The cord arrived!

The cord arrived and I duly got down to work cutting it into strips as the backing for my borders.

This whole quilt was quilted in strips and added together so when I wanted to add borders to all sides I added the top pieced layer of the borders and then left it. 

It wasn't so difficult to add the wadding - just a bit boring ladder stitching it on by hand and I machine stitched the backing fabric right sides together.  

The join is a bit bulky but the backing fabric is a fine needle cord - lovely and soft and not slippery and shifty like that velveteen I put on the back of my basket sampler.

The whole quilt is quite robust but then I thought it could be a great picnic blanket or travel rug so robust will work well!

I bought the shirting fabric I used as the binding at the same time as the backing.  I love it !  It is smooth like lawn and 60" wide so not many joins -always a good thing! For some reason it makes me think of tigers!

So now the photos...

This quilt makes me giggle inside and smile on the outside!It is 80" square. 

It is made from a whole host of blocks I received in the Wonky House Block Swap organised brilliantly by Jane @ Jane's Fabrics and Quilts. My thanks go to wonky house block makers Melissa Albertson, Miki Willa, Linnea Amodio, Leanne, Laura Ludwig, Christine Horlbeck, Sandra Rocca, Chiska Williams, Linda McKenzie , Peggy Bennett, and Helen who made a couple of extra blocks for me and there were many others who made trees, stars and four patches!  

I made the title in the border using the 'Just My Type' alphabet created by Kirsty @ Quietplay.  

I backed the quilt with a fine orange needlecord from Shaukat

And it is quilted using my Aurifil 28 mainly in the ditch but some extra details added to the blocks!

End of speech and overcome with joy!

Working away...

I started working again on this quilt, it is very nearly finished - I have added Quilt-as-you-go style some wadding to my borders and just need to add on the backing fabric!   Some orange cord!   Whacky quilt through and through!

But don't have enough - if it were cotton I'd use some other one but I haven't anything in the same weight so it is on order at Shaukat who are usually quick off the mark!

Then I started working on these Star of Africa bee blocks!  At last!

I have been wondering how to put them into a quilt that would do them justice.  Above was my first thought but it wasn't really doing it for me!

Fortunately I came across Ayumi's Books for Babies quilt pattern in her Patchwork Please book and I formed an idea!  

But I wasn't satisfied with that!  I wanted the books to come alive and characters to appear to come out of the books!  Megan,  {LucyandNorman} has been making fairytale blocks using Ayumi's pattern and appropriate fairytale printed fabric and ping the light bulb went off in my head!

I didn't need to recreate my bee mates creations {what I had been thinking} just find some printed fabric that suggested the book or country characteristics!

May helped with that as she sent me some Moomin fabric with her block..

The others I have made I have to admit stumped me for finding appropriate fabrics - nonetheless I tried to bring out something of the block or the country in colours and patterns!

Ganesha from Veena in India

Krisna from Tina in India

Krtecek the mole in a one on one swap with Di {Quiltova}

And Tatuana from Irene in Guatamala!

And now again I'm eagerly awaiting fabric so I can get the others done!

2nd FAL finish! And it's still only April!

I have been accused of being 'on' something, {it's not true} but everything seems to be working out well in my quilting world at the moment!

Baby bear was finished last night!   All my meander quilting is done {even though I had some unpicking to do}, I ditchstiched the paws so they stand out a bit too! Then I quilted round mama bear's paws and in the border quilted {mama bear says Round and Round the garden}  - the rhyme came back to me as I was quilting so I guess that is now the title of this quilt!  Did you do that one with your kids!?   

I chose navy metro circles for the binding and pieced in a bit of pink where mama bear's paws were!  Done that with binding before but not in a while. Glad to see I still can!  Was up late handstitching down the binding....

But I wanted to finish it and now I know why !

I met the young man who will receive it at church today!  I even held the wee mite while he slept and hiccoughed.   So I was right to persist and will add his name to the border so his sister knows it belongs to him!


The back 

Time to move again - from Tops for quilting - to - Quilt Finishes 2014!  Yeah!

Rite of passage

A lack of fabric and re-order on one project meant a re-focus on another yesterday!   Baby bear was dragged out of the cupboard and worked on till I got to the border ..... What colour to make it?

