Central Block of the Animal Quilt

Today has been one of those murky confuseling days where you're just not quite sure how you're feeling about the world.  I spent most of the day knitting (what will be a tea-cosy) and then switched to working on part of my animal quilt.  I've managed to do the central piece, which is 19" square (including the borders). I've chosen such a large piece of the lion fabric in the middle because I fell in love with it and wanted to show it off.  I'm thinking of doing either free-motion quilting or lines...

Spot my super dinky travel iron in the top right-hand corner!

Now it's time for a bath with a book (House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe) before I head for an early night and Ph.D. research tomorrow.

The First Quilt Blocks...

As yesterday saw the cutting out of the squares for my four large corner quilt blocks, today came the piecing.  I've decided on a simple 9 patch block design, as I feel that it shows off the fabrics in the best way.  I'm using two patterned fabrics (blue whales and then multi-animals - both Eleanor Grosz), so on the top 2 blocks will have the whales running as a frame and the bottom two blocks it will be the other way round. The spots are a Kaffe Fasset range that I felt gave a nice bold effect with the blue and greens showing up quite prominently.

This is the 3-whales colourway.

This is the multi-animals colourway.  Apologies for the shadow, that was me taking the photo in my kitchen.

The remainder of the quilt will involve some applique (I think), a simple border style (log-cabin block inspired) and oodles of cream.  I think this is going to need quite an interesting binding to finish the project off with style.  Fortunately I'm a little way off from that point.  I'm also plotting what sort of quilting style to do but again there's time...

My Quilt in Progress

For me the process of completing something is as much why I do them as for the end result.  This applies to my Ph.D. (I love writing and research), knitting (I often prefer the act to the end result), baking (how soothing is mixing together a cake?) and I'm hoping this will apply to quilting (I have a feeling that it will). Now today's post I think will be a tad picture heavy, as there are a few things I want to share.

The notebook where I've starting sketching designs for the quilt:

 This notebook has great sentimental value, as it was bought for me by my boyfriend last year for our 1.5 year anniversary.  He fell in love with it at Craft Candy (Sheffield, UK, craft collective). It's so perfect for us because he adores birds and my nickname from him is little bird, whilst he's my Big Bird.  The cover even features the two birds.  However I was unsure what to use it for because it has squared paper, whereas my journals are normally blank for writing and sketching in. Then the other night (yesterday to be precise), I was thinking about how to design my quilt and thought where better than in this book!

So... here are some of my sketches for my quilt design:

I'm aware that you might not be able to see the details but I thought I'd share my process, as best as I can.  It will be a square quilt with a simple plain block in the middle and then 4 9-patch blocks at the corner (or should they be disappearing 9-patch blocks...). The final picture for today shows my cutting board with the fabrics spread out ready to be pieced together.

Nothing too fancy for this Caroline.  I am a beginner after all, so I feel that is quite excusable to go for a simple design.  Also, how cute are those animals??  I found it hard to bring myself to cut them up at all!

A Big Thank You...

... to a woman I've never met but who wrote this series of posts called 'Quilting Without Obligation'.  They say don't be hung about what the folks on quilting blogs are doing, their fabric choices, their designs, the pressure to be original etc.  Remember why you're doing this and what you want out of the quilting. 


Perhaps this seems an odd post to have found so enlightening for someone who hasn't even made a single quilt yet.  However I've been sat with a sketch pad all evening designing my quilt, various swatches and trying to think of the best way for the fabrics to all fit together.  I was looking at patterns online, across the quilting blog-o-sphere and flickr.  So many of them require you to use many fat quarters (8 or more) whereas I want to use just 4 (the Eleanor Grosz animal print ones I have).  I've decided that I'm going to go with my 'gut' design that will showcase the fabrics I love with oodles of cream, some spots for the edging pieces, and a pretty binding and back.  This quilt is for *me*.


I'm nervous but excited.  This is going to be a challenge for me but I figure with a simple design, how can I go too wrong?  


