Finishing up

Trying out strips.

Backing first choice

Busy day today - I'm trying to finish things off and not leave them standing. I've sandwiched the leftovers quilt having washed the wadding and pieced the back. I've Bubblejetted the Flora Abunda label and printed it. I've pieced my blocks from a long ago Jelly Roll class by Jo Baddeley of Puddleducks.  Then I spent quite a long time deciding what to do next. Should I leave it borderless and use my previously chosen backing with just enough space round so I would have to quilt it myself?

Should I back it with this sarong from Malacca?

Should I add my limited number of leftover strips to form a border in which case I would need more backing? Should I go along with my previous plan to have this longarmed by Maggie? In the event I decided on the latter plus no border plus different backing and piece Chinese coins from my leftover strips to eke out the width of backing.

Final choice of backing

All this while up and down watching the Olympics.
It was great to see Zara Philips' fast circuit in the three day event watched by cousins William and Harry and most of all the male gymnasts win bronze.

Having published this post and checked out my photos again I have decided to go with the strip border. I've already made the red binding. I find all these choices quite irksome though necessary. I just want to get on. I notice that this sort of decision making plays a much greater part for art quilters. In fact these blocks lay neglected for so long because I couldn't decide how to quilt them. It is good to have a longarmer close at hand as now.

Show & Tell

I have been helping a new member of Quay Quilters and here is her first quilt, a sampler. It's been longarm quilted by "Smart Frog" and the maker is delighted. She has a real eye for fabric and colour. There is no stopping her and two Trips Around the World are currently with Smart Frog.

I went straight from Faversham to Bonnie Quilters where Fran has finished her Katharine Guerrier Stars project. This was our last joint quilt project but one. Since then we have worked on bits and pieces including Dresden Plate and, again, here is Fran with hers. The last two weeks we practised making blocks from Creative Grids zigzag shaped rulers but now we have embarked on another  quilt project which will be a first for all of us so new skills and experiences loom.

I've added the borders to my leftovers quilt. The plain blue is lovely fairtrade fabric from my friend Maggie which has a slight shot quality. This in turn is leftover from earlier quilts and I've cut some for the binding but there's still some left. The seersucker check is all gone, however, which is a result.

We loved the opening ceremony last night - quirky and many layered. Feeling very proud. Now I'm seeing the cycling and rowing on TV. The commentator noted that we win medals in sports where you sit down. I'm keeping up with this phenomenon in my sewing.

Leftovers

Tacked quilt

I've sandwiched Bryn's quilt without mishap. The tacking usually goes all right but last time I had rucks and had to do a lot of unpicking. A case of over confidence, I fear, so I was relieved this time round. The plan was to handquilt but when tacking I found the backing not so easy to sew through  so I shall probably machine stitch in the ditch around the blocks and add some hand quilting inside them.
I sometimes find leftover pieces and scraps from projects piling up and sometimes I manage to make use of them. I sewed the leftover strips from Bryn's quilt into long bands then subcut into squares and half square triangles which I then combined into the blocks as shown. The setting squares are leftover backing and I'll use the rest of this for a border. Size and shape determined by amounts remaining. I imagine this will be a charity quilt for a boy.

Blocks of leftovers

I moved up into the living room today as I was home alone  and took the chance to catch up with stuff on my new acquired and wonderful hard disk - Kenneth More in The Admirable Crichton, a US made for TV crime drama By Appointment only and A black and White film called Town on Trial starring a very manly John Mills. A very guilty and enjoyable pleasure.
I've also finished Bryn's quilt top and sewn the backing and prepared the binding.
I had intended to have a narrow outer border of leftover strips but thought it looked awful so stuck to the turquoise blue as wide as I could given the amount I had left. The back of the red shirt provided nearly all the binding but I needed three extra strips.  I'll trim back the red corner pieces once it's (hand) quilted.
Off to eat chicken pie now.

Getting there

I'm up to the final ninepatch of Bryn's quilt. I should have finished the centre section by now but had to some unpicking. Today it was the topmost triangles - I'd put red ones there not blue. The blue colour matches his walls.I've used recycled shirts, one pair of summer trousers and some plain hand dyed material. He's starting secondary school next term so needs something more grown up. His bed is under a window and has furniture at the bottom so I shall add narrow borders so it won't come out too big.

Bonnie's

At Bonnie Quilters the four of us played with the zigzag rulers but decided that after a break making smaller things we were ready for a new joint project. It's to be a medallion quilt with both applique and piecing. Two of us haven't done Log Cabin before either so it will be a learning process for all of us.
Meanwhile Fran has finished a hexagon baby quilt. We've all promised to look out for more of the baby face fabric.

Fran's hexagon quilt

A start

I ignored the remaining clearing up as I haven't worked on my own sewing for over a week. I'm constructing Bryn's quilt in nine patches and after several tryouts I'm pleased with the corner triangles. This is the bottom left corner.
Yesterday was the U3A patchwork taster day I do each year but I think this one was the last. I only take six people and stress when they book to let me know if they can't come as I always have a waiting list. For the first time I had two no shows so the four people on the waiting list didn't get the chance to come and I felt all the preparation was not really worth it.
On a happier note Quay Quilters marked the end of term with a birthday month challenge.

Margaret's winning entry

Di's Wimbledon theme.

Friend Trish's snowdrop snowball cushion.

General view

JJ's flora abunda

I signed up for a workshop with Judy Johnson at Sisters two years ago where we stack and whacked squares. My choice of fabric was limited by lack of quilt shops  here and a 24" repeat requirement so the result is rather garish but dramatic and since then I've sourced more restrained fabric to practise on. The top has been finished for some time while I struggled with quilting options but Maggie came to the rescue with her longarm machine. She's done a beautiful job. Now for the binding.
My husband's comment was "It's very bright", not a compliment in his book  but he's also being polite.

Oast Day

Oast Quilters today with speaker Lynn Quinn; there is a general view of herC&G design boards here. Amazing work. She was nice too. Also at the other end of the spectrum where I belong though I wasn't involved this time are Quilters' Guild members with their charity quilts.

Just visiting

Quay applique block

The Usual Suspects had a lovely day at Valerie's new quarters. Among other things I worked on a Quay Quilters' raffle quilt block.



I'm at the handquilting stage.

Valerie produced two  projects I hadn't seen before, a spotty top and a challenge piece based on a single colour choice for another group. And the hexagons are making good progress too.

Challenge piece

Love those spots.

Batik hexagons

Group finish

The Usual Suspects group quilt is now finished apart from sewing on the label which we/I will do on Tuesday. It's for a charity event which involves covering the Scottish football team's ground with quilts which will then be dispersed for charitable purposes.
We did mile a minute centres using Cherrywood hand dyes - great fun, then framed and simply quilted the blocks and joined them quilt as you go which involved quite a lot of handsewing on the back. I made a two colour binding to match both both sides and made a label.


The Crazy Cherrywoods Quilt by the "Usual Suspects"

Detail

Binding detail

The back with joining strips

Framed label