My first ever neutral quilt! It's actually, um, red.

Ta da! I have completed my baby quilt for The Headmistress. And if I do say so myself, I think it's rather tickety-boo.

I spent months agonising over this quilt. First, the choosing of the neutral colours, because The Headmistress is very tasteful and elegant. My usual baby quilts are brightly coloured and patterned, and I knew that kind of thing just wasn't going to fly with her. This may be the first time in my life I have sewn anything that has "taupe" in it.

I ended up choosing French General fabrics, because they have that sort of quiet refinement that suits her; plus they are in tasteful colours and patterns.  I ended up focusing on red as the base colour because The Headmistress has a few cushions at home with red accents - and I thought if I got this right, it could get a look of the olde-worlde-heirloom-item about it. Do you think I managed it?

I set all the squares on point, and then cut out the triangles for the outer framing. When I sewed them together, I realised I'd cut the triangles the wrong size.

I was lucky enough to be able to ask my crafternoon companion, the Quilting Queen, what I had done wrong. She told me there was a formula involved. A formula! Did you know there was a formula involved? No, neither did I. I thought I'd left formulas behind in high-school maths, and I'm sure I never learnt anything HALF as useful as a quilting formula in school. Calculus and quadratic equations, yes. Quilting formula - SOMETHING I COULD ACTUALLY USE - no.  If you are wondering what it is, you can find it here.

Anyway, once I had the formula then I realised I'd used up all my edging fabric in the wrong-sized triangles. I had to order more from the States and wait for it to arrive. Which took a month. Then finally the package appeared on my doorstep and I was able to get this finished in a single weekend.

I did the quilting stitch a little differently, too - if you look closely you'll see that each square on point is divided into four triangles by the stitiching. I think it gives it a really interesting texture.

And did you notice the polka-dot binding? I made that sucker from scratch, readers, from scratch.  I am even impressed by my own self.

Here's the quilt draped over the cot it will adorn in just a few days time. The Headmistress is waiting patiently for you, Baby A ..... and I look forward to meeting you soon.

1. Baby quilt for the Amateur Actress
2. Baby quilt for Beck
3. Baby quilt for the Headmistress
4. Cup of tea and a lie down after three baby quilts in quick succession
5. Complete the massive postage stamp quilt I started early last year. I was doing fine until I realised I'd accidentally doubled the recipe and was now making the quilt twice as big as it needed to be. King-size. In three-inch squares. That's a lot of seams. It's been stuffed into the back of a drawer (a big drawer) for months now, because I get a cold shiver every time I even think about going back to it.
6. Curlicue Crush quilt 
7. Complete a patchwork screen using the antique wooden frame that's shoved into a corner of the sewing room and has been unused for years. In the hope of selling it at a market later in the year.
8. Start the Autumn Daze quilt from Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance book
9. Bit of a breakdown as I realise doing all those quilts is probably impossible, and why do I always set my sights on unattainable goals and is this a major character flaw and do I set myself up for failure this way and why can't I just live more in the now without having to constantly achieve, achieve, achieve; ...valium now please.
10. Finish those grey wool pants I cut out in the middle of winter last year ... sigh ....
11. Put up shelves in my sewing room so that my wondrous and ever-growing collection of lovely new and vintage tins can be displayed to its best advantage so that I can actually see and enjoy them. Right now they are piled on top of each other in a heap on the sewing table.
12. Make a curtain for the sewing room window. It's been naked-of-curtain for more than 18 months now and I can't stand another winter without one.
13. Organise myself for a destash sale. Gulp.
14. Get Etsy sorted out. With current stock. Take some damn pictures, Flickettysplits!
15. Start blogging again. Oh, I've done that one! Tick that box. 

Crafty Goals List: baby quilt for Beck - tick that box!

1. Baby quilt for the Amateur Actress
2. Baby quilt for Beck
3. Baby quilt for the Headmistress
4. Cup of tea and a lie down after three baby quilts in quick succession
5. Complete the massive postage stamp quilt I started early last year. I was doing fine until I realised I'd accidentally doubled the recipe and was now making the quilt twice as big as it needed to be. King-size. In three-inch squares. That's a lot of seams. It's been stuffed into the back of a drawer (a big drawer) for months now, because I get a cold shiver every time I even think about going back to it.
6. Curlicue Crush quilt as posted on a few days ago
7. Complete a patchwork screen using the antique wooden frame that's shoved into a corner of the sewing room and has been unused for years. In the hope of selling it at a market later in the year.
8. Start the Autumn Daze quilt from Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance book - picture at the top of this post.
9. Bit of a breakdown as I realise doing all those quilts is probably impossible, and why do I always set my sights on unattainable goals and is this a major character flaw and do I set myself up for failure this way and why can't I just live more in the now without having to constantly achieve, achieve, achieve; ...valium now please.
10. Finish those grey wool pants I cut out in the middle of winter last year ... sigh ....
11. Put up shelves in my sewing room so that my wondrous and ever-growing collection of lovely new and vintage tins can be displayed to its best advantage so that I can actually see and enjoy them. Right now they are piled on top of each other in a heap on the sewing table.
12. Make a curtain for the sewing room window. It's been naked-of-curtain for more than 18 months now and I can't stand another winter without one.
13. Organise myself for a destash sale. Gulp.
14. Get Etsy sorted out. With current stock. Take some damn pictures, Flickettysplits!
15. Start blogging again. Oh, I've done that one! Tick that box. Only fourteen to go .....

