Yesterday was National Quilting Day, and I did my bit in supporting this day - by purchasing a few half metres of gorgeous brown batiks from Sew and Sew's at Bungay. I was en route to visit my daughter who is studying at uni in Norwich, and as I have to drive through Bungay to get to Norwich, it seemed silly not to drop in a make a purchase! The project I was planning for these was another Turning Twenty quilt, this time for my lounge, to hang over a large brown leather sofa. These blocks really do piece together very quickly... ...and in no time at all the quilt top was finished, complete with border. This is now ready to take over to Janette, so she can work her magic on it! Oh and I must say "hello" to Diana, a very nice lady who I met in Sew and So's and we got chatting - like you do - anyway, I hope you and your husband managed to find the cafe in Earsham Street, and had a safe journey home :)
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A few weeks ago I took this red batik quilt over to Janette, who has a Longarm Quilting Studio over at East Bergholt called J-Quilts. My daughter Alice made this several months ago, while she was working at our local quilt shop during her gap year. Anyway, this weekend she came home from university for a couple of days, so it was the perfect opportunity to finish it. I am so proud of her - Alice's piecing was so neat and precise. Here's a closeup of the piecing and the black backing fabric is perfect for showcasing the wonderful quilting. Alice wanted a red thread to compliment her red batiks, and this looks really dramatic... ...anyway, she wanted me to help out by cutting her some binding strips while she was busy with her new hobby - crochet! So the binding strips were cut from the leftover backing fabric, and then machined into place, and finally slip stitched by hand to the back of the quilt. And yes, I managed to do all this while she was still busy with a ball of wool and a crochet hook!... ...this pattern is called "Pie Chart" and was part of a "Stash Pot Pie" programme that was held at my local quilt shop a few years ago. Unfortunately it's been really difficult to photograph these reds - they either look pink or orange, but they really are beautiful and rich. Alice is really pleased with her quilt - doesn't it look fabulous!!
Back in 2011 when I went to the festival of Quilts in Birmingham, I bought a selection of 25 fat quarters in various cream and white tone-on-tone fabrics, with the intention of making a quilt for my then-about-to-be-decorated bedroom. Well I've been saving these fabrics and decided it was finally time to slice them up and start piecing them together again. I had already decided to make up this pattern, "Turning Twenty" by Tricia Cribbs. I thought it would look lovely made up in these subtle tones, to match the cream décor in my bedroom. This is a very quick quilt top to make, and took a total of 2 hours to piece all these blocks together, including the borders. Well, that's the top finished - now it's off to Janette to get this top quilted so I can get on with some other projects!
My youngest daughter, Alice, worked at my local quilt shop, Quilters Haven during her gap year. Just imagine spending all day surrounded by fabrics. And threads. It would be heaven! Anyway, several months ago she came home from work with some beautiful red batiks -I wonder who she takes after??!! - and announced she was making a quilt. She had picked a pattern from my vast collection called Pie Chart (this was part of a programme called "Stash Pot Pie" that my local quilt shop took part in a few years ago... .....this really does look beautiful - it is so dramatic! Well after she's finished it, she was saving all her pennies ready for university, so couldn't afford to get it quilted. We pulled it out of her cupboard when she was home for the Christmas holidays, and felt it too's too nice to be hidden away - and we both decided it needed to be quilted so she can use it!! She had a look at Janette's website, and chose a quilting design and had a think about colours of quilting threads. Today I'm off to Janette's wonderful studio to get it long arm quilted as a special treat for Alice - she'll get such a surprise when she's home for the Easter holidays - all she'll have to do is sew on the binding! Yesterday I blogged about collecting this quilt from Janette, the Longarm Quilter - and I couldn't wait to get started on the final touches - both labeling and binding - to get it completed! I added one of my labels to one of the corners, and stitched this in place with white Mettler quilting thread to blend in with the white border on the front of the quilt. I measured 0.5" along both sides of the corner, so the ends of the label will be covered by the binding when that's in place. I altered the stitch length to 3mm, and stitched along the inside edges of the label, using the walking foot... ...I had dillied and dithered about whether to use a blue scrappy binding or a red scrappy binding. I really preferred the blue, and in the end there wasn't enough of the red fabrics to make wide enough binding anyway! I cut my binding strips 3.5" wide, fold over to make double fold binding, and stitch the binding into place 0.5" away from the edge of the quilt. I used a dark blue Mettler quilting thread, and a Schmetz top-stitch needle size 70... ...these "Wonder Clips" by Clover are really brilliant at holding the binding into place without worrying about stabbing myself with my pins!! I prefer to hand sew the binding to the back of the quilt, using the same Mettler quilting thread that I'd used to machine the binding onto the front of the quilt, and a John James quilting needle... ...and here's the binding all stitched into place using ladder stitch - and no sore fingers, as I wore my "Protect and Grip" Clover thimble for sewing all this binding on! I really love this scrappy binding - there are 7 different blue fabrics in this, and I think it works really well... ...and here's the finished quilt, complete with blue scrappy binding. I really love how this quilt looks - the colours, the stars in the quilting design and the binding. And here it is blowing in the wind - I absolutely LOVE it!!
