Herringbone Xmas blocks progress.

Instead of finishing the embroidery on this quilt, which despite this picture has been bound and washed..

...because I can't decide on a font (is that the lamest excuse I've ever given, even to myself?) I've picked up my next WIP.

I cut up a charm pack of Kate Spain's Flurry into one and a half inch strips to be my leader and Enders project but it didn't seem to progress at all. When I had a burst of sewjo on Monday night I realised that some strips hadn't been cut to the correct width.

I had already tried to randomise the strips and couldn't face either a) trimming them one by one as I came across them, or b) sorting them from the pile and cutting them down. I just wanted to sew.

Hopefully once all the Christmas nibbles are artfully arranged on the runner no-one will notice the fatter blocks. ( The phrase 'do my blocks look fat in this?' springs to mind. ) Here are the seven trimmed blocks just waiting for their sashing - probably Kona Snow with pebble quilting. Sorry about the late night, indoor light grainy pic.

 

linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

No finishes this week but progress is good ;-)

Tracy

 

Slow progress..

This quilt has been a challenge. I have unpicked a lot. And not just once..

Due to my first thread choice shredding and breaking, a lot of unpicking was necessary.

and again......to get rid of the dodgy square spiral accented by the dark bobbin thread...times six.

And again.....I thought I'd free motion petal shapes inside the two stars, notice the particularly lovely convergence of lines in the centre - cue unpicking.

It only takes a few minutes to sew but hours to unpick. You'd have thought I would have learnt my lesson but oh no, I ploughed on. In all I must have spent at least 10 hours unpicking various errors.

At this point I had a change of mind and decided to embroider baby R's details in the stars.

But due to the hot mess left by all that unpicked thread I thought the quilt should be washed to get rid of all the holes before I stared the embroidery. Which meant I needed to apply the binding. I machine stitched the binding onto the front before heading to Edinburgh for a few days over the school half term.

During the drive there and back I was able to hand stitch the back of the binding down. One bit of good news is that I finally seem to be getting the hang of turning the corners.

The quilt is washed and hanging up to dry for a bit before going into the dryer. This is the first time I've washed and dried a quilt, so fingers crossed.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

 

 

Fourth quarter wish list.

Well, the fact that I finished anything from my first list counts as a big win in my book. The FAL gave me the motivation/inspiration I needed to sew those lingering WIPs, so it's no surprise that I'm joining up again.

WIPs seem to multiply on their own, I really didn't realise I had so many - or is it just Quilters Denial?

If I don't have too many projects on the go it's perfectly reasonable to buy fabric and start another one, isn't it!

So, before my next delivery arrives (Aurifil thread from a new-to-me online stockist) I'd better get on with my list....

1. Making a return appearance from quarter three, this log cabin cutie.

I have been trying to FMQ this one with some YLI thread in the most perfect colour, but the thread keeps breaking. Not sure why, hence the need for more thread purchasing.

Can you see how the thread is shredding? What am I doing wrong?? Needle selection, tension?? Arghhh!!

2. This Rainbow Circle, which is my attempt at the Colour-Wheel quilt from this lovely book.

This has been a WIP for nearly two years.

I knew how I wanted to quilt the background quite early on in the piecing. But then I stalled with the coloured section, I tried radiating straight lines, but that really didn't do it for me. So after unpicking , a lot, it has been folded in the cupboard, hence the creases. I'm now thinking along the lines of 'S' shaped radiating lines, we'll see.

3. Christmas Quilt, from a Gail Pan BOM.

This has been in progress for about four or five years.

I like to have a little hand embroidery on the go, and this free project seemed perfect.

I really only think about this project around October time and mostly have been sewing in lunch breaks at work. By mid-December I realise I'm not going to finish in time for Christmas, so away it hides for another year. NOT this year. It will be finished!!

4. A little Christmas table runner, a relatively new project, less than a year 'in progress'.

This was supposed to be my leader-and-Enders project. Which is fine if I have a normal foot on and pale coloured thread. It seems that this foot/thread combo was lacking and not much progress was made. I really would like to see this completed and on my sideboard for Xmas. I think the fabric is a Kate Spain 'Flurry' charm pack.

5. Scrappy stars.

An ongoing, 'use up every tiny scrap' project. I'm hoping this would make a lovely wall hanging. But I think it might be worth making up a cushion (pillow) first, to see if I like it and what kind of layout design works for me.