Blister In The Thumb

Over the weekend I incurred a devastating, debilitating sewing injury.

Oh I know, sewing is supposed to be a non-contact sport. Done inside, with cups of tea and biscuits. But people, it is DANGEROUS. There are SHARP things involved. Rotary cutters. Needles. Scissors. I tell you, I'm surprised that the emergency rooms haven't filled with people who've done themselves a mischief in this current resergence of craft.

So what's this incapacitating damage I have incurred? You can't see it in a photo, but I have a laaaaarge blister in my thumb.

Right in the middle of the tip.  Right in the exact spot where you use your thumb to push the needle through three layers of fabric when you are hand-sewing the binding to a quilt. In exactly that spot.

This is my own fault, of course. This is what you get when you spend virtually all weekend hand-sewing binding to not just one, but two baby quilts.

The good news is that I have now finished the quilt for the Amateur Actress (photos to come). Hooray! It looks absolutely beautiful and may be my best quilt ever.

And the binding is now virtually completed on the baby quilt for my crafternoon friend The Design Diva as well.

This is what happens when you spend practically the entire weekend inside, on the sofa, doing needlework because your One True Love is off cycling up and down mountains in the country. You get a lot done.

The bad news is that I now cannot stand to pick up a needle again for quite some time.

This is something of an issue, to be honest, because I'd quite *like* to pick up a needle again as I have about 15 centimetres left on the second quilt and I am itching to get it done. I was so tired last night that I just threw it down and went to bed when I couldn't keep my eyes open any more.

This was a bad move, people, a bad move. I was obviously in some sort of focused zen-like state yesterday, concentrating so hard on doing nice neat little stitches and getting through the metres, because I felt no pain at all. Obviously my poor thumb was completely numb from exhaustion.

But today? Well, today when I picked up the needle, thinking I would just do a little bit before heading off to work .... well, then I knew ALL ABOUT MY THUMB, let me assure you.

The truth is evident: I need to rest my silly thumb. The poor thing needs convalescence time.

But .... just fifteen centimetres to go! Fifteen!! ........gah.

Neither positive nor negative .... just neutral.

On the aforementioned Crafty Goals List for 2012 are a number of quilts, of which about half are baby quilts this year.

I have three pregnant friends you see, and as dire luck and happenstance would have it, all of these friends are due within a six-week time frame of each other. So to say that I have a mountain of work ahead of me in the next month (the first baby is due to arrive on February 12) is probably an understatement.

Luckily my baby quilts are a little bigger than a metre square, so they don't take too much time to put together. And two of the suckers are easy-peasy:

1. Number One is going to be a classic mix of new and vintage fabrics in a wonderfully clashing range of colours and textures
2. Number Two is going to be made up of Kaffe Fassett materials that are as bright as possible.

It's Number Three quilt that is posing a little more of a problem. It's for the Headmistress - she of perfect taste and quiet restraint. The Headmistress lives in a beautiful house which is elegantly decorated in neutrals. 

Neutrals. That's the crux of the issue. 

I don't do neutrals. I don't know how. And I don't have any neutral fabrics in my stash. 

The dilemma is actually causing me heartache. I want to start on her quilt but I haven't any fabric! I'm going to have to find a shop that specialises in elegant and refined neutrals - and I haven't the faintest idea of where to start. Can anyone help?

Maybe I could order something like this fabric set - it's in the lovely French Provincial style that French General do so well. It's about as close to neutral as I can stand. 

Many years ago I was in an Indian restaurant with a vegetarian friend, and he ordered a vegetarian curry. And when the curry arrived, it had chicken in it. And when my friend called the waiter over and politely asked how chicken could have found its way into his vegetarian curry, the Indian waiter waggled his head and said "oh but sir, in many parts of India chicken is considered a vegetable".... !! 

I feel a bit the same way. Red is a neutral isn't it???

And the mail fairy brought ....

... new fabrics from Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi collection! Loulouthi has it all - flannel, quilting cotton, laminate, voile, needleworks - and it's absolutely beautiful. These are quilting cottons, ready for a new project I'm about to start.

Sometimes a designer just hits all the right notes, and that's what I feel about this collection. Anna Maria, I'm your slave.

Of course, now I have to find room in my stash for this material. I am having some ... ahem, stash issues right now. I think it's because I had a long break from sewing last year (most of last year, in fact). So I have loads of fabric I'd expected to work my way through by now, still sitting exactly where I left it.

So this means two things:

1. I must sew much more this year. This should be easy to achieve, even if it's by default. I have three friends who are expecting babies within a six-week period, for example, so that's a baby quilt each. And I've booked in for a range of markets starting in March, so there's stock to produce for those. Plus, there are a number of items on my  list of Crafty Goals for 2012 that are just for me; and some of those things are large and complicated quilts. All of this will use up plenty of fabric.
2. I think I need to have a destash sale. It pains me to say it, but it's true. I just have too much to deal with, Crafty Goals for 2012 notwithstanding. I am going to go through the stash and pull out some jewels to sell, so that I've got a bit more space and the pussins can safely enter the sewing room without fearing for their lives. Have you seen that show Hoarders on GEM, Wednesday nights at 9.30pm? It's a bit like that.  

I feel cleaner already, just *thinking* about it. Now, to put the plan into action .... stay tuned .....