Ruby stars in my eyes {part 1}

Reading all of the gorgeous Bloggers' Quilt Festival entries reminded me that it's been far too long since I made myself a nice big quilt!!  I've started plenty and made a few blocks of this and that,  but I haven't set out with the intention of cutting everything up front and machining like a mad woman.

Back in Feb I started some hourglass blocks using my Ruby stash.  I like them, but I haven't really been inspired to keep making more.

So instead I'm making Angela from Fussycut's Starry Eyed quilt.  Yesterday was a full day of cutting.  It dawned on me after far too long that I should probably replace the blade in my rotary cutter and boy did it make life easier!!  

The pattern is 2 different blocks.  It's the first time I've tried making wonky star blocks and they really aren't intuitive for me!  I love the scrappy look of this quilt.  I love the Ruby fabrics and colours.

For the first time I'm also using Kona Snow instead of white.  I've had some yardage sat in my stash for ages so it was time to use that too!

I'm off next week on holiday to Alaska {yay how exciting!!  I hope I get to see a moose!!} so it will be at at least a few weeks before I can get back to finish this one.

Swoon {not quite the finale}

I finally dragged my Swoon blocks back out determined to finish the top.  I was hoping some time away from them would mean I liked them a little better and I think for a while I did.

I don't know what it is about this quilt but I have struggled right from the word go.  Each time I work on it I'm totally fed up with it by the time I'm finished.  I struggled with the colours and I found piecing the blocks to be a real chore.   I wonder if it's the ginormous size of the blocks?

My task today was to add the sashing and join the blocks together, not really a big job but I found it tiresome all over again.  Maybe it's because I'm not really in love with it?

Each block is 24" and the whole quilt top is 80" square.  It was really tricky finding somewhere to photograph it so apologies for the wonky shot!  I think I'll have to get it longarm quilted as I can't bear the thought of how long it would take me.  You know I have to say looking at the photo of it now maybe I do like it after all?

Just so this post isn't all whinging here the cutest little bag I've made for my knitting!

The tutorial for these bags can be found here.

the honey cowl

My mum taught me and my brothers to knit when we were kids, but it never really clicked for me and the scarves I started probably didn't make it past 5 inches in length.  Last year I tried crochet and while I was happy with my calm cowl I found crochet a bit awkward and never really fell into the rhythm.  This year I thought I've give some grown up knitting a go.  For me grown up means sleek harmony wooden circular needles and gorgeous Madeline Tosh DK glazed pecan yarn.

I'd seen lots of beginners try the Honey Cowl as their first project so I jumped right in.

It's taken me 3 months to finish!  I have only been knitting in the evenings though and then I had a good burst at Cathy's fab sewing day last weekend (if you look carefully you'll spot me on the couch in my Tova  knitting away :)

After casting on the pattern instructions say "knit 4 rounds".  I thought this meant knit as a verb as in yes I am knitting a honey cowl so I started on alternating knit and purl/slip rounds straight off.  I didn't realise it meant "knit" as a stitch and that I should have done 4 rounds of only knit!  As a result my cowl doesn't curl up at the edges - although I don't really mind this.

There's loads of other little mistakes, I doubt I finished with the 220 stitches I cast on and there's plenty of times I would have purled two in a row instead of purl, slip - but I think the cowl is really forgiving and the mistakes aren't noticeable.  This was a perfect beginner project and I'd definitely recommend it.  You can find it on Ravelry here.

So you'd think I'd move onto another easy-ish project wouldn't you?  Maybe another cowl with some different stitches or some stripes.  But no…all of those amazingly gorgeous socks out there are just killing me and I am desperate to try some!  I have been preparing for over a month now…buying yarn, more circular needles, Wendy Johnson's from the toe up book and even an online Craftsy class…

After 2 afternoons this is what I have - the beginnings of a toe!  I've probably started it over 15-20 times including using bigger needles and yarn so I can try to figure out what's going on.  It's way harder than I thought it would be, but it's fun and I feel like I'm improving!

tova & tank - tastic

I have been collecting a little pile of fabrics for Wiksten Tovas and Tanks and finally had a day free for sewing.

This is my first Tova made from Sweetwater Reunion.  I wanted it to be a winter shirt so I made the sleeves full length.  I changed around the order of the instructions as I find set in sleeves a real pain in the butt.  Here is how it works best for me:

• sew the shoulder seams but do not sew the side seams yet
• sew the collar on first before adding the sleeves - I find less fabric bulk is easier to manage
• sew the sleeves in next - I find it much easier to ease them in with the bodice laid out flat rather than trying to set them in
• then sew the side seams and arm sleeve all in one go

Then I moved on to some more tanks…I've joined the pocket matching obsession :)

This one is Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush

And this one is Leah Duncan Maya - I'm loving this print at the moment!

I'm linking up with Kerry's Tova Sew-a-long and you can find loads more Wiksten goodness in the flickr group here.

A Walk in the Woods

I have been wanting to indulge in some of Aneela Hoey's gorgeous fabric for a while now and when friends had a beautiful little girl it was the perfect excuse!

The pattern is Kate's Geometric Quilt pattern that I also used here.  This pattern is easy, quick and fun to put together.  I machine quilted it with organic line quilting - what I consider the worlds easiest quilting!  For the backing I used the heavenly Little Red print in whisper.

I also got to use my new labels from Lilla Lotta.  Aren't they great!!

I love that the quilt is girly and pink but that the red, grey and blue lessens the sugariness.

All of the fabrics are from Aneela's Walk In The Woods collection - beautiful quality Japanese fabrics.

Camelot {block 2}

Over Easter I enjoyed some relaxing hand stitching and finished another Camelot block.  This is Block 2.

I was originally a little daunted by all those centre circles but they are actually very easy.  I spent more time pinning them than sewing them.  The newsprint on the right hand side needs a bit of adjustment I think as it's not sitting flat.

You can see my other Camelot posts here, the flickr group here and buy the Trish Harper pattern here.

Giveaway over at Sarah's

Sarah over at Kit-Bik Quilts is having a great giveaway for her 100th blog post!  Sarah made me this wonderful Liberty doll quilt.  Pop on over and check out the fabric goodness on her blog and enter the giveaway while you're there!  Congrats Sarah!