...there's even the right number of knobbles on each brick for both rows to fit together. Genius boy.
Thursday, 7 August 2014
Tuesday, 5 August 2014
TWO finished quilts. Yes, two.
Hurrah for finished objects!
Fired up by my quilting success last Saturday, the past two evenings have been spent putting bindings on those two unfinished quilts. I was so buoyed up with success that I even thought it might be a good idea to emulate one of those lovely, aspirational quilt blogs, full of wonderfully artistic photos of quilts as held up by members of their family. Sadly I didn't have any antique barns or wildflower meadows to hand, but it was reasonably sunny so I popped into the garden with Trainboy and a camera.
...BRILLIANT. Stay like that, just keep still so I can get it in focus.
Er... please could you hold it up again? No? Okay, let's try spreading it out on the bench...
Better. How about a smile? ...is that a smile? It is? OKAY THEN.
This one was machine bound with zig-zag stitch, which I seem to be getting a bit better at. It has certainly used up a big stack of repurposed and vintage fabric scraps, and I was genuinely surprised at how pleasing I found the light/dark contrast in the blocks. A point to remember for my next kaleidescope quilt, I think.
The second one was the pink quilt of 5" scrap squares that I backed with a woolly blanket. I am delighted to report it stood up to washing and tumble-drying on low heat excellently well - look:
Another machine binding, too! Straight stitch this time, visible on the back inside the binding line which seemed to suit the quilting pattern I'd used - 1/4" lines either side of every seam. To my surprise, although the zig-zag method is probably more forgiving, I much preferred using straight-stitch. Here's how the binding looks on the front:
It really is beautifully thick and snuggly, this one. I'm very pleased with it - look how pretty it is!
Hum. Yes. Ah, bless him.
I shall probably put both of these in the Slaithwaite Emporium and list them in my Etsy shop fairly shortly. Who knows, I may even sell one of 'em. See you soon!
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Two quilts, quilted. Binding tomorrow. And now, a spot of tea.
It's the summer holidays, and if sewing time is hard to come by, blogging time has entirely disappeared - by the time Trainboy is in bed I can barely string a sentence together. But I am here, I am here at last, and after a full day of sewing, too:
These two are quilt tops that have languished in a to-be-finished pile for many months. When the Husband decided to go off for a weekend (riding bikes, naturally), he very decently arranged for Grandma & Grandad to take Trainboy off my hands for a night while he was away, and I set to with the sewing machine pretty much as soon as I'd waved them goodbye. After roughly 7 hours of sewing, these two now only need binding and they're done!
The one on the left is quite small, but the pink one is single-bed sized. I've backed it with a thrifted wool blanket, too, so we'll see how that looks after washing - I'm quite intrigued to find out.
I also managed to finish off the quilt that was giving me such headaches in the previous post, and the recipient loved it, which is deeply satisfying. I was pleased with it in the end, I admit, although it was only finished in the very nick of time, and I forgot to take a photo before it left...
...yes, I am definitely the worst blogger. Ah well!
These two are quilt tops that have languished in a to-be-finished pile for many months. When the Husband decided to go off for a weekend (riding bikes, naturally), he very decently arranged for Grandma & Grandad to take Trainboy off my hands for a night while he was away, and I set to with the sewing machine pretty much as soon as I'd waved them goodbye. After roughly 7 hours of sewing, these two now only need binding and they're done!
The one on the left is quite small, but the pink one is single-bed sized. I've backed it with a thrifted wool blanket, too, so we'll see how that looks after washing - I'm quite intrigued to find out.
I also managed to finish off the quilt that was giving me such headaches in the previous post, and the recipient loved it, which is deeply satisfying. I was pleased with it in the end, I admit, although it was only finished in the very nick of time, and I forgot to take a photo before it left...
...yes, I am definitely the worst blogger. Ah well!
Thursday, 24 July 2014
Sunday, 20 July 2014
Ohh I just don't know anymore...
This one's a commission that needs to be finished by 2nd August and I am JUST. SO. NOT. FEELING. IT.
Firstly, the person who requested it saw a nautical sort of one I'd done and said "one like that, please!" which is awkward, since I don't really like repeating myself, but I agreed, and she said she wanted me to incorporate some of the little boy's old clothes into the pattern, so I said of course, but please make sure they are cotton and not jersey. Naturally she brought me a pile of polo shirts. Ah well, you can always iron on a bit of interfacing, so I did, and then I had to work out how to work the green and yellow shirts into a red, white and blue colour scheme.