Next I need to work out how to cut the various fabrics to make the sort of design *I* want.

My First Quilt Preparation

I'm not sure if I'm ready (in terms of skills) to tackle an entire single-bed sized quilt (c.130cm x 170cm) but I figure that I'd like to and I've found some fabric that I'd love to use, so why not give it a go.  Also I went to the John Lewis on Oxford Street today where it was the second to last day of their sale.  Most of last season's Amy Butler fabric were at 50% off, so I bought 3.5m of green/martini Opal Sky colourway of Midwest Modern, which is going to be the backing fabric for my quilt.  I'm focusing on blues/greens/limes with a hint of purple.  The main dominant fabrics on the front are Zoo Menagerie animals.

I'm trying to decide whether the multi-coloured lions will be *too* much.  But then I really like them and they think they could be a good feature fabric.  The spots is from Amy Butler's love collection and is the stone path/ ivory spots from soul colourway.  It was an 82cm remnant in Liberty*.

There will be sashing in cream (free spirit cream solid £7/m in Liberty) so that it isn't too over-powering.  I am making this quilt just for me to snuggle up under in my living room.  A joy of living in a flat that is converted from an Edwardian house is that it's beautiful but a peril is that it's drafty.  This seems to me like the perfect compromise.

* Liberty in London. Wow!  How had I never been before today?!  I say this because I've lived in London for the past 3 years.  The store itself is beautiful but the fabric selection is phenomenal.  All of the beautiful silks, home decor weight, quilting weight.  I was particularly enthralled with the range of Kaffe Fasset fabric (loving his colour combinations) and Free Spirit fabrics.

I'm now going to head back to my sketchbook to figure out the design of this quilt. Wish me luck!

First Things...

Hello!

My name is Caroline and I'm 25 living in London.  I'm a full-time PhD student in Sexuality and Gender studies, who spends most of her spare time reading or crafting.  I'm going to use this blog to chart my crafting (knitting, sewing, baking and quilting) projects.  There will be photos galore, mostly taken with my iPhone 4, so I can do a quick snap and not be too stresseld over the lighting.  

How long have I been crafting?

• Knitting: Started when I was 20 and a friend taught me how to do a basic knit stitch.  Didn't progress from making a huge burgundy scarf monstrosity that I've kept for sentimental reasons.  Competent at: simple cables and lace, knitting in the round (circular and dpn), miniature knitting, socks etc.  I'm yet to try making a garment.

• Baking: As a child, I baked most Sunday afternoons with my Mum.  There would be a spread of Welsh cakes, pikelets, scones etc.  However during my teens I forgot about baking and lost all of my skills. I discovered this 3 and a bit years ago when I wanted to bake a birthday cake for a friend and it was a disaster.  I'm now competent at a wide variety of cakes and breads. My boyfriend is particularly a fan of my Toffee Chocolate Brownies.

• Sewing: Again hand and machine sewed when I was young with my Grandma and at school.  I forgot all my skills but decided I wanted to try it again.  I'd now put myself at a competent beginner.  So far, I've made a mini-patchwork stocking, a circle skirt, bag, table mats and a few other odds and ends. 

• Quilting: This is the latest of my crafting skills e.g. I'm just taking a beginners course in machine quilting at the moment at the wonderful Sally Bourne Interiors workshop.  In the workshop I'm making a set of 4 patchwork table mats.  I've bought the fabric and have started to design my first quilt!  It's going to feature four fat quarters of Eleanor Grosch's Zoo Menagerie fabric that I bought from the charming Backstitch.  

My sewing machines:

Singer 30, treadle in a walnut veneered cabinet.  It's my beauty, though I'm still just beginning to become competent with the treadle part.  I have to watch that I don't go backwards too often.

Pfaff Select 4.0.  This was quite reasonable at £399 for an ex-display model that only arrived yesterday from The Sewing Centre in Battersea, London.  I'm already in love!

I'll post some more pictures once I've some new projects to show you all!