I haven’t done one of these posts for some time but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been shopping for fabric. So if it seems a bumper crop of purchases  it is spread over some months and if I’m brutally honest not every fabric purchase is included. I don’t want to alarm my mother!!

So to start with these gorgeous Soulful fabrics by Maureen Cracknell. I’ve wanted a new quilt for the lounge so there are more quilts to throw over each other than just the one existing quilt. My lounge and indeed whole house has warm colours, we have more shades of cream than you can possibly imagine and every room has muted warm colours.  The lounge is dominated by a beautiful terracotta Indian rug and I’ve been looking for a fabric range that would complement it for ages. Someone suggested Fig Tree fabrics and some of the earlier ranges would have worked but not the latest. The Soulful range, particularly the Soft and Gentle colour way which focuses on caramels, apricots and  terracotta but not the plums, looked perfect.  The only problem was finding it in the UK. I think one shop now has some but not the full range so I had the bright idea that I would order from America but have it delivered to our US holiday address.  So whilst the children chose western riding boots and hoodies  for their holiday presents I choose fabric. Be honest it’s exactly what you would have done!

With that haul I’ve also ordered this Galaxy print of the Encyclopaedia Galatica range. One of the many quilt designs I would like to do is the mariner’s compass as a wall hanging and I thought this would make a rather splendid central circle.

I had been lusting after a particular  ombré screen print that the very talented Karen Lewis had shown on her IG account. But I wasn’t the only one as they sold out very quickly. But when Karen said a new batch had been freshly printed  I very selfishly nabbed three. Whether I can bring myself to cut them up is another matter.

And another screen printed fabric by new printer on the block Helen Steele which I nabbed at the Festival of Quilts. These are beautiful as well. I’m waiting for inspiration.

And yes you do spy black/grey batiks in the background, not my normal fabric purchase, but these have a very specific purpose of a cat portrait and their variability and stiffness will work perfectly for that.  I hope because if not they are unlikely to end up anywhere else!

linking up with Molli Sparkles Sunday stash

 

I make no apologies for another plus quilt. It’s such a very versatile design and for an older teen  for the charity Siblings Together quilt is perfect.

My wonderfully generous  bee 2 members had together sent me over 85 blue hourglass blocks when I was the monthly mama last May. I love being mama all that happy mail and all to my design!

The first quilt I made from these blocks was a very clever and effective design by Trudi Wood in a copy of Quilt Now.

But as you can see with all that negative space it is a block efficient design so I had plenty left for quilt 2.  I didn’t want to do the same design all over again so played around with Quiltography.  This is a cheap app circa £10. Very easy to use and intuitive it is good for designing a typical matrix quilt made up of blocks. It’s not so good if your blocks or quilt are non standard but then TouchDraw comes into its own, another cheap app I rave about in this post.

I came up with a range of ideas and picked my favourite

It was a quick make helped by simple quilting. Albeit not helped by the cats who were living  dangerously …..

 

In fact I still have some 15 or so blocks over for quilt no. 3. This will be a nice holiday project for my mum and me when she comes up in October.  She did offer!!!

On Bee news you may have seen our appeal for more Bee members for Bee 2  which had got a bit on the thin side. Well it went very well, so well not only have we filled the gaps in Bee 2 but started a new Bee 4 more on that later in the month when that kicks  off. If you are one of them welcome on board.

This is a finish on my Q3 FAL list first blogged here

Linking up with Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation and Amanda Jean for  Crazy Mom Quilts 

 

 

Another beautiful bee quilt made by members of the Siblings Together Bee 2 but this time for Grenfell. At one point the organisers of the quilt drive had had such an amazing response that they put a stop on new quilts but when I checked after we got back from holiday they were open to receive more quilts and had pushed back the deadline to mid September. This was just as well as there wasn’t much sewing going on in my house in August. But with the new month and that deadline looming this got turned round pretty quickly.

I had a head start with blocks as I’d made a quilt from the same block earlier in the year but had a fair few spare.

It was just a question of asking my lovely Bee members to come up with any colour other than blue. It meant it didn’t take too long to get the required number of blocks. I even roped  in my mum to help make some when she was up staying with us .

