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.

Voting has opened

I have never entered any of my home-made items into a competition before now, but having it as an online competition was such an appealing idea.  The online sewing community seem to only comment positively and are otherwise encouraging and constructive when help is needed.
If you have a few minutes, please go over to Celtic Thistle Stitches and have a look at the entries.  There are three categories  - cushions, wall hangings, bags.  You can have one Viewer's Choice vote in each category by clicking on the little love heart of your favourite. Thank you, but the VOTING HAS NOW CLOSED.
Please just vote for your favourites of course, don't feel you have to choose my entry, in fact I won't remind you which one is mine.  Making a stitched item based on a holiday memory is such a lovely idea, hope you might try it yourself some time.

Just so that this post has a photo, here is a picture taken of me on our Anniversary weekend this Summer.  It has been a very pleasant Summer here in Scotland (at last we've had a good one!)

Both these photos were taken on Loch Rannoch.  One day the water was wild and choppy, the next it was calm and reflective.

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?

WIP updates

Having finished my course of antibiotics I do feel I'm back to my normal self this week, and have hopefully kicked this bout of tonsillitis.  I've got a busy week at work ahead, with a lot of "best foot forward" expected of me, which will be a little extra pressure, so I'm just taking one day at a time.
So to give myself some me-time, I've done a bit of catching-up at Nessa's Place this week.  Here are three WIPs (works in progress) that I've updated today:

W.I.P. 1

On and off (mostly off) I am working on some hand sewing. (I tend to occupy myself with this when the mother-in-law comes to tea) It is a hand appliqued and patchworked quilt, designed by Anni Downs.  It is going to be a lovely big wall hanging quilt for our stairwell.
Today I finally finished the fourth 20" x 20" square! This large flower pot has been a bit of a nightmare - I have not enjoyed the fiddliness of the stalk and stems at all, and I think it has taken so long to do, simply because I was putting it off.

This quilt is a Block of the Month (BOM) idea called In My Garden, and was supposed to have been finished by November 2012 but oh well, life is busy. I do like it and shall keep going with it (on and off).
Actually it is quite nice to spend an hour getting the fabric and little pieces all ready and pack it all into a little project bag, ready for picking up and taking anywhere to do a little hand stitching whenever I feel the need.  I think I enjoy this preparing work quite a lot actually... I've posted about the joy of preparation before.

W.I.P. 2

On our last holiday to the Isle of Skye I bought some materials to make a small wall-hanging quilt inspired by the colours and the landscape.  Well, I have done absolutely nothing on that since the last time I mentioned it.  Could have done a bit today but I didn't feel like it.  You know how some days one project seems more fun to do than the one you know you should do?  Well today just wasn't Skye quilt's day.

But we also bought some Harris Tweed remnants that were on sale in a knitting shop.  (Harris Tweed is made in people's homes on the Island of Harris, off the west coast of Scotland, and it is lovely)  I have pressed the pieces and cut them into workable lengths, all prepared and ready to be made into cushions for our lounge room.

W.I.P. 3

As part of House of Pinheiro's International Craft Swap, I am also working on something crafty to give to my  Pinheiro-paired partner.  Just in case she reads this post, I won't mention what I am thinking of making for her just yet, but here is a sneaky peak at some of the things I just might be using to make it. 

The idea is to make something with a Nautical theme to suit my paired-up partner, and she will make something Nautical for me.  We're supposed to use things from our stash, but I didn't have anything nautical so I got a few things at the recent Stitching exhibition in Glasgow and the Quilt show that was in Edinburgh.

I'd be interested to know what you would make from these lovely fabrics and ribbons?

Piecing the sky of Skye

Here is a wee peek into the progress I am making on my Skye Wallhanging.

You may remember from a previous holiday post that I bought some lovely fabrics whilst holidaying in the Autumnal Isle of Skye in Scotland.

I sketched out a design, then after a couple of sketches I re-drew it onto plastic backed Freezer paper, to use as my pattern pieces.

 Then I cut out the Freezer paper pattern pieces and ironed them onto my fabric - plastic side down. This temporarily sticks to the fabric.  I cut the fabric about 1/4 inch bigger than the paper pattern piece.

 Then I used my teeny tiny applique pins to pin the pieces onto the background fabric and then applied the pieces to the backing fabric using the needle-turned applique technique.

So this is what the sky of my Skye looks like! I think I will keep all the re-usable Freezer paper pattern pieces as I might make another one (I think the sky background fabric is a bit too dark compared to the mauve and grey colours but I don't want to start again just yet - I really can't wait to see how this evolves).

This is turning out to be a really relaxing and creative little project and it's nice to be so free and flexible with the designing element. Usually sewing clothes one has to stick to the instructions and my piecing is usually geometric and angular so this is certainly a happy diversion.

Skye High Inspiration

We've just been on a holiday to the Scottish Isle of Skye.  It was fabulous!  It's Autumn here so the colours were rich and dramatic.

Then of course I stumbled across a fabric shop!! Even in these far flung isles I managed to spend money on material! I chose colours that represent all the lovely scenery we had been living amongst and now plan to make a patchwork quilted wall-hanging from them. Now for the drawing board!

 Have you ever made anything inspired by a favourite place or holiday?