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!

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. .

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.

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.