Mini octastrings

A while ago I signed up for the Pillow Talk swap on Instagram. I absolutely could not resist it as it was my favourite swap back in the days when Flickr was fun to use. My partner is a fan of scrappy so I decided to resize my Octastring block for an epic mini version.

Each block finishes up around 6" and as each block is made up of 9 patches they are rather time consuming, well over 20 hours of work to get it to this point, but I think the end result is worth it.

Prepare for photo overload, I wanted to remember what each of the blocks looked like.

I echo quilted each of the blocks with a pink variegated Aurifil thread as I wanted the quilting to be simple and fade into the background as there was already so much going on with the scrappiness.

For the back of the cushion I used one of my favourite prints from Anna Maria Horner with the pink solid for a bit of continuity.

Before sending it on to its new owner I had to get a picture of it with the original Octastring quilt. I will admit this was a really tough one to part with!

I really hope my partner loves it as much as I do! Catch you soon x

Wafers

As predicted I'm back with a finish! My Wafers cushion goes together in a flash and I'm just a little bit in love with it :) I pulled lots of my current favourite fabrics together for this autumnal piece. There's some Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt and Katarina Roccella alongside some other Art Gallery fabrics that came in a scrap pack I bought from Simply Solids. The deep orange solid that I used is a Kona FQ that came in my Fat Quarterly Retreat goodies bag.

I used a lovely rust coloured Aurifil thread to do my usual crazy-straight-line quilting.

Quite by accident I noticed that it produced nice little stars in the solid shapes, an added bonus :) After a little rummage in my fabric cupboard I found the perfect backing fabric from my favourite, Anna Maria Horner :) The colours are much richer in real life, for some reason unknown to me it's all washed out in the photos.

I've uploaded the PDF EPP templates for this project to our Payhip page. They're a bargain (even if I do say so myself) at £1. I've included a colouring sheet so you can see how the blocks fit together and practice your fabric combinations. I'm thrilled that it's already started to sell to some very keen ladies over on Instagram :)

Now I need to go and shackle myself to the sewing machine! Catch you soon x

Prepping

Well it's been a very busy time in this neck of the woods. I've been secret sewing, blog updating and website building.I've added some new content over at www.nelliesniceties.com so if you haven't already visited it might be a good time to check it out. I'd love to know what you think of the facelift so far! I'm going to try migrating this blog over to the website in the next few days so apologies in advance for any disruption. If it doesn't work out I'll just leave it here and add new posts here and on the website; me and technology are not the greatest of friends.

In amongst all this business I remembered that I'd signed up for this year's Fat Quarterly Retreat Sample Swap. Given that retreat starts next Friday it really was about time for me to get cracking on making my samples! I've been procrastinating as I really didn't know what to make, then this afternoon I had a light-bulb moment when I decided to make reversible aprons :) I dug out some pretty fabrics and set to work. They go together really quickly and I'm a little bit delighted with them. This is the first one that I've finished, I've just got to add apron ties to 3 more tomorrow. Front...

and back...

There's another one in theses fabrics and then another 2 that are the grey version of this Flea Market fancy print with a Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow print. I'm hoping that they won't be too offensive for whoever is in my swap group. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get on with finishing the other 3 aprons after I've been to the hairdressers to tame my crazy hair for retreat. I'm not sharing a picture here of me until that mess is remedied! Catch you soon x

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Large quilt - Not-so Lonestar

It's Blogger's Quilt Festival time! Amy does a fantastic job of organising this online festival to keep us busy when we're sulking about not being at International Quilt Market. Hello, if you're visiting for the first time I hope you'll stay to have a look around :) If you're a regular I apologise for bombarding you with quilts you've already seen :)

I've made quite a few quilts this year so it's been tough to decide which ones to enter. I've settled on two this time around. This is my first entry, my version of Kaffe Fassett's awesome Not-so Lonestar Quilt.

This quilt was a long time in the making! After a couple of false starts I finally got to grips with it over the Christmas and New Year holidays. It's an absolutely massive quilt, finishing up at over 90" square. To get a better sense of the scale here's a similar picture but with 5'5" Jess in the shot :)

This quilt was a real labour of love! All those diamonds are individually hand cut and there are hundreds of them. I used Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner and Soul Blossoms by Amy Butler and just love the way that they play together. As this was such a monster quilt there was no way I was going to attempt quilting myself, so I sent it off to the amazingly talented Trudi Wood for her to work her long-arm magic. The feathers that Trudi quilted have taken this quilt to a whole new level for me.

There are tons more photos in previous posts about this quilt so I won't overload you with them all here. This quilt now inhabits our bedroom and I'm working up the motivation to get a bigger bed to accommodate it more comfortably.

It's not perfectly pieced but it's as good as I'm capable of at this stage in my patchworking life. I think it will be a favourite for a very long time! I smile every time I see it, so that can't be a bad thing :)
Thanks for taking a look around. Don't forget to visit all the other awesome quilts on show in this category. Catch you soon x

An awesome finish!

Fair warning, this is a photo heavy post!

