Guess the weight and win my Valentina quilt, all proceeds to Safe Rescue!

Draw date: 30th April 2013.

 If you've read my older posts, you will know that we have just adopted a beautiful little girl dog from Romania, called Jeni. She is timid and submissive, and given her past life, has a lot of fear - but she is oh, the most loving dog - she desperately wants to let go of the things that scare her and live a normal life - the things English dogs quite frankly take for granted. We're working with her, giving her love and space in equal measures, and we know she will get there in the end. But you know what, Jeni's journey to the UK could not have happened without the amazingly selfless volunteer network that make up Safe Rescue. She is so submissive, I have no doubt that she would have died in that public shelter in Romania. So, for all those dogs out there that need a helping hand, I am trying to raise money for Safe Rescue in order that they carry on their vital work.

So, I know a guess the weight competition is a touch old school - but after all that, don't you think it's for a good cause?!

Okay, so here are the rules:

* Have as many tries as you like! Each guess will cost £2 for Safe Rescue (payment method listed below)

* Guess the weight in grams. If one person guesses correctly, they will win the quilt outright and I will post it off to them. If more then one person guesses correctly, all correct guesses will be entered in to a draw. If no one guesses correctly, the closest guesses to within 100g will be entered in to a draw.

* To register your guess, you can either: pay your money and then either leave a comment below on my blog, or if you are on Facebook, go to this page and leave your guess there:

                                        Facebook Page for Guess the Weight of the Valentina Quilt!    

From the back you can see the chrysanthemum motifs quilted on to each square.

* To donate money to Safe Rescue in return for your guess, these should be made payable via PayPal to: 
 saferescue@hotmail.co.uk
Please select the  'friends and family' option or 'personal payment' and then 'gift' so that Safe Rescue don't incur any charges. In the notes box write 'Quilt' - and if your email address differs from your Facebook or blogger name, pop your  name in the notes box as well so I can link your donation to your guess (es)
It's not as complicated as it sounds, honestly - and look at the fabric in this quit! Valentina Ramos is one talented lady.

Ready for some clues to turn your wild guess into an educated one?!

 This quilt measures 58" x 74".

 The inner wadding is 'Soft and Bright' twin wadding.

To piece and quilt this quilt, I used one and a half spools of Aurifil 50wt colour 2021.

Just because I'm kind - I can also tell you that this quilt weighs more than 600g, but less than 1500g!

Close up of the flower motif.

 So what are you waiting for!! Guess away - I will cover the cost of shipping and of course this competition is open internationally.

If you're not after a quilt, but have a present to buy for someone - why not combine a donation and gain a gift at the same time! See the Safe Rescue tab in the top bar for items I have made and which I'm offering in return for a donation to Safe Rescue. Double win!!

Lastly, are you in the UK? Safe Rescue are always desperate for fund raisers, Fosterers and Adopters - the more dogs that can be placed in a foster home or adopted, the more dogs that can be saved. It's as simple as that. If you think you can foster or adopt, I'd strongly encourage you to get in touch with the coordinators at Safe Rescue - they won't push you in to anything and it costs nothing to have a chat. We started out as Jeni's foster home - but that quickly changed when we fell in love with her! Their website and facebook page (which is always very active and well worth a look) is here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Safe-rescue-dogs-needing-homes/414494058619925
Apart from anything else, go and see the stunningly handsome Nasote, the two nosed - dog with amazing ice blue eyes. He's just arrived and is looking for a family to call his own. And yes, he does have two noses, and yes, this is an actual phenomenon in some dogs - go google it!

It's all about the little things.

Oh my goodness you guys!!

Firstly, I need to say a massive, massive thank you to everyone who commented and bid on my auctioned quilt last month. It sold for £110, all of which went directly to Safe Rescue to help pay for Fili's vet bills.

I'm pleased to say that thanks to Safe Rescue and Olive who was fostering him in Newcastle, Fili has now found a fur-ever home, and is settled and content. How wonderful is that?!

