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!

Time to focus and finish!

I realised a couple of weeks ago that I have 6 quilts currently on the go......... and still I'm browsing the net, making notes of things that inspire me and adding to my wish list of quilts to make.  I reckon by listing a few of them here, maybe it will spur me on to finish them...well, I'm hoping so anyway!





My To-Do List:
1.  Swoon Quilt from this time last year!!  It is basted and ready to be quilted but I need to decide whether to hand or machine quilt and in what style!

2.  Economy Block-Along (in conjunction with Red Pepper Quilts Quilt-along).  This one is done, quilted and now bound but just needs a special addition to the back before it can be gifted.

3.  I started a Storm-At-Sea quilt similar to this pattern and I totally <3 this quilt but got distracted far too early on so really need to get back to it!

4.  A little fairy-tale quilt for a very special little someone.  I have 7 of 9 blocks done.  It wouldn't take too much to get some progress done!

5.  A memory quilt.  This is what I'm currently working on and I'm making good head-way........just really have to keep the momentum up so I can share it! 

6. My postage stamp quilt.  This was coming on nicely until I got monumentally distracted so definitely time to refocus and get a move on!

Now, if someone could just give me a nice virtual kick, that would be just great!

International Postage Stamp

My Quilting Class were inspired recently by a gorgeous WIP Postage Stamp Quilt that is being made by Nora, an accomplished Tuam Quilter.  We were all taken by the concept of a large, simple design that promised hours of intrigue and interest.  It's not an easy task to start one of these quilts however, especially if you are a relatively new quilter like me.  You need a super stash of scraps and then some!  To put together a kingsize quilt, you have to accummulate almost 2000 x 2.5" squares - easy enough, just alot of cutting and trimming, right?  Wrong!!   The idea is that the quilt would have no repeats and that means you need 2000 DIFFERENT fabrics to get an authentic Postage Stamp Quilt!  Hmmm, slightly harder!

Operation Scrap-Stash-Building!

We started our collection in class, we each swapped 20 squares with about 14 people, that was a lovely start - 280 squares!  Then, I cut up squares from my own collection and that bumped me up to about 500.  That meant I had still only 25% of my intended collection!  I know many spend years stashing away these little squares to make the quilt when they have enough.........I suppose I could have done that, but I'm terribly impatient.  I may not finish everything I start straight away but I am GREAT at starting projects and I NEEDED to get this one off the ground. 

By chance, I came across a couple of groups on Facebook where I thought I might be able to swap some squares and suddenly the ball was rolling.  I received packages from Ireland, England, across Europe, America, Tahiti and Canada.  Some were swaps but many were donations towards my project.  You remember that excitement when you first started using the internet and you got an e-mail........ I was like that when the postman arrived!!!  Sifting through the scraps, cutting them down, counting them into bundles was a job in itself but an enjoyable one.  The range was something I would never have collected by myself - I had received a little taste of so many other quilters taste and I think it really adds to the flavour of my project.  If I was using only my own fabrics, I would have an overall pastel, pale pretty girlish colours I think......and while I obviously love those colours, it's wonderful to have such a selection in a quilt like this!

One of my favourite blocks........ I know my boys will love it when they find this hidden away on the quilt top!

I was really touched that this lovely quilters from around the world were willing to take their time to sort through their stashes, package them up and send them to me!  I've been able to return the favour a few times already in small ways - it's our very own sisterhood of the travelling scraps!  hee hee

So, this is the where I am currently.  I've been joining the squares in 4x4 blocks.  Then I laid them out to see how it's looking.  This pictures shows 54 blocks of 16..........that's approximately 800 squares so far....... about 40% of the total!  I haven't joined them together yet, I want to wait until all the blocks are made but I'm loving the look so far.  This will be a super large quilt, I'm impatient to move on with it..........

  Can't wait to show you my progress on this one! 

Make Me Up As You Go Go!

Aaaaaah! Spot the blogger who has been totally remiss about updating her Medallion Sew-Along Progress....... (how do I do big fat arrows on this thing??)

Right, so let's see.  You could say that I've not been a very good girl at doing the "along" part.  I am an impatient sewist some times and have a tendency to rush forward and make some lovely errors because I don't take the time to really go through my plan, work out my measurements and follow a pattern....... and this one has allowed me to be bold because of the lack of a step-by-step pattern, more guidelines that I was a tad too lazy to check out beyond a cursory glance!

My medallion is therefore a "Make-Me-Up-As-You-Go-Go"....... so please excuse my mistake and errors.  I got a little distracted along the way with other projects which is why I'm still working on it - I have yet to decide on a 6 inch border for the outside so it might take another short while before it's completed!

And...........this is where I am so far!  I like it because it's really a very eclectic mix of fabrics and the green is a bit "out there".....for me anyway.  I'm going to make one change and add in 3.5" squares of a different fabric in the corners, like in every other border.  I thought I would like the solid green all the way around but it doesn't look quite right so I'll back-track on that. What do you think so far?  Any suggestions for a 6 inch border?  I'm not gone on the plusses (is that even a word?) that are in the originial medallion, they're not for me  but I'm open to anything else!

Whoops, this is sideways........not that it matters with a square quilt - just adds a few odd ripples!

I hope it won't be too long before I update with a finish!  See ye soon! xx

My Sewing Room Tour!

Ooooh it's been a fun old couple of weeks. After a trip to Ikea, my sewing room got a bit of a jig-up and I can show you almost all of it............ I still have a wardrobe and an alcove to sort out but time enough!

I have to admit, I love Ikea, there are so many storage solutions and you could spend all day choosing but I pretty much knew what I wanted, a larger version of what I already had!  This unit gave me 9 extra square boxes!  I have pretty much filled them already but I love it.  Just rearranging the room (my husbands idea, actually the bigger storage was his idea too) has really helped.  Even though there are more items and a bigger unit in there, it feels more spacious and it's proving a more effective work layout!

