Wednesday 16 February 2011

block of the month

I really like doing block of the month quilts - especially those with lots of applique - but they can be really stressful. I know it is all self-imposed but you have the urge to keep up with each instalment when it arrives and that the pieces from the previous month have all been finished.  Well today I got the second instalment of the Beth Ferrier quilt and decided I had better get on with it.

All the pieces are now cut out and ironed onto the fusible so now I will have to settle down to the glueing and then the stitching. I really don't know why I put so much pressure on myself to jump straight in - perhaps because this week has been quiet at work and I know that at the latter part of next week and the week after I will be really busy again. Is it better to have the whole set of instructions and templates at the beginning of a large quilt or to get them drip fed? The whole design and templates can be really scary to start off with - where do you start and how long is it all going to take. Needless to say no-one else cares when you finally finish a quilt but somehow once it is started then I want to get it finished. I am not a great one for having a huge pile of UFOs (unfinished objectes) sitting around.  I have enough PIGS (projects in grocery bags) as it is without any more guilt.


But the good news is that spring seems to have appeared in my garden (those that know me will know that I am the world's worst gardener and certainly con't venture out there between October and March) but I was prompted to go out and take this picture.

The rest of the camellia only has green buds so it was a lovely surprise to spy this out of my window. The snowdrops and crocuses are looking good too

Off to do some glueing.

2 comments:

sue pelland said...

Hi Louisa, Nice job with the ribbons and the lemon leaf flowers! When you sew the rows of "orange peels", sew all the way down the right side of the row with your buttonhole stitch, then put your needle down, pivot and sew the entire row, again on the right side. Do you see what I mean? That way you don't need a reverse buttonhole. and there is less quilt twisting and rearranging. Hope this helps!! One of my guild members let me know that you were blogging about the templates, and it was fun to hear she reads your blog regularly! Nice work. You have followers all over! Sue

Linda W said...

Hi Louisa,
I'm also doing Beth Ferrier's quilt--that is I'm still waiting for the first part of the kit to arrive. I've done one of her BOMs before, and they're time consuming but beautiful. I admire you for using your stash!