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!

A little something different - for me!

This week I got to do something a little different.  Along with one of my buddies in our sewing class, we made fabric covered boxes.  We used kits available at The Quilt Shop, it came with pre-cut sturdy card, box corners and precise instructions.  All we needed to add was our choice of fabric and some pva glue!

I've been dying to use this funky range of fabric for AGES but couldn't decide what to make with it.  Well, this was the perfect chance and I chose to use the umbrella design.  It has lots of colours in it and there are some beautiful co-ordinates in the range but I picked the red spots to co-ordinate with it........because it's a little more girlie!

 If you like getting crafty, this is a super project,  you get to mess around with glue and for a change it's a no-sew project!

And we got to bash around with a hammer............ great for working out the frustrations of the day! ;)

This box is about 13.5" square.  It's called a block box because it's useful for storing your 12.5" patchwork blocks flat. 

 

I know this box is going to get great use......... I have been putting in the blocks I'm currently working on, they're not 12.5" but it's the perfect spot to keep them until they're ready to be stitched together!

 

 

It was easy to make but it does take a little time - all in all, I would say about 3 hours but in that, as this was my first time making one, some of that time was spent checking and double checking that we were doing it correctly.

I think you end up with something a little funky for your efforts! 










 

Bowtie, Dickie Bows, neckties.......whatever ya call 'em!

These are definitely a few of my favourite things right now!

So recently I finally made my first dickie bow! 


You know how there are certain things you want to try but just never get round to it..... well, a friend posted on facebook looking for one.  Her super stylish son needed a red spotty one to finish off his outfit for a wedding. 

Now this lad is one seriously funky little boy and I hated to think of him heading out without his accessory of choice so I took the opportunity to finally try a bowtie and help him sort out his outfit!  It worked out grand........ a bit rough around the edges as "firsts" usually are but he fairly ROCKED it judging by the pictures I saw.


I got an opportunity to fine tune my method however as having seen Jacks one my twins decided they loved bowties all of a sudden!

They've always loved accessories - hats and shoes are big items in our house but now it was...
"I want a green bowtie"
"I want a red bowtie"

Since I have nothing to do all day, every day (tongue in cheek, I promise) I went for it and indulged them!  They were thrilled, especially when everyone told them how smart they looked in them.  In fact, a couple of grown men were a little jealous of the red car fabric and the green animal fabric.    There is definitely something fun about bow-ties, even though they are mostly seen with formal tuxes, they someone seem a little less formal than ties and allow your inner child to pop out!


As we had a weekend coming up where they got to dress-up nice and smart each day, it meant that I got a good bit of practice in but it was well worth it as they were nicely turned out and looked darn cute alongside their buddies in Dublin!  I'm not done yet though........ I picked up a few orders from other little boys while we were away so it's back to the sewing machine for me.  Next time the boys meet their friends, they'll have even more in common!



I've just realised that these two are like little Ant & Dec, they always seem to stand to the same side of each other!  I still don't know which is which though.......... Ant and/or Dec, I mean......... I know these two, obviously!

A Quilt for Baby Elsie

Another week, another project!

This past week or so I've been working on another gift quilt.  My husband has worked with the father of this gorgeous baby girl for years.  In fact, they were roomies before he moved to Galway to marry me so you could say they've been around the block together.  They each have a fair few stories about the other that neither wants repeated (again). 

In 2010, we travelled to France for his wedding to the lovely Vicky.  I was 8 weeks pregnant with my twin boys and although I had a wonderful time, my memories are mostly of being sick.... morning, noon and night..........and at least 3 times on the way to the airport!  (One big bonus, to add to the rest, about having twins, is that you get two babies for one pregnancy - whoop whoop, I don't have to do that again). 

Anyway, I've derailed.  The happy couple recently welcomed baby Elsie and we were all very happy to hear that she entered the world as a teeny tiny but healthy little girl!

I asked her auntie what colours mum and dad put on her to get an idea of what they liked.............and then ended up going completely the other direction.  The colours I chose, kind of evolved.  I had lots of the suggested colours in but as I fine-tuned my palette, they were being eliminated one by one!!!  Whoops! 


I kept the design basic because I didn't want Elsie to have grown up before she received it!  I think the hearts can be sweet for a baby, a little girl and even a teen and the background fabrics also, I tried to keep a little timeless.  I didn't want her to outgrow it in a few months if it was too babyish. 

