Archive of ‘Colour’ category
Welcome to I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins! The last week has been a flurry of activity in the studio as I finished off a heap of quilts and have been getting ready to submit them to a quilt show 
Entry is due by tomorrow, but if you’re interested you can check it out here.
First up I finished binding “Dream in Colour”. You may remember it from way back last year… On second thought I may not have shared it before… It is pieced using scraps from a beautiful plus quilt (still haven’t finished that one…) and is meant to hang in my studio to remind me to take my vivid, colourful dreams and make them real and tangible.
Made with scraps and quilted with dense, wonky, SLQ
Then I bound my improv, self-reflective, arty-farty piece. I wrote about this quilt a few weeks back, it breaks all of the “rules” and I will be interested to hear feedback from the judges and people who visit the show.
Not the best photo I’m afraid..
I’m also entering the quilt that doesn’t have a name that I recently had in a local show. It mixes hand quilting, longarm quilting, improv piecing, needle-turn applique and goodness knows what else! 
I’ve filled out entry forms for a couple of minis but then I remembered the Blessings Quilt and my lovely friend agreed that she was happy for me to enter it.
All in all I’ve entered seven quilts and I’ll be stitching on a heap of hanging sleeves if they’re all accepted! Which is a nice segway to my topic of this week; hanging sleeves. Do you have a favorite hanging sleeve method or tutorial? I used the directions from the Canberra Quilter’s recently, but I know many shows provide specific dimensions. If I am making a small wall quilt for my house, I generally just do a pocket in each corner and hang it with a piece of dowel. This method has the added bonus of avoiding handstitching
Next time I attach a hanging sleeve I am going to go with a D shape, similar to this tutorial by Tallgrass Prairie Studio.
I haven’t featured a quilter this week as I haven’t had the time to seek permission and my Dad arrived today and I really need to get out of the studio and spend some time with him Please add your link below and don’t forget to add the linky button or a link to my blog in your post or side bar. To those of you celebrating, have a lovely Easter and to those of you who aren’t, have a great weekend xx
An InLinkz Link-up
As the title suggests, I’m just hanging in there. I’ll spare you the grim details of post-packing fallout, suffice to say that Mr 7′s teacher pulled me aside today and told me that he is going to fail his final evaluations because he has mentally shutdown following the packing up of our house. If anyone has any suggestions on motivating, building confidence and managing change when it comes to children… I’m all ears! In the absence of good parenting I have promised Mr 7 the Nintendo DS (game thingy) that he desperately wants if he works hard like he did before last Monday. I have been saying all year that it is too expensive and not possible but I hope the lure of the DS is enough to get him working again. I have informed his teacher of this incentive and asked that she remind him if possible when he is head down refusing to work. Terrible parenting but I’m desperate. It is heartbreaking to watch your child shutdown and risk repeating a year of school because they are not coping with the thought of leaving their friends and the only home they remember. Sorry, I meant to spare you the details…
‘Dream’ mini in progress – made with scraps from Rainbow Plus quilt top. Aprox 15″ x 30″
Usually I keep my works in progress to a minimum. At the moment I’m suffering a lack of clarity when it comes to quilting designs but I’m pushing on and then procrastinating when I feel that the design I’ve gone with is not right. I was thinking the word “dream” in the above mini was too obvious but when I shared it on IG the clever peeps there suggested outlining it in black. I’m still procrastinating…
I use my ‘tri recs’ ruler when piecing triangles :)
I’ve started a table runner for Mr 7′s teacher as a thank you/farewell gift. I loved it during the piecing stage. I’m worried I messed it up whilst quilting. I’ve probably quilted a 1/4 of it but didn’t grab a photo before the light went (and can’t find the charger for my DSLR, sorry for the ipad pics!) so here it is pieced.
Aprox 15″ by 60″
The other main piece I am working on is a custom order, a Butterfly quilt based on a cot sized one I made a few weeks back. My wadding arrived today so I hope to baste it tonight (although crying into my wine is more tempting!).
Butterfly quilt in progress aprox 2m x 1.9m
I’m using fusible adhesive and raw edged appliqué and I love all the pink on the grey. Quilts like this make having a large stash a lot of fun. My customer had a great time going through all of the pinks and putting together her picks
I’m linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. I’d love you to pop back tomorrow and link up to my Quilting Process linky <3
It’s about three weeks until I pack up my house and I currently have about five in progress WIPs (let’s not count the ones that are being ignored). So what’s the best thing to do? Start another!
I finished sewing together my Primary Plus quilt top (above) and I LOVE it (I haven’t had a chance to properly photograph the finished top yet)! I’ve just paid for my long arm and this baby will be packed away ready to quilt on the long arm early next year. I ended up with a pretty pile of scraps and seeing as I require a reward for cleaning I decided to play with them this afternoon.
