Printed panel

 off to its new home.

it is a bit lighter and pinker that this image. but it does the trick.

Hand quilted I find doing these relaxing in their own way. I only have one left to work on at some point

I might keep an eye out for others but it is not a priority. 

My Dad

 was always driving me places, including places to buy material, wadding, thread and assorted craft related stuff.

I made him a cushion for the car. well for him to have in the car, you never know when one might come in handy.

The centre diamond was in a satin that was as close to the colour of the car as I could get it.

And why the diamond?

to match the make of the car of course. The car is long gone but the cushion well it is around somewhere. If I come across it perhaps I will take a better picture of it.

A gift inspired by a gift, gifted!

 my BFF gave me a book

with lots of little pictures and sayings and stuff about being friends.

I loved the little characters with the wild hair.

Immediately I thought there is something I can do based on this.

Thoughts do not always lead to making a start. Indeed I might not have got much further but I recalled some pre cut squares, bright bold patterned squares. With dots and checks and hearts and stars and they made me think of the dresses in this book. The drawings are all black and white but with such joy and movement they expressed colour.

I recall as a child watching Come Dancing with my grandmother in black and white, how she loved the brightly coloured clothes of her imagination. Indeed once it was "in colour" she was disappointed, the dresses in her mind had been much better. Ah but I digress, so back to the project.

Firstly I traced the characters and words that appealed, then transferred them onto material as black outlines using T-shirt pens.

Then tried to sort out how they would interact with the coloured squares.

There were various attempts at layouts and snaps with the digital camera. 

Before I thought I had it right and could move on to adding colour to the character squares. 

I tried to keep to colours that my BFF and I like and those reflecting the coloured squares. It was fun working out which bits to colour and which to leave alone. Fun and an endeavour to stick to less is more and not colour everything.

I was particularly pleased with the way the checked sections came out. I wondered which were me and which were Roni, and if she would see it the same way.

Shopping from the loft stash I was sure I had some purple, a darker toned to the red side of purple, I did and that would be the sashing on the top.

There was a little rearranging of the patch order. I wanted some squares in very specific places. The same but different in the middle for example.  And I wanted to space out the squares with two figures and the ones with one.

Bright pink for the binding to pick up some of that from the squares and colours on the characters.

(Grace did such a good job taking a picture of her quilt I got her to help me take a picture of this one)

The backing was light pink and then I thought about the quilting.  Stars , hearts and circles in the patterned squares, by hand.  Down the sides of the purple stripes by machine, then some cascades of hearts, again by hand in the purple sashing.

I added the label under the binding, quilted under it then stitched the label down. The label references the theme and the inspirational source.

Once finished I was very happy with the way the ides had translated into the finished quilt.

However, it was also very frustrating as destined to be a gift for my BFF I could not immediately discuss my delight with her.

We had scheduled our Christmas get together for 10th of December, Christmas before the actual day and in the same year even, wow! Sadly that was not to be due to on going issues for us both. We did however manage it on 30th. Roni kindly made the trip to mine as family circumstances are such that any long time away from home is not advisable.

I opened the door, we looked at each other and laughed, as I was wearing her favourite purple and she, my favourite teal! 

We had a splendid relaxing visit which included amongst other things a viewing of The Muppets Christmas Carol and tea from the Chip shop and a tech assist as I forgot how to make my selfie-stick work.

Although there is still a certain knack to using it at arms length.

And having got it working here we are using its tripod function and feeling very pleased with ourselves.

Oh and all except two of those trophies (which are mine from the local show) are my Dad's from his bowling and there are more in the loft.

So many thanks to the original author of the book and of the drawings.

And for my last post of the year, well there still has to be a Forestella link.

I am pleased to have been able to gift it at last, but I will also sort of miss it. Well till I get immersed in another quilting project perhaps.

I am not sure when that might be. Those other issues are not conductive to the quilting, and it may be the other more pick up and put down, quieter and portable crafts that I use as comfort, therapy and distraction going forward for some time.

A new start

 because I had this fabric, a random purchase of four pieces of material.

Four rose panels in different colours.

Oh, I have a thought and the sewing machine was out for a bit of clothing alteration so

Made a little start, but there are still contemplations before it goes any further.

A journey to the loft

 because of some pink material left over from backing A Stitch for Grace made me think of the pink squares for sun bonnet Sue. And just how long it had been since I made any.

