3D Pinwheels

 

At the weekend, I was at a quilting exhibition, and saw a number of blocks and techniques I wanted to experiment with.

This is the 3D Pinwheel. 

Fabrics Bought for QAL

At work today, I decided to buy the next metre of fabric, and I couldn't remember which ones I had already bought!  I obviously need to keep track of them. The ones with an asterisk have been bought.

Row 1: Dark Red  R64 20 cm
*Row 2: Red  R06 42.5 cm
Row 3: Orange  N47 30 cm
*Row 4: Orange-Yellow Y06 30 cm
Row 5: Yellow  Y05 30 cm
*Row 6: Lime Green  G45 37.5 cm
Row 7: Teal  G46 37.5 cm
*Row 8: Turquoise  T78 32.5 cm
Row 9: Blue  B58 35 cm
Row 10: Indigo  L07 27.5 cm
Row 11: Violet  L65 30 cm
Row 12: Pink  P87 30 cm

Background:  White   5.25 m
*Accent:   Grey  37.5 cm

More Fabric!

I was not totally convinced by the solid grey for the accent fabric. I felt it was a trifle 'flat'.  Instead, I have gone with  'linen look' by Makower, in the colour 'Storm'. 

This was ordered at the weekend, and has arrived already!  Excellent service, Doughty!

Pinterest Wins

While setting up a new Pinterest board for the guest room, I came across this quilt.  It is beautifully simple, and would make a fantastic backing for the Sugaridoo one. I will be able to use up little bits and pieces of fabric leftover from the top.

Sugaridoo QAL - Fabrics

I was umming and ahhing over fabrics for the Sugaridoo Quilt-A-Long. The fabrics in the shop didn't make a good enough rainbow, and I was wondering whether I would need to go shopping next time I was in the UK. But, then a new delivery of fabrics arrived, and all of the colours I needed appeared.

A Full Day!

There's quite a lot to fit into today. It's half past nine, and so far, dinner has been started, laundry has been hung on the line, and second load is in the washing machine, breakfast has been made for the dog, and lunch for The Beloved...

The dining room has been reconfigured for sewing and quilting. The plan is to make six pinwheels for the Quilters Guild raffle quilt. I'll also practise quilting, and then round off the crafting with a light spot of knitting.

Ducky-Ducky

The plan for the quilt was to hand applique the ducks, then hand quilt them. The water would be added by a very quick method called 'quilt as you go'. ... And the best laid plans come crashing down.

When I got back from holiday I found my sewing machine didn't want to sew. It had decided it didn't like being abandoned whilst I was out gallivanting around Scotland. It going to go to the sewing machine spa for a little break, but in the mean time, I'm without an effective sewing machine. 

I wanted to try strip piecing quilt-as-you-go as I want to work my way through all sorts of technique to find out what I like, and what I'm not fussy about. But that's been put on hold, and instead, I'm learning how to hand piece a quilt. Three summers ago, I hand pieced, and hand quilted Granny's Flower Garden, a quilt made from lots of hexagons. However, the technique is a little different.

I need to switch my mindset away from 'Oh noes, my machine isn't working!' to 'Great, a new technique to play with.' Sure, it would be quicker to do long straight strips by machine, but that's not one of today's options. Instead, it's hand sewing all the way.

At the Quilters' group tonight I was asked to display my work at 'Show and Tell'. All of the other items were finished projects - I did try to explain the top wasn't even complete, but was told to stand up and show. It was rather lovely receiving a round of applause. People started choosing their favourite duck.

November Craftings

Youth's Socks
Started: 17th October 2017
Finished: 1st November 2017

Fancy Sleeves
Started: 2nd November 2017
Finished: 3rd November 2017

Gift Bags
Started: 16th November 2017
Finished: 16th November 2017

Gift Bag
Started: 17th November 2017
Finished: 17th November 2017

The Great Jelly Roll Race

Normally when I'm making patchwork I am in control and choosing every aspect of the design. Today, it's a little different; I'm trying my hand at random. And, it's tough.

Jelly Rolls are 2.5" strips cut across the width of the fabric. They often come in colour ways. This is a blue set I was given a while back. I've been pondering what to do with it, and decided on a Jelly Roll Race quilt.  The race quilt was popularised in quilting clubs when people actually had races to see who could finish the top of their quilts the quickest!

The strips are sewn end to end, making a piece of fabric about 1,600" long. Then it's folded in half and a 800" seam is sew. The fold is cut, and the process starts again. The colours can be planned, but most people don't take the mental effort to plan it. I've decided to randomise my work as much as possible, and I've also added a 2.5" square of yellow at the end of each strip.