(If you don't know, my post about Fili is here)

I can't tell you how good it feels that this poor boy has got his happy ending. But you know what? I know, I know very well, that there are so many dogs still in Romanian shelters who may never get the chance to be a happy ever after story. They will pass away from this world without anyone telling their story. Before any of the amazing people I've come across over the last month get a chance to help them. The truth is, it all comes down to numbers and cost - a horrific equation for these poor souls who just want the chance to be loved.

If you're interested in learning more about dogs from Romania, and have a strong constitution (or a glass of wine and some tissues), Safe rescue have written this piece on what a 'public shelter' in Romania is.

It's horrible, and it makes me feel hopeless. But then I think -  you know what, we can do something. Something small - make a difference to just ONE dog. In one blink, I've suddenly got my sewing mojo back - I've got motivation - I'm going to sew and sew and sew - and offer the things I make in return for a donation to Safe Rescue, so that they can continue the work that they do so well.

So, I'm going to do a competition next, to win my Valentina Quilt - I know this is old school, but I was thinking of a guess the weight of the quilt competition?! I'd originally thought of doing a raffle, but after a couple of days reading through the law that governs on line raffles and gambling, I came to the conclusion that I was 

A.) losing the will to live and 

B.) I could not do it in a way that wouldn't land me in the slammer - so I have introduced an element of skill, and voila, it's a legal competition! I'll post again on Saturday 30th March with all of the details, again all money will go DIRECTLY to safe rescue, just to be clear! Any comments, suggestions to tweak the competition or brighter ideas then I'm likely to have in the near future, please leave 'em below!

Before I go and start cutting my next quilt, (Swoon, in Salt Water if you're a fabric geek and interested..) I want to introduce you to Jeni. Are you ready for a before and after photo shoot?

 

This is Jeni in a public shelter in Romania, some time in 2012. Amazingly, she survived and Safe Rescue helped to bring her to the UK on the 2nd February, 2013.   

This is her now.

She's at our house. This is her Fur-ever home. She arrived with us on the 2nd March as a foster dog but who were we kidding?! This gorgeous, timid, loving little girl is staying here, and we are going to do everything we can to give her the life she deserves.

If you're interested, I'm auctioning my Bloomsbury Garden quilt for charity.

That says it all really! If you've read my blog before, you may know that we lost our beloved girl, Lola, to old age last September. Since then, I've felt a strong need to do something positive in her memory; we started off by sponsoring a kennel at Hull Animal Welfare Trust,  and I am running the Hull 10k to raise money for them in May (my sponsor page is here, if you're interested!)

We have also started to think about another dog, which is a little problematic given our current menagerie including kids, gerbils and three neurotic chickens! It's got to be right for all parties, but in my view, especially for the dog and chickens. 

Anyway, I came across a Facebook page via the Oldies website for rehoming older dogs, called Safe rescue, they bring dogs over from Romania that have, quite frankly, had the most appalling lives. I warn you, if you look at this FB page, and read the stories, prepare to shed a tear or two.  Heartbreaking. This is Fili, and his story, in their words:

Fili today, after care and treatment.

Fili has been on an amazing journey, not just in distance but in terms of his struggle to survive and to get better. He was left on the streets after being hit by a car, paralysed. It took over a year for him to get better, during which time he almost died but his determination and strength of character got him through it. When he arrived in the UK, after 2.5days of travelling, he had a very bad urine infection. He is on steroids to help ease the pain in his back legs and helps him get around. He has also had a further urine infection, caused by a gall stone. This has now been treated. Fili's vet bill is over £400 and we need help to pay for it. Please donate what you can via paypal to saferescue@hotmail.co.uk, or via bank transfer- please mark any donations "for FILI". Thank you. Fili still has one more journey, another adventure to start - that of his forever home, he is still waiting for a wonderful person to give him a wonderful home. Please help him. Until this vet bill is paid, Safe Rescue cannot commit to bringing any more dogs to the UK - dogs like Fili. Please help us to help them too.

 http://www.saferescue.org/happy-endings/

So, I am hosting an auction of my Bloomsbury Garden Quilt ( lots of photo's to follow) which starts as soon as this post goes up and ends at 10pm on Friday, 1st March. At the end of the auction, I will notify the highest bidder, who will pay the bid price only (I will cover transport costs) via paypal, to : saferescue@hotmail.co.uk. (When transferring money via paypal, list as for friends and family / gift so that Safe Rescue do not incur any costs and they get the full auction price.) Once they have confirmed receipt of the bid money, I will post the quilt straight away. This auction is also open to overseas bidders, but please be aware the auction price is in pounds stirling! Payment will be asap but definitely within 24 hours of notification of the winning bid.  Comment on here at the bottom of this page, or 'friend' me on facebook and comment on there to bid. Please bid, otherwise I will feel foolish!!

