me.  Silently of course.

I did credit him - I used one of the fancy alphabet fonts on my Janome.

I also remembered the hanging corners!

At July's Guild meeting I took the letters for Silent Scream #2 and pieced them into words, then into the lyrics.  I haven't quite finished here as there's a bit of a gap top right and I think I need to bring it out a little so I don't end up with the binding sitting right next to those bottom words.

The lyrics are from Pray by Take That, written by Gary Barlow.  Again, it says depression to me.

Is it depressing to make a series of quilts about depression?  The actual making of the quilt makes me feel quite happy, so I suppose not.

Bluebird parking 2

Following on from the bad news in my last post, I've also been having trouble with Colin and Kate.  Kate is the new rabbit we adopted after we lost Ellis.  I can't get a photo of her as she hides in dark corners.  She's half-wild and is terrified of me.  They were living together for a few weeks when they started to fight.  Fur everywhere.  I've separated them and the plan was to bond them back together.  Poor Colin has been temporarily exiled to the old hutch:

(that's only part of the hutch and when Tiff and Harry lived in it, it had a run permanently attached.  Colin is only going to be in there for a week or so, so it's not so bad.  I would never lodge a rabbit in a hutch with a run for long periods)

We put them in the bath (small space, neutral territory) for a few hours to try to bond them.

After that, whilst giving Colin a quick health check before returning him to his hutch, I found strange patches on his back.  There are bold patches with what look like black scabs.  There are red raw spots around this and strange black tube with hair growing out of them sticking an inch or so out of his skin.  I have no idea if this is injuries from his tussle with Kate or something worse...  Colin is living apart and I'm keeping them separate until his vets appointment so I can find out what's going on.  Wish him luck.

On to the quilting.  I just went back to find the last post on this quilt and it was July of last year!  You can see it here.  I've since made some more of the medium star blocks.

I've arranged and rearranged them on the floor.

I've added solids to the mix to try to find an arrangement I like.  It became clear I needed more stars.

I tried out a few more layouts.

Not liking any of these much.

So I made the stars to help see how it would look.

So I cut out the pieces.

I chain pieced and I chain trimmed.

I chain pressed.

And I chain pieced some more.  I started with 9 stars, I finished with 7...

Because I am just such an idiot!!

See how much of an idiot I am??

These new small stars, the old stars and the solid fabrics came with me to the East Midlands Quilt Guild April meeting for some help from my quilt buddies.  I'm pretty much out of fabric, though I do have some FQs and a half metre piece - all grey prints though.  There was much disagreeing with my choice of yellow, much bossiness from certain (lovely) friends but I still haven't completely decided.  I sewed up the top left corner, but then I was stumped so packed it away.  Apparently I didn't bother taking a photo of that.  You'll have to wait for the next gripping installment in, oh, around 10 months time probably!

Cuzco

Cuzco is finished!

Cuzco was actually finished about a month ago but I didn't get a chance to take photos.

Since you last saw it, it has been quilted:

Ooops!

It has had the binding sewn down:

And it even had a label made for it using my lovely new machine:

Yep, I decided to call it Cuzco.  I'd been calling it Cuzco since the day it was cut out and no amount of trying to think of a fancy pants name paid off, so Cuzco it is!

This quilt took me a year and a half to make, though I pretty much only worked on it at Guild meetings, which used to be every six weeks, but then changed to monthly, so I don't think that's too bad!

The pattern is Stained Glass by Sarah at Narcoleptic in a Cupboard.  She ran it as a QAL in 2012 (you know me, always up there with the latest trends!) and the pattern is free and very easy to follow if you're interested in making one.  The fabric is a F8 bundle of Cuzco by Kate Spain that I nabbed on an Instagram destash.  I used Kona Steel for the sashing and binding.  I quilted it myself using the Angles and Circles pattern from Leah Day's 365 Quilt Designs book.

The back was pieced out of necessity.  I used a large piece of one of the Cuzco prints (I'd bought 3 yards following Amy Butler's instructions when I made her Weekender Bag, this was the lining, and it was far, far too much), a large piece of a Klona grey in a similar shade to Steel, a strip of pieced leftovers and a piece of blue/purple fabric I happened to have hanging around that I thought might go!

