April 2014 Tag

It's me again! two posts in a week - whoo hoo - told you my mojo had returned!

I have decided to play along with Tims April 2014 tag and here is my take:

Background was done with Scattered Straw paint:

and I used Broken China paint and Vintage Photo ink on the hexagon grungepaper.  I do have the one Tim used but decided to go with hexagons instead.  The flowers, again although I do have the pinecone die (as you can see from the leaves), I decided to use 3d tattered flowers instead which I made up of three diecuts cut into five pieces and then twiddled around a pokey tool to make 3d flowers - I inked them with Broken China and Spiced Marmalade and stamped each piece with a script stamp before twiddling.  To finish them off I dipped them in my melt pot so they are lovely and shiny.

I did the ribbon the same as Tim but didn't like it wrapped around the bottom as my flowers are a lot bigger than the pinecone ones so I used it as the topper string instead.  To finish I used a Tim banner inked with Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo and a butterfly inked the same, stamped with a script and finished with twine and rock candy stickles.

All tissue tape and papers are Tims too.

Thanks for looking - Enjoying Life in Sunny Solihull

Another Tim quilt!

Last October I went to the Malvern Quilt Show and bought some lovely Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements fabrics from the lovely Lady Sew And Sew - I got a ready prepared bundle of eight fat quarters as I couldn't choose between all the fabulous designs!

The fabrics sat in my fabric stash until January as I was so busy leading up to Christmas selling all my wares at the Handmade Boutique - but come January it was time to get making things for me again.  I spent a couple of weeks pondering what to do as the materials just kept crying out cogs to me and as I had already made a cog quilt (entered into the January 2013 bloghop over at Sew We Quilt and also published in last Septembers issue of Sewing World - link here) I didn't want to do another one.  But you know what it's like when you get an idea in your head of the perfect quilt you just can't get another to be as interesting so I decided to make the same quilt again using these perfect fabrics and this time a lot bigger.

I made the cogs in January, then pondered a while again whilst I decided what to do for the back of the quilt. February I went to my local quilting shop Cotton Patch and bought three more fat quarters (the ones with all the red on) and half a metre of the binding stripe.  I then pieced together all of the back using simple 51/2" squares:

and then in March I got around to sewing all the cogs on the front, along with the wadding and backing too.   Then it sat there for another few weeks (Easter holidays and everything slowing me down!) and then, joy of joys, this last Thursday the children wanted a stay at home day, and who was I to argue? So I finally managed to quilt all the tiny cogs on it.  You can't see them very well on the front picture as I have done them in black:

so here is a closeup of the back too:

The pattern is made up from using Tims cog die and freezer paper and then ironing them on in small formations all over the plain black areas of the quilt - I then free motion quilted them in small chunks, building them up so that the whole of the black area was covered.

Am so pleased it is finally done, I never thought I would ever make two quilts basically the same but I am so glad I did!

Also I can't believe this is my first crafty blog post since 4th March!  I have been really busy making things but just not finishing off, for example I now have a huge pile of crocheted flowers and leaves (yes even more than I had before!), a mountain of handmade paper flowers and lots of little bits and pieces from moulds and such like.  I have enjoyed making everything but have not found the inspiration to just finish them off and use them to make a 'proper' project.  Saying that now that I have finished this quilt I suddenly found myself getting up this morning and starting Tims April tag challenge - first one this year so hopefully my mojo and inspiration are now fully restored!  I also have a lovely pile of handmade stash to keep me going for a while for when the inspiration does strike so it's good here!

Thanks for looking and sticking with me during my blogless days!  Itching to finish something else from Solihull