More quilt progress

Cut and ready for stitching.

Strips stitched together, pressed and ready for cutting.

Progress of the quilt

It began quite well and I cut out fabric strips, then looked at the fabric I had left - I was going to run out, but when I planned it out I had (shamefully?) enough fabric in my stash to make it.

Back to the drawing/working out board.

I use Quilt Pro to draft up most of my quilt ideas. Initially I had designed an 88" square quilt, however, once I started to manipulate the design I thought it would be fun to make it up in several different ways, so perhaps a smaller quilt would be a better bet. But did I inform Quilt Pro that was what I was going to do when I got it to print out the rotary cutting charts? Don't be silly, that would be the sane and sensible thing to do. Fortunately I hadn't got too carried away before it dawned on me something was wrong!

Making Marmalade

Delia's marmalade

By chance I spotted Seville oranges in the local green grocers so am now making marmalade (its in the simmer for 2hrs stage).

I usually remember that Seville oranges are only available for a very short time in February and consequently find when I enquire about them that I have just missed them!

This morning I was out with the food processor, it has a juice extractor thing which takes some of the hard work our of the process, unfortunately the bit that collects the pips and other gunk doesn't hold 2lb of oranges worth. Which meant some of the juice didn't go into the bowl for collection, instead it went all over the kitchen worktop! Hope it doesn't affect the marmalade too much I scraped what I could catch into the pan, and wrote a note in Delia so I shouldn't be making that mistake next time.
I never used to write in books I was brought up to think of them as in some way sacred, but of late it has occurred to me as they are my books and are available in such vast quantities that it really doesn't matter if I write helpful notes that save me some hassle, work, and my sanity!

I also decided to save more work by throwing the skins in the processor for chopping up, Delia is of the opinion that they should be quartered and then cut into thin strips, we are having chunks in ours this year!

The makings of a quilt?

I've put together these fabrics for a small pieced quilt.

Now to get on with it! But first I have to go and wash the cerise fabric.

Cuddle Quilt finished - go me!

After a very slothful Festive season, I finally switched off the TV and did something creative!

That is I finished this cuddle quilt which has been sitting in a box in the corner, all cut up and ready for sewing, since the summer of 2005! It's made using folded Japanese technique from recycled jeans, denim and fleece scraps, and measures 48" square.

Fabrications

Woo ooh... The instructions for making my quilt 'Hawaiian Snowflake' have been published in Fabrications Magazine you can see a small pic of it on the front cover too - the blue and white one.

There is also a pic of Pink Parfait in the review of the Scottish Quilt championships back in September. So I am double excited!!

Winter sun

The sun trying to break through the freezing fog.

Even the bin looks beautiful!

On a cold a frosty morning.....

This weather even makes the weeds look good! Oh and there's a tit on the fat ball feeder!

We have had 2 nights of very heavy frost it has barely got above freezing during the day, this is the atmospheric view that greeted me this morning.

Negatively Positive....

Finally finished the cushions (pillows) I mentioned a few posts back, they have been sitting in my projects box for quite some time!

They are the result of my messing around with positive and negative blocks, two different methods of applique and 'quilt as you go'. For the white on blue I used bondaweb the blue on white other was just pinned into place. The motifs were stitched into place and quilted at the same time using a machine buttonhole stitch.

I used the MicroStitch gun, for the first time, to hold the layers together instead of the usual pinning or tacking (basting). It was brilliant, apart from.... I used muslin as the backing fabric and the tacks slid back between it and the wadding when I was trying to remove them so I had some fishing to do before I could finish off the cushions.

And it would have been easier to get the tacks out if I had one of the tack removing tools, but so far I have been too tight to buy one, its now on my Christmas list:-) If you had a lot of tacks to take out, on a large quilt, it would be far easier, quicker and safer as you have to be really careful not to accidentally cut the fabric as you go, they are tiny and quite difficult to get hold of. Babs steered me to Lady Sew and Sew who has deal which works out well as you get the extra tacks, she also suggested I get the removing tool at the same time, should have listened.....

teabag folding

All are 3 1/2" from point to point

We did some teabag folding in the afternoon, something I never imagined myself doing but amazingly I loved it...

