London Modern Quilt Guild - a lovely way to spend a Sunday!

So yesterday, after a couple of months of annoying trains and engineering works typically on a Sunday, I managed to get into London and spend a lovely afternoon with my quilty friends at the London Modern Quilt Guild meeting. It was so nice to catch up with everyone and meet new visitors, and yes they travel far - a lady all the way from Australia!!
I always feel so inspired and ready to rush home and sew after the meetings and remembered to take some photos too! If you want to find out more about the guild check here!

Here are some of the highlights!

My number block for one of our charity quilts - number 5 although looks more like an S!

Gorgeous quilt design by Carina inspired by a piece of fabric!

Sharing quilts received as part of swaps - this was a mini, it is amazing!

A gorgeous quilt by Dorothy for Siblings Together

The merry crew!

Gorgeous mix of solids and liberty print hexies by Michaela

Gorgeous fabric storage made by Amanda with our member Colette's fabric!

and yes we do meet in a pub!! It's very lovely!

MQG Michael Miller Challenge

One of the exciting things about being a member of the Modern Quilt Guild is being able to take part in and develop my quilting knowledge and skill with the fabric challenges they run. Recently I took part in their 4th members challenge, 1st for me, sponsored by Michael Miller fabrics. I received a nice bundle of fabric from the Petal Pinwheels collection, a really bright, fresh and fun collection. The guidelines for the challenge were to make anything we wanted as long as it was quilted, we did not have to use all the given fabric and could add in any other solid or Michael Miller printed fabric.
So I spent a fair while brainstorming my ideas!
If anyone knows me the easy route would have been to make a quilted bag or pouch of some kind but I wanted it to be a challenge so I set my mind on a small lap quilt. The design was influenced from the seat covers on the London Underground tube!! When I travel down to London for my London Modern Quilt Guild meetings I spend a lot of time looking at those seats! They're not the nicest or I would say cleanest seats but I liked the pattern. So a bit of a hand drawn design and some kind of quilt maths and here is what I came up with.

I am really pleased with the way it turned out and was as close to the design in my mind I think I could have got it! I used nearly every piece of fabric and added a white solid for the background and grey solid for the binding. I am slowly getting to grips with the whole quilting process from making the sandwich to basting to quilting and I am really pleased with the spiral quilting and will definitely be doing this kind of quilting again! The only bit I need to get to grips with is basting on carpet!!
There were some amazing entries into the challenge and I love the winners quilts - so much quilty inspiration!!

Boxy Pouch Swap

So I've been meaning to post about this swap for ages!!
Ever since making this boxy pouch last December using the No Guts Boxie pouch tutorial on Craftsy I have whipped up many more for both myself and as gifts!!

One of my favourite ones is this one:

I love the outer fabric, kindly given to my by Katy at last years Fat Quarterly Retreat, which was a total fluke as myself and Pippa were having a little convo about how we didn't win anything in the raffle last year or the year before and we happened to be sitting next to Katy who told me to choose something from her stash at the sales table for free!! I then felt very guilty for moaning!!
I also love the quilting on this pouch which makes it a bit more stable, plus the chunky zip!
I took this along for show and tell at one of my London Modern Quilt Guild meetings, which then led to me doing a little demonstration at a future meeting and then we organised a swap between the members.
It was so much fun to see all the different pouches being made!

These were the two I made to swap:

and these were the two that I received in the swap - I love them both!!

Hoping to make some QAYG ones next but need to re stock on my chunky zips!

Book review - Modern Bee

If you fancy reading my review of the fabulous book by Lindsay Conner: Modern Bee - 13 quilts to make with friends, then head on over to the London Modern Quilt Guild blog! Lots of other fab stuff there too!!

My first completed quilt!

2013 saw the completion of my first ever quilt!! (Sorry the photos aren't the best quality!)

I've been meaning to write about this for ages so as we near the end of the year its seems about time I get round to it!
The quilt was made and given away several months ago, so I'll try and remember the details!
Not a good start as I can't remember the name of the block or the site where I got it from, so if anyone recognises it please let me know!
After constructing the blocks with a jelly roll and playing around with the layout I managed to make my quilt sandwich and baste it ready for machine quilting. This was definitely a learning curve having only ever quilted bags or items no bigger than A4 but this was my favourite part!!

I went with a stipple design for quilting and for the binding I sewed several remaining pieces of the jelly roll together to make a slightly scrappy but co-ordinating binding which I then machine bound.
I was really pleased with this little quilt and about where it was heading!

Having joined the London Modern Quilt Guild this year, members were busy making and donating baby quilts for our chosen charity so I joined in too. It was handed over to the Octavia Appeal (Friends of Royal Brompton Hospital). The Octavia Appeal helps the paediatric intensive care unit and ward.