“One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel”

The Girl In The Fireplace is one of my most favorite stories.  It is very hard for me to describe what I like most about this story, I just love it all!  So as the next Doctor Who quilt pattern, here’s my take on SS Madame de Pompadour.

This one is no more complicated than the Time Lord block.  When you are sewing the block, take one section at a time rather than thinking about the whole block together.  That seems to always make things a lot easier for me.  You will find all the instructions in the pattern file.

For the SS Madame de Pompadour Quilt Block you will need -

1 fat quarter for the background

3 shades of blue or grey fabric

black fabric

Download File : SS Madame de Pompadour

You can also download the file on Craftsy.

I was listening to the audiobook The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards while I was sewing this block.  It’s a fun Doctor Who story about space pirates, and there is a fantastic plot twist toward the end.  I don’t think I need to tell you anything extra about David Tennant’s narration!  It was just the perfect book to listen to while sewing a Doctor Who block.  By the way, I think Justin Richards is turning into another favorite author of mine.

Also, I wanted to mention that I am loving the blocks from this quilt along that are showing up on the Flickr Group.  All of you are doing such a great job!!

Have Fun!
-Soma

Blog posts for already published Doctor Who quilt patterns -

May 7th – Tardis

May 21st – Time Lord

June 4th – K9

I am not the athletic type by any means, but I LOVE swimming!  It’s really like an addiction for me.  As soon as summer comes around, there’s only one thing on my mind – it’s swim season and I can’t wait to swim every day!

I used to carry my swim gear in an old tote bag that I acquired on one of my innumerable trips to the San Diego Zoo when we lived in San Diego.  This year I noticed that it got a long tear at the bottom.  Well, I just had to sew a bag to tote my swim gear in!

So I got to work and made a paper piecing pattern based on the swim signs seen at official swimming venues.  It was an easy block to stitch too!

I used the same tutorial to make this tote bag from Skip To My Lou that I used for my Spring Tote Bag.  I used a little thicker interfacing this time – Pellon 809. It gave the bag very nice stability which I like.

The old bag was 8″ deep, and I wanted the same measurement for this bag as well to fit big towels, clothing, etc for two people.  I found this tutorial at Lazy Girl Designs which teaches you how to make the flat bottom accurately by cutting squares at the bottom corners.  It also has a very handy chart at the bottom of the page that summarizes the ratio of the corner cuts and the resulting size of the bag.  I made 4″ cuts and got a perfect 8″ deep bag.  I also like this method better than pinching corners to make the flat bottom.

My husband likes to use swim earplugs which come in a tiny little container.  So I made a pocket inside to store that container along with our keys.  No more hunting for keys and small stuff within bulky towels.  I followed this tutorial at Sew Mama Sew to make the pocket and picked up some useful tips.  I used a really lightweight interfacing which afforded stability without being too stiff.

So there you have it.  I combined three tote bag tutorials to make this one bag.  It’s a 13″ high, 12″ wide and 8″ deep bag with a 8″ x 6″ pocket.  I also used fabric from my stash, so the color scheme was directed by that a little.  I took it to the swim yesterday and it was perfect!

I am so tempted to make a wall hanging with the Summer Swim quilt pattern.  You can get the 10″ Summer Swim pattern from Craftsy and Etsy if you want to make a bag for yourself.

Have a wonderful and active summer!
-Soma

It’s time for the next Doctor Who quilt pattern.  Caroline made the Doctor’s trusty and brainy companion.  I patch-worked his collar by just drawing a few lines on the collar piece and then paper piecing that area.  He is super fun to make!

Download – K-9 by Caroline Press

Have Fun!

-Soma

Blog posts for already published patterns -

May 7th – Tardis

May 21st – Time Lord

I love the guard tower in this month’s castle quilt pattern.  You can’t see it here, but this castle is situated by the sea.  If you wanted to hide from your enemy and escape by sea, this would be the perfect castle to be in.

Download File : Wonky Castle – May

The 4 x 4 castle quilt blocks I made this month for swapping with four of my dear friends are done in yellow.  When I was a little girl, I read a story in which there was a castle known as the Golden Fortress.  It was named so because of the way it shone in the sunlight.  Even though this one is a nighttime block, it reminded me of that story.

I just had to share this photo here with you.  Tuffleberry is my shadow.  Here he is ready to fall asleep on last month’s swap fabric while I was still working on it.  I had to finally pack up because he fell asleep on the fabric shortly after.  When I shared this on Flickr, my sweet friends were very understanding.  I was told not to disturb him but to go buy new fabric.  Perfect excuse, right?!

Links to castle quilt patterns from previous months -

January

February

March

April

Happy Sewing!
-Soma

While writing up the Wonky Castle post for tomorrow, I thought I would write a small post to share a beautiful mug rug with you.  As many of you know, I made a piano quilt pattern in January.

Last weekend, I got a comment from Sarah Lynn on that blog post.  She made this beautiful mug rug with the pattern.  It is such a stunning piece of work, I asked her right away if I could share it here.  I LOVE everything about this mug rug and it matches the piano mug!  She has a lot more pictures and close ups of the mug rug on her site – Pins and Needles.  She is a fabulous quilter!!

Before I headed to bed last night, I went to Craftsy and ran across this just by chance.  The Piano Sonata was at the top and I saw my name as the featured designer.  As someone who couldn’t sew two pieces of fabric together until late 2011, imagine how happy I was when I saw this!  I wonder if Sarah Lynn’s mug rug has something to with it!

Download: Piano Keys Border

Did you notice the piano keys border on Sarah Lynn’s mug rug?  I had a Piano Keys Border quilt pattern lying around to do something very similar on my music mini-quilt.  I thought this would be just the perfect occasion to share this paper piecing quilt pattern with you.  You can download the pattern from Craftsy too.  It makes a 8.5″ x 2″ border.  You can add on more to extend the border as needed.

Enjoy the free pattern and I will see you tomorrow with the next Wonky Castle block!
-Soma