Trying out new FMQ designs

I am working my way through quilting Maxi's curvy quilt.

A couple of weeks ago I shared my plans for the solid colour sky sections, using swirls and pebbles.

In each of the other parts of the quilt I have been experimenting with other FMQ designs:

This is triangles in a paisley shape, they are within a window surrounded by ovals floating over the fabric:

I love the contrast in design in each shape.

In another block I used messy spirals that meander over the space.

With this quilted interconnected triangular spirals, the texture is lovely!

In this orange window I quilted wavy lines close together:

These are surrounded by arches that reflect the arches of the London city scape on the fabric.

This window has a meandering design with tight swirls. It was great fun to quilt:

Some close, parallel lines..

I love these interlinking square swirls. The look like the building print they are on.

Together the combine to make a gorgeous block!

The quilt is coming together so well. I love the different textures and designs.

I am about 1/2 way through and I would like to get it finished for his birthday on Tuesday so there are going to be quite a few late nights ahead this weekend!

Linking up with FMQ Friday.

Grey Skies!

At the moment the skies over England are pretty grey- we did see sunshine for a few hours last week!

Now it is back to grey!

When I made the secret quilt last week I backed it with some gorgeous greys from my stash, so I have now  been window shopping for greys...

I love these little elephants from The Eclectic Maker. I used the blue version in a quilt I made for a lovely little boy last year. I can see using these in a quilt soon...

I am a caffeine addict - it is what gets me through the days! So when I found this fabulous fabric with coffee pots and beans from The Village Haberdashery I just fell in love! The Modern Home line all look so lovely in fact!

The Architextures line has hit the quilting world with a huge bang! It everywhere and everyone is talking about it! I have been adding bits of it to orders of other fabric and this one is one of my favourites. Backstitch has a fab selection of fabrics from the range, including this one.

I love this one! I have used it in blue/green version and it is gorgeous! I love the birds on the spokes and and the feel of the organic fabric. M is for Make has green too....

I love Sketch! I am using it more and more in quilts, it blends in so easily and this charcoal version is perfect for adding texture. Simply Solids has a wonderful selection of Sketch fabrics.

So go shopping for grey and embrace the grey skies!

Quilting for the Boys

My eldest son has reached the age of 10 1/2and seems very old! He has a fish tank quilt from when he was 4/5, which is no longer cool! (I did catch him snuggled under it the other day though!)

So it is clearly time to make him a new quilt - any old excuse to go fabric shopping!

Over the summer we hunted through the online shops I like and looked at all sorts of blogs for fabric inspiration. I love the new Parsons Gray range, like this bundle from Eclectic Maker, but he thought it was too old!

He was right, but I did get this sinking feeling that we were going to get stuck choosing fabric!

Then we saw the gorgeous range from designer Jessica Hogarth, Velocity. I first saw it at the Festival of Quilts on the fabulous Backstitch stall - I love Alice's shop! So I bought some from the range and bought it home for him to check out!

We had found a winner!

He loves the deep blues, oranges and shapes... so we bought a bundle with the entire collection from Alice and then last week I found the missing piece from the range at The Village Haberdashery:

We have decided to use a pattern in Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen which has off centre blocks and curvy waves:

I discovered this week that 2 Kona Solids, Tangerine and Glacier, co-ordinate beautifully with the designs so more of those have been ordered from Simply Solids to break up the pattern.

 

 

So this is the project over the Christmas break.... I try to make a quilt every Christmas break and this year it is for my gorgeous big boy!

Perfecting the Colours

I don't know about you, but when the weather closes in and the nights get darker at 4pm, I feel drawn to my quilts, mugs of coffee reading and quilt design.

Autumn is my favourite season - the colours are vivid and the wind seems to blow the old out to make way for the new. The leaves are amazing colours, and as I drive all over teaching I get to see the landscape shifting in colour.

From the vibrant reds and yellows, to the gorgeous dark browns of the fields being churned - today the road was covered in mud, so the car has that rich brown colour - there is so much to see and process.

