Works In Progress: Baby Quilt & Table Runner

Dies used: Hexagons, 1 1/4in Sides
                 Hexagons, 1in Sides #2 (for the papers)

                 Drunkard's Path Quarter Circle
                 Drunkard's Path & Fan Background

We're back home again now after our family holiday to the Isle of Wight. The days were packed with visits to castles, beaches, Roman villas, boat trips, dinosaur attractions and more but the evenings were much more relaxed with plenty of time for some English paper piecing. The box I took to hold my basted hexagons filled up nicely over the course of the week.

Still going to need quite a few more though to make a 6ft+ festive table runner!

Returning home again meant getting back to the deadlines and trying to get back on top of the to-do list. One of my close friends is due to give birth in the next few weeks and I want to make a little quilt for the new baby's arrival. Whilst there isn't quite the same pressure as a work deadline, time is running out quickly and so it was time to get on with it!

I've been wanting to use my Drunkard's Path dies for a while to have a go at a circles design and this seemed like the perfect project. I decided to make 4 circles using some printed children's fabric and see how it went. Having spent years sewing toys full of tricky curves as a result I don't really mind sewing curves and found that the quarter circles and background pieces went together really nicely. With the finished circle being quite large at 7in diameter, the curve isn't too tight and didn't feel awkward to manage instead it felt quite comfortable to sew.

I think 4 circles by 4 circles will work out at a good baby quilt size and so the top is almost a quarter complete already. Oh and if you haven't guessed, it's a boy!

To make the children's prints stand out more it might be good to add a few circles made with basic blender prints, or add another background fabric, hmm. Some more playing about with fabric is needed I think!

See you next time and happy sewing!

Holiday Hexies

Dies used: Hexagons, 1in Sides #2
                 Hexagons, 1 1/4in Sides


We're away on holiday at the moment and the last couple of times we've been away I've taken some English Paper Piecing with me and it's the same again this time - it may qualify as a habit now! When preparing a project to take on a summer holiday thoughts don't automatically go to Christmas but I was sent a couple of bundles of gorgeous Dashwood Christmas fabric last week and I wanted to use it straight away along with a few others from the festive section of my stash.

Also my son's teacher told me that her mum, who is a keen quilter, has recently made 30 mini stockings like the ones I made as teacher gifts using my Big Shot and posted about on here last Christmas. Suddenly making Christmassy things in July seemed thoroughly reasonable!

Using the Hexagons, 1in Sides die and a few sheets of scrap paper otherwise destined for the recycle bin, I cut a pile of papers. Then with the Hexagons 1 1/4in die I set to chopping the fabric.

They are intended to become part of a table runner which will need to be 2m long to fit our dining table and so Christmas 2016 may be a more realistic finish date if sewing is to be as relaxed and enjoyable as planned.

And so along with the clothes packing an EPP sewing bag containing all of the essentials had to be packed too.

Cutting the papers and fabric and getting the travel EPP kit together was so much easier and took a fraction of the time it took to pack one of the boys' bags! My Big Shot Plus really is an invaluable piece of kit.

Hopefully a week of relaxed hexagon sewing in the sunshine lies ahead!

Happy sewing!

Inspiring me Quilt : Blocks 10-15

Hi everyone! I come back with more blocks for my Inspiring me Quilt. If you remember I talked to you in this post as my own challenge using just Sizzix Dies!!

My idea is getting 100 blocks!

I have designed six more , some of them with a little of embroidery with DMC floss.

Hope you  like them and enjoy , I´m sure maybe you can sew some project with a block you can find here. 

Ok, here I go with the blocks.

First of all a new one for me and one of the traditional blocks in quilting,

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul 4,1/4in Assembled

It´s fantastic how quick you  have have these pieces cut and just start to sew!!

You can see a video tutorial at the web.

I came back to hexagons again and I have designed a new block.

Hexagons, 1 1/4" sides ( for fabric )

Hexagons, 1" sides ( for pattern)

For the squares I have used

657626

Sizzix Bigz L Die - Square, 4 1/2" Finished (5" Unfinished)

Hexagon, 2in sides

I cut the fabric with the 2" die and my cardstocks with 

hexagon, 1 1/4"sides 

I have try this big hexagon now and I have to say I love this size too.So I ´m sure I will do more things with it!!

This is my first time trying this apple core block. I have to confess I was wishing to have this die at home , especially because this is one of the traditional block that is complicate  to be cut BUT easily with the Big Shot Plus , so you can have a lot of apple cores cut in just some minutes.

Thanks so much to Sizzix who let me to enjoy new and waited blocks!!

Apple Core, 5 3/4in H Finished

You can find a video tutorial at Sizzix web.

I have cut the block assembled  to my size block in a square 8.5"

Here it is my last one , the Drunkard´s path. 

If you love this block as me, you can check my projects  Valentine Square Cushion ,Vane quilt  or even my lovely Drunkard´s Path cushion with pom poms

657168

Sizzix Bigz L Die - Drunkard's Path Arch & Fan Background

657169

Sizzix Bigz L Die - Drunkard's Path Quarter Circle

This is some details of my embroidery.

And here they are all my 15 blocks 

Hope my project inspire you!!
Have a wonderful weekend and see you in two weeks.
Love
Mercedes
.............................................................**********************..........................................................

¡Hola a todo el mundo! Hoy vuelvo de nuevo con algunos bloques más de mi quilt Inspiring me. Si recuerdas, te hablé  en éste artículo  sobre él y cómo está siendo mi propio reto para usar sólo los troqueles de Sizzix.

¡ Mi propósito es conseguir hacer 100 y espero conseguirlo!

He diseñado seis más , algunos de ellos con bordado usando hilo de DMC.

Espero que te guste y que lo disfrutes, estoy segura que a lo mejor te anima a idear algún proyecto con alguno de ellos.

Echa un vistazo a las fotos.

El primero ha sido una  novedad, Robbing Peter to Pay Paul es uno tradicional que quería probar y que he tenido la oportunidad gracias a Sizzix. Es comodísimo cortar de una vez todas las piezas del bloque.

Tengo que mejorar el montaje porque ha sido mi primer bloque pero no dudo que haré más cosas con él.

Pincha en los enlaces de las fotos para ver los troqueles.