Little Bouquet Wallhanging

Finished a little while ago but I've only just gotten around to taking photos of it. (images are clickable for bigger versions)

I quilted the roses as suggested with wonky spirals, and quilted the leaves with a typical leaf vein pattern, which I then echoed around the edge of the bouquet on the background.

and now it's finished I'm not convinced that I like it... again!

A dozen (mostly) red roses!

I've been making the roses for my little bouquet this evening. The roses are surprisingly simple and very fun to make.

If you've taken the time to count the roses in the above picture you'll probably have noticed that there's more than a dozen there. I am planning on having a dozen roses in my bouquet, but when I got to 12 and laid them out somewhat randomly on the background I decided that I'd made too many roses with one of the dark reds on the outside layer so to mix it up a bit I've made a few more with pink around the outside to choose between when it gets to sewing them onto the background. However, looking back at the photos I'm not so sure... I'll decide which ones to use when the next step of the instructions are posted. There are a few more photos on flickr.

I can't wait for the next step to be posted!!

Little Bouquet Quilt-a-long

As I mentioned last time, Cherri of Cherry House Quilts is currently hosting a quilt-a-long to make a 'little bouquet quilt' that I have decided to join in with.

I already showed you the fabrics I'd picked from my feeble stash out as possibilities for it, and at sewing club on Thursday evening we had a bit of a 'swap shop' where we brought along fabric/patterns we weren't likely to use to hopefully find them a new home where they'd be more loved. Jo brought along a whole heap of fabric one of her friends was going to be chucking out, so we has great fun picking through it finding pieces that would be true gems for each of us. I came home with quite a bit of fabric (whoops!), including some great pieces to use for this quilt-a-long project. I also picked up some other great fabric but I'll save posting about it for another time.

These are the fabrics I've chosen for the background of my quilt. I've gone for mostly greens and turquoises (because that's the colours I had!)

These are the fabrics I'm going to use for my flowers, I'm planning on making my bouquet with reds, pinks and a few purples. Again, because I have those colours, but they should contrast really well against the background. The last fabric on the right is a possible to use for the leaves, although I'm also considering cutting out leaves from the fabric from my leafy skirt to use... I'll see what each option looks like when I get to that stage.

Deviating from the instructions straight from the word go... as I don't have any "non fusible/non woven interfacing" I decided to use some white cotton that I had left from a previous project. In another deviation from the instructions I cut 5" squares of this white, aiming to end with 4" blocks for the background. Cutting out my strips, completely randomly at widths between 1" and 2.5", and once I had a reasonable number of each of my chosen fabrics cut I started stitching!

I've finished my background, which you can see in full here. It's not as nice as some of the ones I've seen photos of in the pool, having such contrasts within each block may have been a mistake, but I wasn't sure how else to do it with the number of different fabrics that I had. I'm optimistic though, as the red/pink flowers I have planned should still stand out really well. I cut out the perfect number of strips, only having one strip left over when I finished my last block.

The instructions for the flowers are due to be posted on the weekend, so this project will but put aside for a little while until then... maybe I'll finally stitch up my new PJs in the meantime...

Quiet but busy week

I haven't really done much sewing this week, my attention has been firmly gripped by le Tour de France. Other than time spent in the lab (mostly rummaging through the -80 freezer looking for my missing samples) my view of the week can be pretty well summarised by the picture below, just interchange what chair I'm sitting in between the couches in the tearoom at work, the chair in front of the heater (photographed) and the couch (usually snuggled under my couch quilt).


I've been feeling a bit guilty at how many unfinished projects I've been allowing to build up over the last few weeks though. I have Two things that are cut out and ready to sew, a few things that are half sewn and a few other bits and pieces. Reorganisation of my fabric last weekend means that these "UFOs" have graduated to having their own box. I have set myself the rule that I'm not allowed to let this box overflow... which means I really need to finish some stuff off as it's full at the moment!



I did say "haven't done much" at the beginning of this post, not "haven't done any", which is true. At the beginning of the week I had a play around modifying (read butchering) a pattern I already have to work out if I think I can make my own pattern for the Esprit dress I posted about in my last update.

I took the bodice pattern from New Look 6726, changed the neckline, then added the pleats. This picture is the first try of the pleats, and they're not quite placed right, or at quite the right angle, but I think I can get them to work with a few changes.

Now to work out the skirt part. I could try working something out myself or I could use the skirt from Simplicity 2965. Needless to say given my indecisive nature I haven't decided which option to pursue yet.

And lastly, Cherri from Cherry house quilts is planning a quilt along to (try and) create one of these beautiful little bouquet quilts. I'm strongly considering having a go, as it'd be a fun opportunity to have a go with free motion quilting which I haven't been gutsy enough to try yet. So, this evening while considering joining in with this quilt along I had a look through my fabrics to see if I have any that are suitable and came up with the (quite measly) box of fabric pictured below. As the instructions for the quilt along are posted I will make the decision whether to try making something with what I have or to buy some fabrics to use (or a bit of both).