I went to university in Coventry which, like Dresden, is a beautiful old city heavily bombed during WWII. Coventry and Dresden are twinned cities. Coventry has 2 cathedrals now, one is old and traditional and now ruined and next to it is the modern one. I love both. So many quilting parallels!
When my Dresden went wrong, it seemed fitting to redo it and rename it and call it a Coventry - well it made sense to me. (See yesterdays post if you missed it.)
This is bound in the Simply Colour Ombre solids which I am completely in love with. Each piece is only 18cm long so the colour change is quite subtle, but each is darker at the top and lighter at the bottom - such a good idea (Vanessa not me!)
I love this quilt so much more like this. I just can't decide whether to have it hanging on the wall, or flat on my breakfast bar.
I learnt several new things with this quilt:
- Don't Fear the (seam) Ripper (Blue Oyster Cult anyone?)
- My walking foot is awesome - why was I so afraid to use it???
I'm linking this one with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.
Ali
ps Having pieced all those little bits for the top and bottom strips, I then found a whole 2 yard piece!
pps I almost forgot the blog hop! Please visit todays contenstants...
Friday, June 14
Julie @ Jolie Maxtin
Melissa @ Melia Mae Quilting
Adrianne @ On The Windy Side
Molli @ Molli Sparkles
Laura @ Little And Lots
Sarah @ Duck Egg Threads
Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation
Cari @ There's A Thread
Valerie @ Between Quilts
So, I had a charm pack of Simply Colour by V&Co and some natural Essex Linen and Vanessa was doing a series on Dresdens so I thought I would have a go. I was also inspired by this quilt.
I bought a ruler, cut it all out and sewed it together and... nothing.
Firstly it is huge. I should have worked out that it would be twice the size of the ruler but I am too used to things ending up smaller because I forget about seam allowances.
Secondly I have no need (or space) for anything round and if I added more fabric to square it off it would be even more huge.
Thirdly, it wasn't very good. It isn't random enough (something I often struggle with) and the seams were not very even. The lawn needed cutting when this was taken so it wasn't quite as bumpy as it looks - but nearly!
I was really fed up, I loved that charm pack and these were my especially favourite prints and I had ruined them. :(
Then I got the Zakka 2.0 book and read the bit about making friends with your seam ripper and I realised that all was not lost (hurray!). I ripped the fans apart and decided to sew them back together in a long strip. All I needed was 2 strips of linen to square off the ends. New problem - I had used up all the rest of the linen in making a tea cosy.
This was all I had left
I ended up sewing 5 bits together to make a 2x6inch strip, and I had to do that twice.
Big reveal tomorrow of the finished item!
I'm linking to Live a Colourful Life random thursday slot.
Ali
This mini was a bit of an experiment. I subscribe to Simply Homemade and a few months ago it came with some free flower stamps.
I played about with these a bit and ended up stamping them onto linen (backed with iron on interfacing) and some of my favourite felt from 21st Century Yarns I cut out the felts flowers on one border and the linen ones a little larger - I hope this picture makes that clearer!
I added lines on the petals to attach the felt to the linen - the needle down option on my machine made it so much easier to make all those turns. The binding is Oakshott. It was a challenge to work with felt in a quilt as I haven't tried this before.
I'm linking this up to the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge at Ellison Lane.
I'm also linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.
Ali
My sister gave me a nice chest of drawers a wile back. It has different sized drawers and is great for storing different size cuts of fabric, scraps in the little drawers, fat quarters in the middle size and metres in the bottom large drawers. I also keep baskets on the top with interfacing and batting etc.
My sister had had the drawers some time and they could really do with rubbing down and painting - perhaps a project for the summer? In the mean time, however, I decided to pretty them up with a little topper. This is the exact size of the top of the chest (so I can't wash it in case it shrinks!)
I used some cotton sheeting as the beige solid and 2 fat quarters from Hobbycraft's bargain bin (the rose print). I don't know what it is as it had no selvage print.
My points are a bit off, but the quilting disguises it nicely and it was a really good practice piece for half square triangles.
I used a bought binding, but have seen comments on other blogs since that this is a BAD THING. I would really appreciate feedback on why this is, I found it really useful. I guess it will bleed when I wash it, but I also used bought orange bias binding when I made pot holders from the last Zakka-a-long - it is so much easier for circles, and that washes fine.
Ali
I recently took advantage of the 15% off at Simply Solids to get some new basics - plus I needed linen for the Zakka-a-long.
I also thought I would try some of these clover clips as I have heard some good things about them. I'll let you know how I get on.
I got Essex Linen in linen, putty and natural and Kona white, robins egg, lagoon, marine and chartreuse.
I had tried to order ash and parchment, but both went out of stock :(. Still, this little lot should last me a while.
Linking up with the new bloggers for this week:
Friday, June 7th
Ali
New Blogger Blog Hop Participant Schedule
I am in a blog hop - my very first!!! I am not 'on' until July 19th, but here are all the other lovely people.
Friday, June 7th
Friday, June 14
Friday, June 21
Friday, June 28
Friday, July 5
Friday, July 5
Friday, July 12 July 12
Friday, July 19
Friday, July 26
I read a book by Victoria Hislop this week called The Thread It is all about a girl / woman who spends her life sewing, embroidering and tailoring. (It also covers 2 world wars, a love story and the modern history of Thessaloniki.)
The book really inspired me to sew lots more and I decided to do some embroidery.
The brooch is basically all thread (with some little black beads and a backing fabric). I love that you can make something 3d out of just thread. It is only a couple of inches across and I have attached a pin on the back so I can wear it.
Ali
