Friday finishes - long overdue

Gosh, Friday again: where has the week (and most of February) gone? I have had a busy week but managed to fit in some sewing, so I can post a couple of finished quilts.

It is not as impressive as it might seem as one of these was quilted in November and has been waiting patiently for me to handstitch down the binding. For proof see this post.

And the other was being quilted when I posted here.

So basically I have stitched down two bindings this week - big deal! But great to have both finished at last.

First of all is the Madras Star and Lattice, a quilt top I pieced many years ago but which I still like, though I would probably use something other than plain old calico (muslin) for the background if I was making it now.

It's always interesting to revisit a quilt from one's past and see how fashions in quilting fabrics and designs have changed, as in so many other things. But given that we all still like to look at quilts from the 19th century, I am holding out for this one being considered quaint and homely - though our great grandmothers would probably have done a bit more quilting....

This is quite a large quilt, measuring 76" x 95".  The blocks are 9 1/2" finished, so the squares from which the blocks are constructed would have been cut 3".  

This makes a big quilt with relatively few blocks (set 7 x 9, there are 32 Star blocks and 31 Lattice blocks) but I think I would be inclined, if I were to make this design again, to scale it down and use 2 1/2" strips and squares for slightly daintier 8" finished blocks.

The second quilt is from a design/pattern by Jo Kramer posted on Moda Bakeshop back in 2011, and I guess I probably pieced the top around then. It is called Chain of Faith, and I made up my top using lots of different neutrals from my stash and a single beautiful Moda red floral. 

There is something about the Moda reds which is so attractive, I am always drawn to the reds in every Moda collection and it's easy on the eye - not so demanding as the Kaffe Fassett reds in my last couple of posts!

Here are some closeups to show the range of neutrals I chose to add interest (and use up some of my stash!).  The great thing about using a large floral for the 'solid' is that it reads the same at a distance but each cut square is subtly different as the large pattern is chopped up randomly.  Plenty to keep the eye travelling across the quilt.

This is another fairly large quilt at 88" square and I chose to quilt a simple cross hatch to keep the quilt soft and drapey and to get it finished. A good quilt for snuggling on the sofa on a grey day.

I am delighted to be able to link to Crazy Mom Quilts today for Finish it up Friday - do go and visit and admire Amanda Jean's latest finished quilt, it's gorgeous!

Have a great weekend!

KF reds - quilt

Here are pictures of the Kaffe Fassett red quilt  I mentioned in my last post.  I thought it wold be better to show them as a separate post as I ended up taking lots more photos than I intended!

I think it is the intensity and richness of the red prints and the subtle sheen of the Oakshott shot cotton 'plain' - seems so wrong to call it it a plain/solid when sot cottons have so much more depth and life - which make my heart sing.

This was such a simple quilt to make: as you can probably see from the close ups, each block is made from four smaller blocks put together in a sort of 'doughnut' shape.  

I think I started with a 4 1/2" square of KF print (this was made in the days before 5" charm squares became so popular and available) and added 2 1/2" shot cotton stitch and flip corners.

The block finishes at 8" anyway.  I hate waste and that, to me, is the only drawback of stitch and flip; so I stitched an extra parallel seam half an inch away from the diagonal before I cut, and saved the offcut HSTs which I made into the sawtooth border, grouping them in sets of four for a change, rather than randomly.  It's because I still had some of these bonus HSTs left over that I made the table runner featured in the previous post.

I really love the sawtooth border, I feel it adds such a lot of interest to the quilt in providing contrast between the rounded shape of the doughnuts, and it's more interesting than a single fabric border.  Of course, using up leftovers is always satisfying too.  

Generally I find I always have fabric left when I am coming towards the end of piecing a quilt (as I tend to buy far more than I need, just to be safe...) and I often try to see whether I can use this in a pieced border.  It can make a quilt more interesting and unique, so why not give it some thought next time you are working on something.

