Storm At Sea Quilt

Sometimes you see something and you get a teeny bit obsessed with it.  I happened upon a Storm At Sea pattern a few months ago.  I can't remember what appealed to me first but I started googling the pattern and my search revealed a whole host of variations.  I was completely taken by it, it's total versatility!  The same blocks arranged and rearranged, the same blocks with 2 colours, with 3 colours with an array of colours, with an extra block thrown in........ the completely different patterns it can make are endless!

I spotted the picture below and knew this was going to be the variation I would make.  It reminded me of Moroccan and Tunisian tiled floors.  When I was 2 or 3 weeks engaged, I went to Gibraltar with my friend and fiancé and we took a day trip to Morocco......and we ended up in Tunisia on our honeymoon so you can imagine that I have lots of good memories from both places and wanted to recreate a little of that.......

Anyone who has happened upon my blog before knows that I'm a bit of a divil for the foundation paper piecing method and since this was going to be my first repetitious pattern in quite a while, I decided to go with this method again as it takes the guess work and the accuracy out of it.  I hate ripping anything back and when there are multiple seams...... this way is just easier. 

My sewing room floor.  My poor sewing room floor.  I meant to take a picture but I'd like you all to think that I'm a pillar of organisation and work only at a station of complete tidyness and order.....but those of you who have worked at paper piecing, you know what I mean by my poor sewing room floor! ;)  I took a little break in between blocks and made my little fabric covered box and it proved very handy for holding my little stack until I was ready to add them all together.

I stuck with the blue and white colour scheme from the picture I originally fell for.  I thought it was perfect and why mess with perfection.  I did however choose a navy "shadow" from Stof instead of a solid colour.  It gives a little more texture and dimension, I think.  I did hours and hours and hours of chain piecing and slowly my blocks built up.  Each block is easy but the process is very time consuming and a tad monotonous!  Let's just say, I can't wait for my new sewing machine which will have a built-in thread cutter so save me trimming hundreds of threads!  That alone sucked hours of my time!  Worth it though...

I moved my sewing machine from my sewing room, to the kitchen table, to the coffee table in front of the tv and back to my sewing room again..........just to change things up a bit.  In truth, I dislike repetitive patterns, I get bored easily.  I think that's why I like foundation paper piecing, you get to change things up completely and make very, very accurate tiny pieces with minimal points to match up!

I had intended to make a king size quilt for our bed....... everytime I look at it, I'm reminded of those first months and years together with my husband because of the memories it evokes but it wasn't to be!  My husband suffered from a case of labrynthitis not long after our twins were born in 2011.  It was caused by a simple ear infection but the ear infection was caused by those first few weeks of pure exhaustion brought on by 2 newborns in the house.  At the time, it was a terrible bout, he was off work for a good length (no joke for a self-employed person), he was so dizzy that he couldn't hold his babies and couldn't stand straight without the room spinning.   He still suffers when he's run down or overly stressed out and the dizzyness takes over........ well, I don't know what it says for my poor quilt because everytime he looks at it, he grabs the counter and turns away while muttering something about it being "lovely, dear".  I have joked about getting my own room if I do make a kingsize because I don't think he could actually get under this quilt but I'm not ready for seperate beds just yet!

So that's how my king-size plan converted to an over-sized lap-quilt.  It's probably more of a single quilt size but since I don't have any single beds at my house, this is going to be a throw quilt for the couch for our new conservatory when it's finished!

Can I just mention that while I do love paper-piecing, I am SICK of pulling those papers out.   Thank heavens I chose to use Carol Doaks actual paper-piecing paper as opposed to using standard printer paper as I used to.  This falls out in comparison but still it's a tedious job.  To those who always said it was therapeutic, I'm calling you in future to avail of free therapy at my house when I'm finished a paper-piecing project! You have been warned! 

I had planned on three borders, skinny blue, medium white and then a large outside blue border but I've decided I hate adding borders - not the look, I just ALWAYS seem to measure wrong and end up 3/8 inch short!!  Grrr, so right now, I've stopped at a skinny blue border........ I'll give it a rest and see if I can get the motivation to do the rest!

