Finished flowers

Here's a shot of the completely finished quilt - bound and everything. Ready to go off to its new home as soon as I label the back...

Finished!

A quilting start

I made a start this weekend on the quilting for the black and white and bright quilt. It's going to be quite heavily quilted - both in the colours (which is partly needed to hold down the coloured pieces, which are only fused) and in the black and white (it will have to be, or it won't lay flat). I am hoping to do it a little at a time rather than all at once, which will be a strain on my hands and back - but I do have a deadline, so I'll need to be sure not to leave too much space between quilting sessions. I did think I might get some done in my free afternoons this week - that was, until we found out Monday morning at school OFSTED was coming this week (schools inspection for those of you outside the UK) - needless to say, my free afternoons this week have been less free. Maybe next week!

Finished violet top

Here's the violets with the 3" blocks included and all sewn together. I love the way it works. Not sure how I will quilt it, though...

Flowers in progress

A new work in progress today, but one which has a designated purpose - Geoff's boss is leaving later this year, and this will be a leaving gift for her. It will be 24" square and yes, I've made more of the African Violet blocks I did for the August block lotto. The largest one (bottom right) is a 12" block, the others vary - there's a 9", an 8", four 6" blocks and so far, five 4" blocks. The rest of the fill will be seven 3" blocks. (Yes, they are fiddly, but I think it will be worth it.) Luckily for me, the instructions for the lotto blocks included lots of different sizes, so I didn't even have to think very hard about it! (Not the 3" block, though, I had to figure that one out myself.)

Some careful research (in the form of Geoff emailing her PA) determined that Lynne likes pink and yellow together and isn't fond of blue, so pink and yellow it was - not a complicated colour theme... and I had just enough of the green left from the border & binding of my autumn sampler quilt to do the background with. And I mean that literally - I think there was about a 3x4" rectangle left when I'd cut all the background squares!

I may change the layout around, of course - this is just a rough draft.

More funky houses

These are some more funky houses, not from the blocks I had in stash, but made specially for two projects. This one above is part of what will be (providing I get it bound in time) the BQL Skinny Challenge for March/April. Here's the rest:



According to this month's guidelines, the piece will be 7.5x24". I think I made 8" blocks, so it might need a little trim, especially as it's not that heavily quilted.



And there are 4 more, this time joined into a square, which will get quilted up soon and donated to a school art show. Again, the blocks finish at 8".

Finished Fern Leaf

And here it is with the binding all sewn down. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. But I really must finding another quilting pattern besides the clamshells one which I like to do as much, as it does take ages and ages...

Mostly binding

Finished quilting the Fern Leaf quilt today, got the binding attached (needs to be flipped and sewn down, which I will do Tuesday at quilt group), and also got the binding attached on this batik quilt I got back from the longarmers a little while back. Tomorrow, it's canal houses. Two more to go, but they really really need finishing...

Fern leaf

By request from DH, a quilt for a colleague who has an upcoming occasion. It has a sort of plant theme because of her job. I was inspired by a pack of black, cream and green 10" squares I got in the US and a brown quilt I have with a lovely leaf appliqued in a similar fashion over a background of squares. I actually got the top finished and the piece pinned together today, but then I had to take 10 girls swimming and to McDonalds for a birthday, so no more work beyond that.

I won't be appliqueing the fern down per se, but will rather incorporate the applique with the quilting (at the moment, it's just fused).

Little wall quilt

Instead of doing a second Stay-at-home Robin to make a quilt for the girls' room, I decided to use a Moda charm pack which I had - the line is Cherish Nature by Deb Strain for moda and it has just the right colours in it. The whole thing was fairly random - I just did triangles & squares & rectangles without much planning. This is how Olivia arranged it on the floor, with a few minor balance adjustments. If I don't lose track of the order during sewing, this will be how it looks (more or less) sewn together, as well...

Finished Arty Quilt

Here's the little arty quilt, all bound. I'd like to hang this on the wall - but probably not all year as it's rather autumnal in colour and feel. Luckily, it's fairly small (36x28") , so there's a little chance it might actually happen...

Maths pillows

Yep, that's the excitement of my sewing day - covering some cushions with a mathematical-shape-themed fabric (question: who makes this fabric and why?). Ok, to be fair, I did do a few other things - I made binding for my arty quilt and attached it - I will sew it down later this week while watching telly, etc.

And I cut out the next house (just the paper bit) in the row of canal houses, with a hope of starting it later this week as well. I pulled out some fabric for the water, too, though I haven't sewed anything yet. Not sure what I'm doing with this one, but thought I'd start with a little wavy water (going to sew the pieces together in curves).

And that was it - lots of free time today, but mostly, I just sat in the sun and read. Because who knows how many days there will be to do just that?

Arty finish...

