Nearly Insane Quilt - Block 18 ( ... the block with the most pieces)

Nearly Insane Quilt, Block 18 (the 6" block with the most pieces!)

Here it is! Block 18 - the one with the most pieces in it.  Three cheers for me.  Hip Hip Hooray! Officially 229 in this 6 inch block, and here it is with all but the outer edge papers removed. Pretty pleased with the way it looks, and how it has come together.  With that many pieces there was a risk it could look a bit of a dog's dinner.

Block 18, Electric Quilt Software Pattern, Nearly Insane Quilt

As you may know, I have been drawing up the blocks in my Electric Quilt software, and sometimes this gives me the chance to make a few alterations if I see fit.  Would you believe it, on this one, I decided to ADD more pieces.  In this case I added some extra cornerstones, which makes the total of my Nearly Insane Block 18,  243 pieces.  Also, on the original block, the miniature half square triangles,where going in different directions.  I have switched some, to make this Barber's Shop stripe effect.


English Paper Piecing - paper templates

Everything about this 6 inch block has taken longer - cutting out the paper pieces, cutting out the fabric shapes, and stitching it together.  There are 192 of those little triangles, all of which I covered using English paper piecing.  For the centre square, the pieces were just too tiny, so I opted to use foundation piecing for that bit.  I won't show you the back for that bit, it is way too bulky! 

Rotary Cutting tiny pieces for Block 18 - Nearly Insane Quilt

Now it is complete there is a sense of "if I can achieve that , I can achieve anything", with this quilt. There may have been easier ways to get the same pattern, with less pieces, but I guess it is the difference between climbing Mount Snowdon, versus taking the Mountain Railway.  Overall, not horrendously difficult, Block 43 wins there, but if you are thinking of doing this block, just allow yourself plenty of time to complete.

NUMBER OF PIECES: 243
DIFFICULTY: 8/10
SMALLEST PIECE: Triangle 1/2" (12.5mm) x 3/8" (9mm) x 3/8" (9mm) 
LARGEST PIECE: Rectangle 1 1/2"(38mm) x 3/4" (19mm)TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP) and Foundation Piecing
FABRICS: 
Calico
"Days Gone By" Exclusively Quilters (Rose Print)
Red with white pindot (unknown)
White floral on red (unknown)

Joining up with Connie at Freemotion By the River and Freshly Pieced.

Nearly Insane Quilt - Edge Block 86

Edge Block 86 - Nearly Insane Quilt

Edge Block 86 for the Nearly Insane Quilt has only got 14 pieces.  I needed to do it, as I felt the need to get some progress on the quilt.  Work on the notorious 'Block 18' is taking its time.   I knew this edge block would be done quite quickly, and as a result I also have something to show you.  I enjoyed doing it, mainly because it came together easily, and the bigger pieces have given me the chance to showcase Red Hoops, a bigger print in the Moda Mama Said Sew Collection.

Progress so far - Block 18 Nearly Insane Quilt

Just so you know that I am not just wimping out of Block 18, here is the progress so far.  Block 18 is not difficult, but it does need your full concentration and therefore it is time consuming. To break it up, I am doing nine HST unit blocks.  Just one of these blocks has 18 pieces in it, which is more that the edge block above. As you can see, I am over half way with this one, with 146 of the 229 pieces together (that 63%!)  I hope to put some time to it this weekend to get it done.


Sparky on 'Easy Street Parking Lot' Cat Mat Quilt

Other quilty stuff going on here at Fabadashery - Sparky is making good use of his 'Easy Street Parking Lot' cat mat.  Good enough reason to join up with Feline Friday over at Sarah Did It, where you can also join in the 60's Batik Blog Hop. 

NUMBER OF PIECES: 14
DIFFICULTY: 1/10
SMALLEST PIECE: Triangle 3/4" (18mm) x 1/2" (77mm) x 1/2 (77mm) 
LARGEST PIECE: Rectangle 3.5"(89mm) x 1 1/4" (32mm)
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS: 
"Red Hoops" (5493-31) Mama Said Sew Collection, Sweetwater for Moda
"Christmas Past" (14547) by Polly Minick and Lauri Simpson for Moda
"Songbird" (C2863) by Carina Gardner for Riley Blake Designs

Welsh Wholecloth Quilts - Welsh Quilt Centre Exhibition, Lampeter 2013

Cwrtnewydd Fans Art Deco Wholecloth Quilt, c 1930
Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter, Wales

Alongside all those colourful Kaffe Fassett quilts hanging from the ceiling which I showed in my last post, were a lovely selection of traditional hand made wholecloth Welsh quilts, from the Jen Jones Collection, which makes up the majority of the Welsh Quilt Centre permanent exhibits.  It was hard to resist getting onto the bed and having a snooze with all those pink hand quilted quilts!

