TGIFF - The Happy Edition

A couple of weeks ago I posted about how I was feeling very grumpy, here. I hadn't done anything creative in so long, I was feeling overwhelmed by the to do list and I just needed to play.

I am happy to report that the quilt therapy worked and I am ready to pitch it to my health insurance company (anything to help fund the stash building!). A couple of nights of sewing and I had this shiny, happy, cheerful little wallhanging all finished.

I started out scouring my Pinterest boards for something that had absolutely nothing to do with anything I have been working on lately and I stumbled across these gorgeous blocks in the most delightfully cheerful colours. This took me to this video, where a totally new-to-me technique was shown. It looked simple enough, so I started playing with fabric combinations and stitching up a storm.

I really love how these 'faux cathedral window' blocks came up and they are very easy, even though they look nice and complex. Some clever fabric folding yields an awesome textured effect for little effort. Each block only took about 20 minutes to stitch up.

I decided to accentuate the natural circles that were forming in the curves, so I spiral quilted them. I free motion quilted it but for once I marked it, which made it much more accurate. The notion that you can't mark when FMQing is a total myth, and it was well worth the time it took to mark up. It was even - gasp - worth the time spent unpicking my dodgy first efforts.

I am entering this in the Sew Lux Fabric and Gifts Texture Competition - it's hard to see it in the pictures but this technique involves fabric folding and the centre pieces have quite a nice 3D effect that is accentuated by the quilting. Fortunately the rest of the family hasn't discovered the 3D effect and tampered with it (you try living in a house where everyone nicknames the yoyos on your bed quilt 'fiddlers' because they're just the right size to poke a finger into!).

I'm also linking up to TGIFF, over at Mama Love Quilts even though I don't know if this really counts as a FINALLY finished as it was a very quick project, but anything that gets me out of a state of creative block and switches me from grumpy to happy is worth it in my book!

Hope your week has been a creative one!

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