Sunshine quilt

Sunshine quilt

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Shadow pinwheel ta-dah


Well it's been a very long time coming but I have finally finished the shadow pinwheel. What started out as a bit of an experiment with a couple of layer cakes turned into my biggest ever quilt. I made a considerable dent in my stash too which I am pleased about. Everything about this quilt turned out to be difficult and it has required some perseverance to get it done. The final sting in the tail was the quilting which took ages. I decided to do narrow lines of quilting round the edge as I wanted it to have a defined border.


These just took ages - about 15 minutes to get round each circle - but I think the final effect was worth it. It gives it a great texture and a really defined border. Also the extra stiffness at the edge seems to make it hang well.

It's in the washing machine at the moment - it will be well used and will need to be washed so I thought since the weather is so warm I would start as I mean to go on. It's got 5 colour catcher sheets in with it just in case!!

So now I am working on a much smaller quilt - back to my scrap 2.5 inch squares which will be infinitely more relaxing than this monster. I'd love to know what you think of it. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I love the mix of saturated colour. Oh and as an afterthought - here's the back - Kaffe Fassett shirt stripes in green - reminds me of a deck chair!

later note: - phew washed fine  - the colour catchers were a kind of black colour after it finished washing - but the white remained white and everything else looks fine!



Monday 14 July 2014

A troublesome quilt!

You may remember I was waiting for supplies and time to sandwich up my colourful pinwheel quilt. I've been busy at work recently (which is a good thing since I run my own business!) so I had been waiting for a few free hours to get this big job done. Well the time I had identified came - but I started later than I wanted and it was a really hot and humid day. Doing the quilt sandwich was trouble from start to finish. I did actually achieve it in the end - and you can see I am starting the laborious process of quilting in the ditch here.


The whole process has been fraught with difficulty. Normally I manage very well using 505 basting spray and spreading out my layers on a big piece of floor. I don't know whether it was because the weather was hot, but the spray seemed to stick too firmly and then I had massive wrinkles right in the middle of this massive quilt. So I kept having to peel it back and smooth it down until I thought the wadding was sure to disintegrate.

I persevered and finally got it smooth. It's not the best job I've done but it's good enough.

And then I decided to quilt between the pinwheel squares without marking my lines. You would have thought I could manage to go between 2 points about 6 inches apart in a straight line - but OH NO. So I had to unpick a whole long row of quilting. Anyone who worried about quilt stitching coming undone need not have done. It took me ages to get all those stitches out. It's finally under the machine and coming together. It started off looking like a floppy mess, but as I am getting the (many) rows of quilting in it is starting to behave itself. I will show you the outcome in  a few days (I hope)

Friday 4 July 2014

Scrappy quilt

For a long time now I have had a growing scrap box - almost too full to get the lid on! So I decided I needed to use this up. My first plan was to get some boxes to sort scraps into colours. And then I had to find some inspiration. As usual I turned to one of my favourite designers, Lynne Edwards and her patterns. In this book Stash Buster Quilts there is an intriguing pattern for using up small scraps in on-point squares - but it is pieced in four quarters and then joined together round the middle square. Here is my first quarter



You sort the scraps into colour teams and then follow her pattern for sewing them together. At the moment it looks a bit of a muddle but I am sure it will be clearer when I have finished all four pieces and sewn them together. I think I made a slight mistake choosing purple and blue to go so close together - but these are the colours I've got most of. I keep being tempted to cut into new fabric - but I have kept this to a minimum as I really want to use up my scraps rather than create a lot more new ones!

So far it has been good fun. My piecing accuracy leaves a lot to be desired but I don't think that spoils the overall effect.

I will keep you posted as it grows though I need to take a break from it and make some more cherries as I have run out of soothing blanket stitch for the evening - see here