Sheep Bag

Yesterday was another of our sporadic Houston buddies sewing days and we were joined by another lady who is coming to Ireland with us next week (the Irish Quilt Festival). I had a very productive day making this cute bag, I just needed to put the button on when I got home. I bought the sheep fabric when we were on holiday in Brecon last year and have been wanting to make a bag from it for ages. I bought the black fabric on ebay and the button is a self-covered one. I used Pellon 987 fusible fleece as wadding and there's very little quilting on it, I didn't want to detract from the fabric design.  I used the Bow Tucks pattern, but left off the front pocket, again because I didn't want to take away from the cute sheep fabric.  If I made it again I would try to position the sheep a bit better, one has ended up with the button on her face!

Quick Cushion

Last weekend I went on a Philippa Naylor free machine quilting course at the Bramble Patch, what a fun but intense day it was.  I have done one of her courses before, and was extremely pleased with how much my control has improved in the intervening years.  As we were at the Bramble Patch, it would have been rude not to bimble around the shop and buy something :o).  This cushion kit caught my eye straight away and had to come home with me.  As Monday was a bank holiday, it also got made up very quickly.  It was good to practice my free machining straight away.

Nic's Quilt

This quilt has been a very long time in production, but was recently finished.  There's nothing like having a deadline, I'm taking it with me to South Africa.  It's got a Quilters Dream mid loft poly wadding (black) and I used a Valdani thread for the quilting.  Most of it is hand-quilted, including the large stipple stitch, but there is also some machine quilting to stabilize the whole thing.  I'll try to take some better pictures once I'm in SA and I have a few more hands to help hold it up!

Another Finish

After about 3 years of on and off hand quilting, I have finished this lovely little cot quilt.  There was never a destination or deadline, it was just a hand sewing project that I would take with me to any exhibition or event where there was an opportunity to sit and stitch quietly.  The front and back fabrics are commercial batiks and the wadding is Quilters Dream Wool.  It's quilted with a King Tut thread, they're as good for hand quilting as machine. The pattern is a Sandie Lush one, I can't remember the name. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out, so much so that I'm busy marking up the next one - Fleur by Sandie Lush.  Much as I love the pattern I've done, there were a lot of short lines and much turning of the quilt while working on it, so the new pattern has a lot more flowing lines.  Only one disappointment with the finished quilt, I seem to have spilt some tea on it at some point, I don't remember doing this, but I'm going to have to try to get it out.  How frustrating! 

Cute Box

My quilt group ran a box-making workshop recently, it was lead by one of the group members and it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.  The lady running it was extremely well organised, her husband had cut kits of daler board and we just had to supply fabric and glue.  She had also baked a couple of very yummy cakes, what more can you ask for?  I made a fabric flower for the top of my box from the book Kanzashi in Bloom, it's a very inspiring book and I'll be making more of these I'm sure. 

Bags

I've neglected the quilting blog of late, it's not that I haven't been sewing, rather that I haven't achieved very much with said sewing. However, a couple of weeks ago I had a head cold, I didn't feel like doing anything big, but I did fancy making "something". The result of this creative surge is two bags, one a casual shopping bag made from an Amy Butler pattern called the Swing Bag and the other a lunch bag made from a pattern I saw in a recent Australian Homespun magazine. I used Insul-bright for the wadding, so hopefully it will have some thermal properties, I'm sure it's more than adequate to keep my lunch in good nick on my Wednesday sewing days :o). You may recognise the fabric of the Swing Bag from the Happy Quilt, I've got enough leftovers to make a couple more quilts, let alone a small bag and scarf!




I did also recently make a bed topper for my yoga teacher in exchange for a yoga massage, which took much longer than anticipated as I tied it. However, in my haste to finish it and hand it over, I forgot to take a photo :(. I will try to remember to ask her to take a quick snap, I was pleased with the end result.

In addition to this, I've been quilting the Christmas Quilt. I've also been doing a lot of reverse sewing, hence the delay in updates. I did at one point think it was done bar the binding, but there were so many tucks and pleats in the border quilting that I had to take it all out and go back to the all-over pattern, rather than just having that in the middle with something different round the edges. When it's done I will post a picture - my target is to get it finished before Christmas. I seem to have been working on it forever, but looking back at the blog I see it's only since mid-May. Having said that, that's nearly 6 months ago ...

July Christmas Quiltalong - Good Progress

The Glace quilt now has the centre quilted, I really like the way the back looks too. "Just" the border to do!

Slow Progress

I'm struggling to get going today, so far this morning I've ripped out the paper from one row of quilting and I've started sewing another row. I've also been for a walk, had lunch and then had a post-lunch nap. Better get to it if I'm going to make any real progress today :o).

Glace - Quilting Started

I've done a little of the quilting on Glace over the last few weeks, but it's been slow progress. However, we've got a Christmas Quiltalong coming up on Saturday, so I'm hoping to hit it hard :o). I've done the most difficult one down the centre, each row should be easier than the last.

