quilting for a cause...

every now and then a cause comes along that pulls at the heart strings.

this is one of those times.

alison of little island quilting wrote about her visit to a home where 90 mexican street children live and i couldn't help but want to be involved. it is impossible to help every cause that comes along but this was certainly one i could.

rather than repeating alison's post about what she is doing go here to read about it and here to read what you can do to help.

in short, all you need to do is make one 12 1/2" backed and quilted block and send to Alison. obviously you could make more...i certainly am going to try...but if we each make one imagine how many of those deprived children could have their very own bit of comfort. 

if you feel you can help, go to read more about it on alison's blog and either leave a comment with her or here with me to get the details of where to send your block/blocks/quilts to.

x x x

It's Brit Quilt Swap time...

I probably should have done this post yesterday to give those Brits amongst you that wanted a chance to sign up to do so (sorry, sign up closed today).

I'm excited to hear who I'm going to be sewing for and see what amazing piece (no pressure there!) my secret partner comes up with for me.

Here's the mosaic I constructed to give my partner a feel for my likes at the mo but please head here for all the links to these stunning pieces as I forgot to save them to post here.

Other participants have posted some fantastic treasuries and it's going to be lots of fun following what everyone is up to.

Keep an eye on it all too here... 

If you read Lynne's blog then you will know all about Siblings Together, an inititative dedicated towards promoting positive contact between siblings separated by care. 

One such initiative that Siblings Together organise is a camp where the siblings get precious time to play and just be together.

After meeting one of the volunteers of the camps, Lynne came up with the brilliant idea of us as a community providing quilts for these kids - something special, something handmade just for them as a reminder away from camp of a special time they have shared with their siblings.

These are a couple of quilts I was thinking would work for the kids, but actually I'm thinking of starting from scratch so every stitch will have them in mind.

What do you reckon? Would you like to be involved? Have you time to make a quilt? or maybe you'd like to get involved in some other way by donating fabric that someone with a bit more time could make, or perhaps a few blocks that could be made up into a quilt with some from others.

Go check out Lynne's blog for further information and also the Flickr Group that Lynne has set up. 

It feels just great to give something back.

The girlie quilt is finished...

I seriously can't understand how Noah thinks this is girlie.

If you asked a girl what colours she wanted her quilt to be made in, I'm pretty sure grey, black and red would hardly be mentioned.

And there isn't a flower or heart in sight.

I lined up various fabrics for the binding - (btw that's the first time I have bound a quilt, so I have been doing a little celebratory dance having accomplished that) - and decided to use the black Kei dots to just be sure it was as far from girlie as possible.

Still too girlie.

My friend Tara put the nail on the head. Maybe quilts in general are more girlie, being snuggly and cosy and all that. I think she has a point.

I'm pretty sure that anything I did for Noah, even quilting his beloved Arsenal badge on it, would be too girlie for this boy wonder.

ps Noah...that poster so has to go...

The house renos have taken somewhat of a halt for the last few months. The initial steam ran out after we had the majority of the work done and we have just been enjoying what we've had done without the hassle of having people in, decisions to be made, worrying about what still needs to be done.

It's time now to get on with Round 2. Round 2 will certainly not be as disruptive as Round 1. No building work. No overly chatty decorators getting in my way. Round 2 is all about finishing touches.

First off it's a couple of wardrobes being fitted next week in our room and Samuel's. This will make for neater, tidier, cleaner rooms...and that's us too...not just Samuel.

So our clothes will have a home, shoes can be out of sight, computer desk taken downstairs - thanks to my lovely new baby, my Macbook. (who incidently has been my easiest baby yet - no sleepless nights, no dirty nappies - just pure pleasure.

With the end in sight in our bedroom, I am now ready to think about the final finishing touch of a throw on our bed.

I haven't been totally sure what kind of style quilt I wanted. The colourways was obvious, the fabric choices are all picked out, but what style? Nothing too fancy (you know me). Something to let the fabrics speak for themselves and something that fits in with the dramatic wallpaper, but is beautiful enough to stand out in its own right too.

I've recently joined a new Flickr Swap Group and found the inspiration I was after, right there...a brick patchwork.

There is so much inspiration to be had on Fickr and these 3 are just a few of the masses of amazing examples of Brick Patchwork.

This first is by a favourite blogger of mine, Red Pepper Quilts. Rita is one of the most prolific quilters I know and is a real inspiration of dedication and skill. I adore this quilt. Rita uses alot of the same fabrics that I am drawn to, so I think that adds to her appeal.

Aren't these pillows amazing? I have just discovered Megan from 100% Philistine Made and love all these pillows. I love the consistency of colour that Megan uses and this is something that I want to take from her for my throw.

This final example from Cinnamon Toast Design jumped right out at me. It's so calming. The colourways and fabric choices gel so well and I can imagine one never tiring of a quilt like this.

So, I know what I like and what I'm after. Here's hoping I can achieve it as, due to the size of it, this is going to be a rather substantial project.

I've been working on Ruby's quilt this weekend and would have finished it if the sun hadn't been shining quite so much (I know, such an inconvenience).

We had one of those weekends where everyone was just chilling and doing what they wanted. Our kids and the kids next door spent the weekend hopping from our garden to theirs and back again. We were never quite sure whether we had 6 kids about or none!

Because everyone was happily doing their own thing, I snuck some guiltless time in the attic and pieced together the quilt. I actually thought Ruby would be able to take it to bed last night but that didn't quite happen. It was one of those gorgeous evenings so all activities were temporarily halted when we decided to stroll up the road to our local Pizza Express.

