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

November Siblings Together block

 

12.5"

This is the November Siblings Together Bee block which I posted off today. Carole had requested two tones of the same colour around the feature centre. There was quite a lot of sewing with so many HSTs - 28 in all and 61 units in the block but it's a very nice design. I'd like a quilt made with larger units perhaps to finish at 15" with 2.5" squares. 

To make multiple HSTs at once I cut 3" strips of 2 fabrics right sides together and marked the light side with 3" squares and with zigzag diagonal lines across.

Then I sewed 1/4" on either side of the diagonal lines continuously in one direction and then back. Then I cut along the drawn lines straight and diagonal

Then I pressed the units open and trimmed the HST pieces 2.5" exactly.

I sewed the block not in rows but in four patches and undid the straight seams caught by the long seam so I could rotate the units making for a flatter centre and nesting seams.

Sewing in four patches: note the large
corner squares before trimming to 12.5"

Centre treatment

Elementary

 

It's a good size, 64.5" x 74"

I finished binding my Elementary quilt in the week. I'm pleased with it. And I like the backing fabric hugely, Succulent by Heather Givens bought on sale. I've put it on the bed wrong side up.

I haven't finished my binding tasks: four more await, Roman Crosses and three lots of red binding. I am going to face the Cafe Curtains quilt and after a wrestle with my conscience have ordered an extra half yard of the fabric I want instead of substituting.

Last stage
Can you see me reflected in the window?

I set up both machines for binding tasks. My Janome by the window has a lovely wide walking foot for sewing through all the layers. My equally lovely Pfaff I used to join the binding strips into one long piece. 

Sewing set up. I can raise or lower the
height of the table the Pfaff is on but
not when the heavy machine is on it.

Hmmmm

 Every money barring August and December  it's time to submit a requested block to one of the Siblings Together Bee 3 group. June  2020 was my turn. 

My two examples

All the blocks were well made but some of the fabric choices were a bit unexpected - I'd asked for bright modern fabrics. I felt I couldn't set them side by side and the current plan is to set them 4 by six but alternately with a red or blue framed block.

The blocks set out

Layout try outs

I now realise why my fellow Siblings Together Bee members often stipulate white as a background. It does tie things together but I'm not keen on white for teenagers, especially boys. (Sorry for the stereotyping but it applies in many cases.)

I've laid it aside for now. Roman Crosses binding is nearly complete and then I shall sandwich, quilt and bind two little quilts.

Use it Up

 

I had leftovers from the Tiptoe quilt including two tulip blocks and couldn't bear to throw them away so set about combining the bits and pieces to make a 24" quilt. Then I did throw the extra bits away. I should have been binding my Roman Crosses quilt but I like piecing best so was lured away. Now of course I have set myself up for more quilting and binding. I laid out what I had and then made 6 nine patches with the blue in the corners.

When I sewed it together AND glue basted it I realised  I had  misaligned the red tulip. I couldn't stand it so decided to unpick. As I was trying to bring up BBC Sounds and the broadband was playing up I had a stressed nose bleed and drops landed on my unpicking. Off to the bathroom to rinse and wash with a Vanish bar  but I'll have to wait till it dries.

Then it was time for a Guild Zoom talk by Carole Lyles Shaw. That's why I was stressed about the Broadband but I needn't have worried as it came back quicker than ever.

By email

Maggie sent me an email to say my Elementary quilt was ready along with this picture. She has done such a good job. I hope to pick it up tomorrow.

BOM

I have nearly finished quilting my Carolyn Forster BOM blocks, just two more setting squares to go. I couldn't resist laying them out.

Here is the pile of 16.5" trimmed blocks, all done.

Laid out again to give a better idea of what it will look like finished.

It's a keeper.

 

Lower Hardres Day

 We had a marvellous day at Lower Hardres, all the more so in view of the fact that as the day went on we learnt of another national lockdown due later in the week. As it was a Saturday we had an excellent turn out of 11 with Becky and Mary I being able to join us.

We were super safe sitting in bubbles of three threes and one two and wearing masks when we left our seats or visited another table. Nurse Beverley took our temperatures, surfaces were disinfected and we used our own and provided wipes to clean handles as we went. It was lovely to enjoy face to face company.

Unusually everyone hand sewed as the emphasis was on sociability. Mid morning we stopped for a magnificent Show & Tell.  I'm showing only the first two tables worth as I have photographed my own (five!) earlier along with Maggie's, Mary's and Stephanie's.

I have been making quilts for twenty five years and patchworking since the 1970's. Jenny has been making quilts from long before me and has the fabric collection to prove it. This quilt of the crosses is pieced using papers from Lina Patchwork. Jenny points out that although she has completed the feature blocks the connecting pieces make up more than half the quilt. I wish I was making mine this size! 

Jenny's Quilt of the Crosses laid out on a sheet

Tansy had been shopping both for vintage quilts and one from Jo Avery's recent culling.

Tansy's vintage quilt top; interestingly lively modern versions of this are being made within the group, a technical feat.

Detail

 

Tansy's vintage basket quilt with beautiful cross hatch hand quilting

Tansy's purchase of a more modern and very colourful basket quilt by Jo Avery which was published in "Today's Quilter" 2019. The quilt looked even better in real life than the photograph.

Detail

Meanwhile she is making her own heirloom based on on one of the Australian's master quilter's pattern and class.

Beverly is yet another of the day's expert needle women and showed a lovely wool felt piece.

Beverley's lovely piece

Detail

Tracy is a quilting tornado who manages to produce complex quilts in a relatively short time. She loves colour and has a distinct style. She and her friend Sandra often enjoy the same things and both have made strippy housetop quilts. Tracy has made two, the second one freer in colour placement. Check out Tracy Aplin on Instagram to see more of her work including garment making (Sewing_Tracy).

The first one Tracy made

The second one. Note the denim pinafore also made by Tracy.

Tracy's WIP, hand pieced, more to
be added.

Detail of Tracy's big stitch quilting.

Sandra's colourful version

Another one from Sandra

I glue basted my Tiptoe through the Tulips top and handed the elementary top over to Maggie to longarm with more concentric circles. I finished my Timms' Robbing Peter block, a never to be repeated experience. I hand stitched it and stitches can be seen in the centre. I shall put a little dot over it. I also worked on my Siddi piece a long term project I'd forgotten about till the other day. I'll take a picture shortly.

Siddi piece.

Siddi quilts are an African innovation, starting from the outside and working in. Siddi is the name given to an originally African group in India who make these quilts from scraps, often pieces salvaged from old saris. Where fabrics overlap an edge is turned under and the whole secured by parallel lines of kantha type stitching. I started mine in a workshop given by an Indian lady at QuiltCon this year and was reminded of it hen I saw Sujata Shah demonstrating on the Quilt Show the other day.