we love kona solids

 Trying out the key quilt from  this book which arrived recently, compiled by Susanne Woods

this is the plan

I chose glacier, jade , chartreuse with ivory from my lovely kona colour chart

However, having major problems quilting it as I  microstitch basted it on my king bed, and  its just not taught enough. Too much puckering at the end of machine rows of linear quilting.

After struggling to get a few rows done, have decided that maybe a bit of hand quilting may work better......made a slow start.

Next time, must send  my quit off to have it basted on longarm, when I retire I want to move to somewhere with floor space to baste....dreaming of a sewing studio.................

velocity british designer challenge

Sent a lovely little selection from Jessica Hogarth's range, 'Velocity'
4 of us from London Modern Quilt Guild are playing, this is my first designer challenge, so under ( nice ) pressure!
first of all the fabrics........

they arrived in a wee bundle from Beth and last night I spent the time staring at them waiting for the muse to come to me.
I cut  a 16" panel for front  of the  bag.This fabric seemed ideal as a background .

 this fabric said 'River Thames' to me 

I cut 16 x 6 1/2" piece and joined 16 x 10 1/2 "piece of back ground fabric, then trimmed to make the  back 16" panel.

 Then a memory of my birthday this year where I sat having a wonderful lunch at the Blueprint cafe over the London Design Museum- looking out over the Thames ; so this was the inspiration for the  buildings on the far side of the River........wanted a  degree of 3D effect, so used a darker fabric appliqued on, then hand embroidered the  outlines with orange and royal blue perle cotton

Here's my Shard, Gherkin, City Hall etc.Had to have the Shard as its our newest most thrusting skyscraper, opening for its first visitors soon. If you stand on London Bridge station and look up, it makes you feel very woozy........its soooo high
Here's my little gherkin ( excuse the expression )

Backed the  whole background fabric square with firm iron on interfacing to finish the front panel

 Judith from London Modern Quilt Guild had suggested London skyline when we were thinking what to do, and once I saw the fabrics close up- this certainly seemed a good theme

For the other  panel I wanted to do what I had originally thought of, which was to do a more block-y design but used to show off the fabrics..........searched and found inspiration online...then decided that although I was not particularly drawn to the bicycle fabric, I could fussy cut a cute scooter and  machine applique it for a central feature

Running a bit low on fabric by this time, so used an assortment of scraps to make the handles

by this time I was a bit tired, but I am someone who HAS to keep going with a project until its done, I can't have unfinished things hanging around. However  I then   wasted a good half meter of heatbond when I meant to use iron on interfacing.....thought it seemed a bit crunchy when sewing the panel, sigh.....time for bed!

Made a green kona  cotton solid lining, and here is the finished project front and back, it is 15" square

I'm looking forward to using it around London,quite one of  the most beautiful cities in the world...........

quilted coasters

Enjoyed this lovely little tutorial on coasters
http://londonmqg.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/scrappy-coaster-tutorial/
Thanks to  Charlotte

Adapted it a little, did not piece, and used normal cotton batting, basting it to back piece, and removing basting once first round of edge topstitching done
In fact got a bit carried away ( are we surprised )
24 coasters later, have decided I must give it a break
Only so many you can give any one person 
Started randomly

                        made a pinky palette set for Sister Number 1

 some funky ones for Sister number 3 who has little ones at home

(Sister number 2 tends  not use coasters but she's getting cushions for Christmas)

lastly some for my mother , this time all same topside but with different coloured backs

its a great tutorial as it results in a nice neat coaster, always a challenge with small quilty objects!

starry starry night

Having got ' 50 paper pieced stars', now on number 3 and finally getting the centre piecing a bit more accurate
Seems that you must STOP exactly at end of sewing line on paper and then it became less of a struggle to line up, pin and match..aha
            
                                                     Number 1

Number 2, not very matchy in the middle at all

Number 3...yey, matching in the middle

Decided to celebrate, taught  Robyn how to make cinder toffee which she crunched away on whilst carving the pumpkin.  

Yellow Yellow

 Recently inspired by this simple old quilt

Decided to do a white + 1 colour ( mainly! ) quilt

Chose Ohio star block 

And hexagons appliqued on

Funky half triangle border

Now, just wondering how to do final border.........just got Carol Doak's paper pieced star book, but the CD was  a video of how to paper piece, I thought it would be like the CD with her other paper pieced block book where you can print resize etc....instead had to jam the book under the photocopier etc.........grrrr. 

Was thinking of adding 4 different stars at corners.....tried this one
I have great difficulty with piecing star centres, at least this way you do it via 4 blocks, which is easier to achieve

Maybe I will try it smaller in just white/yellow....hmmm, have to think now..........

Its FREEZING today in UK, winter winds arrived, time for more quilts on the beds folks

pom pom trim cushion palaver

Saw some LOVELY cushions edged with pom pom trim
How difficult can that be I said to myself?
A: quite difficult

Because......
Working with a nightmare faux taffeta my daughter chose for her bedroom , all slidy aroundy the placey. Nasty.
What is the trick to sewing the pom pom braid on, I have integral IDT, and I tried zipper foot, no good, then open foot, a little better...but those darn poms kept dashing under my needle just to get me!I got my own back by spearing a few.They have to know who is boss.
 After battling with one side, had to eat 4 chocolate biscuits to regain morale
Any hints from anyone au fait with the pom pom trim  tricks, let me have your tips please?

and just to show you those darn pom poms, grrrr

liberty print scrap cushion

Inspired by this pretty autumnal project on cluck cluck sew ( thanks cluckcluck!
pillow.htmlhttp://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/10/tutorial-scrap-buster-fall-pillow.html
Thought I could use my liberty lawn  charms  which  I had bought to cover decoupage birdies
They are not my first choice of fabric as they are rather muted  - but they seemed to be right for the falling leaves

Still cautiously learning applique, so used raw edge with a simple straight stitch at a short  1.5 length

What did I learn?
1. Do not fuse edges of the bondaweb to ironing board, especially if you have just bought nice new clean one
2. Leaves all needed cutting down as I had made them too large for my cushion front  18" square
3. Having arranged all the leaves in satisfactory pattern on the front piece on the floor, somewhat of a challenge to pick it all up onto ironing board without leaves a falling before they should
4. Should have left a bit more space above and below to allow for seams not getting too close to the motif