Sunday, July 24, 2011

Sunday Stash #3

When I first started sewing a couple of years ago, a remnant of Henna Garden in turquoise was one of the very first fabrics I bought, so I was quite excited last week to see that Sandi Henderson is planning to reprint the gorgeous Henna Garden fabric found in her Farmers Market and Meadow sweet fabric ranges, so if you love henna garden you can go and vote for your favourites and suggest new colour combinations as well on Sandi's blog post.
I really love the beautiful design and fresh colours in this fabric and have just bought a full FQ set which I have not cut into yet......
From top to bottom: brown, speckle, spring pink, raspberry, turquoise, leaf, citrus yellow, pumpkin, melon, persimmon,red&pink, perfect pink.
I have also been able to purchase yardage of most of the available colours (except the elusive pumpkin) and have used them in quite a few projects......
 This is the doll quilt I made for my partner for the Down Under Doll Quilt Swap recently, which was a mini version of the Colorbrick quilt by Rachel @ Stitched in Color.





This ipod/iphone pouch I made for a thank you gift......
 This is such a lovely and versatile fabric range and  I can't wait to see the new colour combinations!
Kirsten.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

WIP Wednesday # 8

I bookmarked this tutorial by Ayumi at the Pink Penguin to make some cute fabric baskets quite a while ago now and decided to try it this week:
 This one is for Lee -  she has a ipod/phone pouch made out of some of these fabrics so I though I'd make her a fabric basket to match.
And this is the next one - the original pattern calls for 2 inch squares but these are slightly larger at 2 1/4 inch (leftover fom the DS Scottie Dog) so I am hoping the basket will be a bit bigger too. I am using denim rather than linen for the base too as it looked good with the DS fabrics.
Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Kirsten.




Monday, July 18, 2011

Echino 241 bag

I have finished off  my 241 bag from Noodlehead - I really love the shape and curves of the finished bag and pockets on the side are so handy. This is the front with one of the lovely Echino elephants:
And I was able to get a giraffe, antelope and elephant on the back:
I have to go away this afternoon to do a computer training course for work and I am going to use this bag whilst I am there. I am linking up to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations and also to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.
Kirsten.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sunday Stash #2 - Solids

I have just been going through my solid fabrics in preparation for the Love of Solids swap. 
Firstly, I have a set of Robert Kaufman Kona charm squares in the Pastel, Bright, Classic, Dusty and Dark palettes that I was lucky to  win as part of the Sew, Mama,Sew pillow month earlier this year.
 From top to bottom: denim, orange, peridot, mulberry, jade green, baby pink, bright pink, canary.
And I recently bought an "Everything But the Kitchen Sink" Kona FQ stack from sewfreshfabrics in a lovely range of colours, as well as a Moda crossweave FQ set which I am not entirely certain count as solids?
From top to bottom: brown/black, coral, pink/yellow, apple, sky, ocean,blue/white, grape
I also have a beautiful bundle of Kona cottons in blue tones on its way here from Felix loves Fabric:
From top to bottom: Aloe,Bluejay,Deep Blue ,Dresden Blue,Lake Blue,Marine,Midnight,Sky
And I managed to visit a new LQS yesterday called Rainbow Patchwork who stock some wonderful fabrics including a great range of solids which will be very handy just in case I need some more in a hurry:).
Kirsten.


Saturday, July 16, 2011

For the Love of Solids Swap

 
After having participated in the Down Under Doll Quilt Swap earlier this year, I was on the lookout for another swap group to join, and so I have just signed up For the love of solids - a Modern Swap hosted by Elizabeth and Megan.  All of the info is on the flickr group page, but basically we need to make at least 2 items for our partner - one large and one small using solid fabrics. This is the inspiration mosaic that I have posted in the flickr group:

The group is limited to the first 100 people to sign up so there is still time to join in!
Kirsten.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Elephants!