I will open bidding at £20. - current highest bid £110 on Facebook!

 Quilt in progress - made from Liberty Fabrics, Bloomsbury Gardens Line, and organic cotton wadding. Fully machine washable on cool cycle.

Measures 52"  x 70", perfect for a single bed, or as below, sideways over a double bed.

Quilted, ready to bind

Sideways on, fits a double bed.

 

On a roll! January finishes...

This weekend I managed to complete the Valentina quilt - the fabric designs were gorgeous to work with and as soon as I saw the bold prints I knew that I wanted to frame them with a bold border.

Photo taken at my mum & dad's - their light is so much better at the moment!

I really couldn't decide when it came to the quilting, and it seemed to evolve as I did each section.  First I settled on straight lines, horizontally and vertically. The plan had been to then dissect diagonally, but as I'd been playing with free motion quilting techniques, I decided to try a central motif for each square.

 This flower motif is so easy it is a joy to do - and at just 2 minutes per motif (yes, I admit that I timed them) it's probably quicker then an all over FMQ pattern.

To quilt, I used Aurifil 50wt 2021 -fine enough that the front fabrics are not obscured by the quilting, but good enough to hold the pattern without snapping.

I do have another quilt to FMQ, but I've decided on a change of pace! We need some cushion covers for the living room sofa, and I may try some paper pieced designs. Any design suggestions welcomed!

A pattern, from me to you!

Remember the star quilt that I blogged about the last few times? You know, the slightly obsessive one with the poor photography? Yes! That one. Well, this is the very simple pattern.  The finished quilt, after washing, measured 58" square. Pull up a chair and I will explain all, although I warn you, prepare yourself for some more poor photography, and even poorer explanations............

Finished quilt 58" square after washing / shrinkage.

With all of my self designed quilts, I start with very technical equipment - pencil (sharp),  A4 Pukka pad (squared) and some Staedtler fineliners in lots of groovy colours. I get them here and here. (What can I say, I still like colouring in.)  Oh, and a ruler. I'm not keen on wibbly lines.

This is how it looked when I drew out the pattern. Can you see how the blocks fit together? Have a look at the photograph of the finished quilt above and hopefully it will be clearer.

Can you see how each HST is made up? The solid blocks without a line in the middle are solid squares, there are 12 in total.

This quilt is made up of squares - half square triangles, and solid squares. The solid squares were cut 8" square, the ones that were destined to become HST's I cut at 8.5" and then after I had sewn them together and ironed the seams open, I trimmed them to 8". I used three tones on the pattern to correspond to the five different fabrics, light shades (the orange and light blue,) a medium tone (pink) and dark tones (dark green and dark blue). If you reverse the light and dark shades, you would get a completely different look to the quilt design.

White fabric : Cut 8 x 8" squares and 20 x 8.5" blocks.

Light Shade 1 (Orange on the pattern) : Cut  4  x 8" squares, and  4  x 8.5" squares. 

 STEP 1: Sew the 4  8.5" squares to 4 of the Light shade 2 squares, press open and trim to 8". You should now have 8 HSTs made up of the two light shades.

Huzzah! You don't need to do anything with the 8" blocks until you sew the whole shebang together.


Light shade 2 (Light blue on the pattern) Cut 8 x 8.5" squares.

See Step 1 above for 4 of the 8.5" squares.

STEP 2: Sew the remaining 4 of the light shade 2  8.5" squares to  4 white 8.5" squares, press seams open and trim to 8" square. You should now have 8 HST's made up of light shade 2 and white.

Medium shade ( Pink on the pattern) Cut 8 x 8.5" squares.