So the pattern, well that was downstairs in an envelope.

Finished Sues had been popped into the loft out of the way at some point and never been un-popped since.

But trips to the loft for one thing don't always result in that thing, or not perhaps in just that thing.

In this instance I did find the Sun Bonnet Sue's (and the pattern which I thought was downstairs and which at some point I must have moved!) and the bag of bits, and totally forgotten about  several pre-cut base squares, so the material I was intending to use is just not needed.

I brought them down.

They were in my bag from the pair of bags an earlier trip to the loft had inspired back in 2020! Funnily enough I had just been wondering what I had done with / used this bag for.

It also contained a previously started as DISTRACTION from sizing up the Sampler Quilt and had then been relegated to "a bag" (anyone else hearing that as the line from The Importance of being Ernest? No? Just me then.) for later action.

And having brought them down, did I immediately make a start on any of them? That would be a no!

They have become another project waiting in a bag and I will need to get skirt bits cut out ready for the next time I have the sewing machine out.

That may be some time as I appear to be in a cross stitch and painting mode at the moment.

..

A Tie quilt?

 well maybe sort of. Potentially. I once saw a quilt which incorporated ties and I rather liked it. It might have stayed at yet another pretty image (and goodness knows it still may not progress that much) but my local hospice shop Alice House Hospice had some new ties. One Hundred percent silk and £1 for three.

I bought ties.

And they sat and waited. And waited some more and more and eventually I got around to unpicking them.

I expected this to result in removing a stiff inner that I would discard, I have had to fix one of my fathers favourite ties where the stiffener separated in the middle and whilst fix it I did that stuff was not something I could foresee me doing anything with.

The unpicking went faster than I expected, remove the label, snip holding stitches at each end and then the wiped stitched thread came out nice and easy. Perhaps too easy, yes I have wound the thread round a bobbin and it will get used at some point on a something. Shades of brown, grey and black I have some thread.

I thought once unpicked they would take up less room.

That might have been true if I could bring myself to throw away the inner tie stuff. Problem is it is nice "stuff" and usable and do something with and nope can't throw it away.

So now rather than less it is more, the space these component parts, for quilt (and, hmm stiffening in a bag handle, oh or bags. I am sure I will think of some thing, several somethings) manages to take up more space that the ties did in the first place. 

And the tie quilt, well I still have to do some figuring out there, as I saw only a picture, no pattern no instructions I an just going to have to make it up as I go along.

FORESTELLA Soopbyeol EVOLUTION

 That is the title of this quilt, it is "probably" finished. I say that because it has been "finished" more than once and yet it kept evolving.

It started as a simple top to use up some blue squares and some left over navy blue from other projects.

Click here for the starting point

It was supposed to be a practice piece for some free motion quilting.

It was supposed to be quick.

It Evolved from that.

I managed to stay on track with the simple for the piecing.

I managed to stay in plan for the free motion quilting in the squares, however things went a bit off plan thereafter.  I could not be "bothered" to sew around each of the squares, although it is an aspect of bother that applied it just felt boring to hand stich round square after square but at the same time trying to machine it did not feel right either.

It needed some extra quilting and I thought circles at the sashing intersections would be sufficient. At that point the working title of the quilt as fan quilt, referring to the shapes quilted in the squares merged with the other meaning of fan, someone who admires someone or enjoys something very much. 

In my case the Korean crossover group Forestella, who at the point I was thinking circle brought out a new song with its own new circular logo for the group. The idea of using that on my quilt stuck, even thought that changed my simple and quick plan for circles into something considerably more complicated and time consuming.

click here for details of that first fateful design decision

Like the thin edge of the wedge it opened the door to more additions and more and more quilting.

Adding the members names, then the groups name, then more symbols of the group and the fandom name.

click here for details of the names  and the added symbols

My BFF noted that it was growing like my appreciation of the group had, from one short clip of a song on Facebook, to full songs on You Tube to full concerts, figuring out how to make a playlist. Buying CD's (that had to come all the way from Korea) joining fan groups on Facebook to becoming a card carrying member of the official fan group. I even added an app on my phone!

So when I was thinking of what name to give this quilt she suggested Fan Evolution. I an not sure if it was total coincidence or if my fist CD purchase, which was mentioned on this blog was lingering in her mind that she suggested this, but that the first Forestella album is titled Evolution, well!

