Autumn Quilting Plans

Firstly a lovely Thank You to anybody who voted for me in the Viewer's Choice of Favourite Mini Holiday Quilts.  I did not win Judge's Choice nor the Viewer's Choice, nor one of the randomly drawn prizes.  But I do get to live with my sweet little Isle of Skye quilt, and without the competition I may never have finished this little wall hanging, which makes me smile whenever I walk past it, and so for that I am thankful.  And so onto the future:

Recently I posted my garment sewing goals for Autumn here, so I thought I would also set out my crafty sewing goals too.

Hand Sewing

I started piecing together some little hexagons from Very Berry fabrics.  I don't know what I will do with them yet, but so far I have started stitching them into flower shapes.  By the end of the year I would like to have them become a part of something.  Ideas anyone?

Late last year I bought a DVD to teach myself how to do needle-turned applique and then signed myself up for a Block of the Month set of patterns.  I now have all nine patterns but have only finished four blocks.  I am being VERY hopeful putting this one down as a Finishing goal, but I love the idea that in a perfect world I may actually get this finished!

Patchwork

I bought a lovely jelly roll full of Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs pastel prints that I want to make into a sort of trellis patchwork quilt.  So far I've prepared my strips ready for the cutting and sewing into 9-patch blocks, but that is all.  I think this has a good chance of being completed as it is fairly easy sewing and will all be done by machine.   Although I do enjoy learning new skills with each of my creations, perhaps I will set this on point too, and maybe enroll myself in a Long Arm course and then quilt it myself?  Now those would be very useful new skills to have.

I am linking up with lots of other quilting ladies who are recording their goals for the rest of 2013.

Holiday Mini Quilt

Introducing my appliqued and quilted wall hanging of McLeod's Tables on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Fiskavaig, Isle of Skye.

Just like a real landscape, this wall hanging changes in different light and keeps surprising us as we walk past it.

The Inspiration

In 2012 we went on a lovely holiday to the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland.  Every summer the Island's artistic residents open up their homes and studios for anybody to come in and see their work.  There's even an official map and guide.  One of the studios that I visited twice was the Skye Quilt Studio.  Not only did we get a detailed tour of the quilts on display, there was also a proper little shop set up in the loft / attic space.  So right there and then I decided I'd like to design my own wall hanging based on the lovely view from the windows of our rented accommodation using fabric purchased on the Island.

This is only my 4th ever completed quilt, and it makes me so happy to look at it and think of that lovely part of Skye - Fiskavaig - where we enjoyed this lovely view over the bay out to McLeod's Tables.  We spent days walking out to the peninsula on the left as well as to the pieces of land jutting in from the right - my Mister even caught us some fish from the peninsula on the right.

Here is a collection of my photos that I have used to inspire my quilted wall hanging.

And this is the photo that gave me the idea for the gold thread quilting stitches at the bottom of my work:

I took this sitting amongst the grasses whilst on the peninsula
looking back towards the house from behind the yellow trees

The Construction

I started making this almost as soon as I got home (blogged about it here) and got as far as appliqueing the sky when I became distracted with other things and put it aside.

 

I took it out again last month when I saw a competition at Celtic Thistle Stitches to create a mini quilt based on a holiday memory.  And so I took it out again (blog mention here)  and finally completed it.  There's nothing like a deadline to get me motivated into action!

I have mostly used needle-turn applique and a little bit of machine stitching.  The quilting has been done on my machine.  I drew the design myself onto freezer paper templates.  Completed it measures 14.5" x 18.5"

(I'd probably choose different fabrics if I could start again, but I bought them with just the landscape colours in mind and at the time I didn't really have an exact idea of which exact part of Skye I would try to recreate.  And so although the colours may not be the most accurate tones, they are special just because they were bought on Skye when the inspiration struck me.)

For the back I chose a piece of fabric with an actual sky print as a play on words.

and this is the first time that I've ever used free-motion quilting!

I can't wait to see all the other Mini Holiday Memory Quilts over at Celtic Thistle Stitches!
Viewer's choice voting has now begun!  Go here to vote.

I wonder if viewing all the other holiday quilts, cushions and accessories will give you the travel bug or the creative bug?