Townmouse

Finished Ribbon Quilt

Finishing a quilt was such a good feeling, I was inspired to finish another.

This quilt is from way back.  I started it years ago.

I call it the ribbon quilt as the background fabric looks like a ribbon running through the blocks.

The Purl Bee did a cute version and called it the Masking Tape Quilt.

Most of the fabrics in it have been in my stash for 15 to 20 years; back in the days when I was drawn more to antique quilts and reproduction fabrics.

The quilt isn't that large (I ran out of the background fabric). It's cot quilt size.

It will be more at home at our place at the snow, where the interior has red touches.  This can sit over the back of the red armchair there (yes, red chair, a la Graham Norton). An old print from our first house has gone there, which has the same muddy reds and yellows in it.

I think it will all hang together quite well.

Now, which quilt will I finish next?  I must make the most of this momentum.

Finished Tide Pool Quilt

Oh my, I've finished a quilt.  This is a rarity.

The quilt top has been hanging around since mid 2010.  And it's not the only quilt that has stalled at the quilting stage.

But nearly two years later I'm still fond of it, so it was on the top of the To Do list of quilt finishes.

As I said in my earlier post about this quilt, it really has no place in our current house.  It's too fresh and modern.

So this might be relegated to the linen cupboard with my other quilts that don't see the light of day.

Or maybe I could clear a shelf or two in the armoire in my studio.  Now that I don't have a lot of Townmouse stock left, it might be better use of that storage space.

I'm so excited to have finished a quilt, I'm going to post it over on the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's blog. Do head over and take a look at the many hundreds of quilts that are popping up there.

Quick quilting project

Recently I've moved my many thousands of family photos onto an external hard drive.  My previous external hard drive hit the floor that many times that it started to really falter.

Family photos are too precious to lose, so I decided to satisfy a sewing urge and whip up a simple protective pouch for it.

I decided to put a buttonhole at the top so it can remain closed even while in use.

I just plug it in through the buttonhole.  Now if it gets knocked off the table the photos aren't lost.

One of Adelaide's hair elastics, stitched into the binding, serves as a button loop.

Quilts in the making

This airing rack I bought a while ago seems to have become the place where my quilt tops hang out while they wait to be completed.

There are a couple of swoon blocks hiding there; there's my half square triangle star quilt (3 blocks complete) and some blocks made with the Quick Curve Ruler that are awaiting sashing.

Adelaide has taken a liking to this quilt because it's in the favourite colours of most little girls - pink and purple.  Not my favourite colours but this quilt seemed to call for bright fabrics.  These are Joel Dewberry Heirloom prints.

I've decided I'm going to take my quilt tops to a long arm quilter and get them finished.  There are too many now that at are the quilt top stage and aren't progressing any further.

A year of crafting

The year just passed was a very busy one in our family.  There was less time for crafting than I'm used to.

There was more dressmaking than quilting.

Adelaide has been the main beneficiary of my sewing endeavours.  

Here's to a productive 2012 for us all.

Liberty doll quilt

Adelaide is receiving mostly hand-made gifts this year.  So much so, that Santa has very little to give her at this point.  

I finished the little doll quilt with Liberty crosses the other day.  It was very quick to whip up, being so small.

Adelaide has taken to tucking her doll up in her old bassinet blankets in a moses basket.  The basket is then put on the floor next to her cot.  It's very sweet to watch.

Let's hope she approves of this and it gets included in dolly's bedding.

Distracting quilt inspiration

I have been rather taken by this vintage quilt.  I love the sharpness of the fabric choices - citrus yellows teamed with bright blues.

I've been so distracted by it in fact, that I felt compelled to replicate it.

I pulled some random fabrics from my stash.  There's a bit of Hope Valley and Picnic and Fairgrounds, a bit of Loulouthi and Little Folks, a Kumari Garden, as well as various dots and spots.

I rather like the way it has come together.  I think the scale of my triangles is bigger than the original quilt.  I'm not exactly sure how the stars come together in that quilt.  So I think I'll make a few more and see how I feel about it.

What's your favourite shape for piecing?  I think mine is definitely the triangle.  I've created a gallery on flickr to try to narrow down my absolute favourite quilt using the humble triangle.  There are so many end results.

Delilah quilt

Remember this quilt?  With only one pack of charm squares in its makeup it was never really large enough to sleep under.  But I did love the fabric range.  So I searched around online and bought some more.

Now I've made a second charm square quilt in the Delilah fabric from Tanya Whelan.  This one is big enough to sleep under, with enough to spare to tuck into the cot on either side.

Adelaide is happily sleeping under it now.  The boys are busy with their Lego in the other bedroom, but squabbles are errupting.  Might be time to head out on the scooters.  Will is away, again, and back in the morning.  So while he's been travelling I've been late night crafting.

I machine stitched the binding with much greater success this time.  Practice makes perfect.  Now I really should pull out that kaleidoscope quilt and see about finishing it.

Liberty quilt blocks

I've never been a huge fan on Liberty in quilts strangely enough.  But when I saw the cute little Liberty blocks from Film in the Fridge I fell in love.  With no shortage of Liberty offcuts it seemed like a must that I give these a go myself.

And so I did.

I think I'll make a simple doll quilt for Adelaide.  Something quick and easy.  I already have enough of these little blocks to make a doll sized quilt.

Just another Christmas deadline.  But for now, I'm off to make up a pile of creche bags that my customers are patiently waiting for.

Lots to do

We're off to the snow for the school holidays so I have lots to do in the next week to prepare.

Firstly I want to make new dressing gowns for each of the children.

The ones they are currently getting by in are far too small for them. Henri is the right size for the one Max still wears. I hope to whip up 4 of these sometime this week.  

This image is from the first Townmouse photoshoot.  The little girl pictured is now nearly 11 (and quite a fabulous tennis player).

I also have plans to do lots of cooking to take up the mountain.  Bolognese sauces, soups - food that hits the spot after a cold day on the slopes.

But right now I'm getting severely sidetracked by Farmer's Wife blocks.  My book still hasn't arrived so I'm sticking to the easier ones and getting by with the yahoo group resources.

I bought myself one of these last week.

It's a spinning cutting board; kind of like a "lazy Susan".  It's perfect for trimming down all the half square triangles in these blocks.  I'm having fun with it. (Picked up at my local Spotlight.)

I'd better go and prepare my shopping list for the market before Adelaide wakes up.

My creative space

The rotary cutter is getting a workout at the moment, as I whip up blocks for the Farmer's Wife Quilt-along.

More creative spaces over here.

Who can resist?

It seems that every quilt blogger is caught up in the Farmer's Wife Quiltalong that is sweeping the globe.  And I'm happy to say that I am no exception.

While I wait for my copy of the book to arrive from Amazon I've jumped right in and started with simple blocks that can be rotary cut and whipped up lickety-split.  

These blocks are all on a 4 x 4 grid (is that 16 patch?) so the little triangles and squares all share the same measurements.  

When my book arrives I'll tackle some of the trickier blocks.  

Without the book I've been getting along just fine by using some of the great resources on the Yahoo group for this quilt. If you are making this quilt and haven't joined you should.

You can see what other quilters have in progress over at Freshly Pieced. Maybe next week I'll be brave enough to post a full inventory of all those half completed projects.

You can also see the myriad of other blocks that have been made for the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt on Flickr.