This is chugging along alright at the moment. I joined a couple of my chunks together (that's the bit at the top in the photo), and kept making other bits at the same time.
Sew Slowly
Thursday 18 April 2024
Chugging along
Monday 8 April 2024
Using up the rejects
While I was trying to figure out how to make something I liked out of the octagons, I made various other bits and pieces too. I tried combining them with little crosses and also made a handful of hourglass blocks. Neither of these worked, but now I am looking those rejects and wondering if they might belong together in something else. The crosses were mostly in reds and dark blues, whilst the hourglasses came in red and orange-y fabrics. So I have pulled some extra shirts and a pile of denim scraps and am giving it a go to see what happens.
Tuesday 2 April 2024
Quilting when stale
I am aware that my quilting muscles are rusty. Decisions take longer, I do more unpicking, get further through a project and then change my mind over big choices. That's okay. I have decided to start with simple things. My first pass, though, was a complete non-starter. I had seen a lot of very pretty octagon quilts and thought I would pull some scraps and fiddle about with something similar.
Wednesday 20 March 2024
A finish: #1.22
The backing is some of the duvet cover that you can see in this quilt top and I used a different part of said cover for the binding as well.
The wadding is organic cotton and it is quilted with perle cotton. As usual I used what I had rather than buying in specially, though this will be the last time I can do that without at least one or two new purchases. I echoed the flying geese in the centre in some areas of the quilting, just to make a change from straight lines. and am quite pleased with how it worked out.
Thursday 14 March 2024
A quick gallop through the last 4 months
Thursday 12 October 2023
Another finish
There's a lovely mix of patterns in these shirts, including the Indonesian-style one, which adds to the festive feeling for me, a slightly subdued Hawaiian one, with blue and red flowers, and that red tartan, which I had pretty much concluded I was never going to use. Just goes to show every shirt has its home, in the end. I often fall out of love with something as I work on it, but that never happened with this top: I liked it then and I like it now.
The wadding is organic cotton, the thread was from stash. Next time I start a quilt I will be buying thread as I am almost out, but it's been years since I've had to do that, so it's probably about time.
Monday 11 September 2023
Time Slips Away: Done and Dusted
The first of my two recent finishes. This is Time Slips Away, the last quilt I started before covid struck and the last quilt I finished in my old house. Also, thanks to covid, this is my least blogged quilt ever. I just about managed to sew and was thankful for it, but blogging was mostly beyond me. As a result, it is a piece of work that I have generally overlooked. When I pulled it out of the drawer to sandwich, I realised I didn't have a strong sense of it at all, but fortunately, looking at it after all this time, I rather like it.
I started piecing on 11th March 2020 and, despite lockdown and consequent home schooling, finished piecing 25th June 2020. It was the last quilt I pieced in my old house and the last thing I sewed at all until the December. I have to admit I don't know when this went into a hoop. I have been working on another one and this has taken the longer of the two, so probably since around the beginning of the year, on and off.
The wadding is organic cotton and as usual I used whatever perle cottons I had that were a close enough fit. This is a habit I will have to reassess soon as my store of half-used threads is growing smaller and smaller. The binding is a grey print from stash - again, I will have to reassess eventually, but for now there's still plenty of fabric in the boxes. In fact, given how long it is since I bought yardage it's a bit scary how long my boxes are lasting. I am given maybe three or four half yards most years, but given that I use them for both bindings and in quilt backs, I had expected to run out ages ago.
My favourite parts of this are the lines created by the black triangles, the pinwheels, which happened accidentally at first and then accidentally-on-purpose, and the way I had to use teeny-tiny pieces to get to the end. I have done this lots since but this was one of the first times it got so close to the wire and I was both relieved and a bit pleased with myself when I got to my finish.