#secretsewingproject ...

I've been dropping hints all over the place for the last couple of weeks about an exciting project I have been working on. Today, all can be revealed! Back in the summer, when I was laying about in the hammock, I got an email from Celia wondering if I'd like to make some things with a fabric collection she was putting together. My reply was immediate - I would LOVE to. How could I possibly turn down such an offer?! I have been a huge fan of Celia's designs and have cheekily framed a few of her cards to turn them into wall art in both my bedroom and kitchen.

A few weeks later, I received a very tempting parcel that was ripped open in a very exciting manner.

The fabric that it revealed set my heart aflutter. I literally couldn't wait to get stuck in.

Celia said I could do whatever I wanted with them and so I decided that I'd add some other fabrics to show them off. I've been wanting to use some Liberty tana lawn for a while and thought that the small flowery designs would compliment Celia's fabrics well. I also added some stronger greys to frame some of the blocks. With rotary cutter in hand, I was soon on my way to chopping up and recreating my own twist on things.  I emailed Celia just to say that I hoped she wouldn't be too horrified that I was having a whale of a time cutting her gorgeous fabric up!

First up (naturally!) was a cushion. The heart design was crying out for a log cabin block! And my knitting chair in the conservatory was crying out for a replacement for the rather dog-eared wooly number that has adorned it for the last five years.

I love the bold splash of red it has given that corner and so got cracking on making something for my kitchen too. Next up was a table runner. It's really tricky to photograph things on my kitchen table as the maple wood always makes everything very yellow-y. The runner is also quite long so it was hard to get a good picture.

I've decided to leave it until next month to use it on the table as it has quite a *whispers* festive feel to it. 

I have used all my scraps up by finally making a couple of little coaster sets too. One for me, and one can be found in my Etsy shop.

You can find Celia's Spoonflower shop here. I am very tempted by the Sea Hearts!

And now for the good part! 

With the remaining fabric I made a further two cushions; one is on its way to Celia to say thank you for letting me play with your fabrics, and the second is up for grabs as a giveaway.

Only the cushion cover is included, and it measures 45cm x 45cm. As with all my cushions, it is machine-pieced and -quilted and hand-finished. 

All you have to do is leave me a comment here to be in with a chance to win. For a second entry, tweet me - I'm @ttcdowling  

The giveaway will close next Friday 11 October and I will draw a winner on Saturday 12 October.

*edited to add: please try to leave an email address for me to contact you to enter the giveaway (noreplyblogger isn't very helpful!)

Nothing if not predictable ...

It was always on the cards that there would be a cushion to sit atop my new quilt. It is the best way to use up the scraps from a bigger project and I wanted to eek out the Flea Market Fancy love as much as possible.

I decided on making the back-to-front version of the quilt block by using the plain white as the flower.

It gave me lots of scope to keep playing with my perle threads for the hand-quilting. There is something extraordinarily satisfying about a simple running stitch, both in terms of actually doing it and the finished result.

So my bed now has a summer look, and one that I am extremely happy with.  Although with this wonderful warm spell, the quilt is being thrown off with abandon!

Learning curves …

When I posted about a quilt for spring, Sue commented that there perhaps ought to be one for summer and then autumn. I'm thinking that my latest quilt ticks the box for summer. Laid out, it is a field of flowers.

This is probably my most ambitious quilt to date, both in terms of size (it is a whopping 80" square) and in technique. Way back when, my to do list looked like this:

In between other projects, a sewing machine service that kept me and my trusty machine apart for a total of four weeks and a myriad of other excuses, I finally sussed it out.

I have used my favourite fabric collection EVER - Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt and I ordered the fat quarter collection from Fabricworm as soon as the legacy reprint collection was released, far too impatient to wait for its UK debut. I had collected pieces of the original collection over the years and have incorporated a few of them into the quilt as well as used one of them for the binding.

I felt reluctant to drag this quilt through my machine to quilt it and am so glad I opted to hand-quilt, using my perle threads, around each flower. I love the way it highlights the negative space in between.

If I could ever pick my top fabric, I think it would have to be this bouquet print in this aqua colour way. To me, it is perfect and I only wish I had more.

The finishing touch was a more elaborate than usual label to which I added a tiny bit of the selvedge plus a scrap to back the whole thing.

This quilt is now on my bed, having relegated my ripple crochet blanket to its summer home, and is adding another welcome splash of colour to my predominantly white bedroom. As ever, I can feel some pillows coming on … that's if I can drag myself out of the garden and back into my sewing room.

Interpretation ...

I've loved having the opportunity lately of making some custom homewares for the customers in my Etsy shop. My love of colour is well documented here on this blog but it is wonderful to be able to interpret what other people might like with a mere suggestion of an idea. This pink and grey combination is another detour from my usual colour pairings but inspiring to play with.

From the seemingly limitless contents of my fabric stash, I can put together almost all possibilities of palettes, apart from, perhaps, black!

My brain has been nicely taxed too in making things I've never made before and I'm thinking that I might have to make one of these double oven gloves for myself too. They have been much admired by my craft club ladies so perhaps I can give them a lesson and make my own pair (or is it one?).

The perspex template I have been using for my current quilting project was perfect for rounding off the corners and I am now a dab hand at cutting curves with my tiny 28mm rotary cutter.

These Clover wonder clips were another useful bit of kit in finishing off the hand-sewing on the binding too.

This is the first set (one??!!) I made from the leftover scraps from the Spring Quilt I made last month and below is the complete order for the grey and pink collection, which includes placemats and napkins to co-ordinate.

