Tagged in a post

Number three attacked with the tagging gun!  (Did I say I love my tagging gun???)  This one is about 110 x 110 inches, too big to fit in the centre of the tables and still stick to the edges of the table.

Unorthodox method, I folded 2 sides under and stuck, now I'm ready to move it to the other side and continue.  Only way to do it.

This flimsy was English paper pieced from recycled fabrics and family clothing. There are some polycottons in here and it's sewn together with cream thread-I started it over 15 years ago when the boys were small and I had no money, even for matching thread!  I was very pleased to see an antique quilt at the Victoria and Albert Museum last year that was hand pieced in natural coloured cotton from scraps, it made me feel better about some of the stitching being visible!

I chose wool wadding for this as I will sew round each hexie, when it is washed and the wool shrinks by 4% they will all puff up.  Not sure when I will start this, or even finish.  Its already very grubby and covered in cat hair as its been sitting around for so long!  I'm going to wash it before I bind it, so when I put the binding on it will be smooth, not wavy. Hopefully.

Ice Cream Sunday

My second layering of the week-I stayed late every night to do these in the conference room.  I work for a sign company: one of our manufacturing units makes vitreous enamel signage, like the maps you see on the underground, that's the assemblage of samples behind.

Three tables pushed together was the perfect size, so much easier than groveling around on the floor at home.  I'd give my boss a hug for letting me use the room but it would frighten him!! I have secured the use for the next week at least, I have four more to layer. 

The effect I was trying to achieve with colour on this single isn't really visible: I took all the blocks from my stash to make it, so it was really quick to create as there was no cutting. If you think you can see what I have done with the colour, please comment! I think the effect would have been apparent if the blocks had been smaller.  I'm going to machine quilt this, quite heavily, this will bring out the effect (hopefully). The backing is scrummy, so that side will be OK!  I like the fact that it looks like clam shell patchwork. This was another sale bargain at five pounds per metre, I have about 15 metres altogether, every time I logged onto the website to it was still in the sale so I bought more! 

I like quirky backing fabrics with lots of colour to hide dubious hand quilting-I bought 6 metres of this one last week from a new site I have found, real bargain fabrics from top ranges-I wish they were closer so I could visit the shop!  If you live in the UK and have hoarding issues, look at the site (not helping, am I??!)

Kiss in the Corner

This is a long overdue gift. Shhh...........This design is one I stole from my Greenestede Quilters group project.  I needed something quick to sew up as I knew I wouldn't have much time. It is a twisted nine patch. 

Chain piecing the 6" cut squares........

........into a nine patch, then cutting into four.  Twist them and sew up again. I laid the pieces out on a bed as it was the biggest space I had. I have not really used enough browns, it was a tricky job to make sure that the same browns were not too close together- the creams and blues are not so important in the overall effect.  I am surprised how 'busy' it looked at this stage.

This isn't my usual scrappy style, but my son advised me the colours to use as its for a gift and I had to raid the stash for what was there. My usual technique is throw EVERY colour in but I do have a preference for 'earthy' colours, so I was quite happy working on this.  I have enough patches left over for half of another quilt. 

My not very helpful helper-rather annoying when she wants to play with the border and crumb catcher strips I'm cutting..........when she's not furring up the backing fabric that's just ironed and warm and seems like a nice sleeping spot.

 This is the only fabric I had for the backing that toned with the front-hope they're fond of cows!

I started this post some time ago-this week I borrowed the conference room at work, put the tables together, stuck the backing down and off I went with my new microstitch-it's AMAZING!!! I used about 1200 tags in this double.  I have more time than I thought to quilt this now, so I am going to do it by hand.  This will be my first attempt at large format hand quilting.

Torn

I have urgent sewing to to do for the 'shhh' project today and I'm reading Hilary Mantels 'Wolf Hall', a 700 pager, that's holding my interest, I have only 100 pages to go. Also still chopping away at the stash uglies.

I think that sewing will win this morning as the top is almost pieced-I will have to clear away to layer the quilt after.  I have several quilt tops pieced and ready to go-I have never layered a quilt before, my patchwork has previously been for duvet covers and curtains or paper pieced that take years: I have two of those in progress.  One of them is my ID  picture-here are the 'flowers' sewn up for the last round.

Try something new every day, the layering will be it.

I found a blog this morning at http://dutchgloriousapplique.blogspot.com/ that has links to two sister blogs for Kim McLeans applique patterns, haven't done much applique myself but these designs are inspirational

Two favourite quilt artists http://www.glorialoughman.com/ in Australia, beautiful work and http://www.ruthbmcdowell.com/ from the US, she pieces animals with such character, I'm particularly fond of the cows.