Rainy Day Finish - Spectrum!

Tropical storm Andrea has made it impossible to take pictures outside today. But last night I finished sewing the binding onto what I'm now calling my Spectrum quilt.

I started Spectrum back in March when I was in DC for ten days. I took the leftovers of Paul's Rainbow Skittles quilt and just played around, ending up with a courthouse step layout.

Here it is, half way through quilting.

For some reason I decided it reminded me a bit of refracted light through a prism (from above I guess!). So I decided that it would be nice to quilt lines emanating from opposite corners, spreading out like rays.

You can see it better on the reverse!

You can also see that I have some dragging and puckers. The quilt isn't washed yet and I think they're all small enough so you won't see it once it has shrunk a little. But because I got a little bit of money for my birthday last month I treated myself to a walking foot and a quilting foot for my machine this week!! Yay! Hopefully, once I get the hang of using them my quilting will look much better.

Here's a fancy angle close-up of the quilting and the binding (it's slightly out of focus, it's not your eyes!). I used the Pac-Man fabric I bought for Paul to bind this quilt. In fact he won't let me talk about giving this one away. He's a lot more keen on it than I am. I mostly enjoyed making it from nothing and for nothing. No pressure and total freedom to do what I want. But I find the colours kind of overwhelming on the front on such a small quilt!

It's the picture and not your eyes that are fuzzy!!
(oh and yes, that's a giant transformer on the shelf.)

Though I do think that if you made one out of just one colour and white, and varied the shading of the colour then you could end up with a cool 3D pyramid effect... potentially!

Finally here's one of the fully finished front.

Quilt stats
Size: 40½" by 36½"
Quilt Top Fabric: Jelly Rolls of Moda Marbles in citrus and Bella White
Quilt Back Fabric: Ikea sheet and leftover squares from top
Binding: Pac-Man ghosts

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for finish it up Friday!!

Have a fun weekend :)

Leftover Fun in DC

Disclaimer: some of these photos are from my phone, but to be fair the light is better in DC than in Ireland - so maybe it equalises?!?

I'm back in Ireland. For six weeks of organisation, then the states for the forseeable future will be my home-base. While I was over in DC for the last two weeks I planned on making an Anna Maria Horner figure of 8 scarf. I started but didn't finish. It's very pretty though so I will.

I'm thinking, once I get the technique down, this will be my go-to gift for the ladies in my life!

Other than the scarf, there were no plans. I moved a lot of fabric over. Anything I knew I wouldn't get around to using before the summer. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with all things crafty (including blogging) so I decided that I'd just play with leftovers from various quilts. Making nothing larger than crib size (which are eminently store-able and easy to give as gifts right now, I'm at the age when all around me are breeding like rabbits).

I started with the leftover blocks from the Rainbow Skittle Quilt. I laid them out on the couch and just rearranged, and rearranged, and rearranged. I took over two-thirds of the couch for two straight days. And I felt really motivated to go for it. So I did. And this happened:

Rainbow Log Cabin Quilt (so inspired...)

I have no pictures of the backing, which is solid lime green with a ladder of coloured rungs in the centre. I didn't get to basting this one. It has no definite recipient, though Paul has said it is staying put with us for as long as possible. I have two possible ideas for who I can give it to, but they'll need to produce something small enough to use it!

Feeling that that quilt top was too linear. I decided to dive into the scraps from Freya's Quilt. All Apple of My Eye from Riley Blake, all different sizes, lengths, shapes. I loved it. But halfway through I knew who this one had to go to; so only this one small peek!!

Sorry 'bout the fuzzy.

This one I pieced, basted and quilted in two days. I love improv. I need to do more. Though right now, I have more structured tops to make. I'm thinking of dubbing this year, the year of learning quilty things, and next year will be a lot more self-indulgent. So it gives me carte blanche to try out tutorials, patterns, and the like to learn and practise techniques. But next year, 2014, is (in my head) going to be all out crazy things from my brain-pan.

Then, having gifted the last quilt in my head, I thought of another person in need of a quilt. And as my friends (who are all quite tech-savvy) possibly might maybe visit here occasionally this is another one I can't shout about. But I can tell you that this line has some really amazing geometric blender-type prints. I kinda want to use only them in something:

Oink-A-Doodle-Moo!!

So, for a couple of weeks where I promised myself a break from anything sewing related so I could stop feeling pressured to sew, it turns out that I also sew for fun and relaxation. I'm in deep, and I love it.

Hopefully once I'm through the jetlag and unpacking, I will be back to sharing slightly more regularly! There's lots to get done and finished in the next 6 weeks, so they can stay in Ireland forever.

:)

ooh, forgot in my excitement of posting! Linking up to Work In Progress Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced!!