I added extra bands to the top
and bottom, sewing and flipping.
For the side borders I also
needed to add extra backing so
I sewed around the top to
produce a guide line. I
abutted the rust backing border
bands to this and at the same
time pinned Aussie fabric border
pieces to the front. Then I
stitched through both seams at once.

Quilted lettering

I free machined the names
of the animals onto some
of the bands.

Centre top quilted

Here are are all seven bands in place.

Here I've sewn and flipped two bands to the centre one and pressed them and temporarily secured with 505 fabric glue spray. The fourth band has been pinned right sides together ready to sew. Before carrying the quilt to the machine I'll do the same with the fifth one.

Quilting as I go

Today I've continued working on the third Linus quilt including practising free machine quilting. It's better than the last one but my efforts still are very unsatisfactory compared to my handquilting.

SEW AND FLIP QUILT CONSTRUCTION

This is the third Linus quilt I'm working on. I have a back of limited size and my top threatens to overlap it. So I began by placing the the quilt back on my wadding and attaching it down with a glue spray. Then I sewed all round the edge with a large stitch and low tension. This means I can see where the back is when looking at the front. I then sewed on the label and drew lines down the middle horizontally and vertically and on either side of the centre drew in the lines to indicate where to place the first strip. Then I drew where subsequent strips will be placed - I was using a child's pink felt tip for the drawing so it may not show on the photos. Tomorrow I shall start sewing and flipping the bands thus doing some of the quilting as I go.

Linus quilt

I went to my quilt group armed with quilt and unpicker. Ann suggested I should resort to pressing the blocks. Now that the alternate crumb pieced blocks have been pressed, I feel this Linus quilt is satisfactory. I like the puffiness of the animal squares which have minimal quilting in the ditch. I am trying out various methods of setting picture squares with two more Linus quilts in the pipeline. I just have to finish the rest of the binding on this one.

Machine Quilting Frustration

I have spent the last two days sandwiching five quilts (one very small). Then I quilted my two Linus quilts in the ditch. They are quite puffy as I think I have used 4oz wadding, not 2oz. It was over an inch thick when I unrolled it. One of the quilts has the binding attached ready to sew down and is fine. However having recently watched Ricky Timms' video I decided to free quilt the crazy blocks in the other one. It is awful so I am extremely fed up. I am going to clear up the living room where I have spread myself out and "enjoyed" a mini retreat while my husband is working for two days (mainly we are retired). Then I shall undo at least two blocks and will do some each day till the stitches are out. Better no quilting than that quilting. Heigho time to get on.

Helping Hands Day

I went to a day organised by Terence Gilbert in Walmer. He organises charity quilting days. These have been taking place for a long time but this was my first one. We were organised into teams, each making one quilt. In our team some sewed, some pinned and some ironed. We all had plenty to do. Terence had cut out all the fabrics and backing; wadding and binding was also provided. We were joining isoceles triangles which have two equal sides and one shorter side - this was to make sure the pieces were set straight of grain. The idea was to make larger triangles comprised of either 5 dark or 5 light triangles but we mixed ours up. Unfortunately I don't have phots of the others as I forgot my camera. We paid £3.50 to cover our lunch - Terence provided delicious homemade soup and lovely cake in the afternoon and the raffle covered the hall costs. It is a good way to spend the day in company, learn a new technique and do something for others too.

Malvern purchases

I kept to my list as I am trying to bust stash not add to it but quilt backs were on my list and I picked up some real bargains - going on the first day must be a good idea. Not on my list was a tilt table for my machine but I am having arm and shoulder problems so anything to help. I was also much impressed by a Horn table which had a well for the machine, a huge surface and cutting mat and a lift and lower mechanism. All this and a set of drawers for £2200. I thought about saving up but on second thought realise I am much better off with one of the more flexible foldaway cabinets combined with a separate raise-and-lower [smaller] table given that I also need storage space room in my sewng room and lodge overflow guests there too sometimes.
Here are photos of quilt backs, novelties, Oakshott plains and wonderful blue and white batiks from textile techniques to add to my S.E. Asia collection.

Malvern B&B quilts

I stayed at a farmhouse B&B near Tewkesbury for a couple of nights while visiting the show and was delighted to discover the proprietor had made three quilts, one for each of her children. Here they are:

MALVERN - Quilts UK Exhibition

This is one of my favourite shows. There are always plenty of bed quilts and work by quilters I like to follow via their exhibits - Win Sabathy is one. Last year I had two bed quilts on show displayed here, two of the five "Mary's Triangles" quilts I have made. This is a technique devised by Sally Schneider featured in "Triangle Tricks" which I read in conjunction with "The value of value" by Suzanne Tessier Hammond.

Project Linus quilts

On April 1st I showed the animal alphabet blocks Project Linus UK requested quilters make for the Festival of Quilts last year. Yesterday four of us from Crab & Winkle had a sewing day and two of us worked on these blocks. I'd made one (just the top) before and managed to finish a second one before going to bed. Marion finished two smaller tops on the day - she's very speedy and I was distracted by hostessing duties (that's my excuse anyway!)

The ones with frames and rail fence setting blocks are mine and Marion is holding up her two.

Alternative size

Each nine patch consists of four 5.75" picture squares arranged as shown, four 5.75 x 4.25" oblongs and a centre 4.25" square.

Seven ninepatches are needed to make a quilt and there will be spare pieces. I prepared seven kits consisting of the ninepatch pieces and an extra oblong and centre square which were joined and cut in half lengthways to form 2.125" (two and one eighth inch) strips. I trimmed the sashing post fabric 1.775" (one and seven eighths) away from the seam line and used one of the cut off 2.125 (two and one eighth inch) squares for the final corner sashing post. These units completed the sashing.

Split ninepatch continued

These pictures show the ninepatch cut in half and then the pieces tuned round to form a sashed effect and the finished quilt which is 36" square and uses four ninepatches plus some side pieces.

Each ninepatch consists of four 6.5 picture squares. the centre square is 6" and the side pieces are 6x6.5" oblongs joined to the picture squares along the longer side.

I gave 4 people a kit of the ninepatch pieces and in addition an extra 6" square and 6"x6.5" oblong. These were attached along the 6" side and cut in half lengthwise to form two 3" strips. I cut off part of the sashing post fabric measuring 2.75" from the seam line. one of the cut off 3" square was used for a corner post. In this way the quilt was sashed completely.

Split nine patch quilt: SQUARES

Last year I made lots of charity quiltsf or prison babies which had to be 36" square. I was very fascinated by the methods in Nancy Brenan Daniel's book "Slice'em Dice'em quilts" and adopted four of the techniques and resized her instructions to produce the required dimensions and also worked out how to use picture squares and directional prints in the ninepatch units.

The ninepatch above clearly shows how the pictures need to be set in the ninepatch in order to be the right way up when the ninepatch is cut in half and turned around.

Rubik's cubes - better now!

I couldn't stand it any longer and appliqued triangles with bondaweb (fusible web) to the border oblongs. The quilt looks better now.

Compare with previous post!