Prompted by Nicky Eglington who is one of the quilting power houses behind the wonderful charity Siblings Together I used a flat bed sheet instead of quilting fabric.  A backing for a quilt this size which is around 65″ by 75″ needs 4m of 44″ wide fabric (yes I know I’ve mixed metric and imperial measures but I’ve been doing that all of my life, I’m not stopping now!) and then you have to piece it together. Prices for good quality quilting cotton can be as high as £16 per metre and very rarely less than £8 per metre. You might get a solid fabric say Kona for £6 per metre in a sale but it is usually around £8 per metre. So getting a backing is expensive. I’d read about others using a flat sheet and I have to say it worked very well. It cost £12 from Dunelm. The only problem was that the colours were limited and rather insipid.

Armed with the knowledge that flat sheets make a rather smooth and easy to sew backing I then went to look for more colourful alternatives. John Lewis do some lovely 200 count, 100% cotton in great colours.

 

But at £22 they are no different in cost than 4m of fabric from the Fabric Guild. I did a post about this online/bricks and mortar fabric shop recently. This is an example of a couple of recent purchases. The top one was £22 and the bottom £30.60.  Both Makower and both being patterned means less obvious quilting on the back –  no bad thing with my FMQ.

Just the label to pop on and then this is off.

This is a finish on my Q3 FAL list first blogged here

Linking up with Kelly My Quilt Infatuation

 

 

 

In the dim and distant past I regularly  had to visit Minneapolis and there I came across the legendary kindness of my US co-workers and got many invitations to stay on at the end of the week and join them at the family cabin.  It seemed that many had log cabins up in ‘the woods’ usually next to a lake in the northern part of the State.  Some, I was told, were quite basic (basic for me = outside toilets, wuss that I am!!) but treasured family cabins going back generations. Others had every mod con going and water sports equipment on tap. Knowing the length and harshness of the Minnesotan winter I can quite understand why residents make the most of their summer. I was sorely tempted but as I’m afraid I counted the days off to get home to the family I never took them up on it.   A shame because I’d really love to have that experience. And of course now they are teens I think I’d make a different decision!

So for this month inspired by log cabins I want my Siblings Together bee mates to do a quarter log cabin block .  As an aside this lovely bee which makes quilts for this fantastic charity that brings together siblings that are separated in the UK care system for a holiday at which one of the highlights is each child being given their own quilt,  is sadly a little on the thin side.  We had a number of kind quilters who had to drop out  because of other commitments. If you are UK based  (being practical given the extortionate cost of international postage) and you are willing to make a block a month or even be a monthly mama and make a quilt from blocks made by others please get in touch – thelilaccat (at) yahoo (dot) com. The blocks tend to be simple and geared to using scraps.

Anyway back to log cabins  over the summer I saw a log cabin quilt that Rachel Hauser of Stitched in Color made and then she very conveniently did a pattern which I bought. With her kind permission I can give you the dimensions/pattern of the log cabins then I will sash and do the setting triangles.

You can see this quilt by clicking on the link and you then need to track down to the bottom of the post to see the on point quilt look I’m after. Although the layout of the test blocks below gives you an idea.  Doing it on point is effective isn’t it? Thanks Rachel.

The finished log cabin block will look something like this. Again I am going for blues/greens but any hue. They can either be mixed into a block or an entirely blue or green block,  it’s up to you. And also feel free to use floral fabric if the predominant colour is blue or green. You see how relaxed I am compared to the strict mama of last May!  I can be kind….

So to the block, the dimensions that Rachel uses are given below. They end up a 8 1/2 inch square block.  But do feel free, as I did, to use whatever scraps you have to hand in that colour range to make the 8 1/2″ square. My starter squares were between 4″ and 5″ and I just sewed on the strips until I got to something over 8 1/2 ” square and then just trimmed it  back used to 8 1/2″ But do it as it suits you and your fabric. But for those who are happy for Rachel to do the maths then these are her dimensions.

