Well it's been a LONG time... in fact its been 2 years, 4 months and 23 days since my last post... and I honestly don't know if there's anyone out there watching this blog anymore... but... this morning I felt like I had something to say....
A LOT has happened in the last couple of years... including the fact that I now have two grandbabies! Miss Chloe is thoroughly wonderful (and already 4 years old!) and her little brother Jackson joined our family over two years ago.
Another thing that has happened is that I've discovered quilting... and I am just a tiny bit obsessed with it. I started my first quilt just over two years ago and I currently have ten finished quilts... several table runners... and a few cushions made... along with several more quilting projects in various stages from simply purchasing the fabric (embarrassingly too much of this kind) to projects actually in progress.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you've likely seen some of my projects. Fairly recently Krystal asked me if I thought I would blog again... and that kind of sparked a little light in the back of my brain. So here goes nothing!
I've started a quilting project for Jackson. Thankfully the grandbabies are too young for blogs and social media so I'm fairly safe to share what will become part of his Christmas present. I've decided to put a big effort into my Christmas spirit this year... last year I didn't even put a tree up but I'll share the reasons behind that another day... perhaps. This year feels different... a new home (yep that will come in another post too)... and this great quilting hobby/craft/obsession... so there will be handmade goodness coming to those around me.
I'm currently making the grandbabies a BIG cushion each... when I say big it's a Euro cushion... 24 inches square... that will seem massive to Chloe and Jackson!
It all started with buying some iron on decals featuring Mickey and Minnie mouse... and then I 'had' to buy fabric... and I like to try something new with every project so there were other goodies to purchase. This will give you an idea of where I'm heading:
I obviously took this photo after I'd already started making the blocks to surround Mickey. I'm loving the traditional Christmas colours and designs along with a little bit of black thrown in. It really seemed to make the colours pop!
So... one of the new things I decided to try was Cupcake Recipe cards. I'd see them on You Tube and thought they looked fun... and I know when you're piecing little pieces accuracy is super important so I thought I'd give it a go. For this project I used Cupcake Recipe #4:
Each recipe mix comes with its own set of designs to choose from... plus you can mix them around and come up with your own layouts.
To give you a basic overview of how the papers work... you lay two pieces of fabric with right sides together (for the cupcake recipes you use 5 inch squares aka Charm squares). The recipe mix comes with 44 identical printed papers featuring the sewing and cutting lines. Simply pin the cupcake recipe papers to your fabrics:
Sew on all the dotted lines... yep you sew through the paper using a smaller stitch length:
Then you remove the papers... press the pieces and you're ready to design.
I wasn't sure which design I liked the best so I tried out a few to get an idea.
I LOVE stars so this one had instant appeal:
This was another design on the cover of the mix:
Then I tried the last design on the cover of the pad... instant appeal for me!
Totally loved that star so I was good to go! Then I made a red one... just to make sure I really did like it:
Oh yes! I really really really liked the red one!
Now that I had a good understanding of how to put these blocks together I decided to go ahead and make all the other blocks in a bit of a production line.
It usually feels like it takes forever as you go through each step... and then all of a sudden you've got a whole heap of finished blocks. These ones came out 6 1/2 inches unfinished.
Then it was time to work out how I wanted them to go together... I played around a LOT with the layout before I was happy:
Then came to be what turned out the most challenging part of all... measuring and cutting the center panel! It definitely caused me a few head scratches... and plenty of umming and ahhing... mostly because I wanted to include an inner border between Mickey and the blocks.
The only thing left to do was iron Mickey into place:
I'm so ecstatic about how it turned out! One good thing is that now that I've done all the math for this cushion making Chloe's one is going to be a heck of a lot easier... hopefully!
Turns out I had a LOT to say... time for me to head back to the sewing room and make some more blocks :)
p.s. if you stop by and read my blog I'd LOVE to hear from you :)
Love the Christmas colours. Jackson will love his BIG cushion
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