Fluffy Craft Fair Table

Looking for my Sew Mama Sew giveaway?  Just click here.

It is official.  It has rained for the last gazillion days in a row.  I have so many great finishes to show you, but I just can not get photos in the dry/light.  Instead you get inside pictures today.

You may remember a few weeks ago I held a stand at the Galway Food & Craft Fair.  I had a 3 meter by 2 meter space to fill anyway I'd like.  What great fun!

I brought in shelving units for the back and then hung quilts all around the walls.  Each space came with a table, too, so I set up a little sewing space to both conduct demos and to occupy me when footfall was quiet.    Made quite a few bee blocks right there!

You might notice an Oh Deer bunting hanging from the table.  The three quilts you see above were all created by Erin of Billy Button Design.  They were so beautiful!  And the wonderful Sarah of Fairy Face Designs contributed iPhone covers and zippy bags.  They were beautiful!  On the shelving to the back you'll see cut FQs, perle and lots and lots of Aurifil.  It was all topped off with my antique sewing machine.  Nearly needed a crane to get her up there!

I tucked a few bolts in there too just in case someone was looking for yardage.  Couldn't let them down!

And on the other side I hung Granny Mania and Chaos.  Granny Mania sold and is now on its way to a newborn little fella in the US.  Yippee!

It was an absolutely wonderful day.  Fantastic to meet new-to-me quilters in Galway, so fun to see familiar faces and a great creative buzz from the other vendors.  Thank you, Galway, for such a fantastic weekend.

Experienced craft fair hosts: any suggestions of how to improve next time?  I'm always open to an idea or two!

Finish Along: Third Quarter Update

It's official.  I was delusional.  What was I thinking when I wrote my last FAL to-do list?  Here we are at the end of the quarter.  It's time to review the little check list and see  how I did.  It's a bit shameful if I'm honest.

I had hoped to finish:

1. Electronica - made from my Sew Bee Blissful blocks that were collected last spring.  I love this quilt.  I do not know why I can not just sit down and stitch the top together.  I am at a loss there.

2. Granny Mania - Done!  She's done and I'm thrilled with the finished product.

3. Community Quilt - nearly there now.  This will be the first finish in the 4th quarter FAL I am absolutely sure.  

I have so many new projects on the go that I want to finish next quarter so I am sure the next linky party will be a smashing success.  I'm off to link up my one finish with Rhonda...and start up a new FAL list for next quarter.

Granny Mania: A finish

Woo hoo!  Here she is!  All finished and freshly washed!  She's even warm from the drier!  Let me introduce you to Granny Mania.  A happy little child sized quilt filled with brilliant oranges, tangerines, yellows, reds and lime greens on a Kona coal background.  Boy, this quilt makes me happy.

I wish you could see the crinkly wrinkles a bit more, but it's difficult on the line.  Believe you me, it's lovely.  I tried to photograph the texture a bit better from the side, but no luck.  Sorry, guys!

So many of you were fantastic as I was trying to work through my bubble troubles.  Can you see that bubble now?  It was there between the orange corner block and the blue orange block just to the left.  Up near the binding.  Go on...zoom in.  You still may not see it.  It is perfectly lost in the crinkly goodness.

And the back?  You see the texture a bit better here, I think.  

Finally I tossed it up on the wall between our back garden and the field next door.  It was a spectacular day here in a super crappy summer, so I could not resist just carting a fresh quilt around the garden and having a little photo shoot.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.  This is my first thing checked off my Finish Along list for this quarter.  Doesn't that always just feel great?  

Quilt Details

Name - Granny Mania

Made For - Sale in the Fluffy Sheep Quilting shop.

Fabric - All 100% cotton.  The granny squares, the pin wheels and the binding are all Stitched in Color by Moda.  The background is Kona Coal.  It's bound in  Stitched in Color strips from the FQs I have left over.

Batting - 100% cotton

Size - 41x41 inches.

Quilting - Echo quilted concentric squares in each granny block with invisible monofilament.

Pattern - Granny squares based on  this tutorial and inspired by this quilt.

Quilting Granny

She's quilted!  Quilted and nearly ready to bind!  How happy am I?

I have discovered that I am not a straight line quilter.  I like a little movement and activity while quilting.  Otherwise my brain just gets numb and I can not stand to sit and quilt for too long.  It's nearly a punishment.  Here I chose to quilt each block individually, so lots of twisting and turning.  I echo quilted around the center of each granny square, echo quilted around the central nine patch of the granny and then around the entire block into the sashing.  I think you can see it better from the back.

Can you see it?  This took no time at all and I was totally entertained.  What more could you ask for?

I have just one small problem.  No matter how I layered this one corner square and quilted, there was always a wrinkle. First it was on the left.  Then I picked it out and re-layered, only to shift it to the right.  I could not get rid of this silly bleb. 

How concerned should I be?  Will this disappear as soon as its bound and washed?  Or is there a way to "tuck" in the extra material under the binding without causing a wrinkle?  Anyone have ideas to share?  Until my brain wraps itself around this little wrinkle, it will remain unbound.  I can not get too far ahead of myself!

I will leave you with a photo of Clarkson.  He is here next to me on the couch.  He diligently spent the last 10 minutes crafting an igloo for himself out of Mod Logs.  If he wasn't so darn cute I would shoo him off the couch.  Instead I keep taking photos with my heart fluttering.  

Granny Mania Top Finished

Are you looking for the Kona fat 8th challenge post?  
Head here and add your creation to the linky party!

I have missed you guys!  I just could not get myself together and focused for the past two weeks to blog let alone sew.  I miss reading your blogs, miss chatting with you and miss the inspiration each of you gives me.  With any luck, life will return to my old pattern starting on Monday.

In the mean time, I wanted to show you my Granny Mania top.  It's finally finished and I am simply thrilled.

This is my attempt at baby quilt that might be suited for a little fella.  Usually the quilts I make are much more feminine, but I thought that the Stitched in Color line might work well for a little boy.  I just love the oranges and greens here.  The Stitched in Color used here was a mix of jelly roll "scraps" and a charm pack, so it was super easy to make little 2.5 inch squares and to mix and match making squares that are high contrast.  Love it, love it, love it.

I used Kona Coal as the background fabric.  This is my first time using Coal as I'm more of a Kona White girl, but I just love how the dark grey makes the colors pop.  Again, it might work better this way for a little guy, too.  I'll try at least.

As you know, I'm piecing the back.  I'm taking your wonderful advice and will cut the pin wheel blocks to fit the Coal and all will be fine.  I just need a quiet minute to unpick a bit and re-stitch again.  It's pretty straight forward if I could just focus.

Don't forget that the Kona challenge is closing on Sunday night, so get your entries in this weekend!  Voting will begin on Monday.  Good luck!