Quilts stats: Finished quilt 62" x 69", made up of 56 blocks set 7 x 8.  Main block finishes at 8" and HSTs finish at 1 1/2" so the borders are 3" wide.  Scrappy binding and luscious KF stripe on the back. Longarm quilted by Susie Green, and I have a note that it was completed in May 2011, so pieced probably a couple of years before that (gosh, I have been making quilts a long time - this still seems quite a recent one...). 

Friday finish - KF reds

Hello weekend!  More than halfway through February already, and today actually felt as though Spring might not be too far away.

It is definitely lighter now for longer in the late afternoon and there are snowdrops and primroses beginning to flower. The garden beckons, it needs a good tidy up, so that may be this weekend's task.

On the sewing front, I do have a finish to share, as promised, though I actually completed it a couple of weeks ago and have been very behind with posting. I feel it is especially worthy of Finish it up Friday to which I am linking, because it is a table runner made entirely from leftovers.

Many years ago I made a large quilt from Kaffe Fassett reds and an Oakshott plain shot cotton. I salivate just thinking about this quilt as the colours are intense, but stupidly I have forgotten to photograph it: I will do so tomorrow and edit it into this post. [Finally got the photos and you can see them in this post]

As the construction was very simple, with stitch and flip corners and I am mean about throwing away fabric, particularly such delicious fabric, I made bonus HSTs. I had so many of these I decided to incorporate a pieced border into the main quilt, which I love - but I still had a bag of HSTs and other scraps at the end which I could not bring myself to throw away.

One of my 2017 resolutions has been to deal with such odds and ends, so I decided to make something new from old: I pressed and trimmed and stitched, and made the centre panel. But I still had odd sized scraps left and, to be honest, the table runner wasn't much bigger than a table mat. I couldn't face making more HSTs and anyway the remaining scraps were a little too small.

Necessity being the mother of invention I decided to make a (subtly) contrasting border of nine-patches - who doesn't love a nine-patch?

So here is the finished piece: it measures a diminutive 18" x 29"; HSTs finish 1 1/2" and nine-patches are 3" finished. It is backed with a dusky purple peppered cotton and bound with a darker burgundy Oakshott, both from stash.

Quilted in a rusty red, top and bobbin, partly because I couldn't find a good purple to match the backing, and decided to embrace the problem: the gently contrasting thread shows off the geometric texture pleasingly - just ditch stitching with a bit of cross hatching in the borders.

Please don't be too critical of the accuracy of the construction: these HSTs were made a long time ago and I didn't trim in those days.  So the piecing, and hence the ditch quilting, isn't quite as spot on as I would hope to make it nowadays. Still, it's done and that annoying little plastic bag is no longer lurking:that's a result!

One other thing: I had an outing on Thursday with two young people I am teaching to quilt. We went to Worthing, to Eclectic Maker, for layer cakes to make their first quilts. More on this in a later post, but I thought a moody shot of them  with their shopping bags by the seaside would record the event. The weather did pick up shortly after this and we had fish and chips sitting in the sunshine.

Back to work - have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

Nearly another month gone by: over the past few weeks I have managed to sew a little, but not to post.

Progress on a number of things but wet grey weather has made it difficult to get decent photos of finished quilts.

I hope to have some finishes to share on Friday, however.

Here are some of the things I have been working towards finishing soon-ish:

Above, a big heap of quilts, most of which I managed to quilt in November but I struggled to find time before or after Christmas to handstitch down the binding.

Quilting in progress on another old top.

Deliberations on how best to use leftovers from another quilt. 

Hope you are making progress on some of your WIPs too.

Friday finishes - finally

Hi everyone - hope you have had a good week.

I have been buzzing around this week on all sorts of admin and general catching up, so the only actual sewing I managed to do was to make 3 plain white housewife pillowcases out of an old sheet (which had worn out in the middle) and sew on a button!

I cut the pillowcases out a few days ago, and rather than start on any 'pretty' sewing I thought I should clear these out of the way first. I cheated a bit in that I cut the pieces making use of the sheet's hems so I didn't have to hem the open edges, but I did finish the sides with french seams so there shouldn't be any loose threads.

