Royal Wedding

I have finally surfaced from all the TV watching and partying. I hope that all of you to wanted to watch the ceremony and celebrations managed to do so and that you all enjoyed it.

The party here at home seemed to grow and thankfully I had bought a mass of food and drink so a good time was had by all.

I was fascinated by the lace on Kate's dress and will have to find out how it was made by the Royal School of Needlework.

But back to patchwork - I have three more days of the long weekend and hopefully will be able to finish another block. The applique pieces have all been glued so they just need sewing down to the background. Here is a taster of what I have managed to do this afternoon

and then a bit more

Hopefully I can post more tomorrow.

Roseville Block 4

I have finally finished Block 4 of the Roseville quilt

With four blocks completed and I can at last see where the whole quilt is going

This photographs rather washes out the bright colours but it is coming together at last. The plain green fabric in the bottom left hand block rather stands out but I think if I add some more of this colour to other blocks it will not look so obvious.

Hopefully I will be able to start the next block in the next day or two.



Presentation of quilts

There is nothing better than presenting the finished quilt to the person you have made it for.  Yesterday i finally delivered the pink quilt to the astonished 18 year old for whom it was made as her university quilt. Both she and her mother were delighted. 

Today I gave the Racing Track quilt to the grandmother who had commissioned it. Again she seemed delighted and hopefully her little grandson will feel the same.

I also managed to complete the skinny challenge for the BQL challenge. The size was 7 1/2" x 24 1/2".

and here is a detail of the quilting.

The last quilt in this series of challenges ended up in France so who knows where this one will finally be hung.

No quilting for a day or two as I will be busy with work commitments but hopefully will manage to get something done over the weekend.

Thursday group

One of the Thursday group has a finish. It is her first completed quilt and she has hand quilted it for her newborn grand daughter.

I think she did a terrific job and she is well under way with her second quilt.

On a personal note, I am celebrating as my son has finally got his driving test.  It has been a long slog but he is there and can now start looking for a proper job.  He is going to do the PassPlus course before I insure him to drive my car but hopefully he will be mobile in the next two to three weeks.

Roseville Block 4

I have finally managed to sew on all the flowers for the fourth block

That is the first bit and then when completed it looked like this

Now all I have to do is the basket and that is where I am coming unstuck.  On looking through my Kaffe Fassett fabrics I am not sure I have the right one, so I have been auditioning some.

There will be some reverse applique on the basket and obviously is not as square as this but it is a big one and a lot of the top fabric will show. Any thoughts as to which one is best would be more than gratefully received!!

I was teaching today and have a mass of preparation to do for next week. One girl arrived with a whole lot of fabric, which I will wash and then cut up. And another has done all the quilting she wants to but I will have to machine all the background and put on the binding for her. I have covered myself by saying that it might take me a week or two but in reality I know that she wants me to finish it asap. So no sewing of my own stuff for a day or three.

Back to the applique

A fairly successful weekend with the Racing Track quilt finally finished and bound. I need to contact the person for whom I have made it in order to complete the label but otherwise it is done. Thankfully I was able to sew the binding while watching the golf.  The course at Augusta always makes me believe that spring might finally be here and we have had an exceptionally warm weekend here in London. Back to normal by mid week I gather.

Now I am back to the Roseville quit and have just started the fourth block

I have also managed to sew some of the flowers together, and hopefully will be able to get some onto the block tomorrow.

I had to spend a fair amount of time clearing up my sewing room this morning as it was getting totally out of hand. It is difficult when I have to use it as an office as well and I was finding it hard to even find the computer.

Japanese quilt top

I have finished the charity quilt top

and here is a detail of the block and the fabric

I decided not to concentrate too much on the 40" x 48" - partly because it seemed to me that there were not many blocks (and remember this was meant to be a fairly quick quilt) which could be multiplied into these dimensions. So I have got with a generous 36" x 48".

Off to a hand quilting workshop tomorrow which I am looking forward to and hope to pick up lots of tips. I have been gathering all the necessary  equipment - the fabric is no problem - I have some plain white cotton - but the choice of thread. Oh dear - I have  6 reels of King Tut and all the wonderful threads I bought a few weeks ago from the Hand Weavers Studio. Why do I need so many - of course I don't - but I know from past experience that when I see what everyone else has brought along, I will wish that I was doing the quilting in a different colour. Does that sound familiar to any of you.  At least this is only threads - I have been known to take a large amount of my stash along to a patchwork workshop in case I decide the original choice was wrong.  It's rather like other people's plates of food in a restaurant always look better than your own and you wish you had ordered something else!!

Will let you know how I get on.

Binding and charity quilt

The binding is pinned on to the Racing Track quilt and I am going to leave it until this weekend to sew it on and finish the quilt.
It is such a marvellous weekend for sport on the television - The Grand National on Saturday, followed by the Paris Roubaix cyclying race on Sunday that I will need some hand sewing to do.  Added to that of course in the golf Masters at Augusta.  I always used to watch it with my Dad if I was staying for the weekend so it will be nice to sit quietly and remember him while I am sewing.

Just when I thought I was getting on top of all my projects, my local group has thrown up another challenge. We are all making children's quilts for Japan and the top has to be completed by the 15th. So here are the fabrics I have chosen

I am going to do a disappearing 9 patch with the brown as the centre square.  The quilts are an odd size at 40" x 48" but I will do my best to be as close to that as possible.  In case you think that the fabrics are rather gloomy I have found a much more cheerful one for the back

It will be a bit tight as I only have 2 metres of this and so will have to just use the width for the backing but  I am sure I can squeeze it out.

Well - no more slacking, I had better go and start cutting out the top.

Westminster Abbey

Last week I went on a guided tour of Westminster Abbey which was completely fascinating. I don't think I have been for a proper look around for decades, although I have been to services there. Anyway, to get back to the quilt theme, they have recently unveiled the Cosmati pavement up by the High Altar. This is made up of mosaics in wonderful patchwork designs.  Sadly the tour was too quick to make lots of sketches but I managed a doodle or two and will definitely be going back. You can't take photographs in the Abbey which is a pity but I guess it would otherwise be a constant flashing as there is so much to see. On the website I saw that someone had written a book on the pavement which I will have to try and get.  If you are in the vacinity it is well worth a look.

Back now to the actual sewing!!

Increase in stash

I have just been calculating my purchases in March and surprise, surprise, I seem to have bought more than I have used.  Some of the fabrics are for my students at the centre - the mauves and pinks, but the ones they don't like will have to go into my stash. And then I bought a bit in France. Actually it was only a bit as the prices over there were horrendous - even compared to those in the UK. It was £18 euros a metre, which with the exchange rate is about £17.50. I really take my hat off to those who are quilting in a serious way on the Continent.

I also bought some felt but I am not counting that in the stash records - I have an idea what I am going to do with it.

Am busy machine quilting the Racing Track quilt so will post a picture when it is finished.

Roseville Block 3

Finally I have some sewing to show you. I am finished the third block of the Roseville quilt.

I was going to totally machine applique this quilt but have decided to do some hand applique as well. It means that I can take it around with me and hopefully will manage to finish it a bit quicker.
I have three more blocks cut out and must now get down to some serious gluing.