Batik is back!

So I am finally back at the sewing machine. I have taken a week off work to settle Penelope into school so every morning I get three hours to myself. I admit, the first few days I just sat on the sofa worrying but by day three I had poked my nose into the cellar to bring up all the stuff I needed. My sewing world is so messy I have to keep it hidden away. I mean just look at the mess of my public shelf.

What a mess! Anyway, after a bit of a tidy up I got out all my batik blocks and laid them out. I was three blocks short so I got to use some of my new fabric as I was running low on mum's stash.

Finally I trimmed each block, some of mine were way off. Should have measured as I went along. Luckily nothing much needs to line up. I used my great new ruler I bought ages ago for some project or other. It's really great. I love Le Summit rulers.


This is the perfect size and the markings are really useful. Then I laid them out and numbered them.


I sewed the blocks into strips and ironed them. They are a bit lumpy because of the seams and the steam iron warped them a bit. Out of practice...


It came together really quickly in the end and the central block is made! I do think it looks a bit odd laid out like this but it's when it scrunches up that it looks great. You need to have it on your lap to truly appreciate it. It's much brighter than mums which was not my intention at all. Plus mine has blue in it which I didn't realise hers did not. I think if I were to do it again I would choose less bright Batiks, but it's so weird trying to pick them out when I buy them. I just look at them and think 'ew, disgusting' but then, later on, I love them. So I found it very hard to choose them. I still think it will be great when it's done. Now I just need to sew on the borders today.

What I bought

No Festival post would be complete without showing all the stuff I bought. I often look back through these types of post to identify where I bought something from so they are pretty useful to me.

For once, I don't think I went overboard. In a way it was sad, because I haven't been actively quilting I had no projects in mind really, no burning desires or half-baked plans. The only things I wanted were:

• Bottom Line Thread – It's perfect for hand piecing but it's expensive so I have decided to buy three rolls every year to build up a bit of a stash. At the moment I only have white and dark & light pink thinking that these would get me through, but if you want to be 100% invisible then it doesn't hurt to match thread to material colour as much as possible. So I am on a mission to amass a bit of a spectrum. They do an offer at Birmingham on three rolls so that's always good to take advantage of.

• Batik Fabric – Although I have paused on projects, the last thing I was working on was a batik log cabin made by mum's quilting group. I don't really own any batik fabric. I am not even sure I like it sometimes, but I loved mum's quilt she made and she had lots of extra strips cut. I mean loads! So I had nearly everything I needed. But I wanted to buy a few fat quarters and possibly a backing.

• Hiroshima Needles – So I bought some of these needles last year and they have grown on me. Of course my little glass test tube lost its cork whilst rattling around in my silly sewing kit which has gaps in the sides and half the needles were lost instantly. D'oh. SO I was on the look out for some more. 

THAT'S IT! 

Can you believe it?

Well of course, it's never quite that simple on the day...

So let's break it down

So I got my batik fabric, even the backing. It has made me motivated to finish it off.

Got my thread and needles. Amazingly I had forgotten the stalls I bought them from but they were in exactly the same position this year and I recognised the stalls instantly. And last but not least...

Every year mum buys me my birthday present from the show as it's only a few weeks after the show. This time she bought me this Monkey Buttons Sunset pattern and 8 fat quarters to go with it. I have a real issue with this quilt. I think I love it because of the fabric colours. I saw it last year and decided that I would never be able to recreate them as they are just not my colours. My mind can't even bend itself to their will. But I remembered it and went to look at it again. It just feels like an autumn/haloween/bonfire quilt. Mum talked me into it by saying the best course of action was to use fabric from their shop and to buy it all right then whilst we had the real quilt in front of us. It was very extravagant as the last thing I need is more fabric, but nothing much I have is those tones. So in the end, mum bought 8 quarters and I bought 8 so I would have enough. And then of course I got a few extra bits from my favourite stalls


I love The Shuttle. It's so cheap! I love their solids. They feel as if they are made from sheeting and go really soft. I am always on the lookout for warm greys for my stash so these were perfect.

I love Sunflower Fabrics. I always have to buy something from Maggie. Liberty fabric is so bloody expensive but this is one of my favourite patterns.

I didn't buy anything from Worn and Washed this year, but not because I didn't want to. I held back because I haven't touched what I bought time from Kim. I loved these hexagon cushions though. And last but not least... I bought one single fat quarter from The Eternal Maker. I have never been so restrained. Without Rachel there to guide me, plus the fact that I still haven't made the purse I bought all the stuff for last year, made me hold myself. So 1 fat quarter goes towards my Monkey Buttons quilt. That, as they say, is all folks.