Green and Red Wholecloth Quilt, early 20th Century,
Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter

As I hope you can see, these quilts are ALL about hand quilting, and traditional wholecloth Welsh quilting patterns.  The majority of those on show were a cotton sateen, usually with a floral patterned fabric on the reverse.  The sheen on the sateen really shows off the quilting patterns well.

Detail - Green ad Red Wholecloth Quilt, possible Wedding Quilt, 
Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter

The detail on this Green quilt shows a heart pattern at the centre, surrounded by spirals which represent long life or eternity, most probably a wedding quilt.  What a wonderful gift to receive!

Detail - 'Jester Quilt', c 1920, Carmarthenshire 

This Jester Quilt really shows the quilting well, and even with my 2D photo on the internet, you get quite a good impression of the depth of the wadding. Alongside the completed quilts, there were samples on show the inside of these traditional quilts.  As you can see, the 'wadding' is sheep's wool.  In this sample it doesn't even look as if it was prepared in any way, and possible even just collected from the hedges in the fields.  As a result, the quilts have a lovely cosy depth to them. 

Sheep's Wool wadding in traditional Welsh Wholecloth Quilt

On the day we visited, Sandie Lush running a hand quilting workshop.  Sandie is a very good tutor if you want to learn about welsh quilt patterns and hand quilting, so if you get the chance to go on one of her workshops you will learn so much.

Cow keeping warm under Strippy Welsh Quilt

Finally, I picked up this card in the shop, showing a favourite cow wrapped up in a hand made quilt, on a Welsh farm.  It really emphasises the practical purpose of a quilt - to keep warm!

Kaffe Fassett Comes to Wales - Quilt Exhibition, Lampeter - Part 1

Kaffe Fassett Quilt Exhibition - Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter, 2013

During our trip up to mid-Wales we took the opportunity to visit the Welsh Quilt Centre, in Lampeter where they are hosting an exhibition of Kaffe Fassett quilts, on until 2nd November 2013. 


Welsh Quilt Centre Exhibition - Kaffe Fassett Quilts

It was a beautifully curated exhibition, with the quilts suspended from the ceiling, so you could see both the front and back. 


Imari Plates Quilt - Kaffe Fassett

Kaffe Fassett is known for his unmistakeable colourful quilts, and the colour and his fabric designs do most of the talking.  It is hard not to be drawn in by the vibrant colours.  On the other hand, fanciful quilting techniques are not the order of the day, partly maybe because they would be lost in all that colour.


Kaffe Fassett Applique Folk Art Quilt, Welsh Quilt Centre 2013

Lots of clever ideas using tone and colour, and plenty of inspiration.  I imagine few of us have been able to restrain ourselves from buying a few fat quarters of Kaffe Fassett's fabric.


Calico Kate, Quilt Shop , Lampeter, Wales

No fear.  Right next door to the Welsh Quilt Centre is a lovely quilt shop, Calico Kate.  There are eight rooms of quilt fabric, including a WHOLE ROOM of Kaffe Fassett prints.  What a find!  I came away with a few Fat Quarters - it was the least I could do to keeping the economy going.

Kaffe Fassett Quilt Exhibition, Welsh Quilt Centre, Wales

After spending a couple of hours in the shop and at the exhibition it was time for lunch.  Do you see some more subdued quilts in the background?  You will have to wait until next time to hear about those ...

Nearly Insane Quilt - Block 68 visits the Elan Valley, Wales

Block 68 - Nearly Insane Quilt at the Elan Valley, Wales

As you know, my blocks tend to travel far and wide, and recently Block 68 has travelled to Mid-Wales to the Elan Valley, and here it is posing with one of the reservoirs in the background.  

Nearly Insane Quilt - Block 68

When preparing this block in my Electric Quilt software, I wasn't really happy with Salinda's design, so it has gone through a few alterations.  The centre strip was originally small strips, it is now it is a set of five QST's.  Also the long strips have been divided into three. In fact, now that I have referred to the original diagram, I have changed it quite a bit ... my prerogative I guess.  Just in case the Nearly Insane police are out there, the original design had 32 pieces - I have increased it to 46.

