Finish it Up Friday! - Lattices & Lilies

Finally got my thread delivered, so managed to finish off the quilting of my Lattices and Lilies quilt!

I'm quite happy with how it turned out!

I decided to do something a bit different with the quilting here, because I didn't think an all over pattern would show off the lattice quite as nicely, so I decided to do a scrawly loopy freehand in each 'window' and then just a series of straight lines on the lattices and borders.

Quilt back.

I think the back needed this more intricate design to fill all the empty space. I was a little worried that it would look weird since the patchwork detail wouldn't match up, but aside from it being slightly closer to one side than the other, I think it worked out quite well!

Detail of the 'window' portion. It actually looks quite nice, despite being completely random.

Detail of the corner area with the borders.

So there you have it, another quilt done! I was originally going to sell this one, but I'm not sure I can part with it now. Also I'm not sure it's really perfect enough to sell, but maybe that's just me making excuses :P

Lattices and Lillies - Part 2

So today I set about trying to figure out how to make the back of the quilt work, given that I hadn't really gotten enough fabric for the backing, which was originally going to be solid green with one lattice block in the corner. Because I had a few extra triangles, I decided to just make a row of blocks instead.

The colour of the back doesn't really show well here, it's a bit more of a blueish green than the weird olive-y colour it shows here. But anyway, after measuring that my quilt was around 41" square, I decided (to be safe) to make the backing about 43" square to give a bit of leeway. After constructing the blocks I still didn't have enough width, so added some 3" strips to either side, and then cut the remaining fabric in 2 segments, one about 8" and one about 24". So that should give me a backing that is slightly bigger than necessary, which is good, better too much than not enough!

I also had to decide what to do about the binding. Given the dimensions of my quilt, I calculated I needed about 172" of binding, plus a bit of extra, so 200". Ideally I'd have probably wanted to use either the lattice fabric or the backing fabric, but in typical me fashion, I cut too many strips for the lattice itself, which were too thin for binding, and wasn't left with enough. Fortunately, from the fat quarters I had a small strip of each left over, and managed to scrape together enough fabric. In fact, I probably have too much now. I think I have about 300" or so. I'm not sure how it'll look as well, might be too busy, but I'll have a play around with it before sewing it on. Otherwise I'll probably get an unrelated fabric in a matching colour.

My binding roll!

Now I just have to wait for the batting to arrive in the post so I can start quilting, because the leftovers from my last quilts are just a few inches too small! I feel like I spend half my time waiting for things to arrive in the post.

In other news, I'm getting seriously ready to have this baby now, especially now that Button is considered full term (yay!). Much as I love being pregnant (most of the time), I have forgotten what it's like to walk without waddling, or turn over in bed without grunting. I feel like a bit of a time bomb, and I'm just ready to experience labour, and have my life totally changed. I know I'll probably miss feeling Button kicking inside me (even though sometimes it hurts!), and knowing that my body is capable of such a miraculous and amazing thing, but I can't wait for the adventures that Button will bring!

Lattices and Lillies Quilt

Because I ran out of white thread AGAIN while making a second Turning Squares quilt, and because our local HobbyCraft seems to have no white thread that's 100% cotton, I decided to get some fat quarters and some colourful thread and start another quilt to sell.

I found a cute line of fabric called Free Spirit by Rowan, which has sort of a modern Asian vibe to it. I wanted to do something a little more intricate than previously, and a little more challenging, so I decided to make some sketches first.

My sketch.

I like the kind of lattice look to it. To do this I calculated that I needed to make 36 half square triangles (HSTs) from my fat quarters, and I had 5 fat quarters in total. I calculated how many squares I could make of various sizes using this fat quarter chart I found on Google:

I'm not sure the original author of this chart, sorry!

Using my 5 fat quarters, I needed to make approximately 8 squares from each quarter, so I needed to make 6" squares.

6" squares.

Once I made my 6" squares, I drew a line diagonally and cut across the line. Make sure you pin multiple fabric layers together so they don't swivel around too much while you're cutting, unless you are cool enough to have a rotary cutter.

Cut HSTs. 

If you're into a more random quilt you can just sew 2 squares together 1/4" to each side of the line, but I wanted it a bit more planned than that, so I just cut them all first (You wont need all of them if you're following along). I then took out 4 single triangles for the corners.