STEP 3: Sew all 8 medium shade 8.5" squares to 8 white  8.5" squares, press seams open and trim to 8" square. You should now have 16 HST's made up of Medium shade and white.

Dark shade 1 (Dark blue on the pattern) Cut 4 x 8.5" squares.

STEP 4: Sew 2 dark shade 1 squares to 2  dark shade 2 squares, press seams open and trim to 8" square. You should now have 4 HST's made up of dark shade 1 and dark shade 2.

STEP 5: Sew the remaining 2 dark shade 1 squares to 2 x  8.5" white squares, press seams open and trim to 8" square. You should now have 4 HST's made of dark shade 1 and white.

Dark shade 2 (Dark green on the pattern) Cut 8 x 8.5" squares.

See step 4 above for 2 of the 8.5" squares.

STEP 6:  Sew the remaining 6  8.5" dark shade 2 squares to 6 white squares, press seams open and trim to 8" You should now have 12 HST's made up of dark shade 2 and white.

Now lay your finished blocks out as in the above diagram, sew together in 8 rows and then sew each row to assemble the full top. I always pin pin pin to made sure the blocks line up. If one block is a millimetre or two out, stretching and pinning will bring it in to line and make your quilt look more accurate. 

I also added a further 2.5"edge to this quilt top, so that when I bound the quilt, it didn't cover the points of the star. I really hope that this is clear!




In terms of the specific fabrics for this quilt, I used Tula Pink's Birds and the Bees fabric, 5 different fabrics and half a yard of each was plenty. The solid white probably took a yard and a half - I always have a massive roll of white cotton in though so I'm not exactly sure!

Phew. I think I need to have a nap now!

xx

Star quilt done!

Yesterday I managed to cross the star quilt off the WIP list, and got it washed and dried. For the first time with this project I used cotton wadding rather then polyester - which meant a shrinkage of approx 5%. I was a touch nervous about what this would mean to the look of the quilt when it came out of the dryer - but you know what, I like the way it makes the FMQ look.
These are the before washing shots:

Before washing (and shrinkage)

And these are the after:

After washing

 The only real issue I can see is a slight bagginess to the cotton fabric in the less quilted areas - not an issue really, and especially if you use an all - over quilting design.

This quilt was pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50 weight thread, colour 2021. I've been using Aurifil for a while, originally just for quilting and using a cheaper thread for the piecing. The quality of Aurifil is so good though, that I'm just using Aurifil now - and I've noticed such a difference - it doesn't snap, doesn't knot and doesn't throw off a lot of lint. The difference, I guess, is just good quality - and I've come to the conclusion that when you're investing so much time and effort in to a project, you just can't afford to use poor components.  I'd be interested to try the thicker Aurifil coloured threads and see what this does to the appearance of my quilting.

It's snowing here today - you can probably tell by the horrible light in these photographs! Actually, blimey! It's really snowing...

Friday night WIP

I don't really do New Years' resolutions - something about setting myself up to fail before I've even started the year - but one of my 'would like to' for 2013 would be to improve my free motion quilting. As a confirmed fabric obsessive,  I think that quilts are beautiful on their own - my mum calls them fabric art - but there is something about free motion quilting done well, that makes me feel - I want that!! I want to be able to create that for myself.

Tula Pink 'The Birds and the Bees' star quilt. Finished size approx 62" square.

I started this simple star lap quilt during my Christmas holiday from work, solely then as an apprentice piece for free motion quilting and quilting techniques. I accepted that I may totally mess the whole thing up in the process of learning something new, and that would be ok. (Sorry Tula, love love love your fabrics!)

So far, I've practiced spirals, bordering blocks, feathers, wavy lines and fill patterns. It's been fun. Really, really fun. It's absolutely nowhere near perfect, the quilt top has stretched and puckered in places, and to be completely honest some of my feathers look more like the fish skeltons from the Charley Says adverts of the early 1970's. (Yes, yes I am old enough to remember them, and if you follow the link, stay with the poor animation to the end to see the fish!)

I'm hoping to get it finished this weekend, and then I've only got oooh, another three completed quilt tops to construct. Like I said, obsessive.