Red and Cream fabric scraps

With all the 'design' changes, it allowed me to make this another scrappy block.  My red and cream / white scrap jar provided me with plenty of options, and I love the way that the scrappy blocks bring the different tones of red together.

You may also be interested to know that I have started on Block 18.

Joining up with Crazy Mom Quilts!

NUMBER OF PIECES: 46
DIFFICULTY:3 /10
SMALLEST PIECE: Triangle, 1.25" (76mm) x 7/8" (23mm) x 7/8" (23mm)
LARGEST PIECE: Rectangle, 6" (152mm) x 3/8" (9mm)
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS: 
Scraps

Liberty Love - Clover Clamshell Accessory Case

Clover Clamshell Case - Liberty Fabric

There have been a flurry of new Followers of the Fabadashery blog in recent weeks - welcome.  I have been  busy visiting your blogs to see what you are all up to, and have noticed a couple bloggers have been working on projects using Liberty Fabrics.  Blue Moth has made a cute  Mini Hexagon Pincushion in some Liberty fabrics, like the one I made a few weeks ago, and there are also lots of Liberty goings-on over at Knotted Cotton. Do go and visit.


Liberty Tana Lawn Fabrics

Anyway, all this Liberty loveliness made me pull out my Liberty Tana Lawn stash, to ponder over the potential for a little Liberty project.  In the end I opted for another Clover Clamshell Accessories Case, like I made a few weeks ago. 

Many years ago when I used to travel up and down the country on the train, my essentials pack included my Walkman, a few audio tapes, and spare batteries.  To hold all these bits I made a zipped bag out of the Liberty "Ianthe" design, which I had hand quilted.  Well, times have moved on, and I decided to make a clamshell case to hold my iPhone earphones, this time covered in the Liberty "Wiltshire" fabric design, with the inside fabric from the Ella, Red Rooster Range.


Clover Clamshell Accessory Case - Padded Forms, Inner and Outer fabrics

Second time around, the Clamshell Case was easier to make, and the Tana Lawn cotton meant that I was able to get a lovely sharp finish.  Once I cut out all the pieces, it was packed up for a 'found' moment.  In the end the 'found' moment was whilst watching the first episode of the new series of Downton Abbey on Sunday evening.


Clover Clamshell Case - Earphone Storage

A neat storage solution, and a quick and easy project - I can see a few more of these being made.
Joining up with WIP Wednesday!
 

Nearly Insane Quilt - Draw 13

Nearly Insane Quilt - Blocks 7, 78, and 83

These are the blocks from Draw 12, which marks the halfway stage on my Nearly Insane journey.  I think I am finally getting the hang of balancing the tones for these Nearly Insane quilt blocks, ensuring that I am getting deep, midtones, and lights into each one. 

It is just as well that I am, as I have just made the next lucky Draw ...

 18 - 65 - 68 - 86

Draw 13 has THE BLOCK in it!  Block 18 is the one with the most pieces in it - 229 pieces in total.  The most I have done so far for these 6 inch blocks is 120 - which I quite enjoyed ... Putting these many-pieced blocks together is not difficult, just more time consuming.  However, just cutting the 229 pieces is going to take time. 

I had better get off the blog and get going.
 

Nearly Insane Quilt - Edge Block 93

Nearly Insane Edge Blocks: 88, 93, 96, 97

Another round up of the more recent Edge blocks from the Nearly Insane Quilt, featuring 88, 93, 96, and 97.  As I have said before, there are two of each for these, but I have found that they are all very similar anyway, and they don't have the complexity of the full blocks.  They are great to do if one of the more 'meaty' blocks have taken a long time.


Nearly Insane Quilt - Edge Block 93

Despite its name, my Nearly Insane Quilt is actually the one thing keeping me sane, as it is the only stitching I am managing to do at the moment.  I have a few projects I would like to do, but in the back of my mind I am reserving some time around Christmas ( ... yes, I said Christmas) to do Bonnie Hunter's 2013 Mystery Quilt - has anyone heard if there is one on the cards?