I have an urge to translate all of the colour richness into a quilt, but how do I achieve the colours with out creating a washed out, brown quilt?

One way I have discovered is this fantastic website called Design Seeds.

Designs Seeds is an amazing tool that breaks images down into colours. Each image has 5/6 colour shades next to it so you can see how the colours work together to create amazing images:

This is perfect to describe the colours that I see around me. This tool is fantastic for quilters to reflect the colours around us into fabric colour choices for a quilt. By matching the fabrics to these tones, I will know that the finished quilt has more chance of representing the world around me, than coming out a brown sludge!

My favourite this week has been:

I am not normally drawn to the these colours, but they are just gorgeous together!

So go check out Design Seeds, their images are gorgeous!

Quilters Fantasy List

I follow so many quilt bloggers, fabric designs and quilt shops on Twitter that my feed is full of glorious fabrics, ideas and inspiration. At the moment though it is cruelly taunting me with Quilt Market.

For those of you who don't know, it is a huge quilt festival in Houston. It is the biggest quilt festival in world and is on my bucket list to visit. It has been a long time ambition to go... but I would need to rob a bank first!

I do have a list of people I would like to meet there - kinda like fantasy football, but with quilters!

I am dying to meet Jennifer Paganelli. Her fabrics are so vibrant and full of life! They just pop out any quilt I have ever seen with them in. I bought her Girl's World book and my young sewers have made a few things out of it - Jennifer even sent over badges for them to have! The girls were chuffed!

I taught an adult class in dress making from the book and one of the little girls who got a new dress keeps telling me how much she loves wearing the dress. I don't actually have any Sis Boom fabric yet, but it is definitely on my list for the new year.

If I met her, I would like to thank Jennifer for her support, generosity and friendship on Twitter and Facebook.

I am pretty sure she thinks I am stalking her, but I would still like to meet Angela Walters in person. I have taken her Craftsy course, bought her book and chatted with her on Twitter - one very embarrassing series of tweets which I won't repeat here....

I had shied away from machine quilting for many years. Fear of the machine, too many failed attempts and anxiety all kept well away from doing it. Hand quilting was the way in my house! Until a short deadline to make a 3yo a quilt for his 4th birthday earlier this year! I took the plunge the quilt is simply gorgeous.

Angela has helped me to learn the technique to make my quilts gorgeous, and whilst there is a long way to go until they are perfect, without Angela I wouldn't be doing the intricate work I am currently doing!

I have a signed copy of Kaffe Fassetts autobiography from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this year - it is in my must have bedside pile of craft books! I got all tongue tied when it finally came to seeing him - if you know me, you will know that doesn't happen very often!

I would like to thank him for the years of joy he has given me with his books, designs and fabric. How is life is an inspiration and how he has influenced the path my life has taken more than anyone else. His books were the first I bought 17 years ago when I started quilting and they are still my favourites to pull patterns ideas out of, or even just to leaf through for inspiration.

Of course I would need a strong coffee and a shove in the right direction before I could say these things to him!

The last person I would love to meet is Tula Pink. Her designs and fabrics are a new obsession to me! I did have a brief conversation with her at the Festival of Quilts, but that was before I had actually added any of designs to my stash.

I now have my Prince Charming quilt bee blocks on the design wall waiting to be put together and the Birds and Bees quilt being quilted. I love the intricate designs, the colours and they make me smile when I working with them. I would love to know where her ideas come from, how does she start the design process... can I buy her a mug of coffee?

I can't wait to see her new line in the shops... 

Okay so there are so many only quilting peeps I would love to meet, but these guys are my top 4.

Who would you like to meet and why?

Free Motion Quilting 2/365

OK, so yesterday was fun... I checked it out today and it was OK...

Today was harder!

I picked at random from the beginner page Sea Algae....

Not too bad, but not great. I did enjoy seeing it coming together though!

Where to tomorrow...... any suggestions from the beginners page?