Quilt commission

I'm very excited and pleased to have a commission to make a quilt for a little boy after his aunt saw my memory quilts on my website.

After our initial discussions about colours and style, these are the fabrics we've chosen.

(Aunt) Sophie has asked for colours and patterns that can be used in adult-hood.  We are having a mis-matched, different sized square design with  different sized blocks so it doesn't look too uniform.  Some photos are also going to be incorporated into the design, but they are not going to be focal points of the quilt, rather that you will spot them when you look over the quilt.  As the little boy is called Teddy, there will be a few Teddy's appliqued on the top along with an embroidered block with his name and birth date.

I'm a bit of a star block fan, so I've made up a few star blocks to start off with.

I have been emailing the blocks to Sophie (thank goodness for digital cameras) and she is really pleased with how they look.

It's very exciting making a quilt for someone else, but a little bit nerve-racking too.  I'm trying to make Sophie's ideas for the quilt come true, without trying to influence her choices.  I'm glad Sophie likes the blocks as I find it quite difficult to say 'It will definitely look like this or like that' because until I sit down and sew, I'm not sure myself which fabrics I'll use in which blocks so my quilts tend to evolve as they are sewn.  I really love these fabrics and it's been wonderful to pick up three or four that go together and just have a free reign to create.

So, thank you Sophie for putting your trust in me.

Update on tablecloth

We laid out the blocks on the floor, this one is called 'Light and dark', and this is the one Jenny has decided she likes.  It will be really pretty once it's done and pressed. 

Now just got to find a spare hour to sew it all together ....

Log Cabin Tablecloth

I made up one block to show Jenny (MIL) what they would look like and she was really pleased with it.  This also meant I was able to check all my calculations for log sizes were correct, and thankfully they were.

Log Cabin is often foundation pieced, but I'm not a huge fan of that, so I cut all the pieces out first and then chain piece.

I set them out in the order, it's not that clear in the picture and then pieced all log 1 to the middle square 36 times.  Cut between the logs, press and then piece all log 2 pieces to these and just continue until all are done.

So this is the first four logs pieced and it's starting to look good.  Every time I finished four pieces to complete a square, I pressed and then squared them up to get rid of uneven edges.  I always like to remove 'ears' and square up blocks, even though this adds extra time to the sewing, it really does make a differnce to the finished piece.  Many years ago I went to college and studied catering.  When rolling out pastry one day, the chef asked me what shape I wanted (in this case a rectangle) and then asked how did I expect to end up with a rectangle when my pastry started off as a ball?  Good point, same with patchwork, if you want to end up with as near a perfect square as possible, you need to make sure it stays as close to a square all the way through, otherwise it gets all skewed.

Apart from the lovely light-bulb spot in the middle of these photos, it shows how small amounts need to be trimmed.  Then you end up with lovely square sqaures.  So these blocks are 9" sqaures, a 3" square in the middle surrounded by 12 1" log strips.

Log cabin

My mother-in-law, who is also Jenny Cooper, has asked me to make her a quilted tablecloth.  As we both share the same name this can be a little confusing at times.  A couple of years ago I entered the local flower show and was lucky enough to win the handicraft cup, when Jenny (MIL) went into the village the week after, she was congratulated on winning.  This year, Jenny (MIL) entered some embroidery and knitting in another local show and I was congratulated on the prizes! 

Anyway, back to the tablecloth, Jenny (MIL) likes the log cabin design and lilac colours.
Here are the ones she has picked out:

I think the colours she has chosen will make a very pretty quilt.  It will be approx 54" square made from 9" log cabin blocks. I don't know yet which log cabin setting it will be in.  The thing to do, is make the blocks and then take them to her and we can lay them out and decide.

What do you think?
Jenny

Old friends

Last Friday, I met up with my friends Julia and Sharon.  We all went to college and studied catering together many many moons ago.  We meet about three or four times a year and have a meal.  We tried Kettleburgh Chequers this time and it's well worth a visit.

Julia makes and decorates the most amazing cakes - birthday, wedding and celebration cakes.  She has a website in the making and I'll be linking to her site when it's up and running.  Sharon brought us some home-grown tomatoes.  It was lovely to be given some as home-grown tastes so much better than shop bought.  I've been making lots of chutneys, pickles and jams this summer, and put aside a jar of Plum Jam for each of them, only to get there and realise I'd left them at home.  It will keep until next time we meet.

Improvised light box

Tomorrow I am demonstrating hand-quilting at market.  Today I thought that maybe I ought to get a piece of hand-quilting ready to quilt.  I'm still not sure that what I've chosen is a good idea as I decided to design my own piece and not use a quilting stencil, but, hey, why start simply!

As market is at Orford, I thought maybe an outline of Orford Castle would be good.  I have a lovely photo of the castle that I've printed off onto A4 and then I wondered (8.45pm tonight) how the heck am I going to transfer the outline to fabric?  My natural lightbox (daylight through window) is not working at present (it's too dark outside) and I don't own a light-box, but I do have plenty of clear plastic storage boxes and my husband has a powerful torch .... so solution is empty box, put on torch, put empty box over torch and hey presto  -  a light box.  Shame the box has got curved edges so that it doesn't sit properly - but never mind, it will serve it's temporary purpose.

Jenny

Launch of my applique kits and patterns

I'm so excited. I've launched my first patterns and kits. The cupcake, flower and sailing boat are three of my favourite designs. They are fusible-web applique, suitable for beginners as well as those with more experience, and are availabe as patterns or kits. They are very reasonably priced at £3 for the pattern or £5 for the kit and are can be bought from my website.



This cupcake can be used on so many things, cushions, table-runners, tea cosies or placemats.



The flower head I have used to make a really pretty cushion.

And can you just imagine sail boats on a pair of plain curtains for a young sailor?

These are all postcard-sized projects using fusible web applique. Suitable for the beginner, the designs can be used by those with more experience on other projects, a few listed above.

In the autumn they will be some christmas postcards ... watch this space.

Jenny

(Please note that kit fabric colours may be different from those shown)