Double whammy!

Not only have I finished another quilt, but it was out of my UFO box too! The blocks I had made after a workshop with Jennie Rayment and had kept since 2008 are now happily together in a quilt!

The blocks are her folded star, which I have made in mainly striped black and white fabrics. This emphasises the folds and the star in each block. Because it's folded, I have sewn down most of the folds to stabilise the quilt for little fingers, but I think that has improved the final effect.

Here is a close up of my favourite block.

And here is another block, and a peek at the backing which (along with the borders) was donated by Elaine to project Linus. Thanks, Elaine! I think a boy will love this quilt, and I'm delighted to cross a UFO off my list!

A quilt and a UFO

The weather has been so awful here, that it's been no good thinking about going in the garden, so I've spent quite a lot of time happily quilting. This means that my scrappy hearts top is now a completed quilt!

I used pieces from Andrea's scrap bag for the binding too. I'm really happy with how it's turned out, and plan to make a scrappy red one, a scrappy pastel one, another multi-scrappy one... well, that's the plan!

I then felt motivated to rummage in my UFO box and find some twisted star blocks I made after being inspired by Jennie Rayment. She uses a lot of calico for manipulating, tucking and twisting, but I thought some striped fabric would look really good using her methods. Since I intend to send this to Linus, I have used invisible thread to secure the stars, just in case. It actually emphasises them beautifully. I'll bind it in red, and it'll look quite manly, I think.

Fiddling about

I should really have been getting on with my curves quilt for DD (she could do with an extra cuddle just about now) but need a piece of time when I'm fresh and ready to measure accurately, be creative and make decisions, which hasn't materialised yet. the time I've had has been short, end-of-the-day time, which is better for mindless sewing than doing something important.

So, I've finished the top which Tina had donated to project Linus. She can't remember what the pattern was, and looking at it, no offence Tina, but I think you've made a mistake somewhere when you sewed the blocks together! No problems though, it makes an excellent Linus quilt.

Then I finally made up November's block for our challenge group, Flutterwheels. Last year's theme was stars, and the last block was Jennie Rayment's 'Star Flower'. Jennie is famous for her fabric manipulation, and very clear instructions, although that didn't make me less apprehensive about tackling this block.

The brief was to use analogous clours (colours next to each other on the colour wheel) and I chose red (in this case, pink) and red/purple. I still need to sew the ends of the petals down, but it's looking OK so far.

Then I had a bit of a rumage through my UFO box and found some Dresden plate kits I had made up for a demonstration table I did ages ago. The pieces were all cut out, so it seemed a shame not to make them up, while I was up for chain piecing.

This one lacks its centre, but is complete. These pointed rays are really easy to do.

First you cut your rays out.

Then you fold them in half, right sides together and iron a crease down the top couple of inches.

Then you sew along the top by machine. (This is where the chain-piecing comes in.) Clip the folded edge of the ray.Turn the ray right sides out, poking the point out well with a pencil or something which is not a scissor point or you'll make a hole, like I did!Now press! Join them together matching the sides of the rays, until you have made a circle. It depends on the size of the ray as to how many you need. (Mine were quite small and needed 24 rays for a circle.) Lay the plate onto a square of backing fabric and applique down by hand or machine. Applique a circle in the middle to hide all the mess in the centre. Easy! Now I just need to join up 72 more and I'm in business!

Fiddling and twiddling

On Saturday I spent a fabulous day at Rocheberie Quilters with Jennie Rayment. Jennie is known for her facility to fold, tuck, twiddle and fiddle with fabric to produce some amazing 3-D blocks. In the morning Jennie held a workshop with all 60 people who came that day and in the afternoon she gave a talk. If you ever hear that Jennie is speaking within a 100 mile radius of where you live, bust a gut to get there. She is an accomplished performer, fantastic quilter and absolutely hilarious!

In the morning we made two blocks from calico.

She was such a good teacher, that although it was a bit complicated, everyone in the hall made it correctly! If this were embellished, it would enhance the twisted shapes beautifully. Have a look on Jane's blog for more examples, and a link to an article about Jennie.

This star shape should have had its edgeds folded back and twisted, but I rather liked the star shape on its own (I'm not really much of a fiddler), so much so, that I experiemented with striped fabric when I got home.

These blocks are a bit startling, but good, and I'm planning to sash them with black, with red cornerstones, and then a couple of borders (one stripey, one red) but meanwhile, I need to get on with some of my other UFOs, so it'll have to wait a bit.