Aqua Batik Quilt - Finished!!

I'm ahead of my 2010 target already, I achieved my first finish of the year yesterday. In all honesty, it would have been finished in 2009 if I hadn't run out of thread, but I'm counting it for this year :o). This quilt was made from a batik jelly roll by Fabric Freedom, bought from Doughty's at Malvern about 3 years ago, with the pale background batik coming from somewhere in the US. I used a pattern called "State of Grace" from the book "Strip Clubbing" by Cozy Quilt Designs, one of the original jelly roll books. Just brace yourself if you enter the book name in Google!



The backing fabric is another batik (bought from the people who are always at the bottom of the marque at Malvern, can't quite remember their name at the moment) and the wadding is Quilters Dream Green. This is a recycled polyester wadding made from old pop bottles, but feels and handles exactly the same as their regular polyester wadding. Pop bottles and wadding are made from the same chemical compound, so in theory you could melt your wadding and make pop bottles, but I probably won't bother with that :o). I've used two different threads for the quilting, a dark King Tut (De Nile 927 - 1 reel) and a light Robison Anton (Pastel Variegated - 1½ reels). The quilt was sandwiched using 505 spray, my favourite method for putting quilts together, but probably not ideal for a quilt that's going to take a year to finish :o).



It was started in April 2008 (another advantage of blogging, you can see exactly how long a project has taken!), the top was finished in October that year, and I have been gradually quilting it since the beginning of last year, with major breaks for thinking time. On the plus side, my free machine quilting has come on leaps and bounds, and I have to say I'm very pleased with how it's turned out, particularly the quilting on the borders.




The heart motif is one that Philippa Naylor gave us during a workshop at the Festival of Quilts in 2008 and the floral border motif is adapted from a pantograph, with some extra bits added so that it would go round the corners. The heart motif is centred on three design elements on the front of the quilt, the dark spiral, the pinwheel in the middle of the light spiral and the small tringles linking the dark and light spirals. It's a perfect fit, I couldn't have designed it better myself!




I used Golden Threads quilting paper, rather than marking the top itself, I'm a big fan of this stuff as well. I drew the border motifs out in full in pencil, but I used the sewing machine to make several of the heart motifs at once, sewing with an unthreaded needle.

This quilt is now on the bed in our bedroom. It doesn't really go with the decor, but it's had a big thumbs up from OH, so we're enjoying it for the time being, and it does brighten up a dull north facing room.

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The Quilting Cat

I'm making good progress on the aqua batik quilt, and have just got to quilt the borders, then it's done! I was saving it for the big reveal, but it's been pressed into use already ... :o)

Autumn Table Runner

At last I have a finish, I've made a lovely little autumn-themed table runner. This design was on the Moda Bake Shop blog, and I fell in love with it. It uses fabric from the Gobble Gobble range by Moda. I've been practising my free motion quilting using Golden Threads quilting paper - if you click on the first picture to enlarge it, you can see the pumpkin quilting design more clearly. There are two rows of a continuous line design in the middle section, then I picked out the pumpkin motif and one leaf to march around the border. I did the border quilting after I'd cut and bound the scallops, but next time I'll probably do it after I've cut the scallops, but before I've bound them. I also got the bias slightly tight in a couple of places, hence the curly corner :o). Live & learn, I'll be more careful when I finish the square one off. This runner has Warm & Natural in it, it does make for a very flat and fairly thin finish, I don't think I'd like it for a larger quilt.

Hair Straightener Bag / Mat

I had a birthday recently and was lucky enough to be given a lovely set of hair straighteners. That meant I needed to make another heat resistant bag for them, so here's my latest little bit of sewing. I still need to put a couple of buttons on it, but I'm happy with the end result. Now I just need to get a dressing table to put it on :o).

Utility Sewing

Today's project was a liner for the log basket. This is something OH has been asking me to make for some time, hopefully now we won't need to hoover every time we move the basket. It took a couple of goes to get the design right, I started by making the side piece out of one long piece of fabric, but as the bottom is narrower than the top, I ended up with a lop-sided affair. Mark II is still slightly full, but it'll probably shrink when it's washed, hopefully no more than the extra fullness! There are all kinds of refinements I could make to the design, and would if I were making another one, but for now it does the job it was meant for, and that's all that matters! Back to the quilting ...

Slow Going

I have been working on projects, but don't seem to have a great deal to show for my efforts. However, it's been four weeks since my last post, so it's time to show you what I've been up to. The blue batik quilt has been around for ages, but it does now look as if it might be finished this year! The motif I chose fits nicely together and gives a good all-over level of quilting. One day I'll count up how many motifs there are, I've done about half, but there are a lot more to do! I've been using the Golden Threads quilting paper which works very well, but does take a while to remove once the stitching's complete. The motifs on the dark whirls are sewn in a dark blue/green King Tut variegated thread, all the rest are in a pastel variegated Robison-Anton thread which has worked very well. If you click on the pictures you'll get a larger photo which hopefully shows the detail a bit better (and all the ends that need sewing in!).



The hand project has no deadline, it's just an enjoyable way to spend an evening, and it's progressing surprisingly quickly. I've now finished the central motif and all the rays, I reckon I've done about a quarter of it so far.

Quick Shopping Bag

It's my Gran's birthday this coming week, she'll be 93, she still lives alone and is an inspiration to us all. Her birthday pressie is all sorted, I've just renewed her subscription to the Radio Times, but it seems a fairly impersonal present. In a fit of creative inspiration this morning I found a picture of a shopping bag on t'internet, unfortunately there was no pattern, so I drew one up myself. I think my version has ended up a bit shorter than the original and the handles could also do with being a bit longer, but I'm pretty pleased with it. If I made it again it wouldn't take long at all, it's just two layers of fabric, no wadding or other stiffening, so it folds up neatly. The original design was just one layer of fabric finished off with an overlocker and with a pouch that it folded down into, but I wanted mine to look a little nicer and be reversible. Pink and green, of course :o).