W.I.P. Wednesday

I'm so glad I "signed up" to the W.I.P. Wednesday because it did make me sit down and apply myself to my new broken Star quilt for my friend Cheryl. However, with a young kitten in the house my time was seriously limited and anyone who has had one of these bundles of fur will know they never sleep when you want them to!!
However, I've got a bit of the centre of my friend's quilt done, although it HAS driven me a little mad!! I just couldn't seem to get the whole thing to sit flat and fit together neatly, but I think I've got it sussed now. Funnily enough the very first Broken Star top I made when I was VERY new to piecing went together pretty well.
Maybe I'm losing my touch!!
Here's my progress for this Wednesday.....



Hopefully you'll see a big difference on it by next Wednesday!!
While you're here, feel free to pop over to my cycling blog I've just started.( Click link top left) This is my new hobby! Hhhhmmmm......pity I can't cycle and sew at the same time. At least I'd be away from the kitten's little teeth and claws!!



Don't worry, he was only yawning!!
Back soon!

Broken Star Quilt Started

Hi, as promised yesterday I'm going to show you the very early stages of my new Broken Star quilt for my friend Cheryl.
As previously mentioned I had free reign with the colours so it took me a little while to decide fully on which colours I would use. This may have been due to the fact that my first Broken Star quilt top was very bold and bright. In fact I called it "Fire Star" but didn't finish the quilt as I was not happy with the quality of sewing. I had started it at the beginning of my "quilting life" and had not as yet discovered Freezer Paper as a backing. The paper I had used had a bit of a sheen to the surface like magazine pages. Here are three photos of that first unfinished quilt top.....



And now the new quilt colours which may seem a bit dull compared to the colours in the above one but they are brighter in real life. The turquoise is a great fabric, nice and fresh and bright, followed by a beautiful lilac/pale purple fabric. The next fabric is a rich purple and I think sits very well between the paler purple and the bright sunshine yellow. Here's how it came out in a photo......



To test my colours I always use my trusty little "peeper"!! Have you discovered how useful a door peeper is in quilting yet? You can buy them for a couple of pounds in most hardware stores. Here's the one I use. I attached a piece of string to it so I can keep it round my neck and not lose it while I'm playing with colours!!



Try this little gadget. It really works. Just have a look at your quilt or selected colours through the peeper. It's always best to have your coloured pieces already cut so you are actually looking at a test piece instead of just pieces of coloured fabric. You'll soon know if there are any glaring "no-no's" in your quilt.

Please tell me what you think of the new colours for the Broken Star quilt. Have you used this combination of colours before and how do you feel it worked in your project? And I'd be delighted to know if there are more door peepers out there being used in quilting rooms rather than in doors!!!

Until next time, which should be soon, thanks for dropping by. Please let me know you've been here and follow so I can visit and follow you too.

Kate

My First Comissioned Quilt....Yay!!!

I have to say I'm quite excited that someone is trusting me enough with a pile of fabric and some wadding to make them a quilt they will treasure!! The person who has asked me to make the quilt is a very dear young ( MUCH younger than me!!) woman with a growing family. Her name is Cheryl. She says she doesn't mind what colour or pattern it is, so I have free reign!! Dangerous!!
No, seriously, I am SO looking forward to making this quilt and I've already been auditioning some purple and yellow fabrics to make a "Farmer's Wife" quilt. That's the plan at the moment!Here are some of the fabrics I've pulled from my stash........


And here are some blocks I may use. The border will be a rich, dark purple and nice bright, rich yellow, which I'm hoping will give the quilt a bit of "ZING"!!



My other project is going to be decorative cushion covers and I recently found the perfect companion fabric to go with some lovely fabric I bought about 10 years ago. That particular fabric is the mustard and red pattern fabric for which I found a red and tan stripe fabric. The colours have not come out as bright and true to their original colours so as you look just think "mustard and rich red"!! It's hard to explain what I have in mind so please keep watching this space for my progress. Here are the fabrics and ribbon.....



And finally for today a couple of pictures from our little garden which my husband tends with much love.......


Himalayan Poppy. A lovely little flower which has survived strong winds and rain here this summer.