What do you guys think of my space?  It's compact, yes.  The walls are dark blue having inherited my sons décor and my other half keeps suggesting painting it white but I like the blue, with all the white furniture, it makes it cosy and I think it will be a nice backdrop for some mini-quilts on the walls! 

Check out all the cards in the middle shelf, second row, that I'm getting with each delivery of 2.5" squares from around the world........... "Lovin' it"

You might notice the few items that I've acquired from around the house....... I love when things have dual purposes!  There are my Salter Scales........so handy when I need to weigh items that I'm posting and I seem to do that more than baking these days.  I also have a letter organiser from the office holding my rulers - it's brilliant for the small and big rulers!!  My small ironing board and mini iron are on a small, light table so that I can put it under the cutting table when not in use.  I love being able to have it right next to the sewing desk, saves soooooo much time!

 

and I still have that rolly-trolley-thing-a-majiiggy that I stole ahem, borrowed from the office last year!  It's really handy by my desk for my measuring tape, patterns, ribbon etc..... Plus, it keeps those fiddly bits out of sight when the small, inquisitive people in my life visit my little sanctuary!

So that's it for now........ I still have to sort the shelves by the door, the wardrobe (which I had forgotten to take into account when buying storage - BONUS)  and the alcove that you can't see in these pictures.  It's beside the big storage unit and currently holds a rocking chair and a little table stacked high with cushion fillers and leftover wadding and beads!  I think I managed to keep most of my disorganised mess out of sight!!!  Hopefully, you'll think I'm just a neat crafter (as if such a thing existed!)!

It's all about appearances, right?  ..........and then you get to know me and therefore the truth! Whoops!

Relaxing Sundays!

It's been a while......... I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything if I don't blog about it and show the world but I have been working away.  Slowly, yes, but working all the same.  Today, it's a beautiful sunny Sunday morning, and we have the day off!  My husband and eldest son are out, my twins are sleeping and finally I have the headspace for a little blog.

My lovely friend had her fourth baby recently.  Her last gorgeous baby was 9 months old before I finished a blanket for her.  Now granted, I was new to quilting then, and new to sewing at all for that matter, so it took me time to work up the courage to cut the fabric to begin with.  When this bouncing little man was born though, I got stuck in straight away.  I kept it simple and went with a bright brick design with his shortened name appliqued on and also added an elephant in minky so he has something soft to rub.  I bought some gorgeous, thick, super-soft fleece on sale at The Quilt Shop to back it and give it a nice bit of padding for and an extra cosy factor and this was the finished product.......... 

His mum sent me this picture of baby Olly snuggled up a few days later.  Nothing gives a crafter more satisfaction and pleasure as seeing something they have made being used!

I have also been working away slowly on my Economy Block Along, I had some help at my tuesday class to chose a beautiful blue border from the quilters shadow range by Stof.  I love this blue, I used it last year in my seaside quilt, it's really lively!

Once again faced with the daunting task of basting another quilt, all be it a small one, I decided to try using the curved safety pins for the first time.  I bought a pack of 40 for just €4 and it was the perfect amount for this lap-sized quilt!

WOW, consider me converted!!!  The whole lot done in about 15mins.  This would have taken me an hour or more if I was to use basting stitches!So with that done, I've started hand-quilting it.  Yes, I'm a sucker for the handquilting.  It's relaxing and the scaredy cat in me likes how very little can go wrong!

So with one quilt basted.........and so bloomin' fast, it was time to finally baste my Swoon quilt......  I LOVED making this quilt, I LOVE the top and yet, it has sat on a shelf, folded up for the past 9 months because I really couldn't face basting a kingsize top by myself.  A few of the girls in the Tuesday Night class I attend offered to help me out and we laid it down and it was done in no time whatsoever with this fabulous new-to-me method of basting!!

Aren't these ladies just amazing!  It's a wonderful thing to be in a class where the group is so willing to give up a night of their own work to help you out! 


I have so much more to show and tell but time is of the essence for me right now and I'm helping out with a really cool project and need to get working on it while the boys are still sleeping!

*watch this space*

Medallion Quilt Along!

I've been getting the emails about the Medallion Quilt Along from the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland and  I reallllllllly wanted to join in but couldn't decide on a center block to get me going.  I should have done what was suggested, which was to create a mosaic of central blocks which would probably have inspired me and got the creative juices going..........but no, instead I chose to just let ideas float around in my head, allow them to get all muddled up and talk myself out of joining a few dozen times.  However, I bit the bullet last night and just decided to buy the "Liberty Love" book for the kindle (oh yes, instant gratification...... pay for it and receive it in less than 3 mins, now that's service)!  My plan was just to follow the Marcelle Medallion pattern - I have been drooling over it on Instagram and other blogs for about 18months after all..........but as soon as I flicked through the book, I decided on another design altogether for my centre block and got to work!

First a fabric pull............. 

I chose a paper-piecing block for the centre because I love the patterns that can be achieved with this method and it gives such accurate results.  I hated paper-piecing when I first tried it, so much so that I dumped my first couple of efforts out of sheer frustration but then I took on a twin-sized seaside quilt done completely with paper-piecing and I fell in love with the process.  It's perfect for those days when you just want to sew and don't want to think about what you're doing too much!  Effectively sewing by numbers!! 

I don't have the exact recommended measurements so I'm hoping it'll work out as it grows but I'm rather pleased with my first block & border!  I LOVE that text fabric from The Quilt Shop.  I'm hoping I haven't added too much pink/purple.  I don't want it to end up completely pink themed so I need to try and add new colours as I go.

Now to add some more borders....... so many choices but I won't take so long this time, watch this space!