Double Wedding Ring

There's always a challenge! 

When I was asked to quilt a piece that had already been sandwiched and bound, I nearly turned it down. It goes against all the rules. But when I saw how lovely it was I agreed to give it a go. It was all beautifully hand pieced and made from a gorgeous blue oriental print. For some reason the lady who made it said she hated it because there was too much pink. 

Really ? Too much pink! 

But there was a lot of open space, so we agreed I should try to tone it down with a different colour thread.  Before I saw the quilt I thought I might be able to remove the binding to get it on my frame. But as you can see it is scalloped and so neatly bound I couldn't do that!

So it was a real struggle just to load it onto the frame and keep it from shifting as I quilted up to the edge. 

It was crying out for some sort of feather motif inside the rings. I chose a light blue to match the other fabric which of course showed up against the pink - No pressure then!!

But I am quite pleased with the effect and hope she likes it too.

It looks nice on the back, and surprisingly I managed to do it with very little puckering.  

After that adventure, I spent half a day 'processing' a bag of scraps I'd been given (Thanks Jean - it doesn't take much to distract me!) I was quite ruthless in chucking some of it away (green camouflage fabric - I don't think so!) But then I found some pretty pinks and blues and I was lost. Like I said, you can never have too much pink!

 

This weekend I had planned to start on a hand pieced quilt for Meryl, but the thread tension was playing up and I did more unpicking than sewing. So I walked away from it  for a while and went back to the 'Halo' quilt. 

And today I finished piecing it.

I love the final stage of assembling a quilt top - it seems to come together so quickly after all the fiddly bits. I really enjoyed playing with my favourite treasured fabrics which I have used very sparingly. I just need to add an edging of the background so that the binding will clear the flying geese.

After I complete Meryl's quilt, I want to set some time aside for some serious custom quilting on this one.

 Happy Quilting Everyone!

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96 Geese - a - Flying!

Know When To Stop!

Ok! So I got a bit carried away with these tiny flying geese, but they were so much more fun than foundation piecing somehow. They are no harder to make than larger units, it's just that they don't go so far. They are so sweet and finish at 1 inch by half an inch!

I was in my element and stuck with it all day, but eventually called it a night at 96. 

Today I have made them into a little border for the Halo Block.

Then I joined my Dresden Bloom blocks into pairs to be trimmed down to the same size as the curved flying geese. This was not as simple as I thought it would be because I had to part unpick the appliqued quarter circles to tuck the inset triangles underneath. So the join is a bit messy, but I think I can hide that with some clever quilting. 

Now I have to build up from the centre outwards to meet that border. 

Back to the school of make it up as you go along!!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Throw Me a Curve!

Sewing by Numbers! 

Much as I dislike the tedium of foundation piecing, I have to concede that sometimes it really is worth the effort. This delightful top was a charity shop find which Jean M and her daughter asked me to quilt. The piecing is absolutely perfect and it is such a charming design. What a shame that someone went to all this trouble to make it and it ended up unfinished in a sale. 


It would have been a crime to quilt an edge to edge design over it. So I loaded it onto the frame just to baste it, then took it off and stitched in the ditch on the Bernina. Then I put it back on the frame and quilted some simple meandering loopy 'bubbles' in the background. 

Then I went back to my own foundation pieced project (based on the Halo Quilt design). I made another 12 'Flying Geese Arcs' and then had to pick out all this foundation paper. 

The next job was to cut the background pieces to set them into blocks. I found the perfect template for the outer curve, in a set I already had, which made it a lot easier. 

I got the hang of the curved piecing quite quickly and really enjoyed that part today. The instruction for squaring up the blocks was very accurate and I now have 28 of these pretty blocks to add to the 8  Dresden Bloom blocks I made last year. 

This is where I am going to deviate from the original  design and now I am working on these minute little Flying Geese spacers.

I just can't resist playing with the little scraps!


Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Firm Foundations

 Necessary Evil!

It must have been withdrawal symptoms... not being able to sew over the Easter weekend... but this week I have thrown myself into 2 things I generally do very little of.

The first was foundation piecing. Sandy has been leading the way on a very intricate Block of the Month project called the 'Halo Quilt', designed by Sue Garman (sadly no longer with us) for the Quilt Show.

I made the centre star a while back and have been too busy with other things to get any further. 

But I really wanted to have a go at curved flying geese and there really is no other way but foundation piecing. 

It is not my favourite technique, but I got stuck in and produced these 16 'arcs' in 2 days. I was pleasantly surprised at how little waste there was, as it gave me the opportunity to use up little odds and ends from my 'Treasure basket'.

I will probably need to make more, but I haven't decided on the final layout yet. As usual I am making it up as I go along and will adapt the original pattern to incorporate other elements of my own.

Today I have started to set them into their background squares. Curved piecing WITH PINS - no option with these!

So far, so good!

The other thing I have been playing with is English Paper Piecing. I was so impressed with Karen's little hexie quilt made using pre-cut 'Hexieforms' which can be left in, that I ordered some (300 actually), but smaller, with 3/4 inch sides. I am inspired to make a smaller scale 'Mrs Billing's Coverlet' style quilt and I plan to use them for applique rather than make a whole piece with them.

The cutting out and tacking is rather tedious (though not wasteful), but once you start to piece them into these little flower shapes they come together really quickly. 

I can see how this can become addictive!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

www.englishquilter.co.uk   

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