I had wanted rid of the fan quilt label so using the  Romanised versions of the group and fandom name alongside that album title felt fitting. Both to the quilt and to the journey I have been on with the group and this quilt.

So here it is, and a some what shaky video as it was tricky getting the quilting it to show up well in photos.

The back looks grand with the light shinning through.

And to finish off a link to not just the one song but that whole first Album on their official You Tube.

And I will note that I am posting this today as once more they are able to be together as four. Each is an amazingly talented and skilled individual, but together they truly shine.

Welcome back Ko WooRim

and this is how it all started

BFF RAL not SAL

 a double change to the plans for tonight, after a missed week that was my drop off due to there being too much going on in my head!

Anyway, we did have a next project planned for this week but I have suggested a change to that and Roni has agreed. We would have been trying something new to us both that looks like it might be quite quick and that I don't anticipate Deborizing. However, as Roni explains on her blog Click here to pop over for that,  circumstances change and so do priorities.

So this week became a RAL (random along) and whilst Roni cross stitched there was still a bit much going on in my head for any complex counting type stuff so quilting tonight.

You might be thinking it would be on my "fan quilt" (LOL that is a working title, not sure it will get that as an official name) but no, I am potentially finished quilting that. It will get its own post a little later once it has a name and a label on it I think, well unless I go madly off  on yet another tangential addition that is.

Tonight it was back to adding quilting circles onto the original bits-a-quilt. It would have been very soothing except my thread was feeling Knotty, yes with a capital letter! It was reasonable soothing as most of the knots came out eventually, otherwise it would have been all caps!

I managed four circles, the picture shows two of them.

One is on a previous added repair patch.

I have during the week done a little bit of sewing on Bits-a-Quilt number three (well sort of five but I count the blue and white one and the white and lilac satin as a separate category as they had colour restrictions imposed on them) and some work on the yellow and white bits-a-quilt which is very close to becoming a top.

But I didn't take pictures of those so updates will have to wait I guess.

With luck and a fair wind we will be both back for a RAL next week.

A touch of green

 and hearts!

Once again this is not the direction I had intended for this project. However it has evolved as it has progressed and this is the most recent set of design decisions.

Vertical sashing. 

You may recall I considered using this space when originally intending to add the groups names.

And if you don't well CLICK HERE for details.

I had no comments on my intended lettering there but did get some Facebook feed back about not using the vertical space. It was a bit distorting to the lettering.

Still once I had all the horizontal sections quilted, much as I would have liked to have been done, nope it needed more, OK I needed there to be more.

I thought about stars, four stars for Forestella, logical but the length to width of the space was still giving me issues.

Then just as I was thinking about it, and in the same fashion as a new logo appeared when I was just going to do circles, one of the Facebook Fan pages suggested that as part of the push to a million views before the group is once more united as four on a particular song we add an emoji comment of.

💚💚💚💚🍀

hmmm how about using that?

or a modified version 

OK that felt right, but just for the middle of the three sets of vertical sashing rows. 

However the idea of two then something in the middle then two also felt like a solution to the star issue.

I had wanted to add the fandom  name earlier in the process. Across the top alternating with Forestella. 

In this instance while using the Korean for the names had made them the same three batchim in length, Forestella and Soopbyeol  came out as five and two respectively and did not balance

So would the Korean for Soopbyeol work this time.

well I think it does.  As a side note upside down hearts points into the clover works for me, upside down stars pointing inwards somehow did not so they are all point up.

Not decided on the thread colour for the stars yet.

But I have for the Fore together hearts.

Green.

Amongst all that blue a bit unexpected perhaps.

I just happened to have the emoji shade of green in quilting thread (thanks once more to Mrs Jackson) and thankfully I think it is looking OK.

More design decisions as I stitch. Firstly to just outline the single hearts and use the dye pen to make them solidly dark.

Second to do the inner line on the clover as a continuous stich but to form the clover edge in just the running stitch.

For a sense of continuity I now intend to do the Stars the same way but remain uncertain of the lettering will be single strand or outlined.

That decision may depend on the colour and thickness of the thread chosen.

I am still hoping to get the "fan" addition quilting done for the reunion and listening to their music whilst I stitch might even help with getting those million views.