NUMBER OF PIECES: 12
DIFFICULTY: 1/10
SMALLEST PIECE: Triangle 4 1/4" (108mm) x 3" (77mm) x 3" (77mm) 
LARGEST PIECE: Triangle 1 (25mm) x 3/4" (18m) x 3/4" (18mm) 
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS: 
Calico
Holiday Treats Red Packed Peppermints by Timeless Treasures
Polka Party Petite" (Buttercream) Lakehouse Dayz Collection by Holly Holderman, Lakehouse Drygoods (LH05037)

Nearly Insane Quilt - Block 7 at Coronation Exhibition at Buckingham Palace

Block 7, Nearly Insane Quilt visits Buckingham Palace, London

Here is Block 7 of the Nearly Insane Quilt on a trip to Buckingham Palace. 

We took a trip up to London at the weekend to visit the Coronation Exhibition, which was part of the annual Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace.  The main attraction for me was knowing that Queen Elizabeth II's  Norman Hartnell designed Coronation dress was going to be on display, along with some of the jewels.  The dress was absolutely breath-taking, and it was lovely to see the construction and embellishment on a couture dress from the 1950's. Most of the pictures from the time are in black and white, so it was lovely to see it in technicolour - there was also a colour cine film of the behind the scenes being shown. No photos allowed unfortunately, so use the links in this post to see the official photos.

As a young girl I used to pour over a book we had on the Queen's clothes, which included colour photographs of the embroidery samples that were used on her dresses.  As the Queen, I *assumed* that her dresses would be covered in diamonds and pearls.  It was only a few years ago, when I visited Buckingham Palace for the Dress For the Occasion exhibition that I realised that the dresses were not decorated in real diamonds and pearls, but in the same bugle beads and mother of pearl that we all can buy in the shops.  Some of the dresses from the 1960s even had plastic shapes for decoration! What an anti-climax.  Nevertheless, it is always a pleasure to see beautifully hand crafted couture gowns, and there was also a display of the real bling that she wore to accessorize the dress on the day.

The Coronation dress had plenty of fine embroidery on it, including beading and goldwork done by the Royal School of Embroidery.  The Royal School of Embroidery still exists and is based at Hampton Court Palace in London.  One of the Fabadashery Blog Followers, Emily, is lucky enough to live nearby and often shares the progress of the embroidery workshops she attends.


Block 7, Nearly Insane Quilt

Back to Block 7.  I was lucky enough to be a passenger on the journey to London, so I managed to get the block stitched together, which is why I was able to take the photo in Buckingham Palace gardens.  Not a tricky block, only 36 pieces.

As always linking up with Connie at Freemotion By the River, where she hosts a lovely friendly Linky Party.

NUMBER OF PIECES: 36
DIFFICULTY:3 /10
SMALLEST PIECE: Triangle, 3" (76mm) x 2 1/8" (54mm) x 2 1/8" (54mm)
LARGEST PIECE: Triangle, 1" (26mm) x 11/16" (18mm) x 11/16" (18mm)
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS: 
Little Spots Red, Pierres Famous Travelling Circus, Michael Miller
Tangled Threads in Apple Red on Cream, Mama Said Sew, by Sweetwater for Moda
Spraytime (Scarlet) by Makower #2800-R06
White spots on cream

Nearly Insane Quilt - Block 83

Block 83 Nearly Insane Quilt

Can you believe it - this block marks the half way mark with the Nearly Insane Quilt blocks.  In my original plan I worked out that there are 25 draws, with 3 full and one half block, to get the quilt top complete, and as we are on Draw 12, and this the second block .... yes, we are half way through. The pieces of paper in my Nearly Insane Bowl are gradually diminishing!


Nearly Insane Draw bowl

I am really trying to get the light , medium and dark fabrics into each block, as they work better in the overall quilt.  I am also looking forward to when I have enough blocks to start sewing it together.

Lately, I have been in a hurry to get these blocks done. To be honest it has been a struggle to get just this block done this week, with one thing and another - well, mainly work, it really felt like I was stealing time to get it done.  Nonetheless, it is a finish.


Joining Up with Crazy Mom Quilts

NUMBER OF PIECES: 65
DIFFICULTY: 4 /10
SMALLEST PIECE: Square, 3/8" (10mm) x 3/8" (10mm)
LARGEST PIECE: Triangle 4" (100mm) x 13/16" (72mm) x 13/16" (672mm)
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS: 
Red Sprig on Cream (Unidentified)
Cherry Sketch Basic Collection by Timeless Treasures #C8224
Spraytime (Scarlet) by Makower #2800-R06
White on Cream Print