Glace - Top is Together

I've spent the last couple of days off and on putting the blocks together and I'm pleased with how it's looking - the dark red around the outside was definitely the right choice. OH says it looks very rich and Christmassy. We're off on holiday for a few days (a short break in Brecon), but I'll be thinking about the borders and should have come to a decision by the time I get back. Actually, I think I've already decided, but I'll let it stew for a bit longer. Then I'll need to get searching for a holly pantograph for the centre. If I use the dimples red for the large border, I'll do a separate design around the edge. The quilt looks slightly different to before because I've photographed it upside down, I thought for a moment I'd got some blocks turned around!

This is the thread that I'm planning to use for the quilting, it looks quite pink in this picture, but it's not that far out from the reds in real life, and it will be fine by the time it's just one thread. It's Wonderfil Tutti, a 50wt cotton, and it'll be my first time trying this thread. It seemed very expensive at £8.20, but it is a 1000m reel, so it's cheaper per metre than the King Tut - that is assuming you need 1000m!!


Yesterday I bunked off and went to Quilts UK at Malvern. I had a lovely day, as did OH who went for a walk on the Malvern Hills. It was great to get out and do something normal, even though I was pretty cream crackered by the end. I fell asleep on the sofa at about 8:30pm and then had no trouble at all sleeping through the night - I must have needed it and I feel much better today for it, which is just as well as self-catering always involves rather a lot of packing. Here's a quick snap of my haul from the quilt show - notice, no fabric!! That must be a first. The bobbins were all in my possession already, it's just the box that's new. I looked at the bobbin boxes and they seemed very flimsy, this is a bead box from The Quilted Bear and there's plenty of room for expansion. It has a nice solid feel to it and sliding locks - essential for the day you inevitably drop it! A bargain at £2.79! Oh, now I feel cheated, I've just looked it up online and it's only £1.98 on their website. Oh well, at least I didn't have to pay the £3 postage :o).

Glace - Layout Final

I have taken Hazel's advice and moved a couple of blocks around and also cut the red setting triangles - what a difference they make! I think I'm happy with this layout, the next decision is borders.

Glace Quilt - Layout

I'm liking this (I think!) ... have I got the reds and blues distributed evenly enough?

Glace Quilt - Blocks Done

It's taken a few days, but I now have all 32 blocks completed. I started out sewing the base block onto a long strip, then cutting it to length with scissors. However, after 5 blocks I decided this wasn't accurate enough (though measuring the blocks shows they're all the 10.5" they should be), and also the method didn't lend itself to chain piecing which I prefer to do. So, most of Sunday was spent cutting my strips into the correct sized chunks, which made piecing the blocks much quicker. I also found a nice red dimples fabric at Hobbycraft, so I'm going to make the setting triangles from that, then decide what looks best for the borders. I think this quilt is going to be scrappier than I like, and I'm hoping that by framing it with a strong colour it'll tame it a bit. I'll do a layout on the carpet tomorrow and see how it grabs me.

May Christmas Quiltalong - Three More Blocks

I haven't spent much time sewing this afternoon, we had a little outing to a local village (library, butchers, kitchen shop and a flower festival in the church where I also was able to admire the recently made quilted banners behind the choir stalls), but here's my progress so far. I've used some repeat fabrics in these blocks, I'm sure they'll be more spread out in the final quilt.

May Christmas Quiltalong - Two Blocks

I couldn't stay away from the fabric for long. I fiddled around cleaning the machine, then decided to "just" make a couple of blocks to see how they'd look. Stopping for lunch now.

May Christmas Quiltalong - A Start

I've cut some squares, untied the jelly roll and even found some toning greens in my stash. I've also set up the machine in the conservatory, dropped OH in a village a few miles away so he can walk home (this was voluntary on his part LOL!) and stopped in at the local garage to buy some cadburys mini eggs. I'm all set ...

May Christmas Quiltalong 1

Today is quiltalong day, I haven't managed the last few, but I was hit by sudden inspiration this morning. Watch this space ... It's going to involve a jelly roll called Glace.

The Happy Quilt is Finished

I've really enjoyed making this quilt and the colours are so joyful that I've called it The Happy Quilt. I've just finished stitching the binding down this afternoon, and that's made me happy too!

A quick summary of the details. The pattern is from a book called Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett and it uses a jelly roll of fabric, plus one neutral background fabric. The pattern suggests buying a separate binding fabric, but I used up leftovers from the jelly roll and the offcut from the backing fabric and am pleased to report that I have virtually nothing left. The jelly roll is by Moda and the fabric range is Eden by Lila Teuller. My background fabric was a white on white that I had in my stash. I used Hobbs Polydown wadding which has given it a nice texture and a light soft feel, and I quilted it with King Tut thread in Sunstone (a pale yellow which is very subtly variegated, but you can't really see that unless you look at it wound on the bobbin!). As usual, I traced the quilting design onto Golden Threads quilting paper and stitched it on my lovely Bernina 630 sewing machine with BSR attached. The finished quilt is 52" x 68".