Pretending to Longarm quilt!

I have had this quilt top finished for such a long time!

It started out as a workshop with Carolyn Forster way back in November 2009.


I then decided it would be good to make it into a quilt for our king size bed - so I put my blocks on point and added a plain alternate square, then added one border, then another...as you do!  Finally it was big enough for our bed!

But at the time it was too big to quilt !  I ran away like the chicken I am and left it on the shelf waiting!  Now for some crazy reason I decided it was time to get it done and put it in the list of quilts to complete in this quarter's Finish-along list!  Well that was the easy part!




But getting over my block on how to quilt it and my dislike of basting I suddenly launched myself into it....you have seen one post about my quilting it.  

Well since then I have been beavering away and quilted all the pieced blocks....and all the alternate squares....and now all the triangles!  

All the blocks quilted!

The folded quilt shot!

Getting more challenging in the quilting...

And here's a close up!

Outside enjoying some fresh air!  And showing those quilted triangles!

Bottom left corner!

The whole thing!

The whole thing from the back!

Yes I am going mad but this time in a good way as this long neglected quilt is getting closer to being finished!  Prepare those trumpets girls as I soon hope to be able to request a fanfare...but not quite yet - still those two borders to quilt!




But soon, I am hoping it will be soon!

UFO from the FAL list!

[Or Unfinished Object from the Finish along list]


I have started working on another UFO quilt - one that is actually on my Finish along list and has been kicking about forever - ok not quite forever but it seems that way!

I have been putting off doing this one because it is big!  And I didn't fancy basting it never mind quilting it but as I must have been in an action mood yesterday I just got on with it!


It is now basted!


Not only that but I have started quilting it on the machine...


Here is my start ...

I am quilting the pieced blocks based on the patch design though the quilting isn't so obvious on the front

 and for the blank alternate square I am using designs from this book...

...picking out the thirties designs to go with the thirties repro fabrics!

Am thinking it should be a quilting design sampler too!  Have changed a few details on these designs - just because!


And here is the back (which is polycotton - I was going for cheap when I bought it - never again!) Hoping for a wholecloth effect!  Ok just don't look too closely but it is a start of something more adventurous....

Working my way up to those scary feathers that Trudi does so prolifically!

So what have you been up to??

Finish-along - bring it on - Round 2!

Rhonda is challenging us to sign up and deliver a list of projects - which have to have been started, you know UFOs - for the second quarter of the Finish-along!  


I have a lot of UFOs and need all the help I can get and so I signed up to deliver four in the last quarter and do you know what?   I actually got them done!


I have high hopes for this next quarter - April to end of June!


So what am I going to tackle I hear you ask...?


First up I desperately want to finish this quilt - 


The Fruity Polo quilt....

I got ready for the FAL by hand sewing lots of centres on the hexagons but am wanting to add a wide border all round this quilt and was waiting on an order of Kona cerise to do that.  


It has now arrived  - yipee!  I may add a further border but will wait to see how it looks.  Then I am thinking of coloured strips of Kona solids for the backing!   And some machine quilting round the hexagons....simple enough!




Second I want to finish this top Friendship's Garden - my oldest UFO dating back to 2005!  Two borders to applique on by hand and the top is done!  Then if I have time, layering and basting this biggy would be good - ready for a bit of handquilting in the next quarter!  I want this one finished in time for hubby and my silver wedding anniversary on 5th September this year!

Not sure if this qualifies as finished but if not this quarter then most definitely next!




Third I need to get this quilt completed The Jelly Roll Sampler - another one from a Carolyn Forster workshop....

This is made from thirties repro fabric and I had fun looking out lots of HST variants but I have only scratched the surface!

Those alternate plain squares are crying out for some quilting and I was thinking of this pattern...

Not sure whether that will be by hand or by machine...?  


I even have the backing fabric (I just need to sew it together) and the binding fabric ...but I hate basting quilts which is why this is still a top!






Fourthly this little baby quilt panel in dark colours has been hanging around forever and needs to be done and sent on its way - wherever that may be!


Noah and his animals...dated or what??  

I got four things done last time and I hope that I really can complete these three quilts and one quilt top.  Is that enough?  


It could be, but we can only count quilts/projects on our list and with no penalty for uncompleted projects I feel I should just get all my UFOs out there in the open...so here are a few more


My Strip plaid quilt top


This one was inspired by Juliekquilts.  If you do not know her and her lovely scrappy, often stringy quilts then I think it is about time you did!  She is also super quick at putting her quilts together...unlike me!

I need to add a border on but I seem to have thought of rather a complicated one which has put me off somewhat but the top should be done and soon.  Though what I will do on the back - I have no idea yet!   Suggestions are welcome....




The Churn Dash 9 Patch - again inspired by JulieKQuilts - oversized blocks in solids and using the red repro fabrics leftover from the Jelly Roll Sampler.  


