Books, Books, Glorious Books!

This weekend I went to the Autumn Quilt Festival. I was remarkably restrained when it came to buying fabric and threads...but then I hit the bookstands:

For some mixed media inspiration:



For some art quiltiness:



And for some liberated loveliness:



And I'm feeling newly inspired and raring to go!

Meanwhile, I have been beavering away at Fenced In, trying to get the quilting finished by the end of November. I have done most of the houses and trees now, but then there is the perimeter fence to do. Here's a few little tasters:



The more I work on this quilt, the more I love it!

Hand Sewing WIPS

The trouble with hand sewing is that it's slooooow, which doesn't make for lots of photo opps. So you see, I haven't been slacking off the last few weeks, it's just that most of my sewing has been by hand. I'm working like mad to get Waif's "Fenced In" quilt finished before the cold nights set in. Plus adding the odd few hexagons to my charm quilt here and there. I tend not to make much progress on EPP in the darker months, because I find I need natural daylight to be able to see well enough to sew them together and there's not enough of that to be had :-(

Anyway, here's some work-in-progress shots of Fenced In (apologies for the scruffy basting threads that I haven't yet removed!):





And a little one of my charm quilt. I am about two-thirds of the way round the next "ring":



And I have added borders to Harry's name banner. Next job to get this quilted, which I will probably do by machine:



And yes, I have been continuing with the ICAD Challenge. I have even been following prompts from Tammy. Here's "scissors":



And this one's "zebra" (although it does look somewhat like a stripy cow I know!):



I think I may tackle "pineapple" next :-)

Gman's Quilt is Finished!

Hooray, I did it! Quilting complete, binding sewn down. It's finished!

Some history for new followers:

My son Gman (11) requested a quilt using only red and black fabrics. I started off intending to make a traditional log cabin using the black and red...but then got bored of that so turned it into the star, and added borders in a liberated medallion style until it was the size I wanted it. And yes, I did stray slightly from the red and black requirement...naughty mama :-)...but lucky Gman is pleased with it and agrees that the bright green goose, square and binding are what gives the quilt its "wow!" factor. I hand quilted with perle cotton using a nice big needle. Lovely :-)

It hasn't been easy getting a good photo - I really could do with a nice wall or barn or something to hang quilts on lol. Hopefully the collection of photos below give a pretty good idea of what it looks like. Waif insisted on cuddling up under there with Gman.

Ah, sewing...!

Regular readers may have been wondering what happened to the sewing part of the "Sew Much Progress"...but I have been sewing, I promise! It's just that it's mainly been hand quilting and that makes for sloooooow progress. But I made it!!! I finished quilting Gman's red and black quilt. I am waiting for a sunny day and a willing and able volunteer to hold it up in order to get a photograph of the whole thing but here's a little taster:



I went for fairly simple, unmarked quilting using pearl cottons and a big needle. I can't imagine going back to tiny between needles and regular hand quilting thread now!

I have also been dabbling in a bit of arty stuff. I painted another spread in my old Eagle annual:



This is made of layers of gesso and watercolour paints. The buildings were constructed by scraping acrylic paint using an old credit card, then details added with a variety of markers. Something was missing so I highlighted a selection of random words from the story underneath and quite like the effect:



I completed the next week's spread in my Good Things Moleskine:



And, of course, there's been more index cards for Daisy Yellow's Index-Card-a-Day challenge. Here's today's:

Mostly Green

After last week's burst of yellow, this week's WIPs are mostly green :-)


Rather shamefully, I didn't manage an April gift for Allie's Christmas Through the Year challenge, so figured I would make an early start on May's. I have pieced another name panel, this time for my nephew Ben. I have quilted by hand and now all that remains is to bind it and add a hanging sleeve. I love these two fabrics together.



May's journal quilt technique is collage, and fabric collage is also the 3 Creative Studio blog's Technique of the Month so I have made a start on a collage background for this. I gathered together a load of green scraps, plus a little orange and gold shiny bit for "zing" and fused them onto Vilene. Next job is to FMQ all over this to secure the pieces, then I will be adding collage flowers. I am hoping for a lovely spring-like feel to this one.

Pieced, quilted, bound, FINISHED!

Here it is - my very first full sized bed quilt finished. Complete. All stitched up.

This quilt was my very first adventure into patchwork. I started in December 2009, just 10 months after picking up a needle and thread for the very first time, and piecing the top was a huge learning curve. I posted my first progress report here on 29 December 2009 - and wrote about learning this amazing new technique called chain piecing :-). By 28 February 2010 I had completed the quilt top (posted here), but it wasn't until May that I had it basted with backing and batting.  Then began the slow process of hand quilting, which I finally finished in January.  A few more weeks and I had selected the perfect binding fabric and got this sewn on, and ta-da here it is!  Just less than a year after completing the quilt top, the whole quilt is finished.  In the meantime, I have completed several other smaller quilt projects but, as I said, this is my very first patchwork and my very first bed quilt and so it holds a special place in my heart.  I am as proud of this as just about anything else I have ever done (child-rearing aside!!)

Here I am at 11.15pm last night sewing the last few stitches of binding to the back of the quilt:



And then a few minutes later, checking it over:



Before wrapping myself in it :-) :



Hmmm, and looking rather boss eyed.  Well I had been stitching the damned binding for at least 3 hours!!