Now I have added the link to the You Tube video we are working towards the million before but I will add it again just in case you are new and missed it before, or you might like to see the proliferation of hearts that inspired me.

 

As a little after thought about blogging. There is a stats facility to tell me how may views by day and month etc. there have been and which countries they are from (and other technical stuff) but I am never that sure when those are real people or an algorithm of some sort. Single country visits feel like they ought to be people but sudden spikes of a few hundred or thousand from one place suggests to me that something computer generated is going on . So for today I have some hope that the one visit logged as being from South Korea was a person but that the 919 from Singapore much less likely. 

The only time I can be sure people read this at all is when they kindly leave a comment. Just a Hi would be nice on occasion. 

A little help from Korean visitors

 is requested

Now Google stats tell me that I do occasionally get visits to the blog from people in Korea. I am hoping that is correct, and that those visitors might be able to help me with my Forestella fan quilt project.

Or any linguists that might be popping in.

So far it has the Apocalypse Logo quilted on it each join in the sashing.

But what I want to do is add the members names in Korean on the sashing. That means I have a restricted space for the lettering to go. If I was stretching and compressing the letters in English to fit, well I would know if it was still readable once done. I know that calligraphy can take some liberties with letter formation and indeed I have done so on past projects. However, doing the same in an alphabet I am less confident with is another matter and I worry that in contorting the letter arrangement to fit the space they are loosing the  integrity of the characters in the process.

So, before I go as far as making templates, let alone quilting them I would like your thoughts on the legibility, and as the size differs between the vertical and horizontal sashing your thoughts on trying to fit the lettering into the thinner vertical.

So here are the four names in the horizontal space.

Original intent is for the top two to be in this orientation and the bottom two to be on the vertical , but I did them on the horizontal as well just in case the vertical is not workable.

Comments on how the two different orientations  of these names work would also be appreciated.

Thank you.

It is now 16th Feb, and there have been no comments on the blog about how the letters look in either direction.

Happily for me the Forestella Together Fan page of Facebook have been a little more engaged and have answered me.

As a result I am proceeding with the letters on the Horizontal only . The templates are cut out, Yet another arrangement considered and the marking on done. 

I have the first three names stitched and only the third section of the fourth name to go..well for the first set that is. The current plan is for four, I don't expect that to change as I have marked them on with T-Shirt pens and not washable markers.

I have You Tube playlists for their songs together but I also have playlists for the solo songs of each, I might just play those whilst stitching individual names.

I am adding pictures of the templates and markings, but I don't intend to show progress pictures until all of the names are on and the next step is settled in my mind, yes those vertical sashes!

Weetabix boxes are so very useful, nice solid cardboard, I can keep these in case I need them again at some point.

Happily that was also true of the logo templates as I need to add another six, due to the rethink that just using the horizontal has required.

I do keep laughing at myself as this quilt started out as a quick tester and because I did not feel like stitching around squares has evolved into something more and more complicated on the quilting side.

Sometimes that happens, OK so with me sometimes is quite often, and my shortcuts end up being the long way around. I should just embrace my tendency to complicate in the first place, that would be quicker..

From one question to another...quilt

 some time back, oh it must be at least a year one of the ladies from church and a previous member of Quilting Sisters group told me she had a Disney panel she intended for a quilt for her granddaughter.

She said the main character was off-set and she was not sure how to make the quilt top.  Would I look at it and see what I thought. Sure, send me a picture of it or bring it to Church one week.

However, the timing never quite happened. Life, health such things get in the way of our plans.

Then a text message that she had decided not to continue with the project at all, would I like the wadding she had, as now she would not need it.

Sure wadding always comes in handy. She was passing so brought it over, the wadding, the panel, backing material and thread.

I took a look at the panel. I was rather surprised at the size of it. Usually the panels I have seen are about the size of a baby quilt, some much smaller, some a little larger. This was not a little larger it was massive! Well bigger than the top of a double bed. The central character was in proportion to the size of the whole!

Hm, what to do with it. I could not see me making it into something the size of the illustrated piece of material. Perhaps just the character on his own (pretty sure its a he, I could be wrong I have only seen that movie once) with maybe a thin edge in the backing material then another in the main top colour.

Just quilting round the character would not be enough but perhaps some textural meandering machine quilting would do.

Yes, there I was contemplating making the quilt for the granddaughter, but trying to keep it simple and quick (stop laughing I can do that sometimes honest I can) after all I am friends with the whole family.  