I was originally thinking a cushion cover to match the plus quilt but I just had a light bulb moment and have an idea for a mini One can never have too many minis, right?
I have two piles of fabric sitting here patiently awaiting my attention. First up is a twin sized butterfly quilt for my son’s love (they are both five and I have finally convinced him that they can be in love without having to kiss! This Momma isn’t ready for that!!). This pile of pink will become a flutter of butterflies on grey <3
Second up is a gender neutral baby quilt and I have all sorts of fun modern ideas floating around in my head. This one is for my son’s (same son) teacher as a farewell/baby gift at the end of the year. We’re moving away, she’s pregnant, I quilt. You get the idea
And with that I must get back to the roast chicken. We have a dinner guest tonight and it would appear that I need to vacate the sewing/dining room so that we can entertain
I’m linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced! I’d love you to pop back tomorrow for my I Quilt linky party <3
Ages ago I pulled two stacks of fabric both based on the primary colors, one for each of my sons for a winter quilt. My younger son is getting the cascade quilt. I knew all along that I wanted to make a plus quilt for my older son but I I felt the prints I’d pulled were a bit stark. Then I had the brilliant idea to pull in some solids and the whole thing went from hohum to passionate chopping and excitedly filling the design wall.
(mostly) kona on the left, original pull on the right
Big love to Pink Chalk for their awesome Kona Color Box stack. I bought it almost a year ago and it is PERFECT for this project!!! The only reason I had waited so long to use it is that it is so pretty that I couldn’t chop it up LOL
reds first followed by orange
I cut three (where possible) pluses of each print (each plus is made up of 1 x 3.5″x9.5″ and 2 x 3.5″x3.5). I knew exactly the layout I wanted so I just started throwing things on the design wall as fast as I could
I filled in all the colours first, spilling over each other, getting a nice blend of colour. Without the text print it was lacking but I have a thing about needlessly cutting up fabric so I filled the design wall and then worked out what sized strips I needed of the text print.
My lovely friend Jane sent me some of her clever row markers ages ago so I decided to give them a whirl. You press the seams in the direction of the arrows (although I press open) and I found them super helpful for getting track of everything. I was seriously worried about messing with my original layout and having to redo it – not a window was allowed to be opened until I had the pieces off the design wall and safely pinned!
I find quilting quite exciting, but I have to say that this one was extra special to watch as it came together.
Serious love right there folks.
I haven’t sewn the rows together yet. I love the movement of them hanging there and moving every so slightly in the breeze.
I think I love this quilt in progress so much because I used a select few of my favourite prints, stuck to a defined palette, broke into my pretty solids and did the whole thing on instinct. I didn’t change a thing from my original layout and I think this quilt reflects how much I love colour but also how fun the primary colours can be all by themselves.
as
I’m linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for my iquilt linky party. Tomorrow we’re talking quilting process and I have a few fun ideas gurgling around in my brain to share with you
Yesterday I shared with you my quilting progress on my X quilt. I originally started it as a cushion cover but the quilting kind of took over You can read more about the quilting process (and join my weekly quilting linky party) here.
Today I decided this mini was destined to become a wall quilt et voila!
As much as I love this mini I am giving it to my husband. He is always asking me for quilts to hang on the walls in his office. This week he needs some extra loving so this mini will be heading into the office with him on Monday.
This quilt is only 17″ by 24″ so I just added hanging pockets to the corners and used a piece of dowel to hang it up I love the binding fabric. The teal print and thread are slightly different hues but the dotted print really brings it all together.
As always I used Aurifil threads for super vibrant colours, 1100, 2605 and 2810 in 50 wt. The grey is Kona Steel and the prints are all from my monthly Stash Stack subscription with Pink Castle Fabrics.
I also just wanted to quickly touch on some boring housekeeping. Since moving over to my own domain I’ve had some doubling (or tripling!) up of posts in Facebook and Blog Lovin’. I am struggling to work out why this is happening and fix it. If you’re keen to stick around and keep reading my blog, can you please check that you’re following me using my current url: http://prettybobbins.com rather than the old blogspot one? I’m going to change the settings in bloglovin’ a few hours after this post so if you don’t ever see me again it might be because you were subscribed to my old address. Thank you xx I’m hoping that will fix the problem and this is the last time that there will be doubling up
I’m linking up with TGIFF over at Quokka Quilts this week.
I’ve finished my son’s Cascading Color (Colour) quilt top and can I say, I LOVE it! This is destined to be a winter quilt with a flannel back and I really think it is going to bring such lovely colours into the house in winter. But for now I have folded it up and put it away to quilt once I have my long arm next year.
The quilt is supposed to have a cascading tetris look to it, hence the lighter columns.