I really wasn't having much success so I called in the think tank aka Helen and she came up with a few suggestions, one being aqua!  I trawled through my stash and found an aqua print left over from my Millefiori quilt.   

Call me odd if you like but I really like to put a bit of fabric from one quilt into another one - it sort of connects them to each other.   It usually happens because the fabric is still lying around or still in my head and I think oh yes that will do - well it was true today too!  It does do!  Thanks Helen you really helped unstick this one!

Mama bear is watching her baby bear keeping him from wandering too far and he is excitedly running up and down, hither and thither (don't get to use that phrase often enough) making poor mama bear dizzy!

I love the fact that this quilt is my own design, it uses up the tiniest of scraps that most people throw away, and features a few special fabrics in the paw squares saved for a special purpose!  

If you made the wee HSTs while making other blocks then it wouldn't really take that long to complete.  It may become the go-to design for a baby quilt for me.


I love the border where I will quilt in the personal story of anyone it is gifted to and there is a baby coming along in my church family who might just want a quilt...all the more reason to finish this off don't you think?

And why rite of passsage ?  Well this quilt comes off my ufo list and moves to my tops to be quilted one!  Think it will get done quite soon...

Baby bear gets bigger!

Well in truth baby bear hasn't grown up but my little quilt has!

I started off using up some of those tiny HSTs you get left with when making larger HSTs or X+ blocks and such!  

I joined Fiona and Lucy's Bear Paw group on Flickr !  And then stalled at only six blocks because I'd used up all my wee HSTs.

I always meant to come back to this project and started saving little triangles in anticipation!  I even received some from Catherine!

Well yesterday evening I opened up my jars and revisited it...after all there were six blocks done and I thought I only need add three more for a cute little baby quilt!

So here it is for now!

Thinking I'd like to add a border all round with some mama bear paws pieced in - watching her little cub playing as every mama should!

FAL 2 - it worked last time so here's the complete list!

I actually got stuff done last time having listed everything!

So guess what  - I'm listing them all again - minus the four finishes from Q1 of course! Smug face!

First a collage of my UFOs in bits....

Wonky House quilt
Top Right - Star of Africa books, Propeller blocks plus, Tulip Dance
Left to Right - Sewing words, Baby Bear, Rosestar vintage sampler, Arrowhead hexies

4 of these are bee quilts so I really should get on with them!

And now the quilt tops that want quilting

Friendship Garden

 Top Right - Hexy Big Balls, Moving Mountains
Left to Right - Charmer, Pluses, Konaville, Love Heart


Another two bee quilts here and one of them is my next project

But there is further news!  I'm starting Q2 with my first finish already

  

Just as soon as I can think of a name for my Farmer's Wife with pizza quilting!?


Linking up for Q2 with Katy!

If things had gone as planned...

If things had gone as planned I had intended to work on my Farmer's Wife quilt top during my recent Lazy Bum Quilting (Virtual) Retreat!

Instead I was hand cranking my charmer quilt which is my April Lazy Bum challenge!  That one will be next on the machine!

Well I have finished stitching in or near the ditch of all 64 FW blocks  - phew fierce concentration required to not see my stitching!   Why was I doing this? 

Well I have just finished watching a Craftsy class called Design it, Quilt it with Cindy Needham!   She is one no-nonsense teacher but very clear and good I thought!  One thing she is very clear about is the need to stabilise your quilt blocks by stitching in every single ditch.  So I am trying it out on this quilt to see if I like it.  



I am almost hoping not as otherwise I am destined for oodles of ditchstitching which I find boring, challenging and tiring....even if I only finish the projects I've already started!?  Argh!  It pains me to think about it...

Anyway the boring bit is done! and the awesome fun can begin!  Cindy also taught me about adding dimension to your quilting by having some of it seem to be in the foreground and other bits in the background.  Haven't quite managed the whole caboodle but my quilting is meant to disappear behind my pieced blocks so they float on top!

My trusty aid in this venture is a polystyrene pizza base!  I'm using it as a stencil to mark out circles and then I'm Free Motion Quilting some Angela Walters designs inside the circles!  Also refreshed my memory about Angela's quilting by looking at her Craftsy class Machine Quilting Negative Space!  Love her and her designs!

I may need to repeat a few or invent some....but I am about one quarter done  and enjoying every minute of this phase!

And I'm thinking I'm not the only one who has looked at it

And liked it - cat approval is good enough for me!