Our Secret Garden

As I have mentioned many times* we are incredibly lucky to live a couple of minutes walk (down to the end of our dead-end cobbled street) from Lady Kitty's Garden (or the Secret Garden as we tend to call it).  Recently, I have been using the garden a lot.  It is a perfect wee walk for me and Katie when we both need some fresh air and a change of scene.  And, once we are there, Katie can run around and explore with, pretty much, total freedom.  Often,  we are the only people there (except perhaps for the gardener) which makes it feel even more like Our Secret Garden.

I have been trying to improve the photos I take of the things I have sewn**.  Our little trips to the Secret Garden have been perfect for this.  I do feel a little odd if someone sees me, but hey, never mind, I'm sure it isn't the only thing I get strange looks for.

I think, however, that we'll be visiting less over the summer holidays as the boys can't play with a ball in there and dogs aren't allowed (I fully understand both rules - they just don't suit all my family members!).....and wee Susie is going to be allowed out for walks in 10 days or so.  As of this afternoon we're in holiday mode.  I'm looking forward to giving the children a chance to unwind and just be children for a few weeks.  I do hope you have some fun things to look forward to over the summer too.

* Here, here and here to highlight just a few of our visits!
**  These bibs were dropped off at Peter Potter Gallery yesterday morning - just opposite the garden

This week

This week::

:: piles (Beth would approve, I think) of lavender bags and bibs ready for Peter Potter Gallery

 :: cause and effect

 :: birthday party

 :: tiny t shirt for Katie (from this book)........spot the error?  I have sewn the back under the front instead of the opposite, didn't notice until I'd completely finished.  Oh well.

 :: knit fabric (from here) to make tops (this pattern) for the boys - they chose the fabric!

 Wishing you a lovely weekend.  Keep well.

Cheery quilts for snowy days

Good morning.  Hope you are warm, snug and cosy.  I'm a little damp having been to and from school, dog walking and then swimming lessons with Katie - but I'm feeling lovely and warm.  We got our snow which is making me very happy.  We managed sledging, walking and snow-men making over the weekend and we all had a lovely time.

Today it is snowing quite heavily but since it is terribly wet and coming down sideways I don't think it will lie very well.  Given how very grey it is outside I thought it would be fun to brighten things up with a catch-up on quilts I made before Christmas.

First up is the Wish Upon A, Wonky, Star Quilt.  I love making wonky stars and started making some of these blocks before Christmas 2011 with the intention of making winter place mats.  But, really, I'm not sure mainly white place mats are a very good idea.  So they have a happy new life as a quilt - once I'd made the quilt decision I added in the red block and the mixed red and blue block to give it a little more something.

It is quilted quite densely, in places at least, with random zig zags across the width.  It gives a great overall texture and the uneven effect I was looking for - I felt it needed some more wonky-ness to go with the stars. A blue patterned binding (Amy Butler I think), with a touch of Westfallenstoffe moon and stars from the back, and a pieced green, white and blue back (which I'm rather less happy with but it is a bit late to do anything about that now!).  It measures around 140 cm by 140 cm (55 inches square)......I think, but I forgot to measure it before taking it to Peter Potter Gallery.  Oops.

And the second quilt is The Adventures of Red Riding Hood.  I pieced a load of strips of some favourite red, pink and purple girly fabrics and had such fun I didn't notice how long it was getting - much too long for the width.  So the linen border adds a fair bit of width and not too much length.  I wasn't sure how it would look but I think it works pretty well.  The linen is super soft and there's quite dense straight-ish line quilting so it has a lot of texture.  The back is, mostly, a favourite Ikea print which is, again, very soft.  And the binding is another Ikea print - mostly red with a hint of green and white.  Guess what?  I didn't measure this one either bit I think it is roughly the same size as the wonky stars........will have to do better next time.  It was taken to Peter Potter Gallery too.

Hoping you are having a lovely Monday and best wishes for a great week.

Christmas robins and a design process, of sorts

I've had a few Christmas makes preying on my mind and didn't manage get on with them as fast as I had hoped.  The main task I had set myself, and which was really bothering me, was making some Christmas robins for the gallery (I know I'm not the only one who sets themselves targets which can then become rather challenging and stressful when, really, whether or not they are achieved is not going to end the world).  I did manage to finish them in early December - only a fortnight after I'd intended.  

