A non-identical pair

I have been a bit busier with sewing since I got my new sewing machine earlier this year. I haven't done as much as I would like, as I am due to finish my PhD next week (eek). However, I had a flurry of finishing baby quilts, stimulated by some new arrivals. Of course, having finished a non-identical pair, for a pair of non-identical twins, I haven't actually got around to posting them. Silly me.

However, here are some pictures of a pair of quilts, for a boy and a girl; I'm quite pleased with these.

I only used fabrics from my stash, even for the backs. The clown fabric that is used in the centre of some of the blocks is a Laura Ashley Country Furnishing Cotton from the 1980s. I have only a few very small squares left of it now. I love the colours, but the clowns actually look a bit miserable! I hope these quilts will be used rather than tucked away in a drawer. One has a ribbon border appliqued on because I accidentally nicked the outer border fabric with a rotary cutter in a couple of places - now secured by the ribbon! Oops.

While I was waiting...

Welcome to 2010! Yes, I know it is February already, but we had a lot of snow in January, which messed life up a bit in this neck of the woods. Well, I now have a new sewing machine as you can see. So far, I haven't done much with it, but I have decorated a T-shirt, to go with some knitting for my smallest boy, which has kept me out of mischief but still creating. Cutting out and putting shapes back together is obviously vital to me, as you can see from the cardboard reindeer (pattern was in a Hobbycraft magazine) and the decoupage Christmas cards, which I designed myself (very thrifty, made from cards received the year before)

More to follow soon, as there are babies waiting for their heirlooms!

Gave away fabric!

I still have no working sewing machine, and an unfinished PhD, not to mention lots of part-time work and job hunting. I hate the lack of creativity, but I kept in touch with fabric by giving some away! Yes, mad I know, but Aberdeen Freecycle had a request from someone making a king-size scrap quilt, and I thought that I should do a good deed! So, I gave away some of my fabric, which gave me an excuse to open up the boxes and bags, take some out, unfold it, refold it, cut bits and stroke it! It felt good.

Still no sewing machine

I have not been very active of late as I still have no sewing machine. However, I have been knitting a bit, and I have a Toto costume to make for my youngest (nearly 5). That should be very cute, AND has a deadline, so I'm bound to finish it! I'll post a picture when its done.

Hope everyone else is rather more productive!

Something old, something new

Well, my New Year's resolution is to keep doing things I've started, and to make 2009 the year of FINISHING things that are overdue. I'm not just talking about quilting, but it goes for that too. I've got much better at finishing quilt UFOs, and I will keep that up, I hope.

I hope I will also keep up posting to this blog, because I didn't manage much in 2008. Anyway, today, I have finally scanned in a picture of a quilt I made for my mother about 3 years ago. She is a piano teacher, hence the musical theme. You can also see that the quilt is a part of my hexagon fad.

The other picture is the hand sewn UFO I dug out the other day. Thanks for the advice about quilting it - I have taken that advice, and changed it appropriately. So I used the sliver of soap trick to mark out a simple pattern, based on my 60degree diamond template, which just happened to be the right size.


I've then used big stitches, using Gutermann silk threads, and resisting the temptation to add anything more. Consequently, this is now on the wall! Yippee.

Hand-sewn UFOs

Well, I've been giving some thought as to how to find essential therapy whilst my sewing machine is broken (credit crunch delay ensues...). Karol-Ann's shining example has led me to pull out my UFOs, and I have found some likely candidates for finishing and here are some photos. Suggestions as to how to finish these off would be welcome!


Firstly we have a sideways view of my favourite UFO. This was started in one of my (many) hexagon phases, and was intended to make the most of a small quantity of Dutch wax print strips that I purchased at a show. They were only 2 1/2 inches wide at the most, so there wasn't much flexibility. However, they are all used up, and this is all I managed. I am planning to fold the backing to the front, to create a border all round, but I don't know what to do about quilting, if I am hand-quilting it. I'm not very good at delicate hand-quilting - what do others suggest? This is a wall-hanging rather than anything else...Secondly, this is an octagon/squares quilt, inspired by Lucy Bolton's piano quilt. The rather garish black and white unit is going to be replaced. However, this one has stalled because I have run out of the rather lovely white background material. It was a heavy cotton jacquard weave skirt that I wore in the 1980s. I hope you can see from the close-up what it looks like, and why I have a dilemma. I shall have to haunt the second-hand shops to find anything suitable.

Thirdly (and finally for now, although I have many more, I didn't dig them out today), I have another hexagon/diamond effort. This is as big as I'm going to make it, and I'm thinking another border provided by folding the backing to the front. However, I could add along the zig zaggy ends to make it longer. At the moment, it is good for nothing except a cot quilt.

Update on work done in 2008

Here we have my first effort at long arm quilting, done on a Gammil at the Seattle Quilt Company. Brilliant! I will definitely do that again. The top had languished for about 4 years.



Well, I have a few pictures of work progressed in 2008 that I never got round to uploading. Thanks for the welcome back comment, and sorry to Ali for not realising that she left a message at the beginning of January! Happy New Year to you and yours too.

Now you can see the finished dinosaur quilt:Still wondering who should get it!