Within two days of her popping around I had a fairly firm plan, within four the panel was cut and the framing edges added.

I thought I would do the edge quilting and the binding first, then the middle later. Yeah later can be tricky but that was the plan.

A day later and the edge quilting is done and the first outline, the second is well underway. but not the binding, that would need a change of top thread. I was using blue on the top and pink on the bottom. Funny that pink it didn't look like a perfect match it was just the pink I had so I was using it. Sometimes if you pause for just the right thing you end up stopping altogether. But once off the spool and on the material it was exactly the right shade.

With all the outlines done thread ends needed sewing in before I could consider any areas of fill and what that might entail. 

The sewing in was finished off during a BFF RAL evening, and I am always surprised just how many ends there are to sew in.  By the time I had done that it became obvious I needed to get the edge bound as the pink material was rather prone to fraying, the blue panel material was fine.

Edge turned and pinned and then contemplate how to sew it down keeping paragraph nine above in mind, just machine or also needle turn?

Ah just on the machine, and it cooperated so well that I did the quilting in the ears at the same time. With changes to the foot, form the quilting foot to the free motion embroidery foot and of course a change to the top thread was required for a darker pink. Whilst there is some puffiness here and there I think it went well all things considered. I just did it free motion here no plan, just where the needle took me.

However, for the next parts on the body and for the surrounding Space a plan was needed and I drew on the intended route with washable markers.  

I say intended as the sewing machine often has ideas of its own I think. Two shades of blue for the body before going back to the dark blue for the space. I managed that in one continuous line, the bottom thread cooperating and not running out.

Last bit of quilting done, not looking too bad from the front and I can live with the back, well not that I have to live with it as I am not keeping it. 

Just the label to make and add for it to be all finished. Used the backing material for the label and some fabric dye pens to write on the name of the quilt and the make information.

A STITCH for Grace, that is the name of this quilt.

Now while I was waiting for the pen to cure, these particular pens need 6 hours drying time and then ironing on the reverse, I was tidying away the off cuts and a thought occurred to me. Yeah dangerous I know, that there was enough material to make a pillow case, and enough to patch a bag to put the quilt in. 

And I had been doing so well with the KISS plan. Ah well I have thought it, and pinned it, then the next evening sewed both. I have however run out of energy on the project. Therefore the bits left that would be enough for a cushion cover are still bits. 

On one more day and the washed quilt (the marking pen came out and the label pen stayed in) and it was off to deliver the gift. Quilt and pillowcase in the bag, bag in a plastic one for transporting.

Handed it over and she was delighted with the bag, oh things inside and the pillowcase came out next and the dark blue space was admired. Then the quilt, folded with the backing showing the pink was well received and turned and there is Stitch, her favourite, so happy with it. The pillowcase went straight onto a pillow and plans were made to facetime family and show it off.

I did point out that Grandma was to thank for the material and colour choices and how the quilt had come to be (that's referenced on the label as well). Ah but then in the talking about the making I mentioned the almost cushion cover that might well have been had a zip been within gripping reach before I ran out of steam. And lo and behold they just happened to have a long pink zip! Hm there may be a cushion cover at some point after all, perhaps next time I am having a zippity do da day!

(a little update, I made that cushion cover as well about a week later)

These are pictures of the recipient holding her quilt and in her Stitch PJ's, yes you can only see her feet , so you will just have to take my word for it. I think she did a grand job of modelling it so that the quilting shows up.

.

It looks a bit scarier from the back, which again is easy to see with Grace holding it up, and the bit my BFF likes to look at.

And Grandma S ? Well I had not told her I was doing this so she had a nice surprise when Grace facetimed her to share her delight and thank her for choosing the perfect materials. She was pleased that the material had been used and Grace had her quilt after all.

And for me it was nice to have something go from concept to finish so quickly and get to practice that free motion quilting.

Regular visitors to my blog will be getting used to me adding Forestella songs, well in this case it is a PITTA song (from one of the members solo albums) it just felt like it fitted the character and that deep blue space. And this has the added benefit of  translations from the Korean.

Oh and this weeks SAL/RAL well  some more going in circles, and a star.

Bits of quilting on the Bits-A-Quilt.

Mostly relaxing, except when I swept the needle away when moving the hoop, happily I found it painlessly.

