Binding Achieved!

Breaking with convention somewhat I have bound my quilt before I've finished quilting it and it's turned out to be a brilliant idea!  The raw edges of the quilt were really stressing me when I working on it and I think I needed to feel like some more progress had been made to spur me on.  It's meant my quilt feels a lot more secure to work on  and I've fallen back in love with it.

The weather has been terrible these last few weeks in what is supposed to be summer.  Having taken the boys to France with my Mum for a week at the end of June/beginning of July in a 40 degree heatwave I wasn't expecting to work on this quilt again until the season changed.  This is the largest quilt I have ever attempted and when working on it you feel like you're sitting in bed as it fits on a double bed!  So in a way this cooler spell has been a blessing although wearing socks and slippers in late July is just rude.

As you can see there's a lot of work to do, spiraling every light grey square and quilting in the ditch between everything else but there's a sense of achievement already in that it is now a functional item. If it snowed tomorrow, unlikely I know, I could gather everybody under this and watch Disney's Hercules for the 5th time this week.

Also we're redecorating the living room and so when we're all snuggled under this we'll be perfectly co-ordinated, almost camouflaged!

Spiral Quilting

We have quilt off!
It's a relief to finally be hand quilting this project and I'm starting to see it come together.

I took the boys to my parent's for the weekend so my husband could have his friends over for a boozy 'Super Saturday' (last day of the Six Nations Rugby Tournament for those blissfully unaware).  This turned out to be rather handy for the making of my quilt sandwich.  As I had started to lay out the backing fabric the folly of having this hobby whilst living in a Victorian terraced house became apparent - NONE OF MY ROOMS ARE BIG ENOUGH TO LAY OUT MY QUILT!!

Thankfully Mum & Dad's living room is bigger than mine

So when the boys were napping I started.  This was the lovely clear sky that followed the morning where we had a near total eclipse.  We didn't see any eclipse as it was so cloudy but it did turn eerily dusk like for half an hour or so and the day that followed was beautiful.

I feel the Emilly Herrick fabric is really working with this pattern but made me realise I will not quilt all of it in the way suggested in the pattern as the individual squares were solid colours.  I plan to quilt in the ditch around the coloured squares and the white strips and do straight line spirals in the larger grey squares.  My backing fabric is a darker grey from the lovely ladies at Sew Simple  in Taverham one of whom not only cut my backing fabric to size but also said that my children were definitely in the better behaved end of the spectrum she saw in the shop.  We thanked her and hastily left before they showed their true colours!

Quilt Update!

Well, it's taken me ages to cut out most of my blocks.  Caspar has been cutting his 2nd tooth and refusing to sleep at the same time as his brother at lunchtime so I've still not finished cutting out the white strips that frame them....BUT I couldn't resist any longer and had to join a few blocks up to motivate me onwards.

I've decided to machine piece this quilt as I want to see results quicker which has some irony as my sewing machine (we'll call her The Beast), is two floors up so escaping up there without waking sleeping babes is often time consuming in itself.

The Beast

The Beast used to belong to a lady who lived on the Isle of Wight in my Father-in-Law's Parish (he is a Church of England Vicar), and when she died her husband gave her sewing box and machine to my Mother-in-Law. Along with the Beast came a box filled with bobbins, a few different feet and threads.  I don't know the lady's name or anything about her but the smell that comes when you open the box is very much a person's smell (not in a bad way), and consequently I feel strangely linked to her whenever I use it.  The Beast is my first sewing machine - she is a Singer and I love her.  Except when I'm having bobbin dramas but more of that another day.

With much fanfare here are my first two blocks, of course as soon as I'd chain pieced a few more a wished I'd finished cutting them out first BUT I find being purely logical a struggle and it is nice to be reminded again of why you're doing something.  So onwards and upwards, I hope to report back within a week or so with more blocks pieced!

The best kind of post!

My two year old had his birthday recently so was eager to open the package I received yesterday, I think he thinks all parcels are for him and was most disgruntled to be told 'No' this was Mummy's parcel!

After hours and hours browsing www.eclecticmaker.co.uk I decided to treat myself to a fabric pack of fat quarters.  The aim is to make a lap quilt for cosy film watching on the sofa this autumn and winter.  I want it to have a modern feel and I want it to reflect the rest of the living room which is a mix of contemporary and classic with the main colours being a dirty lime (sofas) and cream and light grey (walls & other bits and bobs).

SO.....this is what I've chosen;

Emily Herrick's Rustique Fat Quarter Fabric Pack

...and now I have to do something with it!  I think this has to be one of the hardest bits of quilting when you actually have to make the leap into a project.  Maybe one day I will buy a ready to quilt pack but not being quite sure whether something will work or not has to be more exciting.  I spent last night going through quilting magazines and rounded it down to four designs.

The quilt design I'm going to go with is one that was featured in Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts in the Spring 2014 issue.  The quilt is designed and made by Corey Yoder (who blogs as www.littlemissshabby.com) and in the magazine is called 'Gray Square Scramble'. 

Now the challenge is on to see if I can find time everyday to get this quilt going - I'd love to be able to watch a film under it by the start of advent or at least be kept warm by sitting under the sandwiched layers hand quilting it by then!  ONLY TIME WILL TELL.......