The yellow squares have been added. A huge long strip has been created, and it's been folded in half twice. Three quarters of the sewing has happened, and I'm taking a break.

A Collection of Quilts

These are the quilts I have made.

Baby Quilt (2012)

My first quilt! I made so many mistakes in this quilt and was bemoaning the fact when a friend came over and started oohing and aahing over it. She didn't see the mistakes, all she saw was as colourful, useful quilt. I knew if I kept it I would only see the mistakes, so I gave it to her as she could see the beauty.

Denim and fleece quilt (January 2014)

This quilt is unusual in that it has no batting between the top and bottom layer, but with the weight of the denim and the warmth of the fleece it isn't required. It is the underside of the quilt that I like best. It looks so much tidier! No fuzzy, frayed edges.

Autumn Leaves for Mam and Dad (July 2014)

My Mam loves autumnal colours. I wanted to make something special for their Golden Wedding, and this pattern called to me.

Grandma's Flower Garden (October 2015)

At the start of our summer holidays I picked up a rainbow jelly roll and decided to have a go at hand piecing and hand quilting. It's hand sewn and hand quilted, apart from the first line of stitching on the binding, that was done by machine.

Nightmare before Christmas (Christmas 2015)

The bottom of the quilt was machine pieced. Borders were added to the top and bottom, and the quilt was hand quilted. The printed Jack Skellington design was used as a reference for my lines of quilting.

And now, the latest finished quilting project, Rainbow Squares en Pointe, finished today.

I've been trying out different techniques, and the one I have just started is another technique again, quilt-as-you-go. This will be a baby quilt and will use up some of the materials and batting I bought to make Rainbow Squares en Pointe.

Rainbow Squares en Pointe

It's done. The quilt is finished. The photograph shows it on top of my white duvet. The dark purple triangles show the edge of the quilt.  

The pattern is Diamond Patch from the Quilting Digest website. The design is very simple. Me, being me, didn't bother with a pattern, and I just worked from the photograph. In my version, the large squares started out at 6.5", and the small ones at 2.5". This gives a finished block size of 6". The edging triangles started out as 8" squares, then cut in half along the diagonal. This was done for two reasons, it let me square things up well, and also it ensured the tips of the white squares would not be lots in the binding. In engineering terms, I reverse engineered the quilt design.

It is certainly as design I would use again.  It's fantastic to know my quilt fits the top of my bed so perfectly. When I come to make a quilt for that be, I know exactly the size to make for a central panel. I'd extend it up a bit to cover the pillows, and I'll probably use a different style on the sides of the quilt.

My quilts

I realised I didn't have photographs of my quilts on my blog.  This post is to remedy the situation.

My first quilt: 

The second, a table runner for my parents' golden wedding:

And my third, a lap quilt for me:

The time between the first one and the second was about three years.  Then it was one year between finishing the second and starting the third.  The time between the finishing the third and starting the fourth was 5 days.  And it was only that long because I couldn't get to the fabric shop to buy supplies!

There are unfinished projects around the place.  After the two Christmas present quilts are done I am going to get back to them and sort them out. 

Machine Patchwork can be incredibly swift!

Today I started work on a Christmas quilt, well, a Nightmare before Christmas quilt.  This is one side.

And this is the diagram for the other side.

The yellow has been changed to a bright pumpkin orange.  The yellow sashing will be white, and the outer purple will become a dark grey pattern that looks a bit spider-webby, and echoes the colours in Jack's suit.

Granny's flower garden, part 2

The flowers continue to grow.

Holiday creations: hexagon patchwork and project bag

This holiday, I decided I wanted to try a project that was small & contained, didn't need electricity, and was a bit different from my usual projects.

Doughty's of Hereford do a fantastic range of fabrics, and it was a little pack of 20 strips of patchwork fabrics that caught my eye.  Next I spotted a little pack of hexagons, and my holiday project was decided.

It feels very weird to be doing all this hand sewing.  But I am enjoying the simplicity of it.

At Christmas, the Beloved bought me some lovely yarn from Wool Warehouse, The yarn came in a drawstring bag.  I have been using this bag on and off since then, but over the holiday the bag started to fall apart.  This morning I remade the bag, making sure that all of the voile was carefully enclosed within seams.  I also added a much stronger cotton top to the bag.  

I love that the bag is see through, and I can easily find the little hexagons, the threads etc.  It is much easier to use than an opaque bag.