This darling little flower is actually a wild orchid. We didn't pinch it from the roadside!!! We can only presume a bird "passed" a seed while it was feeding in our garden. Aren't birds delightful! They sing out of one end and "sling" out of the other end!!!


This gorgeous pink poppy only came out yesterday so I thought I'd get a photo while it was still reasonably fresh. We've had red, pink and salmon pink poppies this year so far, thanks to hubby!


Last, but by no means least, the unstoppable snow in summer plant.
I like the contrast of the snow white against the green foliage.

Well, that's all my news for today. Thanks for stopping by. Please follow so I can follow your blog too and see what inspiration we can share. Back soon.

A Couple More Pin Cushions and a Coaster in the Early Stages!

Hi everyone, this is a little catch up bloggy just to let you know what I've been up to between gall stone bouts!
Here is a little cockleshell pincushion, front and back......



And I love the fabric in this little cushion. Sadly I only had enough to make one.........


The other side of the cushion is green polka dot fabric which matched the green spool of thread on the front perfectly. I wasn't initially sure if it was too much of a contrast but I'm happy with it now and feel it works fine.

I decided to make something a little bigger today so I selected some puffin fabric and a bright red "dimples" fabric and cut out a 6 inch square of each plus 6 inches of thin wadding to make a coaster. These are the fabrics.............



Click on all pics to enlarge and see the fabric better.

I will be making them in sets, each set consisting of four coasters. They will be bound in a multicoloured fabric that picks out all the colours in the puffin fabric. I'll post a photo once I get the first set done.

Puffins come here to Shetland every year to breed. They are adorable little birds and so tame you can get right up to them to photograph them. Normally there is a webcam set up to watch a particular nest at the south end of Shetland. Unfortunately this year nature was not in this puffin family's favour and the egg didn't hatch. It's just one of those things. It happens in the natural world.

I will be selling the puffin coasters on Etsy but if you would like a set I can always accept payment through Paypal. There will be another set coming soon with gannets on. The fabric is just as beautiful and, as we have gannets here too in abundance, I will be selling both these sets as Shetland souvenirs. A great present for friends or family.

My next blog will hopefully be tomorrow, when I will show you a couple of things I picked up in a charity shop and destined for my Etsy shop.

As always, thank you so much for dropping by. If you're not already following my blog, please feel free to do so and keep up to date with the very fabric of my life!!

Some Cutey Little Pin Cushions!

Although I haven't quite finished the snowball quilt yet and I thought I maybe would have done by now, I have actually been sitting at the sewing machine this weekend for some of the time. The rest of the time was spent trying to tidy my sewing room/office.
It was crying out to me!!!
So I thought I'd show you the little pin cushions I've been making for Cancer Research UK. My friend Polly is having a stall at one of our local agricultural shows this year and we're all pitching in to make something to help raise money.
The pin cushions all have one thing on one side eg. a sheep, with perhaps a dog or a flower or tree on the other side.
Hope you like these little ones!!



And then I decided I needed brighter fabric for a change so I created this humorous little cushion.


That's the front and back.
I hope to get many more finished before the show so we can raise as much money as possible. Every little helps.
I've found a lovely kiddies apron pattern which I may try out tomorrow if me and hubby don't go into town.
Thanks for dropping by again. Feel free to comment or give me more quick ideas for fund raising items. I would truly appreciate that.
Bye for now.

Snowball Quilt for Winter Maybe?

I have been auditioning fabrics today with the possibility of a Snowball Quilt to be hand-pieced over the next 2 - 3 months. I have some lovely blue fabrics which would combine with a cream snowball very easily. Do you like them too?



The Paisley fabric is simply gorgeous but is a slightly different shade of blue than in the photo. I am so looking forward to working with these fabrics and the small 2 inch squares that will be hand sewn together to make the 9 patch squares between the snowballs.

But first I must finish some bright floral spool pieces. I bought the bright floral 4 inch squares as they were so cheerful but then didn't quite know what to do with them. Now I've decided to make the spools with black fabric between each. Here are some of the VERY bright spools so far.





I chose black as I thought it would really set off the bright colours nicely. Hope it works!! Just off now to do some more.
Wherever you are, I hope you're having a peaceful weekend.