One-off custom quilt

One of the things I really enjoy about working with fabric is the ability to make gifts that are really personalised to the recipients.

My significant other (SO) is a keen online gamer and through that has made friends the world over. When he said a few months ago that he would like to send an Aussie care package to a couple of his gaming friends in the US and asked if I could do something special and unique in fabric as an extra item to include in the package I jumped at the chance.

I know that my SO was initially thinking that I might do something with an applique design using the recipients' gaming logo, and in all honesty it probably would have been a quicker project had I done so, but applique really isn't my thing. I almost certainly could have done the design component for what would have been a multi-piece applique, but I'm just not confident with the actual sewing part  - I can never seem to get the finish of an applique project just right no matter how hard I try. So for this project I just knew I had to do a paper-pieced design.

I'm not sure that my SO had a proper understanding of what I do as far as quilt design and construction before now so it was really nice to have him involved in the design process, seeing it come together and being so supportive and helpful as I worked on this one.

In the end the finished project turned out a bit bigger than either of us had initially thought at 30-inches square for the paper pieced logo panel plus a bit extra added all around, but I think it turned out to be a good size for either a lap quilt or a wall hanging (rod pocket added to back so it can be hung easily) and I'm really happy with the overall look of the finished piece. It's not identical to their logo, but I think its pretty close.

Paper-pieced quilted wall hanging/lap quilt
One-off custom pattern designed by me based on the Liberate Gaming logo 

I hope the recipients enjoy the Aussie package, including the quilt. I'm pretty sure the Tim Tams will be a hit and the Vegemite is sure to be an interesting experience!

Tim Tam assortment

Vegemite on toast
(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite)

Extras - Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

Originally intended to be part of the design invitational, this pattern didn't quite get finished in time. But its done now and published on fandominstitches.com so I can share it with you all. Yay!

A huge thank you to the wonderful Jo Minvielle who tested this pattern for me in record time.

Paper pieced Labyrinth Title - Designed by me, tested by Jo Minvielle.

I designed this paper-pieced pattern to complement the quilt layout presented in the Fandom in Stitches Goblin King, a Labyrinth-themed Quilt & Stitch along.

It is an absolute monster of a block, finishing at 60 inches long by almost 15 inches tall. The intention was to create a title block that you could put inside the outer border of the quilt, at either the top of the bottom of the original layout.

If you are planning on using this block in conjunction with the QAL layout, you might want to add extra sashing around it so the spacing between this block and the character blocks doesn't look too uneven. You will also need to adjust (increase) the length of the outer border strips for the finished quilt.

Download the pattern here if you want to give this pattern a go, and don't forget to share pics of your finished work. I love seeing how others interpret my designs - no two ever end up the same.

Don't forget also, that all the patterns from Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along are available over at fandominstitches.com.

Until next time.

K

Week 21 - Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

We're finally here! We've made it to the very centre of the Labyrinth and final week of official event patterns.

Of course the only way to finish off a 'Goblin King' event is to feature the Goblin King himself, Jareth, played in the movie by the late, great, David Bowie.

Week 19 - Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

The babe with the power!

Toby, taken from his bed by the Goblin King, is the reason for Sarah's whole journey through the Labyrinth. This week he's the feature character in the Fandom in Stitches Quilt and Stitch Along

But Toby is not the only thing going on this week! With only three more weeks of scheduled pattern releases there is so much happening it's hard to keep up.

Week 17 - Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

"Well, the only way out of here is to try one of these doors!"

"One of them leads to the castle at the end of the labyrinth, and the other one leads to.."

"Ba-baba-BOOM!"

"Certain DEATH!"

As you can see, this week's character as we travel ever closer to the end of the labyrinth to the is the enigmatic Four Guards.

Lest We Forget...

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Today, on ANZAC Day, I'm taking a moment to pause and recognise all those men and women who are currently serving in our armed forces and those that came before them. 

In honour of the day I've designed a paper-pieced pattern titled "ANZAC: Dawn Service". 

Week 16 - Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

What is the point of a Goblin King if there aren't goblins to rule over?