I decided to get into some of my best remnants to try to gee myself up a bit about it, so there's some lovely white stars on blue, and some from the quilt I made my son when he was two, and even the very last bits of my Cath Kidston cowboys. I'm not sure about the colour balance of the layout yet, but I can have a fiddle with it tomorrow and with any luck I can get it sewn up by the end of the week.
But then, I've said that before... yipes. Wish me luck.
Firstly, the person who requested it saw a nautical sort of one I'd done and said "one like that, please!" which is awkward, since I don't really like repeating myself, but I agreed, and she said she wanted me to incorporate some of the little boy's old clothes into the pattern, so I said of course, but please make sure they are cotton and not jersey. Naturally she brought me a pile of polo shirts. Ah well, you can always iron on a bit of interfacing, so I did, and then I had to work out how to work the green and yellow shirts into a red, white and blue colour scheme.
I decided to get into some of my best remnants to try to gee myself up a bit about it, so there's some lovely white stars on blue, and some from the quilt I made my son when he was two, and even the very last bits of my Cath Kidston cowboys. I'm not sure about the colour balance of the layout yet, but I can have a fiddle with it tomorrow and with any luck I can get it sewn up by the end of the week.
But then, I've said that before... yipes. Wish me luck.
Thursday, 17 July 2014
I am the worst blogger!
To be honest I shall probably continue to be the worst blogger, so let's just keep moving forward, eh.
Things have been MADE, and blog posts written (in my head, where it doesn't really count of course...) and the odd photo has been taken. So today I should like to show you a cushion, which was begun last week and given to its recipient today. It is a very special cushion nonetheless.
I have teacher friends and relatives and I know there is a wild proliferation of chocolates and mugs at the end of each school year, so I wanted to make something, but really I wanted to make something with Trainboy. Trainboy, who got a perfect score of "A" for effort in every subject this year... except Design & Technology. Trainboy had no ideas. Nor did I.
But then I scored some super-cheap fabric marker pens in TK Maxx and brought them home with a sudden brilliant idea. I ironed a bit of white cotton, handed the pens to my son, and asked him to draw a train. Then I suggested we went and chose some fabrics to use for the cushion. My idea was to put the drawing on one side and a bit of pretty patchwork on the other, so his teacher could use it either way, depending which she preferred. I mean a teacher probably collects an awful lot of other people's children's artwork...
What co-ordinates with a blue, red and green train? Why, delicate shades of lime and sage green, and perhaps a bit of neon orange, of course! And yes, that is some of my precious, precious Denyse Schmidt there. He's got some taste, at least. The block is basically "Scots Plaid" from the marvellous 500 Quilt Blocks by Kerry and Lynne.
It was a bit of a challenge but it worked, I think? I ironed some lightweight stabiliser over the back of each panel, overlocked the inside edges, and put a reasonable zip in the side. We gave it to Mrs K this morning and she seemed to like it. She is a really marvellous teacher - I think Wilf and I will both miss her next year!
Things have been MADE, and blog posts written (in my head, where it doesn't really count of course...) and the odd photo has been taken. So today I should like to show you a cushion, which was begun last week and given to its recipient today. It is a very special cushion nonetheless.
I have teacher friends and relatives and I know there is a wild proliferation of chocolates and mugs at the end of each school year, so I wanted to make something, but really I wanted to make something with Trainboy. Trainboy, who got a perfect score of "A" for effort in every subject this year... except Design & Technology. Trainboy had no ideas. Nor did I.
But then I scored some super-cheap fabric marker pens in TK Maxx and brought them home with a sudden brilliant idea. I ironed a bit of white cotton, handed the pens to my son, and asked him to draw a train. Then I suggested we went and chose some fabrics to use for the cushion. My idea was to put the drawing on one side and a bit of pretty patchwork on the other, so his teacher could use it either way, depending which she preferred. I mean a teacher probably collects an awful lot of other people's children's artwork...
What co-ordinates with a blue, red and green train? Why, delicate shades of lime and sage green, and perhaps a bit of neon orange, of course! And yes, that is some of my precious, precious Denyse Schmidt there. He's got some taste, at least. The block is basically "Scots Plaid" from the marvellous 500 Quilt Blocks by Kerry and Lynne.
Thursday, 10 July 2014
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