Works in progress

Since I finished my 'darling buds of may' wall-hanging I haven't ben idle, although I don't seem to have too much to show for it. I continue to be surrounded by pregnant tummies and have been making a baby quilt for a colleague's daughter. (Poor girl, she's already had an ectopic pregnancy, so everyone is extra delighted this time around.)

I have nearly finished the top, just a bit more embroidery to do. The pattern is one from 'Quiltmaker' and was very straighforward to make. I bought new fabric for the centre of the quilt (I have loads of fat quarters - mainly with bits cut out! - but little yardage) and otherwise have used stash fabric. If the sun was shining, you would be able to see how pretty it is!


Another dark picture, but these are free-cut stars a la Gwen Marston. In fact, the quilt is going to be pretty much a copy of one in her new book 'Liberated Quiltmaking 2'. I have been able to use some gorgeous Kaffe Fassett fabrics I have had for ages, including a pack of charm squares which goodness only knows why I bought! I need 6 more stars then I will make it up, with plain cream borders. Lots of room for quilting on this one. It will be a present for a friend who has been through a tough time recently.

Five down and none to go!

Hooray! I have managed to just sneak in under the bar and complete Peg's challenge to complete 5 UFOs before the end of July. My green and yellow baby quilt is all finished, and I am very pleased with it.

I have decided to call it 'Run, rabbit!' as the chasing rabbits make me think of the old 40s song,

'Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run.

Don't let the farmer catch you with his gun.

He'll get by without his rabbit pie,

So run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run!'

There are green rabbits running ound the centre, rabbits quilted in the large white spaces

and then rabbits quilted all round the borders. I cut several rabbit shapes out of freezer paper and ironed them lightly onto the borders. Then I machine quilted along the top edge of the rabbits in one continuous line, and then went back and did the underside. Then I was able to pull the freezer paper off, iron it onto another side of the border and so on.

I also put a reason for the rabbits to be running. It's not the farmer, but the fox!

Four down, one to go and a quilting SOS!

I have finished quilting my house quilt, and although maybe the blue at the top still looks a bit strange, I think the recipient will be delighted with it.

I quilted some leaves round the bottom of the pots to try and link the green and blue better, although I don't think they're very effective. I'm just pleased that that's another one out of the UFO box and it'll look fine on a bed!

Meanwhile, DS has been making a baby quilt for a friend of his who is pregnant. Like the rest of us, he started it some time ago, thinking, plenty of time, plenty of time, and suddenly was panicked to hear that she had gone into labour! What do you do in these circumstances (and in the middle of a move from London to Leeds) but ask Mum for help. I had originally agreed to quilt it, but now a little parcel appeared containing the quilt so far.

He had chosen a theme of coffee and cream, and the effect was to have the cream gradually melting into the coffee (or vice versa). I just added the last couple of rows, put on two borders, quilted and then attached the binding.

It's now on its way to Leeds to have the binding secured and the label put on. Then it'll be a great gift for a sophisticated baby!

Green and yellow

I made the mistake of mentioning to one of my colleagues that I was going to make a quilt for her impending grandchild. 'Oh, they will be so pleased! They would like green and yellow, to match the nursery.' Well, I don't do pastels and I don't do commissions either, so that information put me in a bit of a spin. How could I make a satisfying (to me!) quilt only using green and yellow? If I could have used darks, mediums and lights, it would have been fine, but using baby colours was tricky.

After some research, I decided that Irish Chain would be possible in green and yellow, with a cream background. I started by making some ninepatches. I had played around with crayons and graph paper, hoping to make the yellow go one way, and the green go the other, but the fact that one colour had to be in the centres spoiled the flow. Also, the design had a very diagonal appearance, which I didn't like at all.



Back to the drawing board (or graph paper) and then I came up with this design. The colours are alternate in each row, one with a yellow centre and the next with a green. This looked much better, and the solid blocks inbetween the pieced blocks made it grow really fast!

In no time at all I had completed enough blocks for the main part of the top. I managed to find enough pastels in my stash to keep the gentle tone.

Now I have to decide how to complete it. A small cream border to make the chain float, then yellow and bind with green? What better ideas do you have?

Saturday night in

It's always good to get out and see friends, a film or a play, but once in a while, it's nice to have a night in. After a few busy weekends, holidays, doing front of house for a drama production, a wedding and meet-up with some old friends, we had a Saturday when the calendar was blank. Bliss!

This is the cue for a curry (cooked in the oven, like a casserole, so it's ready whenever you are), a glass (or two) of red wine, Dr. Who on the tele and then an evening sewing in front of the box for me, and some watching of football and 'High Fidelity' for DH. I watched 'High Fidelity' too, although we've both seen it before. If you haven't seen it, I can recommend it, as it's one of the few films which are as good as the book, and if you like Jack Black, it's a must.


I have decided to quilt one of my Chaos Crumb quilts, ready for the workshop later this year, and after much deliberation, felt that although it would be possible to machine quilt the sashing, the blocks needed to be hand quilted.

Well, I say hand quilting - it's a cross between running stitch and big stitch quilting, but it works for me. I would have used a dark beige thread, if I had any, but I only had lilac, which seems to have worked well with all the different colours.

I have just quilted about a quarter of an inch in from the seam line on each string, to avoid the bulk, an idea copied from Gwen Marston's string quilts book. I did nearly three of the nine big blocks in an evening, so it'll be interesting to see how long the whole thing takes me!

Meanwhile, I have finished machine quilting my baby quilt, and apart from the label, it's ready for its recipient. It still looks rather pale to me, but I'm sure any baby would be happy to be sick on it!

One finished, ninety nine to go!

Well, I haven't actually got 99 UFOs, although sometimes it seems like it! I never worry about getting inspired to start something new when I'm already in the middle of something else, in fact, as I've discovered, my attention span is so short, I wouldn't be able to finish anything if I didn't bit and bob!Here is my orphan quilt finished. It's even got its label on, all ready to snail its way to my great-niece Isabella in Herne Bay, by the sea. I think the bright pink border just lifts it, and I'm sure she will like it to snuggle under at grandma's.

Several of my work colleagues are becoming grandmas at the moment, so I thought I would make quilts for the new arrivals. I wanted something quick and easy, and decided this very simple block would be perfect for the first one. (This baby's due on 10th May, so it needed to be a quick pattern!) Jane showed me a clever way of making these blocks using strip piecing, but with my poor spatial awareness, it was too difficult for me, and I resorted to the tried and true template method! It's been difficult enough working with pastels, without the added pressure of rotating and moving things around!

Here is the layered quilt, partly quilted. When I had joined the blocks together, I was disappointed with it, as I felt the mix of patterns and solids didn't work too well. however, once it was bordered and I had started the quilting, I started to like it. I think it will be bound in the same blue as the narrow border, just to define the edge.

Just a bit more quilting on this and it'll be ready to welcome the new arrival.