Until now we've only seen a couple of the goblins of the Labyrinth. We know they're hiding in there somewhere so this week its time to reveal some more.

Week 13 - Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

"I have sworn with my life's blood, none shall pass this way without my permission!" 

I'm not sure how I feel about Sir Didymus; on one hand he's adorable and heroic but on the other he's irritating as all heck! I guess the same could be said about most terriers I know.

Sir Didymus is of course this week's feature in the Fandom in Stitches Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along. He's also another of my very own embroidery designs.

As always there is a paper pieced or embroidery pattern to choose from. This week the paper pieced pattern was again designed by Angela Gross. Both patterns are available to download now from Fandom in Stitches.

The design on this week's embroidery pattern came together quite quickly, unfortunately I can't say the same for the actual stitching. They came together in the end, but it felt like it took forever to stitch my two samples of this design.

The mono version on lilac fabric turned out OK, although I made a tiny alteration to the design around his shoulder after stitching this piece.

Week 13: Sir Didymus - mono version
Embroidery pattern by me (stitched by me)
for the Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

I found that my colour version on white fabric did not have enough colour using just the outline. I ended up varying the stitches on some parts, using stem stitch and multiple rows of chain stitches to get some more definition and colour into the work.

Looking at him now as I'm writing this, I think I might put this piece back in the hoop and add more brown/orange to his tail and whiskers - the thread colour I used for those is just a bit too close to white for my liking.

Week 13: Sir Didymus - colour version
Embroidery pattern by me (stitched by me)
for the Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

We're getting closer and closer to the end of this project now. I'll be sad to see the end of it because I've been having so much fun over the last few months designing, stitching and writing. I'll have to start thinking abut what the next project might be.

Until next time.

K

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Just taking a little moment to share some St Patrick's Day cheer.

Wishing you a rainbow

For sunlight after showers—

Miles and miles of Irish smiles

For golden happy hours—

Shamrocks at your doorway

For luck and laughter too,

And a host of friends that never ends

Each day your whole life through!

Lucky Shamrock - Pattern by Trillium Design, sewn by me
Free pattern download from Craftsy

Happy Little Mushrooms

Its been a pretty rough few weeks at work.  I've been getting frustrated, very negative and extra cynical about things that are outside of my control. I found myself frequently referring to myself and my colleagues as "Happy Little Mushrooms". (For those that might not be familiar with the phrase, its a reference to the preferred growing conditions for many mushroom species - kept mostly in the dark and heavily fed/fertilised with manure!)

All that negativity was not good for my well-being; it was not good for the people around me and it was really not very professional (especially given my tendency to blurt out exactly what I'm thinking when I let my emotions get the better of me - that's going to get me into big trouble one day!). I really needed to find a way to turn that negativity around and get into a better head space.

Creating makes me happy so what better way to turn it around than to channel all that negative energy into something creative?

And so the "Happy Little Mushrooms" pattern came into being. These little paper-picked guys were originally based on some clip art I came across, but remind me very much of the mushrooms in Nintendo's Mario games.

I got a mini production line happening and made 6 of these paper-picked little mushrooms over the past week. I then turned them into coasters/ mug rugs by adding 3/4 inch sashing strips of background fabric all around, quilting, and then machine binding them with a mitred and flanged machine binding (from a tutorial I found over at Karens Quilts, Crows and Cardinals).

It was a good opportunity to practice my FMQ and binding skills - I get tons of practice paper-piecing blocks but I still haven't finished many of my WIPs so the quilting and binding is a part of the process I'm still working on getting right every time I attempt it.

Six happy little mushrooms

My Happy Little Mushrooms have now been shared among my immediate work colleagues (who have also been going through the same frustrations). Between us, the finished works are sitting on desks, pinned up on partitions and whiteboards, or used as mug rugs. They're so bright and cheerful that just seeing them around the office makes me happy!

About the pattern

You can download the Happy Little Mushrooms Pattern here,

The pattern is designed for paper-piecing and finishes at 5 inches square (5.5 inches unfinished).