Oooh and see that little white thing on the far right of the back of the quilt?  Those are my new quilt labels....... Elsie's quilt is the first one I got to put them on.  I'm happy to finally have my little labels on my quilts and will put them on any future projects but I'm not very excited about the label itself........it's very black and white, I think I need some colour and a more basic design as the sewing machine is slightly cut off once it's sewn into the binding.  Shame....but you learn as you go and I'm learning by the minute, like a newborn ;) 

And on that note, WELCOME to the world Baby Elsie!

3 Special Quilts for 3 Special Girls

A family that I've known my whole life recently lost someone very special.  Sonja was loved by so many, not least by her three beautiful daughters and her husband.  I'm not great with words, I never know what to say at times of such sadness......so I usually don't.  I am brilliant at saying very little and shying away from situations when I probably should say something thoughtful and profound.  Sonja's three girls, Kelsie, Alisha and Sofia are pretty amazing and I wanted to do something to let them know that I'm thinking of them.  I might not say the right things (probably the very opposite in fact) but my heart is with them during this terribly rough time. 

So, I had started the Economy Block Along a few months ago and realised that the fabric I had chosen to feature really reminded me of Alisha.  It has a couple of different Riley Blake fabrics that show a little girl picking apples, feeding the chickens, going camping and all sorts of other activities.  Alisha, in all the years I've known her, has been up to something interesting - whether it's fishing for mackerel with her aunty G, baking with her nana or crocheting but she's always seems to be doing something!  So I was about half way through this quilt when I realised that this was her quilt and it gave me more pleasure to finish it with her in mind!

 

I loved the colours in this one.  I got to use any and every type of fabric and overall eclectic effect is just fun!   I decided to hand quilt it so it took a while but it gives it a nice crinkly effect I think! 

                                              

I had a few extra blocks left over so I added them in to the backing and then I used offcuts from all the blocks to make a scrappy binding.  I think I love scrappy-effect quilts most of all, they're so girlie and fun!

 Next, I moved on to little Sofia's quilt.  I am an unashamed lover of paper-piecing so I found some patterns online that featured lots of different Fairy Tales and I thought they would be perfect.  Sofia is just 4 and a little fire-cracker - full of personality and has a lovely cheeky glint in her eye.  I thought she might find it fun to tell the stories in her quilt.

Each block features a different fairy story - The Ugly Duckling, Snow White, The Three Pigs, Puss In Boots and more........ the only one that didn't really stand out to me was the Three Pigs so I asked Sofias lovely Aunty Gina to make me some piggy buttons to help that block and now I love that block!!!  Gina has always been a whizz with Fimo, since forever (!), and she really helped me out with this despite the fact that she was heading to America and is still very much dealing with losing her lovely sister, Sonja, herself.  I really love that she had a little part in Sofias quilt - even though she didn't even know what the buttons were for!

                               

The last block in the quilt has a bookshelf full of books and I added some embroidered words to personalise it for Sofia.

Tada!  (Can you name each fairytale?)

And finally........... Kelsies Quilt. 
Kelsie is that bit older than her sisters and I didn't want to make anything too childish for her but I wanted it to be a bit of a memory quilt for her too.  I decided to make a family tree, a little reminder that she's surrounded by so many of her family when she's missing her mum.  

I didn't have a pattern or anything for this so just drew out the tree freehand appliquéd it and the leaves and then embroidered all the family names putting her own little family at the top centre and then all Sonja's family to the right - including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and the same for her dad Clives family to the left.  One little leaf is awaiting a name of the newest cousin, who is a little boy, due in October!

I asked for a little help regarding Kelsies colours and was told greens and pinks....... thankfully, her lovely granny and my lovely friend, Heather, said we got it right, phew!  I quite like the colours myself.  I had planned to machine quilt this one but in the end I decided to hand quilt and keep all three the same in that respect.

Finally, I wanted to put one patch on each quilt that was the same and to show that it was kind of in memory of their mum, Sonja.  The fabulous girls in WeSewCrazy Galway helped me out here.  I told them that I would like to put a patch on each quilt that would have the cancer awareness ribbon for the type of cancer that Sonja battled with and also a little something to do with Irish Dancing because every childhood party that I can recall,  Sonja was "the" Irish Dancer of our little community.  Every party I went to as a child, you could be sure that Sonja would have us clapping along.  And each of the girls learned too and eventually we were cheering them while they danced so I thought it would be nice to add that little momento!
 