I'm going to stop there, at least one project didn't make it from q3 to q4. But I think this is plenty to keep me busy, a tad ambitious maybe, but certainly achievable. Especially if I spend less time procrastinating/blog reading/ fabric browsing/ going to work.

So, that's my list, what's yours??

Linking up with the Finish-A-long hosted by Leanne at She Can Quilt

http://www.shecanquilt.blogspot.com/

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.shecanquilt.blogspot.com" title="she can quilt"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNKjUIKHLFawA57Rj-p_UYSpXmAh-vygpipyQVfZ2BhqAGvI3p_7ZbUJzWJ1RYUvJgn2AlqazcGkYbKnWW8wihXOJCX-RTynMjZlho5j1L65XG-WEhjOvhgcgPgJkWHudXyTP6qcHYoXqQ/s170/DSC_0273+4.jpg" alt="she can quilt" style="border:none;" height=125 width=125 /></a></div>

and Lee at Freshly Pieced.

Cushion and basket, finished and gifted.

This little basket was from a pattern by Noodlehead. Clearly written and easy to follow (although that didn't stop me making a couple of errors) I can heartily recommend it.

The cushion, however, lurched from one disaster to another. But it turned out fine in the end.

Despite wanting to get it finished in a hurry I opted to try an new-to-me technique for inserting the zipper. Again clear instructions made this part go smoothly. Overall I'm happy with the result.

I'm pleased to say Mr. M's parents seemed to like it too, although Mr. M couldn't have been less impressed.

This is my first finish for the 3rd quarter of the FAL.

The others on my finish-along list may roll over to the next quarter, or I might substitute a couple of Xmas themed WIPs instead.

I hope everyone else has made a bit of sewing progress too,

Tracy

 

Blueberry lime swirl

I'm pleased to have this quilt on the wall....

And I'm in no doubt that without the finish-along it would still be folded in the cupboard.

I first decided to have this quilt off-centre, which I really liked.

But then my DH pulled a, 'is it meant to look like that', face. As it was going on the wall downstairs and he would be looking at it every day, I would rather he liked it too.

So after losing interest for a while, then considering using it to cover my upcycled chair..

I realised I would be disappointed if I didn't make it into the planned wall hanging. So, with the finish-along to motivate me, I dug out the fabrics I had put away and set about cutting and stitching.

But... the colours I'd chosen for the first solid square of green had ended up looking more duck egg blue than the lime green I'd used for the fractured section.

As I progressed, I realised I'd have to swap out those solids! I'm glad I did because I think it looks miles better.

I already had straight line quilting in mind, so getting started was straightforward. At this point I thought the design needed a bit of breathing space.

So I left a gap and then quilted some lines to echo the 'fractured' areas of piecing.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the result. The original design is from Quiting Modern and motivation provided by Leanne at She Can Quilt, and is my second finish.

Back to the pedal,

Tracy

Quilt Info;82 cms square;Background,kona snow.

 

Chair seat finished...for now..

I was contemplating using my partially completed swirling medallion patchwork to cover this chair seat.

But I really didn't think that quilting cotton would be robust enough to withstand repeated exposure to my rear end.

I also knew that I would feel disappointed every time I looked at it, knowing the patchwork should have been a lovely wall hanging. So with the impetus of the finish-along I've nearly completed it and will hopefully be writing a post before the 3rd quarter finish-along deadline of October 7th.

Coincidently I came across this fabric in a not quite local furnishing fabric shop. The colours were so close to what I wanted and the pattern was quirky enough that I bought some without stopping to think. Therefore I didn't quite buy enough and had to piece a bit on the back.

The result is a finish. It might not be what I first had in mind, but it's done and I can move on to the next thing. And I won't irritate me every time I look at it :-)

Linking up with the third quarter of the finish-along, thanks Leanne, it's given me the deadlines I need to complete something,

hope it's helping you too.

Back to the foot pedal,

Tracy

 

Swirling medallion progress and some thoughts..

When and how do you decide how you are going to quilt your finished top?

With this top I already had a few ideas....

After quilting the centre ...

I thought I'd carry on quilting a concentric 'square spiral' but leave the 'solid' i.e. 'not fractured' frames, unquilted for contrast.


After completing this much...(and taking a late night crappy photo)

..I thought that the quilting needed a little breathing space. So what I've decided is to leave a wide gap before continuing the straight lines. And once I've completed that I'll see if I'm brave enough to add some fractured triangles in quilting lines.

Here's my progress so far. Let's see how this goes shall we?

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Back to the machine,

Tracy