Sunday, March 18, 2012

Swoon - 1 Block Down, 8 To Go

Well after procrastinating for what seems like forever, I have finally cut and made my first Swoon block and am well on the way to finishing my second. The first block :

seemed to take forever while I puzzled over the directions but once I worked it out, it was easy peasy to put together. (I think sometimes it's better to sew WITHOUT the tv on in the background...). I rarely do this, but for this quilt I am using fabrics from the same line - Kate Spain's Terrain which I fell in love with and ordered about 12 different fabrics. I'm pairing each pattern with a complimentary solid and have decided to make some with the centrepiece patterned and some plain. I've had the fabric put aside for months - seriously, before Christmas - but kept putting off cutting into it. But as a complete aside, I decided to make a quilt for my SIL's birthday coming up later this month. She likes blues, pinks & purples, so I pulled out fabrics in those colours from my stash and started thinking about patterns etc.....and then realised that the fabrics I'd put aside for the Swoon quilt were in blues, pinks & purples (with some orange & green thrown in). So it seems to make perfect sense to make Swoon and give it away! Won't be ready in time for her birthday but I don't think she will mind.

In other sewing news, I made another baby quilt which didn't go quite as smoothly. I used this pattern from the Moda Bake Shop which was so easy but my machine must be due for a service as it kept skipping stitches when I came to the actual quilting. I had planned to quilt with straight lines but ended up FMQ as the 'skipping' was less obvious (but I still ended up unpicking and redoing sections). I realise that I didn't get a decent picture but I've used some Little Red Riding Hood fabric that I had put away. Ive decided that there is little point hanging on to treasured fabrics - it's bought to use and there's always something cute on the market! The FMQ was probably the best I've done so far as I made a concerted effort to keep it large and loose and not cross lines.



Backing from Ikea; they really do have some cute fabrics!

I will be dropping the Bernina in for a service on Monday, so I hopefully get it back by Easter for some serious Swooning.