CLICK HERE for my BFF's update.

We are waiting on the post to go back to the SAL, although this total RAL has been quite relaxing in its own way.

Mathematical impossibility ?

 That is what my design desire on this quilt appears to be. You may recall the blue quilt, with the fan quilting design machine quilted. And it left the sashing area feeling a bit loose. So I thought to add some circles, which then turned into the circular logo of my favourite group.

CLICK HERE to jump to the post about adding the logo. 

Which led me to thinking that to be a proper "fan" quilt it needed something more.

Which I thought would be the members names, there are four. As there are four sashes coming out from each circular logo I though that each circle could have the four names coming from them. So far so good but this is where I hit a problem. I was also wanting the four sashes left to right to have the four members names in them, and to not have any name twice in the same row.

Ah! now that won't work.

My BFF being a tech type (coding and smart stuff) even tried to sort out my desires with a bit of AI.

Nope.

So I tried with a bit of paper and coloured tabs to see if I could find an alternative that I found acceptable.

This meets my first criterial but totally ignores the second and goes for pattern and allows for repeats.

It does mean that each repeat of a name is on the same axes, either horizontal or vertical. Potentially that might be helpful on a couple of points. Firstly I will only need to create one template per name, the horizontal space differs to the vertical.  Second, whilst the names in Hangul are each formed by three batchim, the syllabic blocks for Korean, the number of letters in those blocks differ and two might benefit from being in the horizontal space.

So here is the revised plan so far.

Each name is represented by a colour.

And I think I have all four colours around each  circle.

And each colour the same number of times (6)

There will be a distinct top and bottom.

The names to go on are

배두훈

강형호

조민규

고우림

The top two being the vertical and the bottom two the horizontal, probably. 

There is no space to add anything down the sides, but I do have space at the top and bottom  for which I am contemplating the name of the group and the Fandom name. I did consider using those spaces for member names to see if it would fix my mathematical issue. But as the space there is yet another different size I'm not currently inclined to consider that further.

I am going to wait on this a little bit, and look at it some more to see if I remain happy with the arrangement. If anyone visiting has any suggestions in the meantime  please leave a comment. I will be asking the same thing of the hive mind of the various Facebook quilting groups I am in. 

And I can hardly do a post about my fan obsession without adding a link to one of their songs. This is from their last concert with all four members. In May they will be four once more as Ko Woo-Rim's military service will be completed. The fandom is looking forward to that, and to hearing their recent songs arranged for all four voices, because they are each wonderful artists and amazing as a trio but they really shine when they are four together.

Repair time again..

 wow, it has been quite awhile since I last did repairs on the Original Bits-a-quilt. 2021 and I am still using the needle turn method for the patches as that feels like it gives both a secure stitch and a good look visually. Indeed it can be a little more difficult to see what is a new patch this way..

At first I start with the sections that have worn through and the wadding is showing. Then perhaps to the worn bits that look like they won't last all that much longer.

In the process of doing that I might spot some other worn areas I missed.

It is a balance between what bits I have available to become patches and the size the repair needs to be.

In addition to the patches this time around  (I thought there were thirteen that needed doing but the number grew) I am going to do some quilting.

I intend to use the circles from my charity shop find, and perhaps a star or two (a little nod to Forestella without actually using their logo on this quilt.

I am not going to do that all in one go, but it is there to be done anytime I feel like a little bit of quilting without having to do much thinking.

And part of the reason not doing it in one go?

I missed having on my bed. This is the always quilt, always there unless it is being washed or fixed.

It is not fancy, either in materials, design or stitching. It just gets on with being quilt and helping to keep me warm. It has been doing that for a very long time now.  This time my mother asked me why was I bothering to fix it? Couldn't I just make a new one? Well yes I could (and am as bit-s-a quilts go there is normally one in progress) but I like fixing this, I like "sewing" the materials anew as I work on it, the memories they invoke. Even if some bits are getting covered up, and it might be the only bit of that fabric, still it is enjoyable.

I like the process of needle turning (I should get back to doing some Sun Bonnet Sues for that) and I quite like feeling the change in density and texture when quilting the different weight fabrics.

This is fun.

December 2024 Gifted Gorgeousness Link up

 Follow this LINK to the host blog for an explanation of the Gifted Gorgeousness Link up process and to fins links to other participants.