If, like me, you are planning on using the blocks on their own for mug rugs or similar I suggest adding a 1/2 to 1-inch wide sashing strip of background fabric on all four sides before quilting, or the edges of the mushroom might get lost in the binding. This will obviously make your finished block larger than 5 inches (size will depend on the width of sashing you choose) so make sure you take that into account when you're planning your project.

I hope you enjoy it. And don't forget to share pics or let me know how you went if you try making these happy little guys.

K

Week 6 - Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

There's plenty of Goblins in the Labyrinth, so it's only right that they are represented in the Quilt and Stitch Along.

This week's patterns are both by Michelle Tuller and are the second set of Goblin patterns to be included.

As usual there is a paper pieced and an embroidery pattern to choose from, with both patterns available over at fandom in stitches.

I'm continuing with the embroidery  - you can see my versions of this week's patterns below.

Week 6: Goblin 2 colour version (stitched by me)
Embroidery pattern by Michelle Tuller
for the Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

Week 6: Goblin 2 - mono version (stitched by me)
Embroidery pattern by Michelle Tuller
for the Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

As promised, a wrap up of my progress with the patterns to date.

My progress: Weeks 1-6 of the Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along (mono embroidery version)

And the reason for the late posting today - I was hoping to have all 6 of the colour versions finished to show off. Goblin 1 (from week 2) is still not quite finished, so here's the 5 that are.

My progress: Weeks 1, 3, 4, 5 & 6 of the Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along (colour embroidery version)

More fun patterns coming next week :)

K

Week 5 - Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

How time is flying.. week 5 already!

And the character for this week in the Fandom in Stitches Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along is..... Wiseman and his hat!

As usual there's a paper-pieced and an embroidery block option for you to choose from, with both patterns available over on fandominstitches.com. 

I really struggled with choosing just one this week - I had signed up to test Mel Moore's embroidery design... but Daphne Seymour's paper pieced design is also fabulous - make sure you check it out over on fadominstitches. Sadly I can't justify making three Labyrinth quilts at the moment (I'm still struggling to justify making the two embroidered quilts that I've committed myself to!) so it will have to wait for some time in the future.

Anyway - here's my two versions of the block for this week - a colour version on white background and a mono with white stitching on lilac background. 

Week 5: Wiseman and his hat - colour version (stitched by me)
Embroidery pattern by Mel Moore
for the Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

Week 5: Wiseman and his hat - mono version (stitched by me)
Embroidery pattern by Mel Moore
for the Goblin King: Labyrinth Quilt and Stitch Along

I hope you're continuing to enjoy this event as much as I am. Next week will be week 6, about a third of the way through the event, so II'll try to put together a bit of a recap in addition to showcasing the patterns for the week.

Until then....

K

Create

I know it's already mid-March, but I haven't posted to the blog yet this year so this is my token New Years post.

If you've been following along my ramblings for a while you'll know that I have an aversion to new years resolutions. My theory is that if you want or need to make a change in your life you shouldn't wait for some arbitrary date; plan it and do it, .

So while I didn't make any new year resolutions, I have decided to take on a single word as my 'theme' for the year.  As you can probably tell from the title of this post and the image at the top , the word I have chosen is....

CREATE

The idea is that this single word will help to give a focus to my decision-making and actions for the year ahead, and it can be applied in all areas of my life whether that be at work, at home, with my family and friends, and of course in my crafty adventures. Hopefully all this creating will also feed into the blog a little bit too.

Speaking of crafty adventures... I've discovered (become a bit obsessed with) paper piecing as a sewing/quilting technique and have been going a bit nuts with it.

My sewing machine now has a nifty quilted cover with the word CREATE paper pieced into the front panel as a constant reminder of my theme word.

Create sewing machine cover

The paper piecing obsession has led to some really geeky fandom sewing over the last couple of months and even extended as far as starting to design my own patterns. So I'll leave you with a deluge of pics of paper pieced quilt blocks I've made so far.

My first ever completed paper pieced block - the TARDIS
I'm tempted to pull it apart to try and get that light sitting properly,
but on the other hand it serves as a reminder of how far I've come in such a short time

Darth Vader

Storm Trooper

R2-D2

BB8