Heaven

I can't show you any more than this at the moment, suffice to say that I've been doing a fair amount of sewing recently and I'm having a great time! What better way is there than to spend time in the conservatory being creative? I've made some progress on the Tennessee Waltz quilt and I'm working on a new project which will be revealed soon.

Cardi - Left Front

I've obviously been watching far too much telly recently, here's the left front of the cardi which was finished on Wednesday evening. Spot the deliberate error - I think I've chosen the spot for one of the buttons already :o).

New Knitting

I've made a good start on the yarn I bought whilst up in Northumberland a couple of weeks ago. This is the back of a cardigan. The yarn is a King Cole Bamboo/Cotton and it's absolutely gorgeous to work with. I can't wait to finish and wear it, though it's going to take a while yet. The sleeves are done all in the fancy stitch, definitely not a two evening job :o). Still, I'm feeling less guilty about watching the tennis!

Socks Again

I finished off the second pair of socks a while ago, but forgot to post a picture, so here they are, all done and waiting for winter.

I've since made another pair for OH - when asked what colour he wanted, he said "bright", I think that's what he's got! I'm a bit socked out at the moment, my next project is a cardigan. I bought some gorgeous fuchsia pink bamboo/cotton yarn when we were up at Kielder Water a week or so back - it's not safe to take me anywhere :o).

Tennessee Waltz - A Start

I've started quilting the huge Tennessee Waltz quilt top I finished last year. It's going to take a while, but I've done the first 3 blocks - I'm not even thinking of counting how many there are to do just yet! I'm not completely convinced about the swirls on the star block, I'm going to do the white blocks first and see how I feel about it then. The back's going to look stunning :o).

The Accidental Quilt - Another Finish

The total for the year so far is looking a little better, with another proper finish today. After running a machine quilting workshop a couple of weeks ago, I was inspired to get going on a top I've had hanging around for a while now. The Accidental Quilt is so named because it started life destined to be the pieced borders of the Aqua Batik Quilt. However, once I'd got them made up (I can't imagine where I found the patience to put all those half square triangles together!), I realised the colour was completely wrong, much too much of a yellow green rather than a blue green. I wasn't going to waste all that effort, however, so I sewed the strips into a rectangle instead.

The fabrics are all batiks, I've used Quilters Dream Wool for the wadding (it has a nice puff to it) and used the Cotton Patch's own brand of thread, which I have on good authority is the same as Sulky Blendables. It certainly looks identical to a reel of Blendables that I have, and it ran through the machine very nicely without producing a lot of lint. I used the Golden Threads Quilting Paper to draw up the quilting design, it's a great technique even if it takes longer to remove the paper than to sew the design! I went for an all-over wave-like pattern which is sewn in rows across the quilt, there are a total of 18 interlocking rows. I used the same thread top and bottom, with the result that the quilting shows up much more on the light backing fabric, an effect I'm very pleased with.

Here is Fatcat modelling the finished quilt :o). Click on any picture to enlarge it.

And here he is helping with one of the paper removal stages ...

A Quilty Finish

I've also managed to (eventually!) finish the second table runner made from the Moda Gobble Gobble fabric, this and its long thin twin will come out in the autumn each year. It's got Warm & Natural in the middle and is quilted with a Valdani thread, using the Golden Threads Quilting Paper for free motion quilting. You can click on the pictures to get a better view.