Yesterday I received a call from Cheryl at the quilt store to let me know that the fabric I helped her choose had come in! We all know that I'm a sucker for a reproduction fabric, so I raced down there the first moment I could.
I have designed a quilt based on a parquetry floor I saw at the Winchester Mystery House, and I thought it would look great made up with these fabrics. I was so hoping the fabric would come in soon, as I had planned to go Peach's fabric diet again next month. So, luckily for me, I was able to get some to work with. I may have to break the diet once if the magazine gets back to me regarding commissioning the quilt. I want to make one for the store, and one for the magazine, and I don't think I'll have quite enough fabric for both.
I did some more hand quilting on the tiny quilt last night, I love the way it's coming up. I have a lovely tidy house, so today I'm going to get busy on my sewing machine! Super fun!
Yesterday afternoon I was working on my current Flylady mission. That is to spend 15 minutes each day clearing paper clutter. It's amazing to me how much it can build up ... I've found utilities accounts from our previous home filed away! But I digress ... I was working thru a basket of odds and ends under the desk, and I found some treasure!
At the top is a beanie knitted from black feathers yarn, and all it needs is to be sewed together, and below is one I've started in purple feathers, and clearly left off at some point ... and forgotten! I'm going to put these two out in plain view so I can finish them off ... just in time for summer! *lol* I don't clearly remember, but I think I may have started the hats about two years (or a little more) ago.
Also in the picture, you can see a few things piling up in the corners of my cutting table. I'm going to add 'clear the cutting table' on my list of things to do today. I always set myself goals to achieve ... or I'd just quilt all day long ... hmmm ... that sounds like fun!
I was able to finish off the binding last night for the Sunrise quilt, I stitched away and tapped my toes while watching a DVD of Saturday Night Fever ... my retro fix for the week! I'm always dissatisfied with how the movie ends though ...
Better run, Cameron sounds a little whiny ... have a great day everyone!
It's quilted! Yay! I can cross another off my goals list for this month.
I really like the look of this quilt, I think it's the colours that draw me in, I love blue! My first love is reproduction fabrics, but I like the fabrics in this quilt too. The fabrics for next years Thimbleberries club are wonderful also.
At quilt group today I'm going to get a start on sewing down the binding. I doubt I'll even get one quarter the way through it, I'm too much of a chatterbox, but that's what I love about quilt group, I love to meet up with my quilty friends :-)
I have also hand quilted one block of the mini quilt. I've allowed myself a whole month to do the quilting, it shouldn't take that long, but you never know what life will toss your way. It is to be handed it at the end of the month for the competition.
Well, that's it for me, I need to get some caffeine into my system and wash the floor before I make my way out into the world :-)
The thread has been sweeping though blogs, and of course I'm a late joiner ... but here I am!Here is my not terribly interesting pincushion and tin collection. Each one has pins for a different purpose, well, the chicken hold needles (and threads), you can't see any in the picture, I hope they're not hiding inside the chicken! The chicken is made from a Doreen Speckmann pattern, it's called a 'Norwegian Chicken'. The magnetic pin holder holds my favourite thin glass headed pins, it lives near the sewing machine, but not too near, the computer in the machine wouldn't like the magnet I'm thinking! I've noticed a lot of people like these pins.The tin in front came from Hearst Castle when I visited with Linda earlier this year, and it holds my 'other' pins ... any random pins I find that aren't applique pins. And the applique pins are in the Haighs tin at the back.I managed to quilt about one third of the Sunrise quilt yesterday. It's my goal to be able to hand sew the binding on the back of the quilt at quilt group tomorrow. It's a big ask, as I'm not home too much today, but I'll give it my best shot! Have a great day x o x
Here is a picture of my 'Sunrise' quilt. It's the Thimbleberries Club project from the first half of last year. If I get the chance, today I would like to layer and baste the quilt. I did manage to get to the quilt store yesterday. I took some Voltaren, and after a few hours I was feeling like I could drive. It was still hard to turn well enough to see traffic to my right, but I was super careful. I chose a really nice double wide back from Thimbleberries, I'll try and share a picture later. Pale fabrics don't show up well in pictures though.
The quilt looks really rumply in this picture, as it's laid out in an area where there's not enough space for it. A train set has magically appeared in the lounge again, and I don't have the heart to tidy it away until Cameron goes to kindy!
