Finished Stitching and a New Quilt

I've finished Summer's blanket stitching but now comes the bit I don't like; the backing and ribbon.

I've decided what will be the backing fabric and I'll probably stick to a cream ribbon. It is really hard to put the backing on so that it sits flat and straight. Last time I pretty much did it like a quilt, using lots of pins and it worked better. 

The weekend was blissfully quiet, unlike the upcoming one with an engagement and a 60th.

There were hours where I had the whole house to myself. Although I am in the middle of a dozen different projects, I just had to try out Sujata's pattern (The Root Connection) from the Victorian hexagon Quiltalong 

Here are the first few blocks.

And the next few blocks although I lay one down in the wrong way.

I have to say I am loving the way these are looking.

Once I worked out how to do these, following Sujata's very easy instructions, I found a few short cuts to get them done faster. For one, I use freezer paper instead of paper for the templates. Secondly once the centre strip is in place you can sew the next few strips together in long rows and then join them up as one piece.

Stitching for Summer

My nephew and his wife have a new baby girl and as per family tradition that means I have a new woollen blanket to stitch. Our new little great niece is called Summer and here is a preview of her blanket.

Apart from the new blanket all I have managed to stitch are some more x + blocks. They take ages and no matter how many I do, the quilt is still way too small so I just have to make more. Hmmm.

When you make the block you have to snip off all the triangle corners. Hating to throw out anything I saved the tiny triangles and sewed them together as well. They make squares less than 1" in size.

I've started playing around with these guys as well but I am not sure what they will end up doing yet.

So although I have been quiet as far as blogging goes, I have been getting a few bits and pieces happening.

Pot Mitts Again

Although I was almost pot mitted out when I made stacks last year, I was asked to make a pair for a friend at work. "What kind?" I asked. "Pink," she replied.

Instead of using scraps from the basket I cut into my nicer piles of colour and was much happier with the result.

 She was so happy, she asked for 2 more green/blue ones.

 I had to make 2 sets because I wasn't sure if she would like the darker ones.

Thanks for all your advice on the + x blocks. Your thoughts and ideas have encouraged me to keep going. In fact I'm going to start cutting as soon as I have some coffee and chocolate while doing the crosswords. It's Sunday after all.

I'm not Sure What I Think about this x + Block

I have been so besotted with the x + quilts I have seen on line that I decided to give it a go.

I followed the tutorial on Badskirt's blog 

Although this block uses up lots of tiny bits of fabric from the scrap pile, you still need to have enough fabric to cut 8 x 2" of the same colour. Not much, but more than I have in most scraps.

Also the X looks better if you can find a print with some sort of linear design.

I found I was cutting in to my good stash more than using up scraps.

Lots of cutting, pinning and planning goes into the blocks and mine still lack the desired light and dark colour play that I was looking for. In fact, I think they are just a bit of a mess of colour.

I made nine blocks first.

And then another 6 blocks

I'm not sure if I could handle a whole quilt out of these blocks. I would love to know if you would keep going or just make a pillow or cot sized quilt.

I forgot to mention

Denyse Schmidt's fabric is on sale at Spotlight. I was just buying fabric to make a dress up costume but was totally distracted and couldn't resist buying just a 1/4 mt of each. There were more colours to choose from. May need to go back!

The Block for the Star Quilt

I just put a quilt up on Facebook where I follow 'Kaffe Fassett Collective'. There were a couple of people interested in how the design was put together. I took a couple of photos and these should help.

 This was the main block which we made from remnants of Kaffe's Wheel of Fortune quilt. I had lots of diamonds and squares left over because they were colours I ended up not using. The measurements of the shapes are the same as in his book.

 This is how the corners fit together together although in the end I put more red into it.

The red is just 4 squares measured like the yellow ones in the middle of the block.

 Here it is with more red square blocks

Here are part of the edge pieces.

I bordered it all with more of the blue diamonds.

It was a pain to get the diamonds to sit nicely but that was because I put it altogether with a sewing machine rather than by hand but the hand quilting was very forgiving and no one will ever notice!

Hope this helps.

Tapestry Workshop Open Day

One of my earliest textile passions was tapestry weaving. It's been 30 years since I played with my loom and I was curious to see the workshop again after so many years. It didn't disappoint and they had some lovely pieces on show.

Apart from my visit I have finished binding 2 quilts. It is so good to finish things. I have abandoned my love of stripy bindings and opted for shot cottons to finish these two.

 This one was hand quilted.

This one was machine quilted.

Back in Business

I have access to a camera and am back on line. The only problem is that I am also back at work and have 19 beautiful 6 and 7 year olds to play with all year. I am wiped out! I will try to sew and I will try to blog but I may have a few silences too.

This week I have flopped in front of the TV from sheer exhaustion and sewed until bedtime. 9 o'clock on school days. I have so much quilting to do it's ridiculous. Some of it has been hand quilting.

Some machine quilting and binding.

 When one of my boys headed off overseas for a 3 week jaunt before uni starts back, I made him a Kindle cover. I don't really like it but it is what he wanted and he was pretty pleased with it. It will help protect it while he moves about. I should have made it tighter and although I like the sleeve concept, it left a bump where it overlaps with the cover. I prefer the Kindle to fit completely into a pocket.