Lots of freedom

Pillow lava: free motion quilted border, 1/2 way round.  Pink variegated thread.

And a bit of freeforming, to make a cushion cover........

Second finish 2015

Second finish of the year, charity quilt for Portage, around 40 x 40"

Quick work

I have to be quick, I have lots to do by March. 

Lengthened stitch,  number 4 on my Bernina, walking foot, sewn in green and white variegated thread  on random diagonal lines to match the colour movement of the patches: charity quilt for Portage, West Sussex.  I quilted across the border too as the thread blends with the fabric, so no sewing ends in!  Awaiting binding.  I'll use this stitch again.

Large  'single', lots of ends to sew on this one. The picture is from the layering process at work.  I will heavily free motion quilt the purple border. 

Quilted with King Tutt variegated thread, hides the wobbles nicely!  Not the best quilting, but this was the largest thing I have stuffed under the machine so far-by the end I had the hang of it!  Like the King Tutt thread a lot, but its pricey!

The reverse thread was Guttermann variegated pink, blends nicely with the fabric and picks up the directional pattern.   LOVE this backing fabric.

Now off to Leah Days site to choose a pattern for the border quilting, and cut some binding. .

Use it up.

Hmm. Literally hundreds of sewn up green/neutral four patches found in the reorganisation. Not the nicest of colours. What to do? Go to Bonnie Hunter: More Adventures with leaders and enders on Kindle. 

The four patches were leftovers from 'the big green one'  that I'm piecing, from the blocks that I have made up already.  I will do 'four patch x' from the book, here on the right to use up those green/neutral four patches: well, about half-thats 280, with at least that many left!! 

I found the other fabrics in the stash for 'four patch x', I just need oranges for the accent colour, these will probably be scrappy.  That pale one is really yellow. with teeny white spots, it will be the background fabric.

Does this count as distraction? Yup. I'll keep my mind on those flimsies that need quilting.  I layered one of the charity quilts today. I'll layer one every evening this week, ready to go at the weekend.

Then got distracted!  I have been looking around for a house quilt design for a while now with lots archived on this pinterest board.   

I played in the scrap bin, which had some larger shirt pieces in.

In the far distant future I'll dig out some tree and sky fabric, do a bit of decorative machine stitching and quilt cloud formations on these for a charity quilt. A bit too much attention needed to whiz it together now. 

The background is good quality twice recycled white cotton sheeting, formerly hotel bedding (they bought it as rags for the factory where I used to work) .  Yes, I fished them out of the bins at the end of the day, washed them a couple of times, good as new. Now being used in charity quilts.  Now that's frugal!

I don't think I will be using this free-range design for the one I will make for myself, though it was great for using up those shirt scraps.

A finish!

Charity quilt, about 40 x 40".  Apple backing to keep the doctor away!  I love the way the quilting turned out on this, though there were lots of ends to sew in.   As the border was narrow, I didn't quilt it.I did the quilting with the walking foot, and still I have three small tucks in the back. A record of my inexperience.

 I pulled another UFO off the shelf, this is for son number two. It's been hanging about for around a year.  This is the sample of the layout I made to show him: as soon as I got it out I saw all the mistakes!!.  Now disassembled, ready for second round.

Bow tie surplus (understatement!)

Well. I had started to sew some of the bow ties together for my quilt. I just powered away, as you do.

I had thought I had too many for one quilt. I was right. I have made strips enough for 2  quilts at 60 x 72". 560 bow ties in each.  One of these is for me, another a gift.  Here are the strips hanging over the door.






I sewed a few pairs the wrong way round: I have a baby quilt to do in the summer, problem solved, I sewed a few more, now all I have to do is add a plain border to bring it up to cot size.  I don't know the sex of the baby yet, so I threw everything in there!





Leftovers: enough for another 5' x 6', or a fancy border for another quilt. I knew I had overdone it, but really!

Outed.

OK, time to come clean, I'm a serial piecer. 

I sit at the machine and tune out the world. I have done this for several years and the result is I'm not yet a competent machine quilter! As I'm not so good (yet) I go on to the next piecing job.  

This is the year I get good.  I have 11 more small charity quilts to do, these will be practice before I try and stuff a king size quilt under my machine.  In addition to the flimsies below, I have four  more in progress and enough nine patches probably for another three.  And three  four English paper pieced ones on the go.

Thats 22 plus those below............MUFFLED help!

SO, NO NEW STARTERS UNTIL I HAVE DONE THESE.

However many great ideas I have (a lot).

Bow ties

I spent the afternoon powering through
bow ties, they go fast, but yet again, I think I have done enough for two doubles!!  I realised I have overdone the black, so I'm putting them aside now for use in another project as a feature or edging.   Watching Bonnie on Quiltcam archive as I work.