My Great Quilting Expedition

I've had a very productive couple of weeks in the sewing room.  At the moment, designing and making teddies for the Hugglets Teddies Festival in London in September is my priority, but I am nearly finished piecing my Spools quilt.  The pattern for this is by Fig Tree Quilts and it is 68 inches square.  It is not quite big enough for our bed, so I have purchased some additional fabric to add an extra border, making it 80 inches square. Spools Quilt so far...     Just need a few more hours in the day! This is Chlotilde.  She is one of my original designs and will be going to London with me.  She is made from German mohair that has been aged to give that old, preloved look.  I hand knitted her an angora cardigan and sewed on a mother-of-pearl button.

Last week was a good one for finishes.  I made up my two hand quilted silk blocks into cushion covers.  I added piping around the edges to give a nicer finish.  I also finished free motion quilting my sister's quilt and my oriental quilt. I don't consider myself a great piecer, so have veered more towards applique just recently, but there are some blocks that have been calling to me lately.  I particularly like the look of hour glass, broken dishes and spools blocks. I have lots of scraps from a jelly roll and other projects, so thought I would make them up into 9 inch double hourglass blocks.  These are much easier than I thought and like them a lot.  I've decided that I want these blocks to be in citrus colours.  I seem to have had a lot of green fabric left over, so more orange and yellow blocks are needed to break them up.  I have some much brighter yellow, green and orange fabrics to add some extra interest and value to these when...

I finished a quilt for my sister this week.  She moved from the UK to Canada about 30 years ago.  She asked for a quilt in red, white and blue and preferably with a UK flag on it. The quilting used 1800 metres of thread.  I found the free Amy Smart pattern here: http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/blog/2013/12/11/project-design-team-wednesdayunion-jack-crib-quilt/ I sewed some fabric photos of members of our family onto the back of the quilt. I hope she will like it. The instructions for Part 4 of the Di Ford Mystery Quilt arrived this morning.  Just waiting for the fabric pack to arrive.

It's confession time.  I have hand quilted a baby quilt and a cushion cover before...BUT and it's a BIG but, I used a hotch potch of running and stab stitches!  The front of the quilt looks OK, but the backs are awful.  It is time to 'bite the bullet' and learn the hand quilting stitch properly.  I have a 16 inch square of off white silk, so thought a small project would get me going.  I have used a Sandie Lush Durham design.  The silk is nice and thin, so it was easy to trace the pattern onto the material.  I tried to use a hoop when I quilted the baby quilt, but the weight of the quilt in the hoop was really unpleasant, so I ended up quilting it hoopless.  I am finding the hoop OK for this small, light project, but think I might prefer to work on a frame for larger projects.  I don't want to invest in a frame until I know I can do the quilting stitch! I started yesterday and put in about two and a half hours.  I am trying to ...

I have made a good start on the Flowering Urn Medallion Quilt but it will now need to sit on the back burner, as I need to be making teddies for the Hugglets Teddies Festival in Kensington Town Hall,  London on the 14th September.  I have had a six month break from teddy making, due to severe headaches after a head injury in January.  The headaches have reduced in frequency and I now feel up to going back into my workroom.  I need to feel well and focused when making my one of a kind bears. A teaser photo of my latest bear: The flowering urn quilt will be worked on during my patchwork group meetings for a while. I will need my needleturn 'fix'!

Part 3 is more or less finished.  I really enjoyed needle turning the broderie perse and I love working with hexagons.  It will probably be about a month to six weeks before I get the fabric pack for part 4, so in the meantime, I've started another project, the Flowering Urn Medallion Quilt by Rosemary Makhan. A photo from the pattern book:  I think it is lovely as is but I intend to change the colours to the fabrics I have in my stash. If I run out of steam, the pattern book has another pattern for a wallhanging (with the same centre)...so I have a back up plan if I baulk at piecing all those stars!   ...although, that dogtooth border looks difficult! I've marked up the central medallion and about a quarter of the stems are done. I'm off to the National Quilt Championships Show at Sandown on Friday with the lovely ladies from Hawkinge Patchwork Group.  I can't wait to see all the beautiful quilts on show...and I'm hoping to buy a few su...

I have now finished the top and bottom borders of the quilt.  I decided to hand piece them to the quilt after I happened across a video of Jinny Beyer hand piecing.  I'm really pleased I had a go.  It was very easy to do and I didn't catch the points on the previous border in the seam allowance. I've made a decent start on the side borders.  I managed to get three hexie flowers completed and attached to the border at my patchwork group meeting this morning.  Happy days!