Imagine how perfect it was when Fiona, from WeSewCrazy Galway (who happens to be a twin mum like me, so we had loads to gas bag about when I collected the patches) came back with a little image of an Irish Dancing girl with RED hair and a YELLOW Irish Dancing dress........ just like Sonja had years ago. 
The girls at WeSewCrazyGalway were sooooooo good and donated the patches for my quilt and I want them to know I really appreciated it so much! 

So I delivered the quilts last week.  It's been just over 3 months since the girls mum passed away and these quilts were meant as just a little reminder that they're surrounded by family and friends who love them very much.

xx Naomi

Sonja (Gardiner) Kubath with her big brother Alan, many years ago..... in that adorable yellow dress!

Whooooooosh.............. that's the sound of tumbleweed.....

My poor blog, I feel like I haven't visited it, much less posted in ages!  The problem, if you'd call it that, has been that I've been working on gifts and when you work on gifts, you can only post about them so much because you don't want the receiver to know they are for them before they get them! 

So, I just finished three different quilts this week.  Hooray!  I will hopefully get them wrapped and gifted in the next few days and then I can show them properly!

In the meantime, I finally got to make some bunting!  I was assured it was the "easiest thing in the world" (Roisin from The Quilt Shops favourite line) but I'm always afraid of cutting up fabric for something I've never made before!  So Roisin made me delve in one day in the shop.  She needed some bunting to advertise the letters that can be bought for personalised projects and I learned that yes, it is rather easy.  Now I'm addicted! 

So I stocked up on more bias binding. I love to make my own for quilts but at 80c per yard, this stuff is brilliant.  My favourite is the candy stripe red, you can't see it in the picture above but it looks fab with the navy flags!

Then, after making a set of wedding bunting in the shop, I wondered why I wasn't making any for my own house?  Then my 10 year old asked could he help me with anything and so I gave him the lovely job of picking out some nice solid colours, some funky robot fabric and I got making!  I got my letters cut, of course, at the Quilt Shop and my big boy picked the right letters for the flags and Wow, but my small boys are so happy with their new "flags". 

Check out little Levi's proud face........he loves his side because it has a green flag, his favourite colour.  I must thank my 10 yr old for reminding me to put green in his name!!

So that's me and my new favourite thing............bunting!  The husband wants me to make some now for outside before bbq season ends and who am I to complain when I get to put something pretty swinging from the trees without the men-folk (of which I'm surrounded here) giving out about the girliness?

Progress!

So I have been working.  Yes, I've been quiet in blog-land but that's when the most work is done!!!  Less time to pontificate, more time to sew, sew, sew..........and sew I did!

I went back to my favourite method of sewing for this quilt.... Foundation Paper Piecing.  Some say that ripping the paper out afterwards is almost therapeutic.......RUBBISH.  It's tedious and creates a large, stinking mess........but the actual process of paper piecing is just addictive.  If you haven't ventured yet, do!  And if you don't like it first time, leave it a few days/weeks and then try again....... so worth it!

Did I show you my little paper pieced blocks?  I know I posted them on instagram each time I finished one.........felt the need for a little insta-love!  Well, these are all part of a quilt I'm making for a special little girl.  She's the perfect age to identify with each fairy story and let her imagination go wild. 

 The Little Mermaid was my first block....... it's so dreamy, I love it!

This was followed pretty quickly by Jack & The Beanstalk, Cinderella (& her mop) and The Ugly Duckling.......

and then these characters joined them.........

Rapunzel & Thumbelina,

 Sleeping Beauty
 & Snow White

And finally, I got to put them all together.  I chose a deep red from the Stof Quilting Shadow range at The Quilt Shop, Tuam for the sashing.  I also got all my different blue skies/background fabrics there..... the selection is mega! 

And the almost finished product..........

I have to finish some embroidery detailing and I think it really needs another border in the red all around the outside and then I can quilt and bind!
What do you think?  Would love to get some feedback...










I have made great progress on another of my WIP's that I'll hopefully be able to share soon but I think I need to gift it first!