Posting A Very Special Package

Yesterday I ventured to the Post Office in Hoboken - it was my first visit since I've lived here and I was posting a very special package to my Mum - my Dad's Memory Quilt.

I spent ages wrapping the quilt

and then wrapping the postage box in beautiful Martha Stewart Xmas postal paper

but the guy in the Post Office didn't like the way I'd wrapped it - he cut off my string, told me my tape (which I had carefully placed over every seam on the parcel) wasn't good enough and then he covered pretty much the whole box in white, red and blue United States Postal Service tape.  Next he added a smattering of stickers and stamps and then an enormous customs form - pretty much the size of half the box.

I'm so glad I took these photos so my Mum can see just how I'd intended her pressie to look when she received it because I can assure you it no longer resembles this in any way - but I guess if it's going to arrive safely and in one piece I shouldn't complain!

I understand it'll take around 10 business days to get to her so I'm holding my breath until she's got it and it's under her tree waiting for Christmas Day.

Today is Thanksgiving and, although we're not American, we are, of course, celebrating.  Flicky has gone over to Macy's to watch the Thanksgiving Parade with our house guest, Claire, and I've been cooking Cauliflower Cheese and Banoffee Pie to take over to Thanksgiving Dinner at Ivete's (Rose Smoke) later this afternoon.

and

Tatty, being an all American puppy has asked me to pass on a very special message to you all :)

Not So Finished Edges, Yet!

Next week I'm doing a 2 part course at my LQS in Manhattan with the wonder teacher and quilter Christine Janove.

FINISHED EDGES
Concentrate on the fundamentals of how to make & attach straight grain & bias binding. 
Practice is done on small quilts or place mats that you bring to class. 
However, the edges of your quilt can be finished in more ways than just these two. 
There will be discussion & demos of facing, mock binding & more. 
Learn which to use for the best results.

So the class supply list arrived and I need to take along 4 quilted pieces approx 14" x 18" that can become place mats or muslin samples. I didn't need telling twice, I spent all day Saturday busy at the cutting mat and machine and here's the results.

Cut strips and a finished quilt top

I raided my scraps bag and used all the same fabrics that I used for my Juicebox Sofa Quilt which lives in my lounge.
I figured that if the quilt looks good in here then the place mats should look the same way.

I used the same fabrics in each place mat but in different colour/print order each time.
All 4 place mats are backed with Dear Stella - Doodle Paisley - Grey.

So they're all ready now for my class and I'll be binding them in a very dark midnight blue solid.

I'll share more photos with you when they're finished.

Related Posts:
It's Here - It's Available !!!

Is It Possible To Crochet With No Hook On Your Hook?

It's been a good week, lots achieved and a particular highlight has been testing the paper pieced butterfly for Juliet of Tartankiwi and judging by the fantastic response I've had, I think you all love it too!

I've had a big finish as well - My Dad's Memory Quilt is now complete and will very shortly be winging its way across the Atlantic to my Mum.  For now I still can't share photos with you here - I promise I'll do that right after Christmas but you can take a look at it on my Facebook page

There was a wonderful moment this morning when I was going through posts on all the blogs that I follow and started reading a post on The Lazy Quilter that talked about Miss Chrissie and Miss Sarah.  It took me a moment to realise the post was about me and my good friend, Sarah of Quilt Candy as we have become the first followers on Erin's great blog.  Erin lives in Brisbane, Australia, and has been blogging since August but has only just discovered how to add the 'followers' button to the side of her blog, which I'm very glad to know as I couldn't understand for the life of me why no-one else was following her.  Anyway, Erin has a really great voice, funny and quirky, and deserves a few more followers if you'd like to pop over and visit her.

Another great new blog that I've come across in the last week or so is I Taught Myself Patchwork which is brilliantly and humorously written by F (Fleur Bleue), an English quilter now living in rural France and sharing her experiences with us.  I've laughed out loud many times reading her posts and that, for me, is as good a reason as any to keep going back for more. 

I've started crocheting a throw this week using the acrylic/mohair wool I brought back from Rhinebeck in October.  Initially it was going to be a keeper but I've had an idea of someone to give it to and I think they'll appreciate it more than me so we'll see if I think it's worthy of being given away once I finish it.  Another reason to give it away is that Tatty is totally obsessed with it - or so I thought, but turns out it's my bamboo crochet hook that's the real object of her desire.  Tatty had her friend Abi around for a doggie playdate on Thursday afternoon and while I was busy chatting with Abi's mum the inevitable finally happened - has anyone out there had any success crocheting with a hookless crochet hook?  I switched to one of my metal hooks, which was of no interest to Tatty whatsoever but I had to go back to using another bamboo hook (I have a whole mountain of crochet hooks!) as it's so much nicer once it warms to your fingers and takes on the oils from your skin - after a few uses it just glides through the wool.

This morning Tatty and I went for our daily constitutional down to the Colgate Clock looking out to the Statue of Liberty.  It was such a beautiful morning, once you've layered up and you're wearing your ear muffs, hat, scarf, gloves and full length, down filled North Face coat, so I snapped a few photos.

