Work in progress wednesday!

Hmmmm, this week there seems to be an awful lot of work in progress, and not a lot getting done!  It's prompted me to link up with WIP Wednesday held over at Freshly Pieced to help me focus on making some decent progress with these projects in the next week!

OK, here goes:

Work in progress:

• Sliced coins quilt - this one is on hold until the lovely Metro circles in Fuchsia I've ordered for the backing arrives!
• Bee Europa March Block - Muriel asked us for a strip rather than a block and sent me these lovely purples. 

 Here's a little sneak preview, it's not quite finished but well on the way

New projects started this week:

• Cushions - my exciting news this week is that a gorgeous little shop in Hastings Old town wants to stock my cushions (yeay, and double yeay!)  They are taking 4 to start with and like the spring greens used on the sample I sent them.  I managed to cut three cushion tops the other morning when little F had an unusually long sleep.

• Supernova quiltalong - Here's the fabric selection I'm mulling over for this quilt - 9 stars all in different colourways.  The thing is, I daren't move these piles of fabric from our bedroom floor now, in case I forget what I've decided!

Projects completed this week: (just one!)

• Charley Harper Quiltalong Mouse for Felix's room.  You can read about this here

Right..back to it :)

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Meet Charley and a growing To-do list

Yeay!  The mouse has arrived! Click here to see the previous work in progress and inspiration for my Charley Harper Quiltalong efforts. And since he is a Charley Harper creation, I had to name my version in his creators honour!   This measures approximately 21 x 18 inches is a wall hanging for Felix's room which is currently lime green and grey but with no other scheme (it used to be our room)  So not only do I now have a piece of wall art, I have the beginnings of a theme for her room (think murals of trees and other woodland creatures!)

For those of you that are interested, here is a run down of how he was created (ignore the next paragraph if you're not!) I used only fabrics from my stash so he's a bit of a freebie...

I pieced strips of patchwork cotton together with a piece of soft brown furnishing fabric (learning: should have interfaced this!).  The hole was marked with a dinner plate, cut out and bound with chenille wool. The leaves are all stash cotton fabrics that have been fused to felt. I machine stitched the detail and only attached them at the centre line so they would stick out and add to the 3D effect.  The lizard is fused and then stitched on - I used my free motion embroidery foot to work his feet. The mouse is pieced, with appliqued nose and eyes and machine stitched whiskers.  The whole piece is lightly quilted with a lime green backing and I intend to add a chocolate brown binding.

He may not be the most sophisticated mouse in town but I think Felix will love him :)

(edited)
Oooo, and I'm linking up with the fabulous Quilt Story (love their blog!) and Fabric Tuesday to share a little Charley joy :)



Now to the growing To-do list.  I got some exciting crafty news yesterday which will add to my list (more about that in another post with any luck) and being a glutton for punishment I've also signed up for the Supernova quiltalong over at Freshly Pieced.  This is a gorgeous looking quilt and doing it will hopefully help me learn a few more techniques!  My brother has asked for a quilt/playmat for his bump (little girl due in June) so I'm thinking this might be the perfect gift!

Yikes, better get cracking!

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Plan C (or should that be third time lucky?)

Remember my plan for the Charley Harper Quiltalong? the little mouse.

Well.........last night that mousehole caused me more than a little bother. 

I decided that I want my wall hanging to be textured, so I used a heavyweight but soft furnishing fabric for the background.  I did a few tests with ribbon, string, fabric etc and then opted for a lime green furry trim (which is actually the selvedge from a chenille fabric). Let's call this Plan A....

Because Plan A required me to fix the trim behind the hole, I cut my mousehole first, using a dinner plate for size.  I then machine stitched green furry trim to hole.....

Yikes!  My mousehole became frilly!  This was really not the look I was after.  Possibly strengthening the fabric with interfacing first would have reduced this effect, but too late for me.  

I cut out the green furry trim and went with Plan B for my (slightly bigger) mousehole.  Plan B involved stitching twine to the outside of the hole.

I had tested this but the result.......messy, and because I'd already cut the hole, the edges of the fabric were on show, all too slapdash. 

I went to bed grumpy!

I woke up at 6am with a brain wave, and Plan C was formed. I got up and actually made a start on it before little Felix woke up at 7.  Basically I have bound the edges with a grey chenille wool that I had in my stash, using the largest darning needle I could lay my hands on.  I kept going until the edges and the string from plan B were completely covered...and finally, I like the result!  It's textured and raises up slightly so the mouse really will be in the hole.

Here's progress so far.  The mouse is next, let's hope he's easier :)

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First time for everything (including Charley Harper)

I'm taking part in the Charley Harper Quiltalong.  I thought I'd give this a go because I've never:

a) Built a patchwork block inspired by a picture before
b) Joined in a Quiltalong before
c) Heard of Charley Harper (sorry folks!)

These felt like good reasons to join in, so I set about trying to find an image.  Hmmm more tricky than I thought as there are SO MANY great pictures. Hours later, propped up in bed with my laptop and with multiple google searches (most of which annoyingly also brought back Charlie Sheen!) I had a shortlist of images.  My aim, to make a wall hanging for Felix's room.

Here are some of the nearly picks!.

I had to discard fab book illustrations like this one because they're not really appropriate for a child's room.

And this Otter is uber cute, but not challenging enough, I thought.

Family Owlbum :) sooooo nearly made it....

But instead I opted for colour, and am using a little segment of a woodland scene.  See the bottom left hand corner?

That's what I'm going to base my wall hanging on!

Having decided, I faced my next challenge.  How the heck to set about it?!  I need a plan.....

and here it is!  A mixture of traditional patchwork piecing, applique and free motion stitching (all in my head at the moment!).  I really want to bind the hole that the mouse is looking out of, but have never bound a circle before...anyone done this?  I'd love to hear from you if you have, or if you've got any other ideas for my mouse!

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