Busy Busy

I haven't been busy blogging but busy finishing up  including lots of binding. Now I'm onto labels. 

I have finished the CrissCross (as I have decided to call  it) top. I was thinking of adding a border but having put it on the bed I've decided it's just the right size, 72 by 81". I'll make note of this for future projects. Instead I'll put my idea for the border on the back with two viyella side strips to bring it up to size. 

I have also finished facing my "Frieda's Cafe Curtains" quilt and plan to add a hanging sleeve (more hand sewing) and photograph it hanging up. Watch this space.

Backing fabrics for CrissCross

CrissCross top on the bed

The rest of my finishes have been projects long awaiting completing, about 10 years in the case of the Tiptoe quilt and its Two Tulips leftovers version which I shall put in the sales/donation pile while Pinwheel Blossoms for which friends contributed blocks will be for charity.

"Two Tulips" 24.5" SQ.

"Tiptoe" started in a Janet Goddard FOQ class 50x58"

"Two Tulips" on the bed

Folksy backing for 
"Pinwheel Blossoms"

"Pinwheel Blossoms" (blocks from a Sarah Fielke class)
30.5x31"
Do you like my slippers?

Christmas cushions

I've photographed the pairs so I know which cover goes back on which pad. I'll put the everyday ones in the wash.

 Some months ago I decided to make more Christmas cushions from some blocks I found made in an applique course with Inger Milburn, a wonderful tutor at the Ashford Adult Education Centre. Now those wonderful craft courses which I and years ago my mother attended are no more. Anyway I made all my blocks in Christmas colours employing a different technique Inger showed us each week.

I enjoyed adding different borders to size up the blocks.

In the event I had to throw out two of the cushion pads when I took the regular covers off: one was leaking feathers and the other holey one bits of crumbling foam. So now I have just two.

This is hand appliqued; you can't see the stitches. I think my handwork was much better then.

This is satin stitch machine applique, quite exact. I suspect I was in less of a hurry then. Take note.

Layout

 I laid out all 72 blocks today and then pinned them in four patches.

Three Dozen

 I completed the last of the set Bs yesterday and will set all 72 out today and label them. I shall sew the blocks into A/B four patches circling the seams.

Work in progress

The block arrangement

 

Jan Hassard taught a Scintillating scraps workshop at Oast last year. We had to run two days. It's a simple block where the effect is created with value, 1 dark square and 8 dark triangles paired with 4 light and 4 dark triangles. The blocks are aligned differently alternately so a secondary pattern of interlaced medium and light lattice runs emerge.

 25 done, 11 to do

However I have made 2 sets of blocks. They are identical except the pressing  of each means the seams will nest and I have used different sets of fabric in each so that I shouldn't get the same fabrics next to each other. The block finishes at 9" and I have complete 37 Set A's and I am now making 36 Bs to make a quilt 8 by 9 blocks (one spare), 72" by 81". I probably won't add a border.

Beforehand I dealt out the various HSTs into 36 piles and am now just picking up a pile of the 9 pieces and arranging them. The HSTs were fun as each pair of fabrics was different and laying out the random blocks is fun too - I do have spare units if something really doesn't read as the correct value.

36 blocks worth of units

Two Tulips . .

. .  is the obvious name for this 24.5" doll quilt made from Tiptoe leftovers.

Advent

 

On  1st December I put what I think of as my Advent Quilt on the bed where it will remain until Christmas Eve, the longest time for any single quilt. On the 24th it's time for my Christmas Quilt until 6th January, Twelfth Night, when it's time for my New Year Millennium Quilt. These are my only fixed dates though I do have dark days quilts, summer and autumn quilts and vintage lightweight quilts for when it's hot.

Corners

I am very fond of this quilt which I thought I was going to give to a relative but I couldn't bear to part with it. I like the combination of machine and simple hand stitching, the weight of the wool blend wadding and the careful matching at the corners. I also made myself use a super brushed cotton for the backing.

Backing fabric plus hanging sleeve