Thank you so much to everyone for your lovely words about my miniature quilt, and also for your kind words and concern about my neck and shoulder. I think I've pulled a muscle, and today while still tender, it's not nearly so bad as it was yesterday, so thank you once again, you're all so lovely.
I have a few questions I need to answer from people about the Miniature Quilt. It's been a few days, so please don't be sad if I don't get to your question, it's just that I've been flaky lately!
Amy - the Calico Cat asked about how many fabrics I'd used. There are only four fabrics, the pink, green, yellow and white/cream. The green fabric has a lot of shading from blue to yellow through it, so it adds a lot of interest, and because the leaves are small, they can vary so much from leaf to leaf.
May Britt wondered about the scallops, I actually drew them up in Corel Draw, and printed out a small template, which I then cut out in plastic, to hopefully get them all even. Each scallop is one inch wide.
KC Quilter wondered about the size of the quilt. I would have to measure it again, as I can't actually remember, but it's between 17 and 18 inches. Each block is 4 inches, the sashing strips are a quarter inch, and I think the outer borders are just over 2 inches wide. The quilt is in my hoop right now, so I'll measure for sure another time.
Quilt Pixie asked if I'll be backing it in the green. I did want to, but I actually don't have a big enough piece of green left for the back. I shopped the stash for a backing. I will bind the quilt with the green though. I'm going to cut the strips 1.5" wide, and use a double fold binding. It should work out tiny to match the quilt.
I hope that's everyone's questions, if I've missed yours, just shoot me an email, and I'll get back to you. Have a great day everyone! x o x
Here is the better picture I promised. I won't type up a whole lot today as I've hurt my neck and left shoulder. I'm not entirely sure what I've done, but I know whatever I did woke me up from a deep sleep last night. Ouch!
The picture above is after the quilt has been pressed and the batt and backing fabric are in place, if you look carefully, you will also see the marking lines for the quilting.
Last night I put the first few quilting stitches in before I went to bed. Today I was thinking I would go to the quilt store and get a backing and batt for the 'Sunrise' quilt which needs to be quilted, it's on my list of goals. However, I don't think I'm going to be heading too far from home. Lucky for me it is hubby's day off today and he was able to drop the kids off this morning.
I have a number of questions from people I need to catch up on, so please bear with me, and I hope I can get to them tomorrow. x o x
I just couldn't wait one moment longer to share the top of the mini quilt with you. Please forgive the quality of the picture. Maybe I should have opened the blinds to eliminate the striated effect?? *s*
I've just washed the quilt, so I've laid it out to dry in the lounge. I normally wouldn't wash the entire quilt at this stage, but when I spritzed the blue washout marker away last night, a little section of the pink bled. Don't you hate it when that happens? Even after testing a snippet of the fabric! Anyway, all is now well, and when the quilt has dried off I'll give it a good press.
I finished the scallop border section last night, at 1o minutes to midnight. I just couldn't go to bed knowing that the top was so close to being finished. I'm really pleased with the way it looks, and thank you for helping me with the colour placement. I had originally thought to use the green as the sashing strips, and the pink for the outer border, but I feel like this way looks better ... good thinking girls!
When I have one, I'll share a better picture. *happy dancing*
Today I'm sharing the big sister of the miniature quilt from the other day. I made this one first, and I think I managed to lay out the applique better on the small one. You can see I've used more of 'that purple' fabric. It's almost embarrasing how many of my quilts feature log cabin blocks. This quilt was featured in an Express Publications book in 2004, it was my second quilt to be published. It's a lap size, I think around 48" x 60". I have only just brought it home this week, it has spent a lot of time at the quilt store selling patterns of itself. Nothing like putting the quilts to work!
My favourite part of this quilt is the hand quilting. I've taken a close up picture and hopefully you can see it. I decided to be brave and quilted it in purple thread. When I took the first picture I forgot to take the flash off, and I ended up with this huge white photo. I'm learning more about photography every day! Hand quilting is my favourite part of the whole process, but I'm machine quilting more and more each day. It's just so much faster to do, and many of the quilts I make are to be 'used' and don't really warrant hand quilting.Today is a small anniversary of sorts. This is my 100th post. Who ever would have guessed I'd be able to keep it up for so long. Thank you all for stopping by, and for leaving comments, and for becoming my friends. It's been super fun! Bring on 200 posts!
Yesterday I received a call from Cheryl at the quilt store to let me know that the fabric I helped her choose had come in! We all know that I'm a sucker for a reproduction fabric, so I raced down there the first moment I could.