Today, I took the quilt over to my  mum's to show her and take more photos and couldn't resist sharing this one of Waif, who insisted on being in the photos:



I'm lucky to have two boys who are such fans of my quilts :-)

Hand Quilting Conveyor Belt

Well, this weekend has been a sore fingered, achey back and goggle eyed sort of event...

On Saturday, I finally finished quilting my Jacob's Ladder top, and it looks something like this:



and closer up like this:



All that remains now is to bind it. I had thought I might do scrappy binding but not so sure now. I think I would prefer it with a single colour and I'm thinking dark purple...waddya reckon?

So, having finished quilting on Saturday, Sunday I spent with my lovely mum basting my red and black quilt. Thoroughly basting it. Very thoroughly basting it. Here it is in various stages of progress (and turned over to the back to check for bald patches!)



All this basting can only mean one thing: Yes, I have decided to hand quilt again ;-). A couple of blog readers suggested quilting fans (like this) but I've never done this before and wonder if I have too many seams (especially in the log cabinny central bit). Advice please ladies :-)

2010 in Stitches

Well, that's 2010 nearly all sewn up (boom boom!) and I think I achieved a fair bit, sewing wise:

• I completed my Jacob's Ladder quilt top, started late 2009 and am part way through quilting it. It's taking a little longer than I originally expected mainly because I made the decision to hand rather than machine quilt. I have counted up, and I have completed 59 out of the 80 blocks. Estimated time spent hand quilting this so far = 24 hours. Yikes. Think I will stick to smaller projects and machine quilting.



• I have nearly completed quilt tops for both Gman and Waif.  Gman's red and black quilt centre is complete, and I working on some wonky square blocks for top and bottom borders (all will be revealed in time).  Waif's village quilt is waiting for a few more trees and lots more fences.



• I made a few mini quilts:  a beach hut themed one for my mum's caravan; a scrappy Army Star/Split Nine Patch for the back of the sofa and recently a little hexagon quilt for Waif's Guinea Baby toy.



• I made a start on a hexagon charm quilt.  Lost momentum a bit on this one TBH, but might pick it up again in the summer, cos I was very partial to sitting in the garden with these!  Bring on the summer.



• Made a nightie.  Think my dressmaking career endeth there ;-)



• Made a load more Morsbags...current tally stands at 137.



• Started to learn embroidery with the help of Sharon's Stitch Files.



• Bought an embellisher machine and made a few cloths with this, plus a couple of little pouches.



• Helped Gman to make two quilts himself, and Waif to make a little drawstring bag.

All in all a sewtastic year :-)

So, goals for 2011?!

• Get the Jacob's Ladder quilt quilted and bound - hopefully within the next two months.


• Complete quilt top for Gman.  Should have this done by the end of January, or hopefully earlier.  Then to decide how to quilt...?


• Complete Waif's liberated village quilt top.  This might take a bit longer...


• Continue learning to embroider with the help of the Stitch Files.


• Make something with a zip.  (this was a goal for 2010, but never seemed to have gotten round to it)


• Have a go at some free pieced letters a la Tonya Ricucci


• Make a journal quilt each month (in collaboration with a new quilty friend).  Watch this space for more info...

I also have a hankering to make an art doll after borrowing Jan Horrox's book from the library.  Yes, I quite possibly have lost the plot :-)

Basically, I just want to continue to learn all I can about quilting, embroidery and all things textile.  And to have fun doing it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

A Finish

Not a WIP, or even a WISP, and defo not a UFO...it's a finished quilt! OK, so it's only 16 inches square, but it's complete!

It's a Christmas present for Waif's soft toy guinea pig - "Guinea Baby" who particularly likes hexagons and the colours red, yellow and orange. Apparently. Hope he approves.

The hexagons are flowers I made for my hexagon charm quilt (before I decided on the star layout) and I hand appliqued them onto the squares. I machine pieced the squares and machine quilted. The binding is "mock binding" ie the backing brought forward to the front.

Still here!

It's been a busy few weeks and sewing has been on a bit of a back burner but I have been beavering away on hand quilting my Jacob's Ladder quilt (30 blocks down, *only* 50 more to do :-)). Struggling a bit with sewing my hexagons because I really can't see well enough in electric light to do these accurately enough, and chances during daylight hours to sew are few and far between!

After laying out my house blocks for Waif's quilt it was looking like the village needed a couple more houses so I knocked these up:




The first one is "too much caffeine house" and the second one is clearly inhabited by a jazz musician ;-)

I think the gaps will be filled with trees, stars, and random bits and pieces. I found this tutorial on tree blocks, so think I will be giving that a go.

Bits and Pieces

I've been doing lots of fiddling around with works in progress this week.

Having decided to go with a hexagon star design for my charm quilt I laid the first few rings out, to see whether I prefered the rings in a single colour or scrappy.  I think I prefer the single colour...but I'm not sure.  What d'ya reckon?




Next in line was the corduroy Gee's Bend style quilt.  I got three pairs of jeans for a quid from a charity stall and got to work ripping them into strips.  I laid out the strips together with some leftover bits of corduroy from the centre to see how it would look.  I think it's gonna be great!



I've also been working on hand quilting my Jacob's Ladder quilt.  I have quilted 17 blocks out of 80 so far (yikes, still a way to go!) but although it's time consuming, I am enjoying it and I do like the way it's looking (ignore the basting thread, will take it all out when Ive finished the lot)