Tokyo Sunrise + Twilight Cushion [Zipper + Pointy Corner Removal Tutes]

My sofas have been bare of cushions for 5 years now.  That's really hard for me to admit.  I love a good cushion, I write tutes for cushions, and I used to have my own interior design company.

So how come I don't have cushions piled high on every sofa, chair and bed in my apartment?

Covering A Button - Step By Step Pics

This is my On The Bright Side quilt.

Nordic Wind Shawl

Hard to believe but it's almost ten months since my trip to Vancouver, BC, and what a busy trip it was - you can read all my posts here.   While there I visited the yarn store, Three Bags Full, and one of my purchases was five balls of  Istex Lettlopi from Iceland - it's an Aran/10 ply 100% wool.  

Yuma QAL - Quilting My Yuma

Welcome to the final week of the Yuma QAL, and it's about time I shared with you how I've quilted my Yuma quilt.

Let's start with a glimpse of my quilt back, and as you can see, my dogs love to fight on it.

Enough fluffiness, for now, let's get straight down to how I quilted it - here's an outline of my quilting design.

It's really incredibly simple - just 10 straight lines and 5 squares, I've drawn each line in a different colour and added arrows to show you the direction I quilted each line.  The main box in the diagram is the original quilt size given in the quilt pattern available free here @Gotham Quilts, and I've continued the lines and boxes out into the border I added.

I drew the lines onto the quilt sandwich using a heat erasing pen.



I quilted my Yuma myself on my Juki TL-2010Q sewing machine, using a 4.0 mm straight stitch and Aurifil 50/2 #2600-Dove thread.  I could have stitched in the ditch, but I didn't, I've actually sewn 1/8" away from the ditch always in the neutrals and never in the colour fabrics.



A few close-ups pics of the quilted front:

and then the quilted back:

What is it with dogs and quilts?!!!

And finally, the binding is machine sewn to the quilt front then hand sewn to the back.

My intention one day is to hand quilt each of the coloured triangles - embroidery thread colour is yet to be decided, probably I'll do it all in a silver grey, but there's a slim possibility I'll do each colour row in a colour that matches the leader colour triangle for that particular row.  Right now my daughter, Flicky, is sleeping under the quilt, so I'm holding off on the hand quilting until September when she's back in St Andrews.

I did prise the quilt from Flicky for long enough to add a personal label, wash and dry the quilt and do its final photo shoot, I'll share those pics with you later in the week.

YUMA QAL POSTS & GIVEAWAY

 Here's a list of all my #YumaQuilt posts:

Monday: my fabric choice and giveaway

Tuesday: creating the HSTs and Pieced Triangles

Wednesday: Log Cabin blocks

Thursday: piecing and joining rows 

Friday: finished Yuma Quilt top with added borders

almost there! - Quilting My Yuma
and finally - Yuma QAL - A Finish

If you want to join in all you need to do is download the free Yuma Quilt pattern here and be sure to share your work on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc using the hashtag #yumaQAL.  Even if you're not making your own Yuma click through to the Instagram #YumaQAL and take a look at what everyone else is up to.

YUMA QAL SCHEDULE

Each week another blogger will be sharing their #YumaQAL experiences with you.

17 June - kick-off blog post on Gotham Quilts
week of 22 June - made by ChrissieD click here to find all my Yuma QAL posts
week of 29 June - Faith and Fabric
week of 6 July - Daydreams of Quilts
week of 13 July - Lisa in Port Hope
week of 20 July - Sunflower Quilting
week of 27 July - Roar Haus
week of 2 August - Gnome Angel
10 August - Life Under Quilts
12 August - closing blog post on Gotham Quilts and start of linky party
19 August - linky party winner(s) chosen

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

 

Disclaimer: Gotham Quilts supplied the fabrics used at a discount price to mbCD otherwise this post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

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Going To England For A Warm

How's the weather where you are?  They tell me the weather here it's about to warm up but I'm sick of waiting and I'm off to England for a warm - and that's not something you hear people say often!

Thought I share a handful of photos I've taken from my living room window over the last few months.

It's been cold and grey and ice flowed down the Hudson.

Sometimes the sun shone but it was bitterly cold...

that's -15C/5F and RealFeel -30C/-22F, brrrrrrrrrrrr

...and the ice on the Hudson continued to grow.

This is how things looked down at street level.

Pretty cold yeah?

I did enjoy this pop of colour as I crossed Target car park one morning on my way back from the dog groomer.

It was a painful walk over there when my eyes watered from the cold wind it turned to icicles on my eyelashes - but look at these freshly groomed cuties, well worth it :D

And this made me giggle just last Friday morning - thoughtful of them to dig those seats out but I'll pass on sitting in them.

Last week I ventured out to Lion Brand Yarn Studio on 15th Street, Manhattan (read more about the store here).

Pics of their latest store window display, I love how they change this and it's always something eye-catching and wonderful.

And the purpose of my visit to the store?

To purchase the yarnit ready for my trip back to England.

I forgot to take pics of the yarnit in use before I left but trust me it's AMAZING, I've no idea how I ever managed without it, even in the home, let alone how fantastic it'll be on the plane.  Take a look at their website for how it works, apols for not showing it off better here, but it's so worthy of a blog post mention I'm doing it anyway.

I fly in a few hours and I'm so excited to see Mum, Flicky and Joe on this trip - we're celebrating English Mother's Day and Mum's 80th birthday while I'm there and we've lots and lots planned.  I've got a few posts scheduled while I'm away so I won't be disappearing altogether.

Here's hoping for much, much warmer weather by the time I return.  See you in a few weeks :D

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

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

   

     

What Took You So Long?

A while ago I shared this crocheted blanket with you

during the making of which my pup Thatcher (Tatty to her friends) ate my bamboo crochet hooks several times

but I got there in the end and gifted the blanket to my eldest son

much to Tatty's disappointment.  

So just like any good puppy dog Mum I promised to make her her very own identical crochet blanket and set to it straight away almost finishing it in less than a week but didn't.  The blanket than sat in a knitting bag for the next year and the next year - yep that's right for just over two years - but this week I got it out and finished it.

 See it looks pretty much identical to that first blanket, exactly as promised.

In fact it looks so similar I'll forgive you for thinking I've just recycled old photos.

But there's been some changes around here over the last two years.  The eagle eyed might spot the cream fabric sofa is now cream leather and the back wall has turned a serious shade of aubergine (eggplant)

but the biggest change has to be that Tatty now has a Havanese puppy brother, Watson

who's lived with us for just over a year - proof if needed that this is indeed a different blanket to the first!

And just like the first blanket, Tatty (and Watson too) loves it, she only has one question for me 

"What Took You So Long?"!

Do you have an almost finished, promised to a loved one, project tucked away somewhere?

Share your stories in the comments and ease my guilt! :D

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