These are my first samples and no where near perfect please don't look to closely!!!

folded patchwork - log cabin

Log cabin 4" square

Folded Christmas Decoration/Coaster

Square in a square 3 1/2"

On Saturday I went to a Quilters' Guild members day where Janette Fairer taught us how to make folded Christmas decorations, though mine will be coasters, I'm not a big fan of decorations!

Reversible quilts...

The Pot holder was originally a block for a Project Linus quilt, but as ever I cut that one too small (how does that happen?) and faced with either cutting all the other block to match or making another I made another, so this one became an orphan.

The block was made using the reversible quilting technique in Sharon Pederson's book - Reversible Quilts - Two at a Time.

Pot Holder

As ever I didn't finish all I wanted to but I did finish the pot holder.

which is reversible

Real Sewing?

I got to do some sewing yesterday..... 6 buttons on my partner's shirts oh the excitement I could hardly contain myself. And what does he do to his shirts to require 6 buttons replacing all at once? OK I'll fess up the pile has been building on the table for a number of weeks.... well possibly months.....



Have done no other sewing for weeks, the machine has been put away whilst I do 'design work' which I love doing, just so long as I can jump in and make whatever when I am happy with it. But as this design work is for C&G I have to get approval from my tutor, it also has to be presentable, not my usual scribble, which I understand but the tutor wouldn't! It kinda takes the fun out of the whole process!



Got a couple of WIP's out after my success with the buttons and will finish them today and post pics later. Now when I say WIP's I do use the term very loosely they were experiments ie me trying techniques nothing very exciting, two of which I will make into cushions and one into a pot holder:-)

Feel obliged to leave you with a picture as I have written nothing of interest so here we have it:

Hydrangea's from the garden

More Halloween Frivolity...

Halloween II

Flushed with my success (it was finished) with 'Halloween' I had another rush of blood in October 2001 and began my Bat Quilt 'Halloween II', I think there were going to be more but this was as far as my 'series' got:-)
I found the most amazing pumpkin buttons in two sizes, probably on The Button Lady's stand at one of the quilt shows, they make perfect eyes, although they are a little uncomfortable when you lean back on the settee!

When I look at the back of these quilts I can see the fabric I used on Halloween must have been a border print, the back of both that and II are made from the same fabric. As you can see at the time I was playing with fancy quilt backs!

Detail of Halloween see previous post

Halloween

Don't you just love Halloween it is such a great time, and one is able to make the odd frivolous quilt!

I bought some fabulous halloween fabric many years ago when I first started quilting, actually it was probably in 2000 which now seems like many years ago, that is when I bought the fabric, not began quilting if you see what I mean, I had by then been a veteran quilter for all of 18 months! Anyway you know the sort of fabric I mean - the kind you have absolutely no idea what you could do with it, but hey you just HAVE to have it! It was a scrumptious Debbie Mumm halloween fabric and it was in the sale need I say more?! It sat in my stash for several months I only had a small stash back then, this was during the time when I felt it was necessary to use or at least have a project in mind for all of my fabrics... yes I can hear you laughing and you're right it didn't last long, hence studio now being too small!

I'm rambling sorry....

Halloween (back of)

Back to halloween fabric... Back in the day you had to spend £25(I think) to get free shipping with Amazon I was buying a few books and hadn't quite made the £25, now we all know there is no point in wasting £5 in p&p when you can spend £15 on a good book is there? So I had to have a look for something for me and I came across one called Stack n Whack by Bethany Reynolds I had no idea what is was about but I loved the name and it did have a picture of a nice quilt on the front!!!

There is a point to this I promise!

So I had the fabric and then this book arrived, great choice of book by the way I loved it, still do. Obviously I had to make a quilt out of it, there was enough of the Halloween fabric to make one so off I set. Did I mention this was at the beginning of October and we were moving at the end of the month? Thought I could do a little packing interspersed with a little sewing... now come on you all know it makes sense! All it needed was the border when we moved out.

Halloween

Once we had unpacked and I was able to get back to some quilting I decided to put some embroidery on it, having got a fancy sewing machine with an embroidery unit for my birthday that year. I finally finished the wall hanging in February 2001.

Delia's pumpkin soup....

Aha is this where I went wrong - I didn't follow Delia's recipe? It it looks better than mine, sounds better that mine and it no doubt tastes better than mine!!! Ah well there's always next year:-)