My husband kindly gave me five minutes to photograph this beauty before he headed to work this morning. We have bright mornings in Nouméaa! I love the affect of the colour cascading down the quilt. I used so many favourite prints and it really was an exercise in admiring my stash
Colour comes tumbling down
I actually remarked to my husband last night that I’ve been really good and haven’t bought any fabric lately (he pointed to a large box of wadding that I claimed doesn’t count because it’s boring and essential). He poo-pooed me and claimed to have seen fabric arrive of late. Of course he is right, but again it doesn’t count because what he is referring to is my stash subscription from Pink Castle Fabrics and I don’t choose those, it’s more like a nice surprise each month Yup, total fabric ban happening here folks Seriously though, most of the low value prints in this quilt are from my subscription and I really find it so very useful.
The light spills from top left with the bottom right of the quilt being the darkest area.
In complete contrast, possibly my favourite area of this quilt top is the dark areas down the bottom. I really think that this quilt will have longevity as it offers a variety of hues and only a few novelty prints.
Lots of fun prints including a French text print referencing our time here.
I actually pulled the prints for this quilt months ago and had been planning a Plus style quilt but I really love what I have here. Essentially a heap of 5″ (cut 5.5″) squares and some rectangles that make up a 65″ x 90″ flimsy. A great size for a twin bed and there is fun to be had in the quilting! After having ten days of sewing I really enjoyed getting back to my Bernina and piecing this beast. I used my Sewline gluepen rather than pins and the points are perfect. I highly recommend it, although I’d be interested to hear if anyone has had trouble with it gumming up their machine (no problems here so far). As always I used Aurifil thread, 2000 in 50wt which is one of my two favourites for piecing (it’s a golden cream and disappears quite well. My other favourite for piecing is 2605 in 50wt which is a grey and good for darker colours). With the mix of organic cottons, art gallery fabrics, linen blends, quilting cottons and Aurifil thread this baby feels like silk. Some seriously good texture in there!
Unfortunately my iron (I only bought it a month ago!!!) died just as I finished sewing the rows so you may notice some wrinkles. And when I say died I mean I walked away and came back to find it sitting in a puddle and then felt the current in my arm when I touched it. So yeah, that’s it for my Philips 2860 (I had the same model previously and it last about 18 months, even surviving multiple drops onto the tiles). Tomorrow I will send the husband out to try and get a refund or swap without the receipt (I’m quite certain I didn’t keep it). That will be an interesting exercise I’m sure!
It’s even bright in the shade at 8am in Nouméa!
I’m calling this a finish as I only planned to get the top pieced at this stage It feels like a finish! I’m linking up to TGIFF over at Missy Mac Creations this week.
Phew! That’s a mouthful but I really do have an image of a kind of colour-clever cascading tetris for this twin quilt. But before we start on the WIP I must apologise for the silence. I’m unwell (sinus infection) and am really struggling with fatigue and just haven’t had it in me to blog. Keeping everyone fed and clothed and food at the ready has been enough for the last week. But before the sickness I was in Australia test driving long arm quilting machines and it was so wonderful and exciting and fantastic and great and… Well, you get the idea But I’ll save all that for a post of it’s own!
Months ago I pulled out fabric to make a winter quilt for both of my sons. Mr 5 has a light-weight quilt that is big enough to sleep under but doesn’t drape over the sides of the mattress at all. Combine that with the big move back to Australia at the end of this year where we will be experiencing four seasons and I definitely NEED to make winter quilts for at least two of my three babies! (Miss 3′s princess quilts has a flannel back and wool wadding, the boys currently have cotton and bamboo).
Adding in some low value prints
The thing I love about quilty blogs is the process, seeing how other people work and taking some of their methods and trying them out myself. It is slightly ironic then that I often find myself hesitant to share a quilt in the earliest stages of progress. I tend to have a very clear image in my head of what the finished quilt will look like but I worry that people won’t get my vision and will preemptively judge a quilt. So what am I saying? Trust me, this quilt is gonna be fab! (From lack of self confidence to in your face in two seconds folks, that’s me!)
Sewing the rows – the cascade affect taking shape
So whilst I’m here to show you my current work in progress I guess I’m also talking about self confidence. Mine in particular. A few months back I was interviewed by Kathreen Ricketson who was travelling Australia with her family. Two days after I sent off my finished interview and photos, Kathreen and her husband tragically passed away. The news was gut wrenching, completely unbelievable. Not only do online connections make people seem more real and close, but I’d only just been corresponding with Kathreen. Like many in the craft world I was swept up in the outpouring of grief for Kathreen and her family. It isn’t my place to tell her story, we weren’t close friends, but she did do something really important for me. She made me face the world and put into words what my hopes and dreams are. I had thought that the article wouldn’t go ahead and to be brutally honest I thought it would be rude of me to ask the magazine if they were going to run the story. So it was a big surprise to hear that the article has been published in the current issue of Quilter’s Companion, an Australian quilting magazine. I haven’t seen the article yet but I did see an image (below) by Siobhan of Beaspoke Quilts on instagram this morning. That’s my mini quilt there! So big thanks to Kathreen for making me step up and share my dreams with the world. After I’d typed it up for Kathreen it was much easier to share it here, and now I’m at the point where I’m just about to invest in a long arm machine and start my quilting business in earnest next year!