No point in photographing boring white pillowcases, so here are pictures of two finished quilts I promised you in my last post. I also thought you might be interested to learn how I chose to quilt the tops, bearing in mind that I still haven't mastered free motion quilting: will 2017 be the year I finally get to grips with it?

Back in late October, when life was just normally busy and not as complicated as it was to become, I resolved to finish some WIPs. I had a turn out, and was horrified to find quite so many tops - with backing fabric set aside - just needing to be quilted.

I think I counted twenty, which doesn't include some nearly finished ones which are waiting for borders or similar. I was so ashamed I could not face making a to-do list, but sorted out suitable sized waddings from what I had available and made a start.

I chose which tops to tackle first based on how easy they would be to finish - hoping that a few quick finishes would encourage me to carry on. The Madras Plaid quilt featured in that late October post has been quilted but not yet bound, as I have misplaced the fabric I wanted to use, so I cannot claim it as a finish just yet.

The following two finished quilts have been utility quilted with simple cross-hatching.I finally managed to get the binding stitched down over the holidays, so this post is a catch up.

I like the spacing of straight line quilting generally to be determined by, or have some reference to, the block structure. This small quilt (41" x 55"), which uses the Anvil block in a straight set, is diagonally cross-hatched. I wanted to avoid stitching through the diagonals of the HSTs as I feared they wouldn't line up properly because of the sashing. So I chose to put the diagonals through the centre of the floral squares in the middle of the blocks.I then put another line of quilting in between to give me an evenly spaced grid of lines 2 1/2" apart.

I thought I had already blogged about this quilt but cannot find a post so it must have all been written in my head! Briefly, the quilt came about because I had a stack of leftover pink and cream 2" HSTs from another project and wanted to use them up. The Anvil block uses eight HSTs so it seemed a good choice, and I used a blue/grey floral which I had in my stash and which is one of the very first fabrics I remember buying, over 20 years ago!

The number of HSTs determined the number of blocks, the amount of floral left after making the blocks determined the width of the border, and I put a narrow sashing between the blocks because I didn't want to have to butt up all the seam allowances which are always a bit bulky with so many HSTs. The blocks measure 6" so they are quite dinky, and I had just the right amount of a softly brushed pink floral in my stash for the backing. Very satisfying using what I had; even the wadding was a leftover piece from another quilt.

The other finished quilt (61" square) is also based on Anvil and uses Fig Tree fabrics, again left over from a previous project. This time the 8" blocks are set on point which gives a rather different look, and as well as narrow sashing I have used a cream tone on tone fabric for the setting triangles so the blocks 'float'.

I discover that I blogged about this top way back in March 2014 (see this post). I'm a little shocked that it was quite so long ago...

This time  I quilted a grid using the lines of the sashing and the 'verticals' of the HSTs as a guide, but because the blocks are set on point the effect is again of diagonal cross-hatching.  The spacing is variable however as it is closer on either side of the narrow cream sashing which is 1" wide, then spaced at 2" because that is the finished size of the HSTs in the block.

Here's a glimpse of the backing fabric which is a gorgeous caramel colour, not at all what I usually use but Fig Tree fabrics somehow always appeal.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts: I really love her finished quilt and am so envious of the FMQ. Looking forward to a weekend at my sewing machine: too cold here for much else though  we don't have snow on the ground, just very heavy frost.

Hope you stay warm this weekend and have fun.

Quilt stats

In my haste to get the last post out to wish you a happy New Year, I forgot to include my string quilt's vital statistics: vital more for me than you maybe, as I use this blog as a record of my finished quilts.

So here is a summary and a flat shot - always important for quilt nerds like me who like to work out how a quilt has been made:

Finished size: 74" x 100"

35 blocks, set 5 x 7

Block size: 11 1/2" made up of four 5 1/2" string squares joined with 3/4" skinny sashing and cornerstones

Main sashing and cornerstones between blocks: 1 1/2"

Orange inner border: 1 1/4"

Blue outer border: 3 1/2"

Purple binding: 2 1/4" straight cut doublefold

All of the above measurements (except the binding) are finished measurements.