Top left - the Colgate Clock - they're busy replacing all the land that was washed away during Sandy, you can see Ellis Island and Liberty in the background.   Top right - that's my husband Simon's office on the river front and then I've taken the bottom photo from outside his building - that's the Jersey City to Manhattan ferry with 1WTC (previously known as the Freedom Tower) in the background and you can just about see the Empire State Building behind the ferry.

 Top right - I love this building, the Jersey City Powerhouse.  Left - Newport Town Square 9-11 Memorial looking through to where the Twin Towers stood.  Bottom right - I snapped this photo of the ground floor walls of my apartment building being dried out and repaired  after Sandy.  Oh yes, and that's Tatty sitting waiting patiently in her pram!

Well that rounds up my week and it's been such a good one.  I hope you've had a good week too :)

Paper Piecing A Butterfly

A few weeks ago Juliet from The Tartankiwi posted about a paper pieced Butterfly Block that she'd designed and she asked for volunteers to test her pattern.  Here's a link to her original post and when you see her block you'll completely understand why I was straight in there putting my name forward as a tester!

I'm thrilled that she chose me as one of her testers and when she sent me the pattern earlier this week I couldn't wait to get started so here it is:

Just to tease you - here's the front page of the pattern ;)

Choosing the fabrics.  Trialling fabrics in their relative placements (left) and lining them for overall value (right) 

My colour inspiration came from a Kaffe Fassett print that I bought at Liberty, London on my trip back to England in July (you can check out my post about my visit here).  I've decided I'll incorporate the butterfly into the front of a cushion cover, framing it with the Kaffe Fassett and finishing with piping in the Kona Grass Green.

My chosen fabrics for the project are:

Kaffe Fassett - Shirt Stripes GP51 Red

Kona Cotton Solids in

Carnation/Orange/Amethyst/Magenta/Grass Green

Michael Miller Solids in

Clementine/Lipstick

Bella Solid Moda - Pink

First pieces underway

I got so involved in piecing the butterfly that I completely forgot to take any more photos until I was finished!

So tell me, what do you think of this beauty?

Trialling the butterfly against my chosen cushion and piping fabric

Not sure when I'll get round to making the cushion itself, there're a few more projects to work on first but I'll share my progress with you when it happens.

Nervous about trying paper piecing?  Don't be!  Just watch my favourite Paper Piecing Made Easy YouTube video by The Crafty Gemini.  I found her video when I first attempted paper piecing for my New York Beauty Bee Blocks and she really explains everything very simply.

If you don't already have one, I highly recommend you invest in an Add A Quarter ruler by CM Designs - it's the best tool out there for all your FPP work (affiliate link).



And while I was busy paper piecing Tatty was also busy taking a very well deserved nap.

Juliet's patterns are available now via her Etsy store and also her Payhip store.  

Disclaimer: I do not receive payment from Juliet @TheTartankiwi for testing her patterns, nor do I receive a commission on any patterns sold via her Etsy store or any other sales method.  This post is purely informational and of no direct benefit, monetary or otherwise, to me.

Here's a look back at the patterns I've previously tested for Juliet.

Click any of the images below to go through to my post about testing that particular pattern:

  
 

Clicking on an image will take you to a new page of crafty goodness :)

Disclosure: 

This post contains Amazon and Craftsy affiliate links for which I am paid commission on click-through purchases (at no additional cost to you). Otherwise, no payment or commission is received for click-throughs to shared links; the post is for informational purposes only and all opinions are my own. 

Copyright: 

Uncredited reproduction of all content, text and images on this site is prohibited. All content, text and images must be credited to Chris Dodsley @made by ChrissieD and include a link back to this site.

Follow

Linky Parties This post may be linked to some great Linky Parties, always a great source of inspiration too. If you click through to my 'Fave Linky Parties' page you can see where I like to share my work.

Starting The Week With A Big Goodbye

Yes this week is the last week on Plum & June's 'Let's Get Acquainted!' Blog Hop

The blog has been so much fun; Beth has done a marvellous job hosting the event and I think all of us that have participated have shared and learnt and grown in both our quilting and blogging over the 26 weeks.  I've made some great new blogging friends and one or two have also become firm friends now outside my blogging/quilting life so I've lots to thank Beth for.

To round up the series here's the final burst of blogs and tutorials for you to have a wander around:

Handling Shashiko Thread tutorial from Cynthia at A Quilter by Night

Phone Pillow tutorial and Tissue Cover tutorial from Diane at From Blank Pages

Party Monster T-Shirt tutorial  from Laura at Waffle Kisses
How To Share Photos From Flickr Onto Your Blog from Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts
Christmas Yo-yo tutorial from Lynne at Bouts Choisis
Lasagna Quilt tutorial from Stacey at The Tilted Quilt

Jaime at Stitches to Sprinkles

Allegory from {sew} Allegorical
Cindy at Quilt Doodle Doodles
Nat at Made in Home
Francine at Mocha Wild Child
Lyanna at Purple Panda Quilts


and finally a very big

thank you Beth 

from ChrissieD :)

Pressies From Seville

Look what arrived in my post yesterday ...