Starting square 4.5″

Log Layer 1: 2″ x 4.75″ and 2″ x 6.25″
– Log Layer 2: 2″ x 6.25″ and 2″ x 7.75″
– Log Layer 3: 1.75″ x 7.75″ and 1.75″ x 8.75″

Finished size needs to be 8.5″ so trim down to this

Can you make 2 or 3 blocks please.   They are quite quick and easy to do and aside from sorting out scraps et cetera (which I did during the adverts in the new Great British Bake Off) then it shouldn’t take too long.   But keeping it real if you are like me there is a fair bit of mess to clear up after sewing with strings so I will need another advert break to do that !!

Many thanks.

 

What with holidays and the mad rush to get ready for that and dealing with  the aftermath on returning of putting everything back again combined with a bit of lost sewing motivation after doing the quilt for the Festival of Quilts, there’s not been masses of sewing going on.  But yesterday the urged itched and having a completely empty day (which was wonderful) I decided to just play with fabric and try something new. OK meals had to be prepped for the children but I’m one down as no. 2 son is on camp this week, and he’s the messiest one, particularly when he has free time, so the stars were aligned!

I’d seen this stunning quilt by Laura of Slice of Pi on IG and couldn’t work out how it was made. Normally I have  a fair idea but this one stumped me.  Laura however had revealed all in her blog about the quilt and refers to an excellent tutorial by Lorrie on how to make an interleave quilt. It looked the perfect technique to play with on my ‘day off’.

I needed a table mat for the small table I use for hot drinks in the lounge. In the absence of a coaster I use an old newspaper or magazine. Not very attractive and over time the dreaded white rings have appeared.  And as a quick and easy project this seemed the perfect thing.

 

First the fabric. I wanted warm colours to go with the room’s decor.

As I was playing and not sure of the outcome first stop was my drawer of large scraps. They also include ugly fabrics I’ve bought on a whim but now can’t abide. The dark bronze fabric there in the centre above is a perfect example, I liked the colour but then when it arrived with a pattern of spider webs on it this arachnophobic was suddenly less keen. I thought using this method the pattern wouldn’t be noticeable.

As as aside and an example of my fear of spiders we had a whopper the other day which had both myself and my daughter clutching each other with horror. Of course neither son was nowhere to be seen. If we’d been hyperventilating less I would have put something alongside it to give it scale but the birthday card below gives you some idea.

Now I’m sure readers in more exotic locations will be tittering at how pathetic  this is compared to their native spiders but for the UK it was big. I’m not sure what any passer by would have made of a middle aged woman running out of the house clutching a vast quantity of paper towel wherein lay the offending spider and then barely holding in her screams throwing it to the ground and dashing back in!

Anyway back  to the technique. I won’t replicate it in detail here but basically you sew strips together then after making a tube you cut out a curvy shape so you are left with pieces like this. Lorrie’s tutorial gives all the necessary information. She emphasises  that contrast between fabrics is important.

Then basically you cut off strips which then get sewn directly onto batting in a ‘quilt as you go’ fashion. I chose to use Annie’s Soft and Stable which is a relatively structured wadding (hence the name). I stretched out the wadding and the cats always love it when this happens and it became an impromptu tunnel and they were having such a great time playing with it. But before I managed to get a picture of the fun they’d  started fighting! Just like children…

This product while pricey is perfect for projects like this where you need some firmness like in this divided basket I made for a gift recently. This proved a good choice as it has given the mats some substance and the texture of the quilting is wonderful.

It was fun to watch the curved gradually appear. As you will see I wasn’t bothered by being too perfect, this was playtime after all and after the FoQ quilt where I tried so hard for it to be as perfect as possible doing the same here was too much like hard work!!

The first mat turned out too big for the small table so I did a second. I’d got into the swing by then.  I was very pleased with the finished products and they will be practical as well as looking good.

It’s certainly worth doing again perhaps for a new mat for the kitchen table. Whether I do an entire quilt is another matter, but a few tips for next time.

1. I used .75″ inch strips for the larger mat but these were very time consuming and didn’t show the curve as quickly. The smaller of the two mats had slices of 1 inch which worked well.

2. Lorrie has some excellent curve templates. I cut my curves  freehand and although I don’t regret that decision if I were doing it again I think I would use one of her templates. I’d also think about making the curves a bit more curvy certainly for a smaller project.

3. Using Soft and Stable was excellent. It is pricey but gives the real feel of substance.

4. Copying Laura’s quilt I think I would make my columns of fabric narrower so there was more variation. I would also go for solids or patterns that read as solid so the contrast is greater.

