My Silly Brain...

I managed to call the line 'Tufted Tweeds' instead of 'Tufted Tweets'.  I'm sorry loverly birds and fabric.  Please do forgive my lapse in attention.  I blame the absence of caffeine in my blood-stream at the time of writing the post.  A girl has to learn!

Finished Table Mats and American Fabrics!

I'm pleased to say that I have now finished three of the mats.  The binding has been sewn on using blind stitch by hand (a big achievement for me, as I'd never done the stitch before).  

They were used for the first time at last night's dinner up north at my family's house.  It seemed ideal that the three of them were used then, as my Mum gave me the quilting class as a Christmas present.  Fortunately for me she loved them and has asked me to make her a wall hanging!  Another project in the pipeline for once I've finished my quilt... I'm going to try to do one thing at a time, at least in quilting terms. 

Now I wanted to visit home, as my family had just been on holiday to Florida, where they happened upon a quilting shop [Rainbow's End] (typical that they would find the largest one in the state when it's not their interest!). However Mum being loverly as she is, chose four fabrics for me, which are:

1 fat quarter of this, as I adore pandas!

1/2 yard of the Alexander Henry owls.  Hoot Hoot.

1 fat quarter of this.  Not sure what it is.  Mum said that it reminded her of Audrey Hepburn...

1/2 yard of 'bird on a ball' designed by Etsuko Furuya.  Beautiful!!

I think my Mum chose pretty well considering she wasn't sure what to choose or what it'd be best used for but I now have fabric joy fun times to look forward to.  I feel quite excited about using it though I think I'll have to think quite carefully for the best way to show-case the fabric.  Yay!

Now I'm off to make miniature felted animals with my Mum from the book 'Felties' by Nelly Pailloux.  Mum is battling with a 'vivid squirrel' and I'm going to try making a sleepy fox!

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!

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!