This is a combination of gifts. The 12 days of Christmas panel was a Gift from my BFF for last Christmas, although as you may be aware we have over the last several years tended not to manage an in person at Christmas and oft end up "doing" Christmas at the same time as our joint birthday get together, which is usually in the middle of the year!

Things were much easier to arrange when we worked together and when we lived in the same town, but things change and you manage how you can. 

That aside,  the edge and the back of this project are from material gifted to me by Mrs Jackson. It was nice to use it up. Well there are some small trimmings from the green and a row of kings from the patterned back. I did think of using them to make cards, but I ran out of puff and maybe next year!

Oh this was the 8th zip getting inserted when I made up the cushion covers for the children at Church.

The size was determined by the size of the red cushion I bought just as a prop for a photograph related to a completed BFF SAL 11.

For a reminder click HERE

So all I needed was a festive cover and not a new cushion.

If you have not visited before and the items on the wall in these pictures have you wondering, yes I made them and the details are in the post christmas-card-inspirations.html

I did think there might be a fourth joining them this year, but I managed to mislay the Christmas card that one is based on just before Christmas last year and I only found it again a week ago! It might get worked on over Christmas and I have taken pictures of the card just in case I manage to loose it again.

I have a few more festive projects on the cusp of completions so although there is sadly no Advent Hop this year there will be some festive things to look at.

Wondering when to stop?

 You might recall the blue floral quilt flimsy.

I decided to try using some thin wadding from the Pound a Meter people as an experiment. Its rather thin but I wanted something lighter both so I could try some machine quilting and as I wanted this as a summer quilt.

I started with fan shapes in the patterned squares marked on using cardboard templates I made myself and washable markers..

That went reasonably well, but the wadding did pill a bit.

I had intended to quilt round the squares but decided not to.

However because of the fan shapes that left a bigger space in the quilting at the cross points of the squares than I was comfortable with. 

What to do, something simple quilt a circle. Ah if only I was capable of sticking to simple. At about the same time as I was thinking I could just use the circle template I got at the charity shop a certain wonderful Korean Crossover singing Group (I may have mentioned them before ) released both a new song and a new format of their logo. Which just happened to be somewhat circular in nature.

More cardboard was sacrificed and I got to try out a new cutting tool that looks like a pen.

it worked quite well and I cut two templates in case one wore out as I used it as cardboard templates are prone to that.

But I only needed one.

In a fit of confidence I marked them on using dark blue T-shirt dye pens.

That was sufficiently darker than the blue of the material for me to be able to see to stitch without being  excessive .

I think it has also added a little emphasis on the finished ones.

There are nine in total with the star in each free styled rather than added via the template as having the star cut out made the template too weak.. With the edge on the quilt already done you would thing that is the quilt finished and just in need of a name and a label.

And I waver between thinking that and wondering about adding something else.

Quite a few somethings.

The pale blue is the edge of this quilt, it is on top of another quilt when taking the picture.

So what am I considering as additions?

Names, the names of the members of Forestella.

I have worked out I can add their names on the sashing between the blocks and have all the names appear the same number of times.

But, and it is an interesting but for working it out, do I do it in the Romanised form of their name or in the Korean Hangul lettering. 

The spacing is of course going to be considerably different depending on which I choose and as the horizontal sashing is a different width to the vertical I would need to make two different sized templates for each name. Hmm, I know that doing the lettering Romanized would be easier for me, however the Hangul would be more stylized and with potentially less directional issues to consider as it is easier to do in either orientation . Additionally I think the names may become more similar in length that way

Other than I am a little crazy what do you think?

I have with some amusement posted a picture on one of the fan group sites as they were holding a competition and one category was a sewn napkin with the group emblem or name on it. I have asked if my quilt can pretend it is a big napkin! I am not expecting to get very far with that.

Now what Forestella song can I add a link to for this item?

I think perhaps as it is a fan quilt (yes the fans on it made me think of that so pun intended) it will be the song that the group dedicated to the fans.

Maybe instead of the group names many times I could do each one once and put Forestella and Soopbyeol  in the other spaces. At times contemplating the options is so much fun and the quilt is still useable whilst I think about it.

Quilts on the line

 just because they looked pretty hanging there with the low Autumn sun shining through. I took pictures.

The quilt with the dark pink backing is Sampler Quilt

 

The other is Chorley-postage-stamp-quilt.html