Linking up for the first time with Fiona of Celtic Thistles 

 

I made my annual journey to the UK’s largest quilt show, and some say the largest in Europe this week. A positive feast of ideas, inspiration and talent. But what stood out for me this year is the sheer hard work on the part of the traders who come to do business. Maybe because my energy levels were a bit  low having just come from Colorado and I was still suffering from jet lag but you have to admire people who pack up their shops, load it into vans, drive for hours then unload it all, grapple with tables, furniture and stock to set up an attractive stand….. and then pay a small fortune for the privilege. Oh and then to top it all stand all day…..

This is Viv’s Purple Stitches stand with Helen Steele in front debuting her new screen printed panels.

But having said that I didn’t buy masses of stuff. If you could see my sewing room you would appreciate that I’m not exactly in need of fabric. But I did get some spoils of war.

You may see some batiks lurking there, not my usual cup of tea. But I’ve been meaning to have a go at a cat portrait of Minty who we lost earlier this year. Batiks have the variations which make it look more natural than solids. Well time will tell but I knew a big show like this would get me the variety I needed.

But of course the main attraction were the quilts  I was looking forward in particular to seeing the Quiltcon exhibition. Quiltcon is the modern quilt  show in the world.  The best overal winner and a selected few are sent on a world tour of quilt shows.

Rarely do I think the judges’ winners are the one I would have chosen but this year the winning quilt by Cat Jones of Tasmania was totally deserving of that accolade. How you begin  to conceive let alone construct it is beyond me. I loved everything about it even it’s name Bling! But for reasons I don’t know, but presumably a simple admin error, there were no names or acknowledgement for each quilt. They really need to do something about that and quickly.

 

Back to home grown quilts. There were some of my favourites that I’ve watched develop on IG.

Jo Avery’s

Two from Abigail de Graf’s studio 

Some new ones for me of various genres but just caught my eye

I like a quilt that has a powerful message…. this by  Kate Crossley  called Dreaming of Europe

This was the winner of the Modern category by Judith Lynch and was beautifully executed……

But if I had  been picking this was my favourite… it is by Anna Galvin and was given a Highly Commended.

Other Quilts that caught my eye in order were River by Jenny Haynes, the group quilt by the Modern Quilt Group as part of the Cottonopolis exhibition and Fraction by Lou Slough

And then coming to the Quilts I had in the show.  Firstly the couple I did for the Cottonopolis exhibition (top left and the raindrops one towards the bottom respectively)  I’d wish I’d got a better picture but the one I really would have liked to have made was the one above mine!!!

 

And finally the proper show quilt I entered Division which caused me such agony… there was at least one quilt I saw with the name Never Again.  I sympathised.

I have to say the quilt was in pole position and was the first quilt you saw as you entered. This comes about when you enter your quilt with minutes to go….

If and when I get the judges’ comments I will share them in an update….then again if they are too awful….

UPDATE….. well they weren’t too awful it fact the judges were very kind. There were 3 judges, each indidually marked your quilt against criteria such as design, piecing accuracy etc. The majority of marks were excellent and the rest good. Do you know I may do it all again!!!

The link up organised by Snoodles of Lily Pad Quilting has got to be the most fun of my quilting year. Many of you will be familiar with this link up but for those for whom it’s new, it is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate, unashamedly, our quilting pet companions and share them with like minded quilters. For those with a more quilty purist approach this post will probably not be your cup of tea.

You get two bites of the link up cherry, one entry based on a picture of a pet on a quilt and the other an entry of a quilt of a pet.  This is my entry for the former. Sadly I’ve not done another cat portrait since this one which I entered last year.

My entry’s a bitter sweet one as Minty, the grey cat, sadly came off worse in a collision with a car earlier this year and we lost him.  So sad but letting him go outside was a risk we had to take as he was deeply frustrated and unhappy if kept in and would take out his irritation in the most obvious of ways  which was not good for my carpets!