Then what I did was matched up the triangles and sewed them together so that I had an equal number of every combination of fabric, just to make sure I had enough to play with. I then laid them out in the desired positions. My only concern was that there were no identical fabrics next to each other, so other than that it was pretty much random.

 My initial layout.

Once I constructed all the squares I then started adding the lattices. I chose to just make 1 1/2" strips of my lattice fabric and sew them on as is without cutting them to size first. I picked a corner and started from there, adding the short strips one by one.

Starting the lattices.

Once I added all the short strips on the same diagonal, I then attached strips in the opposite direction. On the longest strips I had to sew two strips together, making sure to keep the seam in the centre of the quilt to avoid it looking odd.

I then wanted a border, but I decided to make it slightly bigger, so I made 2 1/2" strips and sewed them around the edges.

The finished quilt top!

Originally I was going to add 2 borders, but I didn't get enough of the backing fabric, so I decided to just have the one border, it looks pretty good anyway!

For the back I only got 1 metre of a sort of light greenish fabric, but I have a bunch of extra HSTs left over, and some of the lattice strips so I think I'm going to put some kind of embellishment on the back as well. Possibly a horizontal strip of the lattice to divide the back up so I have enough fabric, but I'm saving that as tomorrow's project!

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On a separate note, I have put up my first pattern in my Etsy shop - Tara Doodle Doo - to sew your own knitting needle roll, designed to hold interchangeable circular needles, only £2.99!

Or, if you want to just skip the crafting and buy a 

pre-made roll, I've got a few ready to ship!

Knitted Chevrons

Here's a project I've been working on pretty much since the first month of pregnancy.

Really recommend this book, lots of great patterns!

A knitted baby blanket! I found this great book of baby blankets, and loved so many of them. I chose one that looked interesting enough to hold my attention while being easy enough that I could watch the tele while knitting.

I chose fairly gender-neutral colours, since at the time I didn't actually know whether Button was a he or she, but they actually lend themselves quite well to a baby boy anyway, since it's mostly the blue and grey. The yarn I chose was Sirdar's Snuggly Baby Bamboo, which is really soft and cozy and nice, and the blanket hangs quite nicely without being stiff. I kind of wish I'd chosen the colours a bit better, and had white replacing either the grey or blue (the orange is for the border), just so it would have a bit more contrast, but it still looks pretty nice anyway.

The pattern actually called for a heavier weight yarn, and originally the pattern was coming out way too loose, so I reduced the needle size by 1 mm and also added an extra chevron to it to keep the width. In hindsight I think the extra chevron panel was unnecessary, as I feel like it's now got to be super long to keep it in proportion.

Closeup of the chevrons

I do quite like the pattern still, and I think it looks really nice, but I have to say I am not the biggest fan of making blankets anymore. They take SO LONG, and use SO MUCH YARN! I imagine this will be another project that gets finished while I'm on maternity leave because I'll just have to crank it out while watching a film or something. I kind of wish I hadn't started it now, but I'm about 2/3 done, so I just really have to suck it up and finish it.

As an aside, here is a little glimpse of our nursery! It is a VERY small little room (A's former study), but at least it has just enough room for the cotbed and a nursing chair. 

I love the colour we chose, it's such a nice happy lemon-y colour! The awesome little whale pillow was commissioned by A from a crafty friend of ours for my birthday. It's so sweet! The shelves were an absolute nightmare to put up because the outer walls are all masonry. It was a very frustrating process for A. But he did a good job!

The cotbed is our kind of baby gear dumping ground at the moment, as there's really no storage in our house at all, and Button will be in a little crib in our room or in a moses basket wherever I am for the first few months anyway, so this will probably be mostly used for nursing at night when A is asleep and storage until Button is old enough to sleep on his own in here. In hindsight I think we went a bit overboard with the cotbed, but it will be handy for the future as it converts to a really nice looking toddler bed!

It's all getting a little bit real now - I have my one final day at work on Monday, and then I'm officially on maternity leave for 9 months! Ahh! Tomorrow I'm baking a delicious New York Cheesecake for everyone at work to celebrate (and to introduce them to proper cheesecake, not the weird mousse-y stuff that they consider cheesecake here in the UK), so I may make a post on that as it's the best recipe I've ever found, and I need to share it with everyone. Ta ta for now!