Holiday!

I've been off the radar for a bit recently as we've been on holiday.  We've just returned from a lovely trip to Northern Ireland.  I fell in love with the north coast of NI last year while over at a family wedding so I wanted to return for more exploration.  We based our time around the town of Portstewart, where my mother-in-law and family are from, and the causeway coast.  Although I live by the sea here in South Wales, the north coast of NI is something else - dramatic, unspoilt and beautiful.

I had planned to make a crochet blanket and complete some more hand sewn hexagons whilst on holiday, neither of which materialised!  I did a lot of reading and chilling though and I do feel refreshed coming back to everyday life :-).

Stunning Giant's Causeway:

Portstewart Strand:

Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge:

(can't quite see the rope bridge in this pic!)

The highlight of the trip - Titanic Experience, Belfast:

 (Outside)

 (Beautiful reproduction crockery in the museum's cafe!)

A trip to Avoca in Belfast City Centre yielded one beautiful blanket:

Fantastic week!

Red, White & Blue

Don't tell my parents, but I celebrated the Jubilee!  I was brought up first and foremost Welsh, rather than British, so I'm not sure if my weekend festivities would be frowned upon.  Above is the red, white and  blue quilt top I worked on over the weekend.  I've had these fabrics for some time - a selection from Cath Kidston, Moda and various checks from Fabric Rehab - with a view to making a small quilt for the Baby Boy's cowboy themed bedroom.  It is pure coincidence that I sewed the quilt top over the jubilee weekend - a happy coincidence none the less!  I love charm quilts.

We were, as a family, poorly over the weekend and most of the Jubilee TV coverage was viewed in bed as we were feeling rather miserable.  Happily we were all recovered enough on Tuesday to host a small Jubilee afternoon teaparty with some friends.

The menu included a selection of sandwiches, coronation chicken, sausage rolls, jubilee cupcakes, Welsh cakes (with dried blueberries, cranberries and white chocolate), scones with clotted cream and jam, pink lemonade and sparkling wine!  As well as copious amounts of tea in the obilgatory china cups.

I attempted some Jubilee jellies:

And we had some delicious shortbread from this gorgeous vintage style tin:

A happy long weekend!

Hourglass

I've been off the radar for a week or so.  Life seems to get busier and busier.  This last week has been the best sort of busy.  My Big Girl turned 7 last weekend so we celebrated with a birthday breakfast and an afternoon teaparty.  We also had the loveliest house guest staying - Caroline from North Carolina!  Her time with us was fabulous and I confess there were tears shed on her departure.

I've a finished quilt to share today -  completed before last week's epic week, but I've been lacking in time to post on here.

I present the Hourglass Quilt, made for a certain young Baby Oliver:

I am thrilled with how this one turned out.  The hourglass blocks had always appealed to me but I was very nervous of it being a complete disaster because of the triangles and points.  There is no doubt the cutting and sewing was a challenge but I am SO pleased with how it  looks now completed :-)

I especially like the back:

It is a red gingham by Makower with a strip of fabric from the Reunion line by Moda which  features in the hourglass blocks - the binding is also made in the same print.

The quilt sandwich was stippled - I can't get enough of stippling!!

Hoping to quilt my snowball quilt this week!

Bluebell Ripple

Another friend of mine has had a baby girl.  There is definitely something in the water around here - at least 5 babies have been born to various friends through the month of April!  This little one is the only girl in the batch and this ripple blanket is for her.  Crochet is great for a fast growing project and, although I probably prefer knitting, the former is just much quicker!

The baby's name is Bluebell which pairs perfectly with her older sister's name, Daisy.  I had completely different yarn selected until I saw some Debbie Bliss Rialto DK in the four shades above - most of them are shades of bluebell flowers!  I followed the Attic 24 ripple pattern, instead of the usual one I use, as I think it provides much softer peaks and troughs in the ripple. 

Experimentation

My hourglass quilt from my last post is into the finishing stages - all quilted with most of the binding attached.  Last week I managed another quilt - completely from start to finish.  It was a bit of an experiment in both piecing and quilting.

I had wanted to try a tumbler type quilt for sometime but had no recipient in mind, let alone fabric colour or design.  A good friend of mine had her fourth child a couple of weeks ago - a beautiful baby boy, which after three little girls is a bit of a novelty - so this quilt was made for him.

The fabrics are from the 'Reunion' line by Sweetwater which I have loved since I first cast eyes on it.  The colours are bright and, despite a few floral prints, quite boyish.  I used two charm packs but did not use all the prints - the floral prints were placed towards the edges of the quilt so aren't too obvious.  I think the overall look is quite masculine though.  Moda Bakeshop had a great tutorial for a tumbler quilt as written by Crazymomquilts.

The back of the quilt is one piece and is an adorable bunting print from the 'Reunion' line:

Sorry, the picture isn't the best!  The binding is also from the 'Reunion' range and is also featured in the quilt top.

And now my favourite part - my experimental quilting!  This was a bold move and entirely out of the comfort zone.  I tried stippling with some navy thread but it just didn't look right.  I bit the bullet and tried a sort of double loopy free-motion design:

It is nowhere near perfect but I absolutely LOVE it!  I've gained a little bit of confidence to try some more experimental quilting - could get addictive ;-)

Another quilt top

I have been a busy little bee this week!  This in part has been helped by (i) the hibernation-inducing terrible weather, and (ii) a poorly baby boy who has just wanted to snooze most afternoons.

This quilt is going to be for a baby boy named Oliver and is my first attempt at an hourglass type quilt.  Challenging doesn't even begin to describe the process - the sewing was hard work and squaring the blocks nearly drove me slightly demented!  The corners aren't perfect but I am quite pleased with the result.  If I were doing it again I would probably choose one more print as the colour placement wasn't easy.  The project is shown here all ready for quilting.  I hope to get it done by the weekend to off-load it to it's new owner.

Quilt top

I finished the snowball quilt top last week and I am very pleased with it :-).  I wasn't entirely sure if there would be too much red in the finished article, but on balance I think I've managed to get away with it.  This is probably due to the fact that the corner triangles have a teeny print compared to the other red blocks.  

The quiltroom had a special offer on Moda Bella Solids last week so I've ordered some gray fabric for the back of the quilt.  So far I'm undecided about what exactly to do about the back - I'm not sure if I should keep it plain or go with a pieced version as a lot of scraps were generated in making the snowball blocks.  Time will tell!  I'm in no rush to put it all together yet as I've a couple of baby quilts I'd like to finish up this week.