Fab pressies from my eldest son who is currently living in Seville, Spain.  They're for my birthday which was four weeks ago but he wasn't expecting the parcel to take quite as long as it has to get to the US.

There's a beautiful card, a notebook, a roll of blue ribbon and 3 gorgeous quilting weight fabrics.  A note in his card says that his Spanish girlfiriend added the fabrics (she knows I quilt) and he thought, well why not, but this got me very excited as my family haven't bought fabric for me before.

I'm wondering what to make using them and I'm thinking that the colours will go great in my bedroom so a cushion could be a good call, then again maybe I'd like a case for my crochet hooks or a travel wrap for my quilting tools?  

Decisions, decisions :)

What's For Breakfast? Mondrian and Ikat Of Course

Instead of eating breakfast this morning all I wanted to do was make my November Bee Blocks - remember I shared the fabric and instructions with you yesterday?

So that's exactly what I did and here's the results

the block on the left is 16.5" x 16.5" and the block on the right is 15.25" x 13.5"

In the end I changed my design for the right hand block so I could make a larger block and use more of the fabric I'd been sent.

While I was busy sewing, Simon picked up some pain au chocolat for us and Flicky's house guests - which were far more scrummy than the healthy breakfast option I'd have made for myself.  While all this was going on Tatty busily wrapped herself up in my Juicebox Sofa Quilt - I just love my dog xxx

Related Posts:

Ikat and Mondrian - My November Bee Block 

And you can click this link to see all of my NYC Mod Quilt Guild Bee Blocks and Challenge Blocks/Quilts.

 

 

Ikat and Mondrian - My November Bee Block

My NYC Mod November Bee Block fabric and instructions have arrived courtesy of Dorothy, our November Queen Bee.

What a package!

I've never worked with, or even seen, Ikat fabric before so that's something really new for me.  And then Dorothy's given us fab instructions to work along the lines of Piet Mondrian - well that set me off searching through photos I'd taken on one of my many trips to Tate Britain, London, knowing that I'd snapped a pic of one of his pieces there.

Piet Mondrian - Composition C (No.iii) with Red, Yellow and Blue 1935, Tate Britain, London, England

I've started having a think about how to put these blocks together and here's my favourite ideas so far.

I can feel another, busy, arty, sewing afternoon coming on :)

Related Posts:

What's For Breakfast? Mondrian and Ikat Of Course

What Makes A Century? ... You Do

Back To Some Serious Quilting

After all the exciting and scary stuff that's happened over the last week or so, yesterday I was glad to get back to my quilting 'To Do' list.  Admittedly I wasn't totally idle last week, taking the opportunity to hand bind several quilts but it was good to get the cutting mat out and be a bit more creative yesterday.

Siggy Block

First up I made a siggy block using a great tutorial by Rachel Griffith of ps i quilt.  It's part of a project that Liz of Dandelion Daydreams is putting together as a thank you to Beth at Plum & June for hosting the 'Let's Get Acquainted!' Blog Hop which is coming to an end next week.

Philip Jacobs for Rowan.  Westminster Fibers #PWPJ42 'Primula' and Kona 'Azure'

Kandinsky Challenge

Secondly, I set about my NYC Metro Mod Guild challenge to take along to our December meeting.  I posted about the challenge here a few weeks ago but just to recap we each took a square image cut from a Kandinsky painting - it's 1/30th of the painting.  We've been asked to reproduce the image to 6" on a 6.5" fabric square using any media - paint/paper/fabric/etc and it doesn't have to be washable.

The original image and instructions

On the left: Neocolour image on fabric square and on the right: Finished textile art square

 I created a background colour image on cotton fabric using Caran D'ache Neocolor II - water-soluble wax pastels, wet the colour through with a paintbrush and set it with a hairdryer.  Then I added some tissue and handmade papers, then a small amount of sheer and netted fabric and free motion stitched over these areas. 

Another job done and ready to take along to our next Guild meeting :)

Once the blocks are all pieced together at the Guild I'll see if I can share a photo of the finished art quilt with you. 

Bear's Paw Block

Finally, in December it's my turn to be Queen Bee for the NYC Metro Mod Bee so I wanted to trial my chosen Bear's Paw block.  There's a lot of history to the Bear's Paw block and rather than write it all again here anyone interested can read this Quilt Patterns Through Time piece on Womenfolk.com.  It's larger than the normal 12.5" block measuring up around 16" untrimmed and, although there's lots of pieces, it's very fast and easy to make using a chain piecing method.

Here's my finished block - my chosen fabrics are a print from Tula Pink's The Birds and The Bees called Swallow Skies in Storm and a solid Kona Cotton Sage. 

front and back views of my trial Bear's Paw block

Need to crack on now with writing up my instructions for making the block, cutting the fabric and packing it ready to post out to my December Bees!

And you can click this link to see all of my NYC Mod Quilt Guild Bee Blocks and Challenge Blocks/Quilts.