Festival of Quilts

I'm really sorry it's been such a quiet year for me. Life has taken over and my sewing machine is making a grinding noise. Everything quilty has taken a back seat for a while. But it did not stop me going to Birmingham this year. I couldn't miss the opportunity to take mum away for the weekend. We decided to go Thursday/Friday this year and I don't think it made much difference to the numbers really. The above shot is taken at around 10.30. By 11 you could barely move! But you just have to take your time which we did. Because I have been so out of the loop with my sewing, I felt less driven; less crazy. I had a very small shopping list. Sometimes this is good because it means you can meander more. More about what I bought later... Due to my lackadaisical nature, I forgot to take my big camera and I didn't spend as long looking at the quilts as usual, but I did see some lovely things. See the full album here Otherwise, here are a few highlights. I really enjoyed looking through the 365 day challenge. I had seen this around the web and had been really tempted to join in, but after The Farmer's Wife, I just needed a rest. Do I really need a 90"x 90" quilt in my life? Not really. But I LOVE these sampler type quilts. I loved looking at the different colour combinations, choices of lights and darks and how they changed the pattern. It was great. Such a huge body of work. Check out the website for more info. I've got this Moda pattern, but I admit, seeing it up close made me realise how big some of those blocks are. Such beautiful fabric. I love this. Especially this bit with the big white circle. It makes me want to get my screenprinting kit out that Rachel bought me. I love the bright colours in this quilt. There were some really lovely modern quilts this year. I think that's more than enough. There were some epic quilts there. I am always blown away by just how many man hours they must take to make and how perfect the sewing is. Another great year at the show.

Half Square Triangle Quilt Done

Last year I started this quilt. I based it on this quilt. It just shows you though, that no matter how hard you try to replicate something, you always end up with something quite different. I still prefer the more subtle palette of Megan's original, but I often think that I fall in love with the fabrics people choose rather than the pattern and that it's a real hostage to fortune as you can never quite match them unless they are current fabrics.


I knew that this quilt would be for Penelope so I decided to use brighter fabrics. I wanted to avoid making it overly pink or purple as these are Penelope's least favourite colours; seeing as they are GIRLS colours and she hates GIRLS. Urgh! Yucky! I liked the use of light and dark blues in the original so I tried to incorporate these and just use one slight green fabric.


I used Kona Ash for the solid. I found trying to find the exact warm grey/brown fabric impossible so the ash was a compromise. I am still annoyed about it. It lacks the slight warmth I would have liked. It's too grey. But I just couldn't wait any longer and to be fair, I looked for it at Birmingham and Duxford and couldn't find it so you can't say I didn't try.


I bought the backing at Duxford. It was cheap which was a great and it's Penelope's favourite colour; orange. I think it goes really well with her Ikea duvet cover.


I finished the top quite quickly. But since November it has sat around waiting for the next step. It was in danger of toppling my enormous pile of quilt tops which never get finished. So I decided to plough on through to the bitter end. I hate basting. I am just not set up for it. I hate machine quilting as I am just not set up for it, but it worked out fine in the end. I used my favourite Quilter's Dream Puff wadding because it is so light and bouncy. I didn't want it to be a heavy quilt as they annoy Penelope. I also want it to scrunch up nicely and be really soft.


It looks a bit flat at the moment. I toyed with the idea of doing the quilting 1/4 inch from the seams on either side but it was twice the work so I just did one line down the ditch. A wash will tell the true story. I am in no doubt this will need washing over and over so it will never look this flat again. I have not prewashed any of the fabric which I know could spell ruin but part of me wouldn't mind if the colours merge and blotch a bit.... well I say that now. I just want it to look scrunchy and well loved and the grey could benefit from being washed with a slight purple tint.


The other thing I wanted was for it to fit the top of her bed perfectly but have no bits draping. At present her quilts tend to drag off onto the floor because her bed is pressed up against the wall and they just tend to slide off. So this needed to just cover the top which it does perfectly. I can see this quilt being used a lot. All of her baby quilts are slightly annoying for her now as she is so tall that her feet poke out of the bottom. I never really thought she would be such a quilt person, but she loves them!

Right onto the next UFO! I am on a roll!

Smitten Hexagon Three

Block three at last. I did these two just before Christmas. They were easier than the previous ones. I am not sure about my fabric choices but I knew that I wanted the stripe effect and I knew that I wanted to use the one fabric range I had bought for the quilt.



I keep forgetting that this range really needs a solid with it. It's a bit of a train crash.


I really like my stripes here.

So now onto block four!

Happy New Year!

This is how I spent the first day of the year. I made Amy's Sugar Block Club. It's much bigger than I thought though. I have no idea what to do with it. Perhaps I will make three other blocks and make a mini quilt or something.