I'm thinking I might make a couple more to add to the stock in my shop - what do you think? Or maybe use these as ideas for custom orders ... I'll have a think while I'm finishing up on my quilt top today.

A quilt for spring ...

It may have been quiet over here for a while but that's not to say I've been not doing anything. It seems to make perfect sense that while the so-called start of spring was greyer than grey, my sewing room was reflecting the true colours of March and then through into April. I've been working on a custom quilt using a colour palette that was far removed from my usual choices and I've loved every cut, stitch and placement.

I love interpreting what people might like - it takes me right back to my work in The Time Before Children when I was given a design brief and then, more or less, free rein to create.

This quilt has all the colours of spring that I can find by stepping out just a little way from either my front or back door, albeit a little later this year than most.

I love close, straight line quilting almost as much as I love muscari.

I'm hoping this quilt is just right for snuggling under while this wind blows wildly today.

I've added it to my commissions page if you'd like to see it in its entirity.

New year, new project...

Things are on the go-slow here still as No2 is now off on study leave as he has a couple of exams this week and I can never get back to normal until the school year is under way good and proper.

Fed up with nagging him to revise, I have found myself joining in with an informal quilt-a-long over on Instagram that Katy blogged about here and I am blaming that Peppermint Patcher for giving me the final push! I've been long collecting ideas on Pinterest for making a scrappy quilt and this one fits the bill perfectly.

My worktable had accumulated a sprawling pile of fabrics that were the leftovers from the last few projects I've been working on so I made a start by cutting a 2½" strip from each of them before I put them away.

I have to confess, it's addictive. My only rule is that I try not to duplicate a fabric for each strip, so that's 216 different fabrics required. Blushing, I am going to confess that my fabric stash will allow me to achieve this! A lot of it is scrap though ; )

I'd forgotten how satisfying the image above is to me. A pile of potential fabric goodness.

Six blocks done, a sixth of the way through, and a snapshot of my fabric collection. It feels oddly liberating to be making something with no agenda and just being able to trust my instinct.

A quilt for No2...

I made my twentieth quilt! Yes, a score of quilts now under my belt in the last four years, something that when I actually counted up, I couldn't quite believe.

So it seems rather apt, that after all that amount of practice, I have finally made one for No2. Fortunately, he's not the nagging type or the sort that begs for my handmade creations, so I'm trying not to feel any guilt at all that he has only just got his very own heirloom.

It began life back at the beginning of July with the intention of making it his 16th birthday present (which was at the end of August) but the crafting disaster of 2012 put it on the back burner and I had to confess that it wouldn't be ready and wrapped for the big day. The design is something that I had seen somewhere ages ago but stupidly not pinned and so unfortunately I cannot link back to. I used this tutorial for making the half square triangles from a layer cake (10" squares) and some deliciously dark charcoal cotton. Needing more fabric, I then picked some goodies from The Village Haberdashery to make up the final amount needed. 

I whiled away the afternoons more recently, hand-quilting and had forgotten how much I love doing this as the last few quilts I have made have been machine-quilted. {Confession: I did start machine-quilting this but it went horribly wrong due to some of the seams being on the bias because of the construction method ... cue some swearing and another playdate with the seam ripper}

On the back, I used one of the extra wide quilt backing fabrics from M is for Make. I'm not overly keen on it as I think the quality of the fabric isn't up to much and seemed a little slippery which made for plenty of puckers and other minor unsightly bits.

Yesterday's sunshine meant that I had to remove it from the shoulders of its new owner and take some quick pics of it in the garden. You can see from the creases that within just 24 hours it has been well used! 

As ever, there are plans afoot for the next quilt. One that I have been itching to make a start on for a-g-e-s but will have to wait a while before I dare master the curved seam.  I have the pattern, the fabric, the special foot for my machine and the perspex template but am lacking the nerve to give it a go. A New Year's resolution, perhaps?

Brightening up my day...

Are you as bored of the grey as I am?

Shall I share with you what is brightening my day? In spite of it now being tucked away in my spare bedroom...

It began life way back in April with the making of my first block and had me all pleased with myself at the precision I had achieved. Only another 48 blocks to go then...

I showed a sneak peak back here when I was interrupted due to running out of fabric.


I had already found some vintage-like fabric in Ikea that I knew would be great on the back.

Then there was mention of my sore arms here, when I was about to machine-quilt it. There was also a fair bit of unpicking to be done because of some unwelcome puckering. Bah!

I used some brightly coloured voile from my stash for the binding (always one of my favourite bits of quilt-making, choosing the binding).

In an unexpected dry spell, I even managed to lay it out on the deck to get the, ahem, full-frontal shot.

May I present the making of My First Queen Size Quilt:

I'll be making a couple of pillow cases with the scrap and then I will do the full reveal in situ.  If these grey skies persist, that will happen some time soon because if they have brought anything positive at all, it is my sewing mojo firmly back in charge.

Right now...

• I am enjoying this tiny bit of sunshine we have had in the last couple of days and the way it make the colour of the flowers in the garden more intense.

• I am making room in my day for a little meditative knitting and my new shawl is coming on very nicely.

• I am reading this, as recommended by Nancy, and am loving it already and I'm only a couple of chapters in. It fits in beautifully with Sue's post about the very same subject.

• I am embracing new colours on my feet.

• I am machine-quilting my first queen-sized quilt. My arms are killing me.

• I am rewarding myself with jugfuls of daisies that have mysteriously appeared all over my front garden. Thank you Mother Nature.