*This pattern was called "Lattice Top" and I initially started this a few years ago as part of a programme called "Stash Pot Pie" that was held monthly at my local quilt shop Quilters Haven. The aim for this project was to use as many fabrics from your stash, without having to buy more! Well today I've been over to East Bergholt to collect my "Lattice Top" quilt from Janette, the Longarm Quilter. She has done an absolutely AMAZING job as always - and I am just thrilled with this! I chose an all over stars and loops design for the quilting, and after much deliberation, I chose a pale blue thread for the quilting - and a gorgeous royal blue mottled extra-wide fabric for the backing (supplied by Janette) and just LOOK how gorgeous this is!! Now I have t make the decision over the binding - I want to have a scrappy binding, using all the left-overs of either the blue fabrics or the red fabrics - but oh dear - decisions decisions - which is it to be?? I must admit I do prefer the blue, although I know the red will make it "pop" I still get drawn back to the blue. Oh well, all will be revealed tomorrow!!
Last week I managed to machine the binding onto this "Rhythm and Blues" quilt. You may remember this was purchased a few years ago as a kit from my local quilt shop Quilters Haven. It included the pattern and a fabulous fat quarter bundle of these beautiful Tonga batiks and was by Karen Montgomery for Timeless Treasures. I had made the quilt-top, sort of forgot about it, then re-discovered it! I finally sat down this morning and hand stitched the binding into place. This was rather an arduous task, as I've mislaid my thimble, but I think you'll agree it was well worth it! I used the same fabric for the binding that Janette had used for the backing - it really seemed to pull all these colours together - and as a bonus it saved me from using the precious batiks in my stash or even better still it saved me from buying yet MORE fabric! Alice is really pleased with her new quilt (she's going to take it to uni with her) and this morning she's got it on her bed so I think that means she's really REALLY pleased with it!! Oh and yes, I added one of my labels to the corner too - just for the final flourish! As this is finished today, I can add this to "Sew Cute Tuesday" on the Better Off Thread blog too. Now I'm off to search for that thimble!!
A few weeks ago I delivered this quilt top to Janette, who has a longarm quilting studio in East Bergholt. It has been ready for a few weeks, but I wasn't able to drive following surgery, and then Janette was on holiday, so I've been patiently waiting for her to return! On Monday morning I drove over to collect it and WOW!! I was really thrilled with what Janette had done! I was going to post some pictures once it was completely finished - with the binding AND a label, but was so excited that I couldn't resist sharing some pictures of it now! We chose a beautiful mottled purple Moda extra-fabric for the backing and a purple quilting thread to match. This will be the quilt that my daughter Alice takes to university with her in September to remind her of home. All I need to do is sew the binding on, and it will be finished! I had originally bought this as a kit, containing all the batiks and the pattern, and although I knew it was by Timeless Treasures, I couldn't remember the name of the pattern - but when I posted some pictures of this quilt on some FB groups that I belong to, a lady very kindly told me this kit was called "Rhythm and Blues"!! Originally I was going to use a batik for the binding, but now I'm thinking of binding this quilt using the same fabric as Janette used for the backing, as she's kindly given me the left-overs and there's plenty to use. And I think the purple would really set this off a treat! I promise to post pictures on here when it all done!!
There was a wonderful exhibition of Norwegian quilts at the FoQ this year on behalf of the Norwegian Quilters Guild (Norsk Quilteforbund) - and I was so excited to see one on display that had been made by Mona Mørkved, whose blog I follow, along with several other lovely quilts. This year was NQF's 25th anniversary.....
Lynne Edwards: A Lifetime in Quilts
Lynne Edwards, MBE, describes herself as "a teacher who quilts, rather than a quilter who teaches" and has spent more than 45 years making quilts. She has written several books, and her work is absolutely amazing - and this exhibition was a rare chance to see a selection of her quilts. I especially loved the "Blue Lily" quilt, and her quilts made using the Cathedral Windows technique were stunning. Lynne has written several books (I have a few on my bookshelf - The Sampler Quilt Book, Cathedral Windows Quilts, and Stash-buster Quilts) and has been a fabulous inspiration to quilters. If you click on the pictures below they will enlarge. The lighting wasn't particularly good over several of the displays at the show, but these quilts were absolutely stunning. Lynne was absolutely lovely too, and very generous with her time, chatting to quilters and offering advice! While I was admiring these quilts, I saw Verona (from Sew and So's at Bungay) who was helping on the stand with Lynne. I really must make another visit up again there soon!! |
About me...Hi - welcome to my quilting blog! My passions are my family, my dog, my friends and sewing, not necessarily in that order! Archives
July 2023
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