Following on from my last post, where I mentioned that I had cut the Echino fabric to include the elephants for both sides of the bag, anyone who knows me well knows that I love elephants and have been collecting them for nearly 30 years now! So when my lovely neighbour turned up with a surprise gift for me the other afternoon, she said that as soon as she saw this fabric she thought of me:) 
 It is a weighted doorstop which she made and has filled with lavender - just perfect!!!!! I am going to put it near my bedroom door as the scent of the lavender will help me go to sleep at night.
And I also received these in the post last week -  a fabric basket and matching keyfob made from my one of my favourite Daiwabo elephant fabrics, which came from The Owl and the Elephant. I am using the basket in the kitchen as a "charger" basket as in our family of 5, we have a lot of mobile/camera/ipod chargers which tend to go astray if not kept together.
Kirsten.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

WIP Wednesday # 7

 I had purchased the 241 tote bag pattern from Noodlehead a few weeks ago and decided to make a start on it this week. I have some lovely Echino Quiet Ground in black, and managed to cut out the fabric so that I have elephants on both main pieces.
I debated about using any interfacing at all with the linen, but didn't want the bag to be too slouchy. All I had here though was quite a heavy interfacing which was a bit tricky to sew through at the base of the bag, so I may use a different weight next time.
 I have also used a natural linen for the remainder of the bag and the strap, some grey cotton for the lining and made a pocket using come scraps of the black Echino.
Kirsten.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

"Black Opals" quilt finished

Just yesterday morning I was basting this quilt...................
 And now it is finished!!! I did echo stitching along of each of the blocks and the subtle variations in the blue Gutermann thread look really nice with all of the colours in the quilt.
I didn't end up using the Kaffe Fassett Shirt stripes fabric for the binding as one of my sons mentioned that he liked this quilt so may end up with it on his bed one day, and he preferred the blue of the backing. I can always change it later anyway:)
 The photo above really shows the lovely salmon/coral colour of the Watermelon shot cotton, which has shown up more pink in some of the other pictures. The back looks pretty good too as the stitching has ended up forming a grid pattern:
 I have decided to name this quilt "Black Opals" as all of the colours in these fabrics are in my mothers' gorgeous Black Opal pendant that she bought at Lightning Ridge whilst travelling in outback NSW, Australia recently.  But because I don't have a photo of her pendant - here is another pic of the quilt instead.
Quilt Stats 
Pattern : Piano Keys by Spool
Finished Size: 72 x 80 inch
Fabric: Kaffe Fassett Shot cotton
Thread: Gutermann blue variegated #9986 
Batting: Cotton/bamboo
Linking to Sew Modern Mondays at Canoe Ridge Creations and to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory- there are lots of great link-ups there already!
Kirsten.




Wednesday, July 6, 2011

WIP Wednesday #6

I finished sewing the top of my shot cottons Piano Keys quilt yesterday afternoon. I only cut the fabrics on Monday morning so this has been very quick to put together -  and most of my seams match up too:)
If you are not familiar with these Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, they are a woven fabric with the warp and the weft created with two different colours, giving the effect of a solid but with subtle changes due to the cross weave.
 I am now trying to think of a name for this quilt - the rich colours remind me of jewels so I have come up with "Gem Stones" so far as the brick like pattern is a bit like stepping stones . Any suggestions? 
I went to my LQS yesterday afternoon to buy some backing fabric, and some lovely Gutterman variegated blue thread for quilting and I may use this Kaffe Fasset Green shirt stripes for the binding.
Kirsten.


Sunday, July 3, 2011

Shot cotton "solids" quilt

I have been trying to look for a pattern for a decent sized quilt to make using my bundle of Kaffe Fasset shot cottons.  I had originally though of using them for the Kaleidoscope QA at Don't Call Me Betsy and whilst they would still look nice with something like a charcoal grey solid, I really just want to use only these fabrics in the quilt so I need a fairly simple pattern which has neither sashing or borders.
From top to bottom the colours are:  Persimmon, Bittersweet, Tangerine,Sunshine, Butter, Lime, Moss, Pool, Jade, Eucalyptus, Cobalt, Moor, Galvanised 
(and now I also have "Watermelon" - not pictured)
There are a lot of great patterns around that are suitable for "solids" only - the "Plus Quilt" at In Color Order is one I have wanted to try for a while now, and another lovely one is "Basic Puzzle" from Amy Ellis' book "Modern Basics". There are also a few books which have a lot of wonderful geometric designs using just solid fabrics: "City Quilts" by Cherry House quilts, and also "The Modern Quilt Workshop" and "Quilts Made Modern" both by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.
But browsing through flickr the other day, I saw a quilt made with the Piano Keys pattern from Spool. On the Spool blog they have a few pictures of a beautiful "Shot Cotton Surprise" quilt  as well as the same pattern made in other fabrics and they all look amazing!
I have more of some of the colours than others so I have drawn up a {very} rough sketch of what I would like to do using the colours/amounts of fabrics that I have - this quilt should finish being a good twin size and I will still have some fabric leftover for other projects.
Kirsten.