Still in the groove

 I am a novice machine quilter.  This morning, doing this lap size (for a friends sister who runs a charity for children with learning difficulties) I have learnt a lot-about stitch length, the wisdom of using pins instead of safety pins (ouch!) to sandwich, rolling the quilt properly, how the walking foot works.    And I keep telling myself that children are not the quilt police!  One down, eight to go!  Binding on next.

In the last few days sewing binge since I have a new sewing room, everything I have done has been for someone else, so last night I sewed some bow ties together for MY quilt. I have over 1000 pieced and ready to be assembled, they finish at 3 inches. This is the layout I have decided on. Most of the knot sections are a different colour to the bows: I had all the squares cut and lots of 1 1/12" strips in the bin, so I used those for the knots. I am pleased with my accuracy on these, they are going together well considering they were pieced over several months.

Dedicated space.

Yipppppeeee!  I now have a dedicated sewing room, though in true quilter fashion, its too small, even though it's the biggest bedroom in the house!  In the reorganisation, I found lots of orphan blocks that I have sewn up for Linus, just to get them out of the way.   Now I'm webbing a double, that was ready to go, Dancing Sisters Choice. 

Sisters Choice blocks, this will be a gift.

 

Orphan red moth in a window blocks, with orphan four patch centre strip-all of this was either assembled or pre-cut. Easy!  I just had to cut an outer border.

 

 

Mauve moth blocks, with pre-sewn mini moth centre, border was all that needed cutting.

 There are another three moth Linus quilt tops assembled, in various colours.

Four orphan spiderweb blocks: I tried out the seagull background fabric and it didn't pop enough. I like the juxtaposition of the seagulls with their distant dinosaur relatives on the inner border. Outer blue border was leftover from another project.

Orphan twisted nine patch blocks, Linus size!

I now have seven tops ready to be quilted for Linus. 

I have a few of these done, about 40 of 400 or so, for Perkiomen daydreams. I am really trying to do this as a Leader-Ender project.

So far, so good...

A few quick pics, I want to keep up the momentum!

And the next handquilted project will be...........

The rainbow hexie: these are old pictures, it is in a more advanced state of completion now.

I'm moving my machine to a bedroom, then I will be working on machine quilting

four charity quilts.  

A lot to finish this year, last year I did very little sewing

The learning curve-a finish!!

1/ Take a picture of the finished quilt before you give it away!  This post will have to make do with old pictures from the making of 'Kiss in the Corner, until I can get a picture from the recipients.

This quilt went everywhere, including on holiday to the Premier Inn. It was my first full size double and my first hand quilted project.

2/ Start small when you are a novice!  Especially with hand quilting, it became overwhelming!

3/ I learnt why hand quilting is done in long lines, mostly. I spent a lot of time wrestling it in circles, as each of those white patches on the twisted nine patch block has two hearts on! And I quilted in each of those small blue areas (I need not have) and the brown squares. Total overkill, but it has a very unique quilting design, as the hearts are all random shapes and sizes and the quilting of the brown patches was governed by the fabric pattern of each.

Making the top was relatively quick, all with fabrics from the stash.

That was the idea, of course, as it was a last minute wedding gift for my sons friend (he was best man at his friends wedding). I was contributing the work and he paid some of the cost.

4/ For me, this is a big lesson, don't tell the recipients something is on the way. I'm a terrible 'finisher' always starting something new, so many ideas, so little time.  It' 3 1/2 years late!!  The SHAME!!! 

This is the closest picture I have to what it looks like now, minus borders. I chose a busy backing, as the quilting was an unknown entity and I didn't know what it would look like. That was a GOOD choice!

Here is a picture with the borders- I didn't quilt the border, controversial! There are small hearts printed all over it so it ties in nicely with the quilting. 

For the binding, I used navy blue, with a backing fabric crumb catcher, I'm really pleased with how that looks.  Sewing the binding down only took a couple of evenings, so it went off with my so yesterday to give to his friends just before Christmas.  Phew!

Reading this week........................

Second in the series.................a favourite author.

This has useful bite sized chapers for that large cup of tea moment!  Eclectic travels and social history of trees. A pleasant, light read

Found this by change in the library, highly recommended workbook for design, contains the basics I learned on my City and Guilds course.

A bit more scrumbling...........

 And some doodling........

And I have ALMOST finished this!!

Big reveal after Xmas as its a gift!