lullaby

Despite obstacles and malicious internet imps who decided to steal Sarah's broadband, Sarah's Online Baby Shower took place and was fun.
And now I can reveal my wee gift to her - lullaby for Bean:

I might share some more details about the quilt a bit later, now let me just show you all the threads I got to use in appliquéing (is there such a verb?) the letters:

I do hope Sarah enjoys using it as much as I enjoyed making it.

help?

This was supposed to be "catching up part 2" post, with photos of my current WIPs, but one of the WIPs is already finished and I really need your help with the one I've just started.
Let me explain.
There is this quilt I wanted to make for my godmother and I wanted to make it according to her likes and wishes. So, it should be in brown, with some red and orange, too. And it should be not too fancy, not too busy or crazy, rather calm (if you can say it about a quilt).
After lots of thinking and sketching and going through various ideas I finally came to the conclusion that the best way for me to do it would be to make a bed size version of my first frost mini but in brown and with several more appliqué leaves of various shapes and sizes (red and orange, and maybe one little yellow one too). So I bought some nice brown fabric (#browncanbenice). I cut most of it into strips of various width. And I tried and tried, and tried to arrange the strips so that I'd be happy with them but to no avail.
*really crappy photos alert - I didn't think I would need to share them*
I didn't like the almost-random-but-trying-not-to-have-too-big-clumps-of-the-same-fabric look.

I tried arranging them from light to dark, but somehow that didn't work either.

Apart from the fact that the light patches are a bad idea, in the top version these two prints (links to online shop photos, just so that you can see them better) seem to be rather jarring. And the second one, the brown squiggles, doesn't look too good in the bottom version either.

After exhausting (for today at least) the ways in which I could arrange them horizontally I tried some others, like herringbone:

 
but I'm not too keen on either of the two versions above.

One more idea I have is to make a string quilt similar to Ashley's but I'm not sure if it would look OK in only 9 brown prints plus a creamy almost solid for the thin centre strips.
Or maybe I should stick to simple square in square blocks? (I mean something like mini log cabins, with a square in the middle and one round of contrasting print around it).
So, as you can see I'm stumped and I'd love to hear your suggestions. Please.

catching up part 1 - what was

Lately I've noticed that time doesn't fly for me anymore, it whizzes past so quickly I usually can't even see it.
Still, I managed to catch a bit of time and use it to sew:
* coasters for Di

to accompany our little swap, in which I got a jar of hot pepper jelly and sent some Polish dried mushrooms.
I hadn't tried this kind of jelly before, now I know from experience that the jelly Di makes is not only lovely to look at but also very tasty.

* a block for Euro Siblings Together Bee

I usually show them on flickr only, but I'm so happy I finally got to use the ugly duckling print I've been saving for the right project.

*a phone cozy for my (not so) new phone

*a fabric plate (which actually is more like a shallow bowl)

from Michelle's tutorial; a test run for the prizes I'm making for Sarah's Online Baby Shower

*and something that's still a secret

And if I post big pictures it doesn't look that bad as a summary of all of my sewing since the end of September...

sunny Friday

I've been thinking about this neglected blog of mine, I've been planning to compose a post about trying to decide what to do with it, whether to continue or give it up entirely and just use instagram to share my quilting projects... but it's my Friday off today, it's finally sunny and, you know, I simply don't need a definite decision on this.
Instead, let me show you the I-don't-want-to-call-it-broken-wheel quilt:

 I finished quilting it almost two weeks ago, but the combination of me at home and the sun shining happened only today.
The back is a simple one, but it shows the quilting nicely.

The first block I made for this quilt was 9", but after thinking it through and deciding 38 more blocks like this might be slightly too much, I used 12" blocks for the quilt top and incorporated the smaller one into the backing.
And then I took a big breath and decided to FMQ it densely, in, let's say, a free interpretation of paisley. It took me a few days and most of my treasured aurifil light grey spool, but I enjoyed it immensely. I was a bit worried that it might make the quilt a bit stiff, but it's actually still soft, nice and crinkly and I think it might be even more so after washing. (Washing has been postponed due to the weather, too. Uhm, not all the washing, you understand, just washing of this quilt.)

And yes, my FMQ skills are still far from perfect, and my stitch length is still something to work on, and the shapes could be rounder, but there are many places in this quilt I'm really proud of and, as I've already said, it's been pure joy to quilt it this way.

Incidentally, this is also the finish I was planning in my 2013 Finish-A-Long (Q3) extremely short list, which is one more reason for me to be happy with this quilt.

Edit: And since it's currently (and rather unexpectedly) my favourite quilt, I'm linking it up to the favourite quilt linky at Mary's.