Today the postman delivered the most awesome package from Trudi! I had handed over my precious Not-so Lonestar quilt to Trudi at the last meeting of the East Midlands Modern Quild Guild. My vague instructions to Trudi for quilting were "all-over feathers, just do your thing." I've seen Trudi's work in person before, it is fabulous but nothing really prepared me for how awesome my quilt would look once she had worked her magic! When I opened the parcel this was my first peek at what was in store for me.

There was much squealing and petting of fabric. There were almost, but not quite, tears and lots of crack your cheekbone grinning! Take a look at these next few photos of the corner stars...

 ...I mean WOW!

There were all kinds of bias issues in the centre of those stars but you'd never know it now! Here's the centre of the Lonestar... again no sign of my dodgy bias issues. Those feathers are perfect!!

Here's a close-up...

...the texture is amazing!! I asked for a grey thread as I wanted it to blend in with the riot of colour in the fabrics. Aurifil to the rescue of course ;) 

I had cleared my afternoon to make sure I could get on with the binding, all 10 and a bit metres of it! I was lazy in the end and applied the binding by machine. I justified that to myself by wanting it to stand up to the many washes that it will undergo in its lifetime. I fully intend for this to be a well loved and well used quilt! I took my time to make sure it was as neat as it could be. Front..

 and back.

Then it was time to dress the bed :) I think we need a bigger bed. It's very difficult to get the whole quilt in the shot!

Here's a final shot of it from another angle :)

It's safe to say that this is my most favourite quilt to date! Trudi's quilting has pushed this quilt into the stratosphere! I am so proud of our combined efforts :) Enough of my gushing for now. Thank you Trudi, you rock! Catch you soon x

Few words

After a busy week I'm a woman of few words. I may actually be trying not to nod off as I type this. Jess turned 17 this week! That makes me feel super old because that means we're a year away from landmark birthdays; 18 (Jess), 40 (Me) and 21 again (cough, Yvonne).  Where the heck does time go?

Anyway, I've been doing lots of sewing this week with deadlines fast approaching so I've tired myself out good and proper. I finished the FUCancer quilt for my lovely friend.

Front of FUCancer quilt

Rear of FUCancer quilt

Quilted in chevrons with grey Aurifil thread, then washed and tumbled to get the crinkle going :) It is lovely and snuggly so as long as the recipient doesn't have a migraine this should be just right for comforting her on crap days.

I've also been working on another hand sewing project, Diamonds, kites and stars revisited :) I'm going to try and get it finished in time to enter the Pantone Quilt Challenge...

Sewline glue basting for the win! So speedy and I may have converted a few ladies to glue basting yesterday at EMMQG :) Well that's all I can muster for today. I hope you're all safe and well. Catch you soon x

Actual sewing

I'm finally feeling well enough to get some sewing done! Woohoo! I've got a lot of projects on the go and unfortunately I can't show a lot of them just yet. One I can show you is this FUCancer quilt which I'm making for a dear friend who's having a tough time. I dug out a jelly roll of Lark by Amy Butler for a very cheery but quick to make quilt.

I'm still playing with the final layout but it will be chevrons! I absolutely love Lark in all it's technicolour :)

You can just about see a peek of my Never forgotten improv quilt on the left hand side too ;) I'm hoping to get in some more improv time now that I'm not so fuzzy-headed... Catch you soon x

Jubilation!

Hello All, I can't begin to tell you all just how excited I am right now! I've bored the crowd on Instagram over the last few weeks with pictures of my Not-so-Lonestar quilt and today that will cease (for the time being anyway) because I've finished it!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it but it's true :)

I completely love it! I feel a bit like Bruce Forsyth today when I say that this is my favourite quilt to date.

 It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, there are plenty of duff points and bias issues but the fabric is so gorgeous and busy that those things don't really matter. I actually feel a bit bereft that it's finished. Well, not quite finished because it still has to be quilted but I'm not doing that myself...no chance, this beaut will be heading over to Trudi to work her long-arm magic :)

It's really tricky to capture the scale of this quilt so I took a pic of it with Jess by the side as a guide, she's about 5'5" :)

 When I took this project back out of the WIP box at Christmas I was really anxious that I wouldn't have enough fabric left to complete it as I'd started it in 2011 and wasn't sure how easy it would be to get hold of Innocent Crush and Soul Blossoms now. Thankfully the angst was unnecessary as I have this lovely pile of fabric left!

I'm so pleased I'll be able to use these fabrics in other projects in the years to come :) I think you'll be pleased that I've got all this left too because it means that I'm feeling generous with the scraps from the making of the quilt! There's 290g of scraps of pretty much all the prints I used in the quilt. They're all really useable sizes so I'm sure they'll be very handy for scrappy projects.

As a thank you for all the encouragement I'm giving this lovely scrap pile away! You get up to 3 chances to win:
1. To be in with a chance to win just leave a comment here.
2. If you're a follower, new or regular, leave another comment.
3. Share the giveaway news and leave another comment here letting me know you've shared.

Please make sure I can contact you if you happen to win, (no-reply bloggers I mean you!) I'll draw a winner with Random Number Generator on Friday 24th January 2014 around 8pm (GMT).

Thanks for cheering me on from the sidelines :) Catch you soon x

Edited to add: Giveaway is now closed. The winner was Mrs FlyingBlind - Hadley.