Now the normal approach to these type of entries of pets on quilts is like that of last year’s cat winner Rocky.  Aside from some lovely photos of this very beautiful and characterful cat on quilts and generally helping in the sewing room there was a heart warming back story of how Rocky came into his owner Teresa’s life as a cold, bedraggled young cat in Coyote country. Clearly a cat and owner who thoroughly deserve each other. So you get the idea, sweet pictures of pet on quilt, lovely warm loving account of said pet and you have a potential winner…

Well I’m afraid against those criteria  I have no winning entry. What follows is an all too familiar exchange between my two cats, who whilst individually were/ are lovely and together mostly enjoyed a friendly companionship but at times, well they had their moments …. on this occasion they chose to have these moments in a small wicker basket, really a one cat basket, with one of my earliest quilts made for Skye the lilac cat, when she joined us as a kitten.  Note loose binding. It’s been well used, well washed and loved. As you can see the jeopardy for what unfolds is increased by the basket being precariously balanced on a bar stool…..

 

 

 

 

Minty was not blessed with brains. Beauty yes, brains no. Each and every time this would happen. He would position himself in the basket by the fire or in a patch of sunshine and then along would  come Skye. She would tentatively climb in and  licking him round his ears which he loved.  He would reciprocate and briefly there would be harmony then she would stiffen and a cold glint would appear in her eye. ‘He’s still here’ she seemed to say and then she would lash out….poor Minty would give a mixed look of surprise and hurt. Minty was bigger than Skye and he could quite easily have retaliated and held his ground but he never did and she always got her wicked way.

What has been rather entertaining is to watch how our new grey  kitten Felix and Skye interact as these roles have completely  reversed. Before it was Skye who would be the agitator, pouncing on a placid Minty as he strolled by, muscling in if she felt he was getting too much attention but now the tables have well and truly turned. She now has had to put up and deal with the youthful boisterousness of Felix. Skye’s the one being pounced on as she goes about her day, now it’s her that gets pushed out if she is getting too much attention particularly if she is curled up on someone’s lap. Skye retaliates more but senses she’s on a losing wicket and gives up in disgust. Suddenly she’s the mature one and Felix has the exuberance of youth.  There’s a moral here – what goes around comes around!!

Linking up with Lily Pad Quilts.

 

I enjoy sewing with others particularily in a team effort but don’t get many chances sadly. But a friend who had seen my quilts asked whether I taught patchwork classes. Cue hysterical laughter. I could teach every short cut going and how not to do it but the quilt police can rest easy, I’ve no plans to teach quilting. Anyway I offered to show her the ropes if she was happy to help me make a quilt for Grenfell.

I knew Kasia was going to be a very quick learner. She’s done some dressmaking in her past, enjoyed the sort of crafts like decoupage where dexterity is important and sure enough she got on famously. She was as satisfied as getting the reverse side neat as much as the front!!  Something that has eluded me

I’d got these fabrics to hand….

Not frankly my colour way but I bought them for a young girl I know but who in the end wanted full on pink not this more variable colour range. I’ve always thought they’d make a gentle quilt for a young girl  or woman. I had fun thinking of a design that would be reasonably quick and give Kasia some broad experience. I decided on an Irish chain quilt as it’s a nine patch from a strip set so she got plenty of experience of sewing and cutting. Best of all by the end of a long afternoon we had a quilt top.

After the challenges and demands of my latest quilt, it was lovely to sit back and watch someone else sew with me as ironing and cutting fairy. It was also good to have another to help with basting and then the quilting. Again to keep it simple we or rather Kasia just did straight line quilting on the diagonal to emphasise the lattice effect.

I certainly needed a change of pace  and this simplest and quickest of designs is beautiful. Funnily enough after we made enough for the first two rows I just couldn’t see the diagonal  chains. But once together it looks lovely. This may be another scrap project for me as my neutral scrap jars are filled to overflowing.

Oh and the quilting world has another quilter. Kasia is a natural.

This is a finish on my Q3 FAL list first blogged here

 

linking up to Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts and Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation.

 

It is with great relief that I can at last say this quilt, due to be entered into the UK Festival of Quilts, is finished. It’s the first time I’ve made a quilt that will be judged.  For quilters for whom accuracy and precision are their normal way of working then I take my hat off to them, but for me quilting means less of an eye on perfection and more on the finished look.  If a point has gone astray or those blocks less than perfectly aligned c’est la vie. So I really had to up my game and my seam ripper has never been so busy!