And two pictures of the back so you can admire the swirly feather quilting by my friend Chris:

Please excuse the repetition of subject matter in this post: I have not managed much sewing since the beginning of the month, though I have finally managed to stitch down the bindings on four quilts which I will post about on Friday.

Instead I have had my mum to stay for a few days, and to celebrate her birthday with us we visited Down House in Kent which is the home of Charles Darwin. By way of a diversion from my normal quilty posts, I thought you might be interested in this link to the website from where you can navigate around and find out more, and see photos of the house including one of Darwin's study.  

We had a very interesting visit, particularly for my elder son who is an ecologist and entomologist. He felt a connection across the years, as so much of what he does still involves close observation and collection of specimens: despite huge advances in genetics, the artefacts and equipment used are not so very different in some respects to 150 years ago.

I guess it may be similar to the connection I think many of us who make quilts feel to the makers of the past when we see old textiles and quilts. Our tools and techniques are not so very different either, though I wouldn't willingly part with my electric machine and tank steam iron! As my son will shortly be moving to Michigan, I hope this will give me an excuse to visit some of the wonderful museums of quilts in USA. That's the plan anyway - watch this space!

Till Friday, hope you have a productive week.

Happy New Year!

OK, many apologies for long absence from this place: just too many other things happening which demanded urgent attention, mainly to do with my dear elderly mum-in-law's health breaking down over the past two months, necessitating many, many hospital visits and general rushing around.  She is now in a lovely nursing home and not doing too badly, all things considered.  

But I don't want to dwell on that side of things in this blog, which is a place to escape to where I can think about happy, creative things over which I might have some small amount of control.  And I do want to wish you all a very happy and healthy 2017, where you get all your quilt tops finished promptly and don't find your stash encroaching into all corners of your living space or your clothes always covered in stray threads... 

So, in view of these thoughts and my best wishes for you, no surprises for guessing what my own New Year resolutions might be.  I am not sure I will make much progress on achieving them in 2017, or ever, but if I don't set goals I have no way of assessing whether I have achieved anything at all when I look back.  And this blog is so helpful in this respect: even just looking at my last two posts, I am astounded that I actually managed to sew anything at all as recently as October - it seems aeons ago that I spent any time at my sewing machine!

Nonetheless, I do have a finish to share with you this 1st January, though more thanks to my longarming friend Chris who kindly returned the top I delivered to her (mentioned in this post) beautifully quilted with a swirly feather design and ready for binding.  

I wanted to give the quilt to a very good friend who was visiting us after Christmas, so having spent most of the festive season in the kitchen, cooking and clearing up, I found myself late on the evening before her visit stitching on the binding.  I didn't quite get it finished in time so we agreed I would deliver the completed quilt before the end of January, to give me a bit of leeway as I still have all the kids at home and we are definitely not yet back to normal after the holidays.

So my first New Year resolution I guess I can say I have kept: I finished handstitching the binding this afternoon, and the quilt will be packed up and hand delivered to London well before the end of the month - hooray!

My friend has already seen and said she liked the  quilt so I am able to post these pictures, taken outside on a very dull grey afternoon, just before it started to rain.  So hard to get enough light at this time of year for photos, and I hate the yellow cast I always get with flash.  Guess I should learn a bit more about photography to be able to correct that, but there always seem to be other things to do...

Here are a few close ups to show some of the scrappy fabrics used, including a few novelties.  I never consciously choose to buy novelty fabrics nowadays so not quite sure how they end up in my scrap bag: one of life's little mysteries, but a nice one in a fun quilt like this!

Dalmatians and strawberries.

Debbie Mumm flowerpots from long ago and a variety of stars.

 Hearts, and Amish buggies in the border (above) and gingerbread men (below).

Must away to play a game with my quilt holder and his sister: they are all grown up but still enjoy a game, and it is still Christmas-tide - reality doesn't really start till Twelfth Night when we take the Christmas tree down.  

Hope you enjoy whatever holidays you have left with your loved ones, and snuggling up in a cosy quilt too.