Sunday, November 6, 2011

Between Now and the End of the World

I've noticed a lot of you more-organized-than-moi bloggers making lists of all your projects. So, here's my list!

I'm not assigning any priority to this list, it's just a list of things I'd like to accomplish sometime... and since the world is due to end in 2012, I've nominally selected the end of the world as my target date, or whenever the cups of tea and biscuits run out, whichever happens soonest.

If this post appears garbled as you first read it, bear with me... there's going to be lots of links to other blogs or pictures, so it's quite possible I'll need to make corrections if I type the code wrong or miss out a quote mark for example! In fact, I'm far from sure I've got all the links to the pictures right, so sorry if there's some random photo which doesn't relate!

So here goes.

Between Now and the End of the World I would Like To Finish:

  • My second quilt, based on the Rainy Day Quilt posted by Quilting in the Rain as part of Madam Sam's 3-month series on Sew We Quilt. My version has lots of fabrics with clouds, raindrops, yellow duckies and rainy day sayings, but I don't have a photo yet, so here's the original:
  • Charity block for Irondequoit Quilt Club. This is simply a 9x7 square block of a wide variety of colors, each one alternating with a lightly patterned white square. I've been making decent progress with this over the last couple of weeks! Sorry, no photos yet!
  • Now for the ones I haven't even started yet... Coasters, as designed by
    Laura from Quokka Quilts. I'm really looking forward to creating many of these, and some of you lucky folk may be on the receiving end one day! I'm just struggling to pick out appropriate fabrics, though this week I decided that one of the lovely black and white fabrics that Thearica from Pigtales and Quilts sent me would work nicely, so I just need some less-busy fabrics for the rest of that set... I'm thinking some subtle patterned pink and grey would work well.
  • Flowers, as featured in this tutorial on Sew We Quilt. These sound so pretty and easy and a great use of scrap material... though I'm finding the step-by-step instructions to be a little confusing... mainly because I can't really see what's going on in the photos. I may be picking your brains for some tips in due course! I've already started collecting leafy patterns and bright flowery colored fabrics for these! Here's the original pic
  • More coasters! Another tutorial from Sew We Quilt, the style of which seems quite similar to the squares I'm doing for my Rainy Day Quilt, with the borders around the squares. I like the apparent simplicity of these and will probably try a couple of sets!
  • Black and White Quilts. I stumbled across these from a comment left on my blog from a reader of the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side. These 2 quilts are from Eileen's Ladybug Lovelies blog and I can see the contrasting patterns. I love the simplicity of the Bountiful Baskets quilt, and if I can manage a Supernova quilt I'd like to try that too! First photo is the Supernova and here's the Bountiful Basket ... and here's an alternative Supernova in a step-by-step that Sarah from Narcoleptic in A cupboard told me about.
  • Bowls - another from the Sew We Quilt tutorials. This quilted bowl (which I can't find the link to...) struck me because it seemed an unusual thing to make by quilting! I'm not sure if I'll get around to this one, but maybe, time permitting.
  • I have a design idea for a belt, well more a sash. I would bow to you ladies if you don't think it would work! Imagine a small square, say 3 inches square, or even slightly rectangle seems to look quite nice. Attach thin strips to two opposite ends (like the individual squares in my Rainy Day Quilt). Now, imagine as you are putting the quilt together, you sew each one in turn, pairing two of them with a layer of batting between. However the batting is only as wide as the center square, so you sew / quilt along the sides of that center square, and then you finish the border strips separately, so they have no batting inside. Them. Then you turn them to make a diamond shape and in the point of one of the borders you make a button hole in one of the strips and sew a button in the point of the other strip. Repeat, and when you've finished you can join all the individual units together, buttoning one to the next, forming a belt or sash that you can wear around your waste! (or if you're a gunslinger you can wear it across your shoulders and stick your bullets to it, for that stylish mercenary look). No pics for this yet, it lives only in my wild imagination!
  • and I'd forgotten about this until I was going through the list of Sew We Quilt tutorials again.... a quick and easy drawstring bag, which I liked the sound of )I've always liked drawstrings!)
  • Finally, and this is unlikely to see the light of day, but I had an idea for a modern Christmas table runner, many of which you all were making for the Crafty Christmas Club I think. I thought a modern style runner but with a snowflake-like jagged piece of lace-type material attached to the back, and another piece attached to the front and kind of overlapping the gaps of the back strip might look nice. Of course this might be fiddly to make, even assuming I could find suitable material, but it's an interesting idea and I'm sure it'll keep until next year, assuming the world doesn't end as planned...
Hope you enjoyed that scenic detour into my ideas! If I achieve a couple of these I'll be happy :)

Do tell me what you think, especially any suggestions, even if it's a "it'll never work" lol.

Oh yes, and at some point I want to make things with triangles and circles, and maybe one of those lovely Dahlia designs as a medallion quilt ...

10 comments:

  1. That list is going to keep your busy! I love the idea of a black and white supernova quilt - it is beautiful! I look forward to seeing your rainy days quilt. Coasters and the flowers and everything else look like fun. The end of the world seems like a good deadline date!

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  2. I hope the world doesn't end soon as I'd love to see you make all of these - I'm most excited about the black and white Supernova as your inspiration photo is fantastic!! Have fun!

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  3. Have to admit I'm slightly confused by the belt idea but I'm sure if I think about it hard enough it'll make sense!

    Love the rainy day quilt and really love the brightly coloured super nova quilt too!

    Good luck with the end of the world...if the tea and biscuits don't run out first

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  4. Ha now and the end of the world. I need a list like that but it may be a novel. Thanks for the shout out. Give me a yell when u want to start circles - elisas backporch has templates that would be ideal for you - paper backed so minimise slippage when cutting and nice and solid :) are we doing textural quilts for blind people challenge too next year? Now get on with those coasters!

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  5. giles, your list is amazing! i hope the world doesn't end any time soon because i want to see your "makes". love those supernova quilts... so pretty. and i think your belt idea is great!

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  6. Wow you are ambitious! Good thing the end of the world isn't until 2012. LOL I can't wait to see your ideas come to fruition - especially your belt. I think you should jump ahead onto that one (or at least draw us a picture).

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  7. The black and white quilt looks gorgeous!
    I hope you'll finish all!
    suzy

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  8. I found your blog by clicking on a link from Laura at Quokka Quilts and I can't not follow someone with such a poetic post title as 'Between Now and the End of the World I would Like To Finish'! Good luck with your list - you've some great projects planned:)

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  9. Hi Giles, love this idea so I did a From Now Until the End of the World post too (http://www.quiltmatters.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-now-until-end-of-world.html). Cheers and Happy New Year!

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  10. That's a lot of wonderful sewing time, and great things to make. I don't very often take the time to make "things." I have one tote I made - probably 8-9 years ago. There are a couple of pincushions. Otherwise, it's just some form of quilt. I did promise to make a skirt for a friend's little girl, and I haven't sewn clothes since my boys were little, and they are far from it now! So, I'll enjoy watching your projects grow!

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