Postage Stamps

A while ago I decided that my original piecing for Perkiomen Daydreams was not good enough to continue with for a large quilt: I sewed up completed blocks into a cot size.

I may try one of these in a different colour set in the future.

So, I needed work on my piecing accuracy. It's not bad generally, but with 1" finished pieces the 1/16" and 1/23" errors quickly add up.  I had cut lots of 1 1/2" strips from all the ugly fabric I came across, but was not using it. I spent several hours running strip sets through the machine this week and have cut and stitched the strip sets in batches.

The pieced strips are 105" long.  I have played with the assembly, four, eight, six and random patches so it doesn't look too uniform. 

I am keeping back two of each symmetrical four patch I make for future projects, as I would never cut this much variety for one or two quilts.

I am working on 25 patches now to use up part Perkiomen rejects.  

All of the uglies have gone in here! 

Just about had enough of this fix now, it will go away for a bit as I have two large tops to quilt. My accuracy has definitely improved in the last week working on this. 

3,465 of  11,025 1" finished squares in the completed strips so far, with partials done as well. Almost 1/3 done!

Linking for Move it forward Monday
and Oh Scrap!

Eclipse

• Eclipse is finished, 6' x 7'.
• crumb quilt that has been waiting for 5 years to be quilted!
• four different backings from the stash
• binding is a Micky Mouse cotton duvet cover 
• seven motifs hand appliqued, all from one fabric (useful!). Two of them were to cover poor seams, I had to add more to balance the design out. 
• wavy line quilted to stablise all those seams  with 0.33 miles of scrap threads in cotton and polyester. 
• batting is a 1/16" loft Hobbs polyester, bought in a sale

Hours of peaceful binding in the garden 

Linking for
 Move it Forward Monday
Oh Scrap!

Full speed ahead

I have spent the day at full speed, layering and quilting a 6' x 7' flimsy that has been on the shelf for 5 years.

The flimsy is made from crumbs and needed lots of quilting to keep it stable. 

All those seams!  This one is going to have to come with a warranty. I have spotted two places that gape whilst quilting, I have an idea for applique repair  that I can sneakily add and name the quilt to make it look as if it's on purpose.

I used a low loft Hobbs batting that I got in a sale. It is still really heavy!

My nerdy side came out: how many stitches, how much thread in the quilting?

An estimate: 

1.  7' x 6'flimsy
2. quilted 125 rows along the 6' length
3. approximately 11 stitches to 1"
4. 6 x 12=72" 
5. 72" x 11= 792 stitches per row
6. 792st. x 125 rows =99,000 total. 
7. As the rows are not straight add 15%=113,850 stitches
8. 113,850 stitches /11=10,350inches of quilting.
9. That is approximately 0.163 miles/0.26 km of sewing
10. Thread: loft of wadding is 1/16" so for each stitch add 1/16" ; 113,850 stitches x 1/16" =7,115  sixteenths of an inch= 444"
11. top and bottom thread total : (2x 10,350 ") to 444" =21,144" of thread
12.  0.333 miles or 0.54 km of thread. 

I think....................that's a lot of gifted polyester and odd reels of cotton used up!

Last push!

I have completed the last three play mat quilts for donation to a local charity. If they want them all, there are thirteen. Any remaining will go with the three I have reserved to Linus.  

I have several cot size to quilt  for Linus, but three doubles have to be quilted first. 

Then it is about time I made myself a quilt! 

•  scrappy broken dishes
• border and backing from the stash
• quilted back and front with tangerine cotton
• white border top stitched in the ditch in white poly core. 
• Scrappy binding from gifted poly-cotton duvet cover, backing trimmings and recycled cotton sheeting. 

***

 

•  broken dishes blocks
• backing form the stash
• quilted in Gutermann variegated green on the front, gifted pale blue polyester on the back
• white border top stitched in the ditch in white poly core. 
• white border recycled sheeting. 
• grey border and binding was leftover 2"  strips from moth in a window.  

 

• broken dishes blocks
• both borders are recycled bedding
• backing from the stash
• quilted with white poly core on the back, Gutermann brown-yellow variegated on the front
• border stitched in the ditch with white poly core. 
• scrappy binding made from backing trimmings

Four finishes

• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash
• binding from a roll I made up from 2 1/2" scraps some time ago
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• white polycore on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front
• border top stitched with variegated red
• about 1m square

*** 

• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash
• binding from a roll I made up from 2 1/2" scraps some time ago
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• dark blue gifted poly thread on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front
• border top stitched in the ditch
• about 1m square

*** 

• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash, white is recycled cotton sheeting
• binding from a not-so-neutral neutral, the border and backing are so busy this needed one colour.
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• quilted with gifted mustard polyester on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front, a  YLI variegated green in the border
• about 1m square

***

• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
•  backing from the stash, white is recycled cotton sheeting, blue stripe is a cotton duvet cover
• binding from off-cuts
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• quilted with gifted mustard polyester front and back: in the ditch in white on the border
• about 1m square

Two more complete

 Today I am working on a broken dishes quilt with a new FMQ design. I like this, it's really quick and secures all the seams. 

***

 

I tried it out on the border for the last one, binding completed this morning. That border fabric that I was determined to use up was tricky to quilt and match for binding.  I don't often quilt the borders, just stitch in the ditch as I like the fluffiness of un-quilted space.  This one was too wide not to have something in. 

• orphan blocks
• quilted on the front in mid green variegated, white polycore on the back
• heavily FMQ for practice
• borders and backing from a bargain bundle that needed using up
• scrappy binding: I had to cut some extra green for this as the border fabric wouldn't take my usual multicolour scrappy binding from off-cuts.

*****

Another finish, more moth practice

• Deep stash borders and backing
• Variegated green cotton on the back; cream poly in the ditch, gifted yellow poly on the borders, various experiments on the moth shapes.
• orphan blocks
• binding from a stash I made up a year ago

 Loopy balloons in the borders and sashing

Variegated thread looks awful on the moths! This was my original intention for the big quilt, glad I tried it out.