Here's the little quilt finished (well, quilted - the binding has still to go on of course). Someone asked how big it is - it's 36x28" - not big at all (which is good as it gives me a chance to perhaps actually find a place to hang it up when it's done), which is why I managed to finish it quickly - and why I quilted it with this pattern, which is quite labour intensive. I should have spent a little time making some cushion covers for Alex's classroom, but as the machine already had the darning foot and the right thread in for this, I thought I'd finish it first. Cushion covers on Sunday!

Arty start...

Something a little arty - not a lot, just a little. This top has been knocking around for absolutely ages, so I decided it was time to do something with it. Also helped that it was small and I had suitable backing fabric for it! I pinned it together and started quilting it today in my small spare time - my favourite small quilt pattern - the clamshell one.

Spring - for a moment, anyway

Finally, a day with some more time in the sewing room! First order of business was actually to get the binding on Alex's quilt, which I did - a photo of that tomorrow, once I've finished sewing it down.





But while out and about on errands today, I couldn't resist popping in to our local haberdashery/craft department, and picking up a few treats. This morning was lovely and sunny, and springlike - as you might expect from May - though it got less nice later. Still, I was enjoying the spring weather enough to tempt me into buying some spring-like goodies (and some other goodies as well, of course), which I later used to make a batch of ATCs...



I also picked up this scarf in a charity shop - I saw it hanging in the window and was tempted in to acquire it. The nice little old lady working in the shop commented on it, but I didn't have the heart to tell her I planned to cut it up and use it as the base for an art quilt (just as well, really, as it's made from some really dreadful material and has the most synthetic texture imagineably - it was the various shades of blue which attracted me, and the lettering, of course).

Tropical Fish...

I've had this top hanging around for some time - it was even backed & batted & pinned together, just wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to quilt it, and toyed around with a few ideas. Today, I had about an hour or so to work, so I decided to tackle it. It's not particularly large - maybe 18" wide or so.



I quilted long wavy strands of seaweed coming up from the bottom, then added air bubbles above half a dozen or so fish.

The rest I filled in with a combination of wavy lines and little waves. I think it works fairly well.



A binding was attached this afternoon and sewn down this evening - and wow! two finishes in two days. But don't go thinking that's a trend or anything...

Janet Bolton Workshop

After a week taken up with lots of work and little play, it was a nice treat today to be able to attend a full-day workshop with Janet Bolton, a textile artist whose work I really love. It's very different from my normal style, but something about it just works. This workshop was great, and quite productive - I managed to get the better part of this piece done (all hand-sewing - yes, I know, that's amazing too) though I have appliqued the bird and added the buttons since I got home. Next step is lots of quilting (hand) in the background to give some texture, and some windows and/or doors on the houses.



Here's a very washed out closeup of the bird - the colour is much truer in the photo above. I've put quite a bit of stitching on the wing, as well - not sure it shows in the photo.

This piece is fairly large (compared to most of Janet's work) - I guess it's about 12" high - but I didn't think I could handle the teeny tiny applique so I thought I better work bigger...

Abstract Art

Well, as I had more time than expected today (the trip to the airport took no time at all - no traffic) I decided to go ahead and cut up the fabric from yesterday and try something a little modern and funky with it. On the whole, I think I like it. Olivia also really likes it (her colours) so it may end up on the wall in their room - they have a space which is fairly well suited. Of course, it has to be quilted & bound first!

Picture-full...

The opposite of picture-less, of course. And hurrah - internet seems to be back. Thank goodness for that. Here's the EQ5 sketch of the christmas tree quilt - it won't look quite like this of course, as I will use scraps of Christmas fabrics, rather than coordinate all the rounds...



I thought I'd start it nice and early so that in addition to being sure I have time to make the deadline I can either make something different if I don't think this works, or if I really love it, have time to make myself one...

I forgot to mention that the other thing I did yesterday morning was to pin together two small pieces for quilting - the fish quilt for the toilet room and the Japanese Taupe dresser runner. Hopefully they will both get quilted in the next week or so. Both are small, so shouldn't take long to quilt. I probably won't even have to move my machine downstairs to the dining room table, which is always a plus.

Sunday around the house

Lots of things to show today, after a few days of less to show. Here is the batik sampler quilt - I finished stitching the binding down tonight - it's at an odd angle in the photo because I turned it sideways to show the quilt right-side up, even though I took the photo side on for space reasons. It looks good. Might keep this one, as it has no particular purpose at the moment, though you never know - something could very well come up.

I also did some work on the Japanese applique - finished the bridge, added the land at the front and on the right and put up the tree - though I haven't satin-stitched that yet. After that, it's just the bunches of leaves to do, and an optional moon (which I think I will include - I like it).



I also decided to make some fish for my newly painted toilet room - this is a small piece, about 18 inches by 30, I think. Obviously, it's not quilted or anything yet - just pieced together - but I will quilt it fairly soon so I can hang it up. It's attached temporarily to the toilet wall at the moment, just to check the colours and so forth... Oddly enough, this is the third quilt I will have made specifically for a toilet room - but the first for my own.