Then I stitched a label on my Janome, blanket stitched it in place by hand using pink embroidery floss, and took a picture of it upside down.

It says:

Cuzco (with a pink heart)
aka The Guild Quilt
my name
2014-2015

That there is my real name, not the spy name I usually use on t'internet, so if you're really curious, you can have an upside down squint and find out who I REALLY am!

I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year's Eve.  Ours will be spent in front of the TV, cheese board on the coffee table.  Wine for Mr CA and coffee for me.  It was going to include Junior CA but I told her our plans and that I'd probably be in bed by 10 and she elected to go to a party at her friend's house instead.  She is 16 so I don't blame her.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope it is happy and healthy for you all.  I hope to see you around the Blogosphere in the new year and hope that you'll still come to visit me.  I don't have any resolutions or special plans, I'm going to try to concentrate on being happy.

A new quilt

At the time of writing, Cuzco is a couple of hours of hand stitching from being finished.  I know, you have no idea what Cuzco is as I haven't mentioned it in aaaaaaaaaaaaages.  It is the quilt I've been working on since summer 2014 using the Cuzco line of fabric by Kate Spain.  You will see it again soon as it's nearly finished.

Enter a new quilt.  

Take a massive pile of FQs in the colours of the colour wheel...

One massive and insanely intricate paper piecing pattern...

and cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

3rd FAL finish, 3rd quilt

Yep, you read that title right, this is my third finish out of five for the 2014 FAL (Finish Along).  You can see my original goal setting post here.

I finished Jacob's quilt!  This is for his "big boy bed", he turned 2 in March.  You know what, I meant to measure it, but I forgot and I've handed it over to him now...  ooops.

Looking back through my posts, it seems I started in February, so it hasn't taken me long at all. 

The pattern is Jungle Path, it's a free pattern found on Moda Bakeshop and designed by Jessica of SewCraftyJess.  I used Scoot by Riley Blake.  I bought some fat quarters, a metre for the backing and a metre for binding.  Yes, I was very stupid wasn't I!  I can't believe I thought that would be enough fabric...

Here is the back - the big piece in the bottom left is the metre of backing...  I paper pieced his name using Just My Type Lowercase by the very talented Kristy.  Every kid loves having their name on things, and I know he's too young to read, but I'm hoping this quilt will last him a few years.  The photos above were taken at the last meeting of The East Midlands Quilty Moderners Guild at StitchCraft.  I love this venue for our meetings, the food is great and there's a shop on site!  The lovely, and very tall, Liz was my able assistant. 

I used a scrappy binding, the left overs from some of the blue and white prints.  I love a good scrappy binding.  I threw the quilt in the washing machine and then the drier that night, and here is Mr CA holding it up in our garden the next day.

As I said, I started it in February and the piecing went very quickly.  I pieced the backing at a QG meeting, must be about 12 weeks ago, then basted it at the same meeting.  It then sat for ages as I was intending to FMQ it and my darning foot snapped.  In the end, I realised Jacob was coming up for a visit and I wanted it done.  Out came the walking foot.

I quilted in a giant square spiral, starting from the second left block on the third row so the spiral is offset.  due to the business of the prints, it's not very obvious, and neither are my extremely "organic" straight lines!  I only had a few thread ends to bury (yep, I decided to do it properly this time and not just backstitch) as the spiral started going off the edge after the first bobbin.

I pieced it with Guttermann in white, then the quilting was done in a pale blue cotton thread.  I bought a job lot from Abakhans at one of the craft shows, they're Molinsk or something...  The thread is very, very strong so I was happy to use it.

So there we go, my third FAL finish and my third quilt.

Ladies of the EMMQG, I think I'd like to change my statement that "I am NOT a quilter"...


Stat:
Quilt top pattern: Jungle Path
Back: Improv with name paper pieced in Just My Type Lowercase
Fabric: Riley Blake Scoot
Size: taller than me, about single bed size
Thread: Guttermanns, Molinsk
Time taken: 3 months start to finish
Binding: Scrappy
Quilting: by me, on my machine, offset square spiral