                                                   

Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland - Sept '14 Quilting Retreat

Cindy - Organiser Extraodinaire

Last year I joined the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland, drawn in by the most gorgeous creations I kept spotting on facebook.  They are a very active group, hosting meet-ups, swaps and getting involved with Bee Blessed.
Due to location and/or bad timing, I haven't had the chance to meet up with any of these stitchery-queens until last week.  I wasn't working, I didn't have family commitments and if I do say so myself, I deserved a day out doing something I love, so I signed up for the Quilting Retreat which just happened, very fortunately, to be in my hometown! 

From the outset, I was very impressed with the organisation.  Cindy, from Fluffy Sheep Quilting e-mailed me with a schedule for the day, directions, times, carparking details, food details and so much more.  Honestly, she thought of everything!  The room that was booked in Galway University was comfortingly close to the carpark so we didn't have to hump our machines and gear too far into the campus!


I'll be honest, I was nervous!  I'm well used to some of these girls online personas from instagram and facebook and deliciously pretty flickr pictures but to meet people in person!  Ooooh, that scares me! 

I encountered Anneliese from mailfromthecheekymonkeys first when I got to the room and she said "Oh, you look different to your pictures"!  Seriously, that's everyones nightmare, right?...... I mean we all just put our somewhat-passable pictures online but we like to think that in real life, we look like our "best" pictures.....right??  She's a sweet chick though and I relaxed pretty quickly.  Cindy arrived in the room then and there was a bit of organising to do before everyone else arrived. 

Anneliese & Eva  (& Kristina in the background)

In total, we were a group of 14........ a nice, comfy group from Galway, Portlaoise, Limerick and Cork.  There were three shops represented - Fluffy Sheep, Pippablue, and Wrap It.  So, we had lots to check out, some fabric to pick up and even some gift options!!  All three shop owners were sewing alongside us for the day too which was nice, it was great to put faces to these store-fronts and get to know them a little bit.   

We received really cute tote bags full of goodies which was a really lovely surprise!  All of the sponsors of our little retreat were very generous.  They included......

Aurifil - a fab selection of different weights of thread!
The Crafters Basket - a pack with some charm squares, ribbon and buttons
The Quilt Shop Tuam - some gorgeous fabric and a money off voucher
Fluffy Sheep Quilting - more fantastic fabric
Lisnaweary Quilts - yet more delicious fabric
Pilot - an erasable pen

And that wasn't all, we also were given a selection of vouchers for online purchases from other shops like Vibes & Scribes, Slaney Handcraft, Rags for Linda, and Seams Sew Simple.

Our super tote bag of goodies!!

The kettle never got a chance to cool down as we tucked into the lovely fare that the women brought - there was chocolate, brownies, buns and flapjacks to name but a few, but we promised ourselves we'd work it off........ eventually!

As the afternoon wore on, we got right down to work, there was a queue for the ironing and cutting tables at times as we all wanted to go home with something substantial accomplished. 

Áine, Ruth & Erin (& Cindy, well her reflection anyway)

I was working on my Storm At Sea quilt variation.  I got my head down and worked away but didn't get half as much done as I thought I would.  An 8-hour sewing day is not something I get to do often but I guess I did more chatting than I realised!

Storm At Sea work-in-progress

I did finally finish this quilt top this week though, well, at least, I finished the paper piecing side of it, I just need to add a couple of borders to "grow" it a little and then I'll bring it to the blog in all it's glory! 
 
The last thing to mention about our lovely Quilt Retreat though was our little part in Bee Blessed.  I had heard the name before but really had no notion what it was.  When we got our details for the day however, we were asked if we would like to make a couple of blocks for "Bee Blessed" and our colours were to be green & blue on a white background, with the finished quilt being for a boy.  The world was our oyster as regards design, as long as the blocks were 12.5" unfinished.


 I decided to make a little row of  houses with different characters in the windows and doorways - because every neighbourhood contains all sorts, right?  Even monkeys and pirates!!!  However, I didn't double check the size of my pattern and ended up doing a bit of re-jigging to make it size up properly but it worked out ok in the end.  

My second block was a simple colourful star.... nothing to write home about but it fit in well.  In the end, there was quite a lovely selection of blocks, I think it will make a lovely quilt and can't wait to see them put together, it's the first time I've been involved in a community quilt!

My poor blocks could seriously do with a proper iron......whoops!

If you are interested in learning more about Bee Blessed....... click here.   Sarah can answer any questions!

So that was our day...... a lot of sewing, a bit of shopping, alot of chat, even more coffee n' cake....... it was BRILLIANT!  Can't wait for the next one!