I want to make a granny square top as the other side to this one in the other thirties fabrics I have left - not sure if that makes it a new start or a finishing off? 

Fright Nite - the top was completed in Quarter 1 and I have an idea for the back - I just have to get on with it!  Again - new start or finishing off?

And finally the Basket Weave quilt - another Carolyn Forster workshop!  

This is one panel of four I think!  Now I started this an age ago but decided to quilt this heavily by hand as-you-go and only got as far as this one square, which if you look closely isn't even finished.... 

Was I mad or what?  I think that crosshatching is about a quarter of an inch square!   I am tempted to take it out and start again only choose a quicker quilting pattern or machine quilt it!   What do you think!?  Would probably make a good FMQ sampler...?






Now when I say these are all my UFOs - they are all the 'more or less half done ones' .  I have a few more at the block stage but I shall parade them another day....enough already I hear you scream!


I doubt I will finish eight projects this quarter as I am doing a few other things too but I flag them up so you can nag me, and remind me, and stop me from starting too many new things!   Well you can try...

More orphan blocks!

I have found some other blocks which I haven't made that recently but thought I would post about now

I made these nine-patches to be the centre square of a churn dash block as I loved this quilt so much at Juliekquilts!  Every little thing she does is magic lovely...(Sting singing in my head!)

These are all made using thirties fabric from a couple of jelly rolls.  I didn't use these colours in my Jelly Roll Sampler quilt so have played about with them, but have not made any decisions as yet.  This one I made into a cushion

I should make some more nine patches so I can make a lapsized quilt and then need to decide about the churn dash bit - perhaps some solid fabric...!?  Mmmm that has got me thinking...!




Nicky

Jelly Roll Quilt Update

This quilt top is big - to fit our king size bed.  I may have overreached myself with taking on such a beast.  It has certainly put me off layering and basting it.

This is another quilt which started off in a Carolyn Forster workshop - the Jellyroll Sampler quilt!  You can read more about that here in my original post.


The wadding/batting is Hobbs heirloom 80/20 bleached cotton as the white fabric is not quite opaque - wouldn't want off-white wadding/batting showing through!


This is the fabric I have chosen as the back of the quilt.  A nice bright turquoise dottty fabric for a 1930's repro quilt.  Along with this green and blue Anna Griffin fabric which will be the binding - when I get to that stage.

I intend to quilt the outline of the blocks, but for the alternate plain white block, I fancy doing something traditional that will test my quilting skills!

I bought this book, which you can get here, to help me find a pattern that would fit with the 30's era.  Here are a couple of my current favourites. Which one(s) do you think I should use?

There are also triangles to quilt as the blocks are all on point so I need to be able to use half the design.  I may also quilt the narrow white border.  The pieced borders will either be outline quilted or maybe cross-hatched. 

Nicky

More Confessions

 Another UFO - another course with Carolyn Forster but this one was started back in November 2009!!  Ooooh no not that long ago surely????  I'm afraid so.


This one is from her Jelly Roll Sampler workshop. 


I have used bleached white muslin and a couple of 1930's reproduction jelly rolls to make a HST sampler quilt.  It's a big one - it kept on growing as I was having so much fun and it is my first and only attempt at blocks on point.

Here is a close-up of the borders:

Close-up of some blocks:

I started off with one print and white but started adding another print which I preferred in the end. 

It looks like a Spring quilt so should be finished by now and on the bed!  Hurry up Nicky - still 81 days left before summer...well maybe it could be a summer quilt as well....173 days till autumn....phew, that's better!

Here is a new picture which shows it up better on the washing line:

But I did finish a cushion cover in red which I decided not to use in my quilt:

Carolyn's quilt was stripy and incuded the following blocks: Flying X, 4 Patch, Double X, Pinwheel, Sawtooth, Chevron Border, 16 patch variation and Broken Dishes, interspersed with sashing. 

You can see her original here! in warm browns, russets - definitely an autumnal quilt!  But visit her blog anyway as she has joined in the red/white theme that is going around and her work is exquisite as you will see here! 

It was on this course that Carolyn told me about Moda Bakeshop, Quiltville and Bonnie Hunter - and I have been a lurker since then until I read someone's post - cannot remember who that kind person was - but it really encouraged me to know that bloggers do want comments and then I started.  For fun I had invented a couple of names of blogs I would write sometime but then someone E-mailed back asking why I had not posted?  That someone was Bea from Une aiguille dans une botte de foin! 

So thank you Carolyn and thank you Bea, you gave me the prod I needed and now I am having fun blogging and keeping a record of all my projects.  By the way Bea's is another great blog to visit - original language is French of course but there is a translating gadget on her sidebar which can reveal all if required!

I told you which blocks are in Carolyn's quilt but can you work out some of mine? 

Happy Hunting!

Nicky