Many things made this more a slog than anticipated. Firstly I’m a selfish sewer, I sew what I fancy sewing so unless there is a deadline I sew what I want. So sewing stamina and focusing on one project went against the grain. And this is where the Duke of Edinburgh came in.  He set up (or let’s be realistic his staff) an award scheme many, many years ago where young people work to get an award by doing voluntary work, a sport, learning a skill and carrying out an expedition. It’s an excellent scheme and no 2 son was away on his expedition weekend which gave me a long block of time to work on it pretty much uninterrupted. It always surprises how much more time I’ve got to spare when I’m one child down particularly if, it has to be said, this child…. This is for the nicest reasons as he gets bored more easily and is often in the kitchen experimenting with recipes, but he’s less keen on clearing up the mess though!  So that gave me a huge spur to cracking on.

I completely underestimated the amount of time the whole process would take. Normally I’m a quick sewer and make design decisions pretty much on the fly but this time everything took soooo much longer. So much time  checking and trimming blocks let alone making them. So much time agonising over colour choice and placement of blocks. I can’t tell you how much time I spent looking at my layout and being unhappy and then trying to think how to make it better. It’s an original improv design so despite a fairly restricted colour range the options are endless. And even at the final stages the quilting alone took the best part of two full days. And this was all against the context of leaving it too late. I have no excuse. The entry forms are issued early in the year but I wouldn’t commit. Then on the last day of submitting your entry form, indeed I think the last hour, an IG post by Abigail about there still being time got me entering online. So of course added to this was the march of time.

I had the idea and concept back in the Spring. As usual a whole bunch of ideas came together. I had a large empty space at the bottom of the second floor stairs to fill. I love the look of inset circles and had enjoyed making this quilt where the technique is explained in more detail in that post.  This blue quilt proved a very quick make (and has the wobbly circles and misaligned edges and seams to prove it!)

 

I’d made a woven quilt earlier this year and the colours worked really well in the space which is in our hall and the decor extends up to the top floor so that was quite a straight forward choice.

I’d wanted to explore a different layout, not just plain fabric in the circles  and went for this as my trial block. I used Helen’s of Archie the Wonder Dog  excellent tutorial to get the striped strip an even width.

The quilt is called Division as represented by the stripe and reflects how divisive and personal our politics  has become.  This is meant to be an uplifting blog so no more on that suffice to say harmony hasn’t been achieved either side of the Pond.

Well slog away I did. Laundry got forgotten, domestic chaos ensued, cats sadly ignored and put behind closed doors, our take out meal to home made ratio dramatically rose, my Fitbit steps plummeted, other projects put on hold…. but eventually it’s done and I think I’m really quite happy with it. Is it perfection? Of course not!! Will it stand up to its peers and not look an embarrassment, I hope so.

The fabrics used were Art Gallery’s (AGF) solids Linen White and Honey.  These are silkier and finer than Kona or Bella Solids. The grey solid was Fog from the Cascade range of fabrics by Moda a long out of date print. But I liked the bluey grey.  The accent circle inserts were from Moda Chic Zen Modern Background Luster Metallic range, some AGF fabrics from April Rhodes’ gorgeous Observer range and some earlier AGF prints. The stripe is another AGF fabric Streakly from Pat Bravo’s Essential range  (not in this picture)

Well I won’t bore you with the tens of photos I took of various layouts but in the end I settled for the asymmetric gold splash of colour across the quilt. Also I won’t bore you with the tedium of trying to make every cut and seam perfect. I failed of course. I tried hard to reduce the shadowing effect and in so doing this mishap happened. Horror!! Of course it meant well over an hour’s work to make another block and unpiece and repiece the top. Sigh…. an hour of my life I won’t get back….

And then of course there was the scorched block….. more blocks to make to replace these.

I agonised over the quilting. I can FMQ but my stitch length is variable and it’s certainly not a strength. The quilt is also quite busy and I wanted the quilting to complement the quilt not necessarily be a feature in itself.  So eventually went with simple ‘random’ straight lines but used a variety of colours. And there are over 200 quilting lines. The double layer of batting does give it a wonderful texture even if stitch length is well variable!!

