In Love With Rainbows

After seeing Stitched in Colour's 'bottled rainbow' QAL, it reminded me quite how much I love the full *pow* paintbox effect.  Now I've been dilly dallying around of late, not updating my blog but instead worrying about work and starting to make more things.  So today's post is going to be filled with rainbows!

First up we have this beautiful selection of Anchor perle 8 cotton:

Now there are 50 colours here and I had great fun organising them into a rainbow.  I'm also rather excited to start hand quilting with them on my new rainbow quilt (see further in this post).  I bought so many because they were £21 (incl p&p) from this seller on Ebay that's based in London.

Having all these colours around along with other patinbox style quilts I've seen on the blog-o-sphere (sorry I can't remember who did the wonderful one for her teenage son with the apple logo!), all these made me think that I wanted to try and make my own little version.

My sketch for the quilt...

I was so excited by this project that I went through my stash straight-away to decide which fabrics would go where.  I wanted it to be mostly solid colours with just a few dots or tone on tone prints to complete the paintbox effect.

Here it is a-waiting the sashing and border, which will be done in Kona solids Ash and then I think I'll get to work with the Perle 8 doing a simple design.  Haven't figured out the design yet but there's time.

Can you spot which pattern is which?

Now I'm preparing to head to Vancouver in the morning for a working holiday, so will be forced to leave my quilting at home.  Instead I'm taking some knitting which will be in time a lace shawl using this beautiful Jade Green yarn.

It took ages to wind it from the skein into a ball.  At times like that I think perhaps I should experiment with having a yarn winder...

Modern Relief Japan

Over at Modern Relief Japan there is a chance to win one of 75 quilts that will have been kindly donated by a variety of wonderful crafty bloggers out there.  To enter all you need to do is put in an auction bid of $10.  That's only £6.37!! You'd be in with a chance of winning something beautiful but more importantly, you'll be helping a wonderful cause.


Here are some statistics that were posted over at Little Island Quilting:


29,000 - the number of people either dead or missing


23 - the years worth of debris that was dumped on just one area affected by the  tsunami 


3 - the number of years it will take to clear up the mess


500,000 - the number of households still without running water 


1,200 - the number of years since the last time an earthquake of this magnitude hit Japan


800 - the average number of kilometers per hour that a tsunami races across an ocean


800 - the average kilometers per hour cruising speed of an aircraft


 10 - the small amount in US dollars it'll cost you to enter the Modern Relief raffle to be in with a chance of winning any number of lovely quilts that have been donated. All monies raised are going to Mercy Corps, one of a number of charities currently directing help to Japan


6.37 - the amount in UK pounds to enter the Modern Relief raffle...




Go on.  Click on the Modern Relief button at the side, next to this post and become one of the entrants.  You'll be doing some good too.

Homemade Mother's Day Treats

In the UK today is Mother's Day, so I thought I'd be a good daughter and come up to visit my Mum.  I had the joys of helping Scott (my step-dad type person) prepare a dinner for the family.  This year me, my mum, her mum, Scott and my step-brother were there for dinner.  My main contribution for dinner was doing the sugar topping on the creme brulee.  I think they've come out rather well, don't you?

Scott made the body of the creme brulee complete with proper vanilla pods.  It was served with raspberries and strawberries.  Yumtastic!  I'll be trying to make it again.

Anyways... I really wanted to show you all pictures of the Tea-cosy I made for my mum using Liberty Art Prints fabric that I found in John Lewis, Oxford Street.  

Isn't it bright? A friend said it made her think of a summer in Greece.  Ideal for the rainy day here.

It was a bit of an adventure for me because I had no pattern, so I designed one!  I'm noticing this to be a bit of a habit of mine.  I love sitting there with an image in my head, figuring out how to make the item and then launching ahead.  

Basted and ready to quilt!

It fitted together beautifully in the end.  I used a simple cross-hatch quilting in a sage coloured Coats cotton thread and the bottom trim is Kona Solids in Sage.  I had that fabric in my stash anyway.  Enough talking, here is the picture:

Taken in my mum's 'garden room'!

When I gave it to Mum yesterday she was thrilled because I'd taken the time to make it for her.  She was impressed that I designed it too.  She was particularly impressed because I only learnt to use a sewing machine at the end of November.  How things are coming along!

I've linked this up to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.  Please click on the button at the side to have a look at their loverly blog that showcases a variety of modern quilt designers!