A shared bottle of wine later and children not in bed at a decent hour stopped any further progress being made last night. Since I had nothing pressing to be done this morning I decided to finish what was almost completed so at least tonight Ruby would have it.

Translate that to mean a bribery to get one overtired little girl into bed at a reasonable hour, after her galavanting about far too late the night before.

I haven't had alot of time for playing in my studio recently and I'm not even sure I've felt the desire to do so either. My mojo has definitely left me stranded. Part of me has wanted to just escape to the studio, but a bigger part hasn't even had the energy to do that.

I do know however that if I can just get myself back into the swing of it I will feel a whole lot better about everything. So yesterday I forced myself to start cutting squares out of the fabrics Ruby had chosen for her quilt.

Isn't it amazing how with those first cuts a rush of excitement enters and you just want to do more? You start to see the design in your head. The fabrics start talking to you and leading you and you wonder why it took you so long in the first place.

This afternoon I'm going to start laying them out and see where we get to. It's going to be interesting to see how it all blends. The quilt is for Ruby so I did have to let her choose what she wanted. However, as we all know, kids choices aren't necessarily the right ones, so I have added a couple of my own and taken out a couple of hers. There were some that where non negotiable...from both of us.

By the time they are all together and I've added the necessary (for me) linen and embroidering, I'm hoping it will be pleasing to us both. Time will tell and I'll be sure to let you know how our journey goes...

As you have probably noticed I have enjoyed making this throw more than anything else that I have ever made. From the picking of the fabrics, to the quilting at the end and all the patchworking and embroidery imbetween.

Not one tiny bit was a chore. Maybe it was something to do with using my favourite fabrics. Maybe it was something to do with being a first, so no repeated processes again and again. Maybe it was the joy of doing something for us that will hopefully be treasured for years.

Maybe it is the beautiful feel of the cotton batting that I used (a big thank you to Manda and Kristy for guiding me to Doughty's). Honestly, words can not describe the feel of this quilt with this batting.

I'm so glad that I used up my precious Orla for the backing and thank you for all of you for advising me to do so. I had actually bought the fabric for a project for this room in mind, so I'm not sure why I dithered about it. I know it's on the back, which may seem a waste. But it makes it reversible doesn't it? You can probably tell I didn't quite have enough. Or maybe the linen trim at the top was always meant to be. I leave it to you to decide ;-)

I now fully understand why so many of you make quilts. And make some more. And some more after. I used to wonder how you can keep making them. And making them. But having had such a wonderful time making this I too am hooked and can't wait to cut up the fabric for the next one. Ruby has put her order in...I think there may be a bit of pink in that one...

Having said I was going to lay the quilt pieces down a while, we knew that wasn't going to last long. Not when it was the weekend and I had time to play. And sometimes you just have to let intuition take over. Heh, Kylie?!

I have to say I am very excited by this quilt. I just love the colour combination and love how the linen is working with it too.

I did however feel it needed 'lifting' with some embroidery on the linen. Sunday evening watching BAFTAs was perfect time to sit and hand sew with a big throw on my lap.

I'm still a little undecided about the backing fabric, but I am rather drawn to the Orla that I recently purchased. Not that I'm obsessed with Orla at the mo or anything. It's just that it will bring the whole scheme together...don't you think?

If one thing all this building work is allowing me, it's an excuse to make some accessories to go with all the rooms. We've lived with the revolting inherited decor for so long now, I'm just gagging to get going on making things. I'd avoided making much to fit in with the existing schemes. They obviously weren't staying, so it seemed a waste of time and fabric to make things to go with them.

Now it's all systems go! As you know I've been collecting fabrics for a while to use for these projects and last night I started playing with some of them, thinking of them for a throw for the living room. I am a little bit nervous, it is safe to say, that what is in my head may not quite come out right in a throw. I am fairly confident that the fabrics work well together. And I am even more confident that I like them. But will it have that snuggly wow factor that I want to achieve?

It does feel rather daunting to use such precious fabrics, only to muck it up. So having done a few strips last night, I think I'm going to take a back seat for a while. It's laying on my studio floor at the moment. I think I'll leave it there a while, walk past it every now and then, move it around a bit and take my time. The living room walls are still bare plaster, so there's really no rush.

As some of you know, on my lists of things to have a go at this year is quilting. And as per usual my actions are somewhat driven by an external drive.

Some very good friends have just had twin boys. This wonderful occasion was the driving force behind the start of my quilting journey.

I decided to go for a simple design to start with. Partly because I am a complete novice and partly because we are going to visit them for the first time tomorrow and I wanted to be able to take the quilts with us.

Whilst I'm very pleased with the way the fabrics have come together, I am less pleased with the feel of them. I probably should have asked you experts out there before this what you use as batting. Both Manda and Kristy suggested a wool batting.

I however didn't use a wool batting and not only that used a too heavy weight one. The result is that the quilts are a bit stiff. They haven't got the snuggle factor that I was hoping they would. I think I might have to suggest they are used as changing mats or playmats.

So what type of batting do you use ? If you use something that makes a soft and snugglable quilt I'd love to know. Particularly if you are in the UK, but would love to hear your suggestions anyway.

I'm delighted to have started my quilting journey and I'm certainly not put off. I have loads of plans, including the rather large one I have in mind for Ruby's bed and for our new lounge. but I definitely need to purchase some superior wadding before I do.