Thursday, January 30, 2014

on to new things!

I'm not sure if you noticed, but there was a bit of a post '52 weeks 52 crafts' lull here at Lazy Crafternoons. I have been quite busy behind the scenes, but my 2012 challenge must have really knackered my blogging skills because 2013 was consequentially quite a quiet one in my little corner of the world wide weberverse.

2014 will be all about balance for me. Trying to find a way to juggle my craft life and work life (a new full time job at the end of 2012 may or may not have also been keeping me quite busy). 

Total blog posts in 2012: 79
Total blog posts in 2013: 1

I'll aim for something in the middle this year. Hoping to post more patterns, updates, and pieces on what inspires me to get crafting. I think 40 posts is reasonable, don't you?

In the mean time I'll post a few pictures of the projects I have been working on quietly this past year. A few major projects including two quilts: one for my friend's wonderful summer wedding (which I had the joy and privilege of officiating!) and another for my beautiful newborn niece in Canada.

Wedding Quilt.


I made this using some very bold fabrics from Tula Pink (Birds and the Bees collection). If you look closely, it starts with 1 inch half-square triangles in the middle and then the squares gradually increase, doubling in size towards the edges of the quilt until pieces make up 8 inch squares.  I like the way the fabrics draw inspiration from nature, with bold coloured fabrics which subtly work birds and bees in the patterns - both classic and modern, ordered and chaotic! Sort of the perfect fabric for my good friends who are getting married: bright and cheerful, outrageous and also structured - I knew it was the right choice for the project.  I didn't want to dilute the bright fabrics with other collections or solids and pale fabrics, so I chose a pattern that matched what I liked about the fabric. A patchwork that is seemingly unstructured, but when you look closely is actually quite orderly.

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Canadian Wild quilt.


I made this quilt using a mix of jewel and autumnal toned fabrics... and it represents my first foray into paper piecing. The quilt features Canadian animals, starting with a stag pattern in the middle which I bought and downloaded on Etsy and then using my experience piecing that together, I gradually drew my own paper piecing patterns to create the goose, beaver, racoon, fox, moose and bear.

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I've also had some smaller projects on the go and have started selling some small quilts and projects in my own Etsy shop, so go ahead and check those out.  

I'll be posting some new tutorials, tips and ideas soon! Happy (belated) New Year!