Garden Snails quilt

Last year I participated in a number of quilt alongs, but my favourite was the snail-paced slow along hosted by Angie of Gnome Angel. During the quilt along we made and shared a single snail block on Sunday (a.k.a. snail day) each week using the Garden Snails pattern by Pen and Paper patterns. I used a layer cake of Grand Canal by Kate Spain to make my snails and had a great time taking pictures of the blocks in various garden settings.

 At the end of November I finally got around to sewing my snails together into a quilt top. I modified the layout of the pattern a little (e.g. by staggering the snails) to make it wide enough to fit our double bed. For the quilting I used a simple stipple because I thought that it resembled snail trails.

The quilt was an instant hit with my snail-loving 5 year old.

These guys didn't seem to mind it either.

It's now a frequent feature on our bed, where it sets the perfect scene for Sunday morning sleep-ins (if only our babies would get the message).

I'm linking up with the 2017 finish-a-long quarter 4 linky party as this quilt was number 8 on my list of proposed finishes for Q4.

Kat

Snail paced slow along and August One Monthly Goal

For the past 30 weeks I have been sewing along with the snail paced slow-along hosted by Angie of Gnome Angel. We've been making one snail block from the Garden Snails pattern a week and sharing via instagram on Sundays. I've really enjoyed seeing all the different snail blocks each Sunday and had a lot of fun taking pictures of my snails in various gardens.

You can see all of my snails here.

The sew-along was originally supposed to run for 42 weeks (as there are 42 blocks in the quilt) but Angie made a decision to cut the sew-along short to 30 weeks, with last week being the official end of the slow along. I'm worried that without the weekly deadline this project will sit as a WIP for a long time so I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal August Linkup as setting the last 12 snail blocks as my goal for August.

I'm not sure how successful I will be since we are moving house in 9 days, but I'm hoping for a last minute effort once we have settled into the new place :)

Kat

Sunday Stash - 8/1/2017

For today's Sunday Stash I'm sharing a couple of new additions to my stash: a layer cake of Kate Spain's Grand Canal collection and a new pattern from Pen and Paper Patterns.

Despite owning a number of different layer cakes (double digits if I'm being honest), I have yet to make anything with one. This year I am going to try and change that and I'm planning to use the layer cake for the snail-paced slow-along with Angie of Gnome Angel. I think the luscious colours and large scale prints will work really well for the snail shells.

I've been super excited about this sew-along. There is a little man in our house who loves snails (thanks to the Dreamworks movie Turbo). I'm also looking forward to the slower pace. We're making one block a week over the next 42 weeks and there are exactly 42 squares in a layer cake (so there is no room for boo-boos). Here's my first snail block:

How perfect is that mosaic print? I love it when multiple hobbies combine!

Kat