Wednesday 27 February 2013

On the cutting room floor

I've been cutting some 4 1/2" squares for the charity quilts from the 'not so pretties' I want to use up and 'large lengths'. I have to tidy up various piles of fabric before son number two arrives next week from his three month break in the far east.
I cut some strips for the bins too and some
4 1/2 x 2 1/2" bricks......










And some hexies whilst the fabric was on the table, for the brown flower garden/random hexie.........



and Darwin's flower garden.......

..........and the stash of diamonds for baby blocks-these are from the same size strips, 2 1/4", as the hexies.There are piles of cut things everywhere.

Of course, the waste string/crumb bin is now overflowing and needs sorting.  Job for another day!  I'm itching to start the charity quilts as I want to make a couple to practice my machine quilting before I do the moth in the window quilt. 

Saturday 23 February 2013

O.M.G. I finished something!!!

The bow ties baby quilt for a colleague, finishes at 35" x 25", small baby/play mat size.  Bow tie blocks are 3" square. 

I really liked hand sewing the binding on!  I chose black spotted yellow in the end, it picked up the yellow ice cream and currants in the backing-see previous post-and doesn't overwhelm the front.

Hope baby likes it.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Quick, quick!

I have put together a baby quilt, from the bow tie stash.  It's all a bit of a panic as this is the only time I will have before the end of the month. Wish I'd had more time!

 


I quilted it with the walking foot rather than free motion: although the curves weren't supposed to be symmetrical, they were too tight for the walking foot really and are more uneven than I intended!

 


The sex of the baby is unknown, hence the random colours.  I cut the trusty ice cream fabric for the backing but now its on I realise its rather PINK!  I used a variegated green on the back to quilt. picking up the ice cream green and trying to offset the pink. I like the quilting on the back more than the front!

The front is sewn in a heavyweight rainbow dyed variegated.  It needed a lot of quilting as it will probably get a lot of washing.  Either the thread was poor quality (it was rather furry) or the eye in the needle was too small (probably) as every so often it would break down and fray in the eye, so I have a few ends to secure.

I learned a lot doing this quick project.  As time was so tight I didn't have time to worry if it was 'right' or good enough, my usual train of thought for most things.  Probably why I'm not a great 'finisher'!




Not sure what to use for the binding, don't want to 'pink' out the front with ice cream fabric! I will try to find a brown or an almost white cream.  Or yellow.



Sunday 10 February 2013

Refuel necessary!

I have done very little sewing for a couple of weeks, very little anything.  A series of migraines has floored me (:¬/

A little bit of this is all
Altogether, I will have just over three of these tins of rosette sets with papers in when I'm done.  There are already a lot sewn up
ready for the Grandma's flower garden I'm working on
I have way more than I need to compete this quilt as I only have to square it off in the red, orange, green and blue sectors.  Enough, for another quilt, methinks!

Probably not much sewing on the next two weeks either as I have to finish decorating before my son comes home from 3 months in the Far East, his bedroom is full of furniture from the area I'm decorating!