It is a bit wavy and before it’s labelled and packed off I may block it to see whether that helps.   I’d like to get some of those horizontal striped lines a bit more horizontal where the dense quilting has taken its toll.  (Update – I did block it by damping the quilt and doing as much tugging and pulling as I dared. I failed to stretch it using slim pins etc without damaging the fabric so decided to weight it under a load of heavy rugs. This worked like a dream.)  There were a few yet more ends to hide I noticed when taking its photo. And at least one final brush may not go amiss.

As I use this blog as an aide memoir for me should I ever go down this path again these are some tips  I must bear in mind

1. For heavens sake start early next time, if there’s a next time….

2. Get the right tools. Anything within reason to make the task easier. This circle True Cut  tool was an absolute boon. Beats using a teaplate with jam on the rim to make it move less  any day!

 

3. Get organised.  So much time can be wasted just looking for things. I swear blind that seam rippers have invisibity cloaks at times! The plastic basket for fabrics and project specific items worked really well.

4. Write things down. I know you always think you will remember as it’s such an obvious number/process but time has repeatedly told me I for one don’t!! A sheet with measurements particularily for the tricky half circles was very helpful with my memory and where 1/4″ extra trimming is a disaster.

5. Check every block before assembling the top. Trim where you need to neaten the seam etc. Remembering to ensure shadowing is minimised.

6. Remember it will take forever. So follow the above to help you keep on track.

7. When choosing fabrics try not as you did this time chose a solid that is an out of print colour/fabric. What you should have done is find a current solid from Kona or wherever that gave you the blue grey you wanted and then ordered twice what you think you needed. Similarily with prints, avoid where possible old prints which will prove hard to source particularly in the UK. So choosing Zen Chic metallic range was a good idea as it is still very available, but not so the older AGF prints although as it happens you had plenty of them so it all ended without tears. This time…..

8. Weighting a dampened quilt under a towel and heavy rugs worked really well.

What worked well that could be used in other quilts?

1. A simple zig zag round the quilt before adding binding worked well particularly with double thickness wadding. It is worth the effort

2. Leaving off the last lines of straight lines quilting at either edge until the quilt had been trimmed and zigged zagged round the edge meant the lines of quilting closest to the binding would be parallel.

If nothing else lessons have been well and truly learnt. Will I do it again? I really don’t know. I’m pleased I’ve had a go….it will be a quilt that will be seen daily and I hope enjoyed. If the judging comments are too damming I may just have to accept that I’m never going to attain or be prepared to put the effort in to attain that standard. We shall see and in the meantime I need to get my house back in one piece.

This is a finish on my Q3 FAL list first blogged here

Linking up with a Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation and Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts.  

This was the montage of planned makes for Q2. As per usual I was too ambitious although to be fair quilts as yet undreamt of when I created this montage have been completed. Well 4 have been completed out of 8.

In order, the bag for the visitor from Chernobyl…

The medallion quilt…

The baby quilt…

And finally and up to the wire this quilt destined for someone impacted by the Grenfell Tower disaster…

The rest mostly languished I’m afraid and only two reappear this quarter. So to cut to the chase this is my montage for FAL Q3.

1. A quilt for the charity Siblings Together. These were extra blocks sent by bee members so enough  I think at a push, to make a second quilt

2. Another matching mini quilt made from my late husband’s ties. No urgency on this one so with August and holidays looming this probably won’t get done

3 Now this is urgent. Another quilt for Grenfell using blocks made by my bee mates although we have just overheard that so overwhelming has been the response from around the UK and across the world to this cause with over 1000 quilts gifted then they’ve put a hold on it

4. Again this must be finished by mid July as it is destined for the Festival of Quilts…..

5. With a bit of help from a friend who wants to learn patchwork I’m hoping we can crack through on this quilt. This was again destined for Grenfell but for the reasons above we may have to go for plan b.

6. I bought the divided pouch pattern from Noodlehead recently. I want to gift some nappies and baby stuff using this as the container. Baby arrived last week! And in fact I’ve got it made already.

With a fair wind I should be on track to do at least 4 out 6. But it will be front end loaded so July will be busy.