They look lovely hung up at Peter Potter and I'm happy with how they have turned out.  I wanted to make fat little robins.  I think I had fluffed-up-against-the-cold robins in mind.  I'm not sure how anyone else would have gone about designing fat little robins.  I'm always intrigued to see how other people work, especially those that really know what they are doing, I would love to have some kind of training behind me but I seem to be muddling along finding methods that work for me, even if they may not be the most efficient or technically correct.

I ended up with 5 drafts* before I got the shape I was hoping for.  They progress round clockwise from the bottom left in the photo below.  The first had some strange kind of crested cockatoo head shape, or perhaps it was a horned dinosaur.  The next had a huge head and no beak, or huge beak and no head, and the body was shapeless.  The third had quite a sweet shape (I may use it in the future for non robin birds) and the fourth and fifth were better but not right.  Lucky number six was just what I had been aiming for.

Number six - a fat little robin.  Just in the wrong plumage!  How would you have gone about it?  I'd love to know.

I still have a long list of makes I hope to finish but they are all for immediate family so I have a whole week more to try and squeeze them in.

*  I used brown paper for drafting my patterns......I think in a rather faint hope that it would make me as skilled as Beth (The Linen Cat).  One can always hope.  But whether or not it comes with magical powers brown paper is lovely to work with.

Midnight Starflower Quilt

This is another of the quilts I made for my local gallery.  I think it may be one of my favourites, ever.  But definitely not more favourite than Katie's Sunshine Quilt.  I'm not sure that one will ever move from top spot.

I've had this giant star tutorial pinned for quite some time and had always planned to make one.  Then I saw this one on I'm A Ginger Monkey recently and suddenly I knew what to do with the little bundle of fabric I impulse bought at John Lewis a few weeks ago (I think being in John Lewis, on my own, with five children had something to do with the impulse purchase!  Although, actually, they were all very good.  Usually, on In Service days, especially if I have my niece too, we will head as far away from other people as possible and go for a walk but that day I really had to go into town.......and we had quite a lot of fun despite my pre-trip nerves!).  

So, I had a little pile of Amy Butler and Ty Pennington fabrics which I had bought because I loved them, even though they possibly aren't quite my usual style.  As soon as I associated them with a giant star quilt I knew I wanted to pair them with some of the blue prints from Liberty Lifestyle Bloomsbury Gardens.  I didn't really take to the Bloomsbury Garden prints too much except for Copeland Pale Blue, the print which Jo Bearpaw (Avery Homestore) highlighted as being her favourite from her stock.  I had spotted it amongst the other blues in the set which Alice (Backstitch) had chosen to sell.  So I picked out the four I though would combine best with other fabrics.

I decided to shrink the star a little so that I could add a border  - I imagined it shining in a midnight sky.  The Plain Indigo Blue by Westfalenstoffe from Dragonfly Fabrics was exactly what I had in mind for the solid border.

 And for the back I used an Ikea print which I bought ages ago.  It is such a pretty little print, I've used it to make a top for Islay, and it goes well, I think, with some extra pieces from the front.  The binding is the same plain indigo so as not to disrupt the front, but if frames the back nicely.

I have quilted it quite sparingly.  This was deliberate, I really just wanted to highlight the star and not play with it too much.  So I have quilted either side of each seam line which makes a flag-like pattern on the back.  The batting is light weight cotton giving the quilt a lovely drapey feel.  The finished dimensions are around 120cm square (or 37 inches square).  Hopefully it will find a good new home.........but if not I'll be very tempted to keep it just for me!

In other news we've been back up to Sick Kids with Angus, again - this time for a broken collar bone.  Almost 2 weeks in and he's getting on well, his left handed writing is coming on a treat!  Poor boy is being very good about it all.  The follow-up appointments seem fall on the most inconvenient days and at the most inconvenient times, but they have to be done.  Most of us have had a yucky bug which is making us fevered and tired - I'm on the mend but still very head-achy and tired.  Not fun but I guess it is the time of year for it.

Looking forward to a quiet weekend before the madness of Christmas school activities, Islay's birthday, my Grannie's birthday and so many other things start to kick in.  What are you looking forward to?!