Image with permission from Beaspoke Quilts
So what’s the moral of the story? Be brave. Voice your dreams and pursue them relentlessly. Accept that good things happen in time. Cherish every moment.
That’s where I am right now. Have you got a dream that you don’t have the confidence to share? I encourage you to shout it from the rooftops! Write it down, tell a friend, mention it over a cup of tea. I’m finding that everyone I tell only has positive and encouraging words and that just helps me on my way
I’m linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
I’m a little late linking up with Sunday Stash this week, but I really wanted to because this coming Sunday I am hosting Sunday Stash I hope some of you pop back to link up. Sunday Stash is most often about fabric, sharing your latest fabric purchases. However, it can also be about your favourite fabrics in your stash, or those special gifted or thrifted fabrics, you can also share other special stash items such as books or notions, it’s all about sharing
My stash is out of control at the moment and I’m on a buying ban (although I need to break that to buy some more wadding, that doesn’t count, right?) except for my monthly subscription to Pink Castle’s Stash Club. I’ve spoken about how much I love their monthly packages and this is why:
I almost never buy brown prints. I’m not a brown girl, I can’t wear brown clothing, I rarely use brown in my sewing. But it does have a place and this bundle is gorgeous. Big win for me.
I also like buying bundles that someone else has put together, I’ve bought lovely blogger bundles from The Fat Quarter Shop, Pink Castle Fabrics, Pink Chalk Fabrics, scrap packs from Hawthorne Threads and bundles from The Intrepid Thread. I never stick to the original bundle. I find it is a great starting point or sometimes I completely break it up and don’t use any of the prints together.
I love reading the art of choosing series by Jeni over at In Color Order. I try not to read it when I’m selecting fabrics because I find it slows me down, makes me question everything and invariably I cannot finalise a selection of fabrics for a project. I do go back to it at regular intervals and read it, it has been really helpful for me in improving my ability to put together a nice array of fabrics. On the off chance you haven’t seen it you should definitely pop over.
These fabrics started out as a bundle from Pink Castle. I removed a few prints, added some yellow and some blue. Then added some more pints and a few blenders as well as a couple of solids.
I played around a bit more. Not trying to match the blues to each other, but checking to see if they work with each of the pinks and yellows.
Whilst I thought I’d come up with something I liked I pulled some purples just to have another option and for comparison.
At this stage I think I’m happy with my selection. However I have a few more steps that I go through before finalising my selection. Firstly I take my glasses off and see what the blur of colours looks like. Then I photograph it and see if I like it in the more abstract mode on the computer. If I’m still happy with it I walk away for half an hour and come back with fresh eyes. I already have a design in mind for this quilt, a baby girl quilt to offset the baby boy quilt top I finished over the weekend.
I’m always playing at putting together fabrics for quilts. In fact I would say for every quilt I make I would put together 10 bundles that I think would work as a quilt. This was my floor for a few days last week.
I ended up packing it all away but have kept three of these bundled, ready to go. I really want to work with the prints below but there is something not quite right about it. I haven’t been able to figure it out, so instead of make a quilt I don’t love, I’m sitting it aside for now.
I am fairly certain I will turn the below prints into a twin quilt for a teenage girl (not that I know one, that’s just what I’m imagining LOL) but again, I wasn’t 100% certain on the fabric selection, so I have set it aside.
When I was pulling all of these fabrics and putting together gorgeous girly hues I was actually meant to be pulling fabrics for a baby boy quilt for someone super special. Just to prove to myself that I could put together some fun boy prints I came up with these.
I went with the middle of the three options and came up with this quilt top. The blocks are 6″ finished but they were a bit random, I fussy cut each of the robots individually and added the main prints. I’m planning to do a heap of FMQ in the white sashing, I hope it comes together, right now it looks a little blah which is disheartening because it is for someone super special to me. But I had fun pulling the fabrics and that’s what it’s all about right, enjoying the process and creating something useful and hopefully beautiful.
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Sorry for the poor lighting, we’re on pre-alert for a cyclone and the weather is windy,
grey and raining. Not great for quilt photos! |
Do you have any tips for fabric selection? Do you have a process you go through when coming up with the prints for your next quilt? Do you have any tips on how best to build your stash? I’m rather tardily linking up to Sunday Stash. Please feel free to pop back later in the week and link up when I’m hosting
I’m very tardily linking up to Sunday Stash over at Finding Fifth
