WIP: Almost There!

I'm far more of a night owl than an early bird so when Alan had a night out on Friday it was a great opportunity for me to sit and sew. I'd added some applique to one section of the backing fabric for my Star Trek quilt at sewing class on the Monday night and needed to blanket stitch around it. I don't really enjoy this bit as it's one of those tasks that seems to take a long time but you don't really see any progress with the quilt. So Friday evening, I got the kids to bed and sat down and forced myself to get on with it.

I hadn't used the blanket stitch on my quilting machine before so I did a bit of testing on some scrap fabric first. It's ended up slightly wider than I'd have liked but the only way to go narrower was to reduce the stitch length and it seemed to pull the fabric regardless of the tension setting.

I decided that while I had my machine out I might as well piece the back. Another job I dislike. One of the big selling points of jelly rolls for me is that it saves me from having to cut across the full width of fabric. Where I have to cut big bits of fabric I usually get Alan to help hold the ruler with me so it doesn't move while I'm cutting. I didn't really want to put off finishing the back as I'd always prefer to leave a project ready for doing a nice part so I'm keen to pick it up again so I managed without his help.

I also managed to get the quilt basted after climbing up into the alcove at almost 1am to find some wadding. I must remember not to baste quilts at that time of night (morning!) again as I managed to stick wadding to my slipper.

Yesterday I had to wait in for a courier. As the kids were playing really nicely I thought I'd make a start on the quilting. The hardest part was choosing thread, particularly with the really bright and very different colours in the quilt top. I ended up just following my original instinct and chose a variegated Gutermann Sulky. Despite using Gutermann thread for all my piecing and dressmaking, it's not one I really consider for quilting. The Sulky thread was part of a pack I got for Xmas with some fat quarters and 3 reels of thread. I'll definitely consider it in future as it was really nice to work with and I was really pleased with the outcome.

I didn't want to do really heavy quilting and wanted to stick to straight line quilting. I chose a wadding that could be quilted up to 10" apart. My blocks were slightly under this so I was able to quilt next to each line of sashing. Then I quilted around each rectangular picture to frame the image. The cushion was fairly similar.

I then cut out two bits of fabric to make an envelope back for the cushion. I used a decorative stitch for one of the hems to give it a nice finish. I stayed up until 1am making the binding and sewing it onto the front of the quilt. Today I've started hand sewing it to the back.

I'm hoping to get it finished this evening and I might get out at some point to get a cushion pad. And that will be two items ticked off the list of UFO's.

Hopefully some finished object pictures one day this week.

WIP Update: LOTR Wall Hanging

And just to show that I did some sewing last night....

Here's the start of the Gandalf block. This is the first 5 sections done and there's just 2 to go.

Start of Gandalf block

There's a little secret about this next piece but it's the first part of Helm's Deep:

Section 1 of Helm's Deep

Sampler Quilt Update

And just a quick update on the sampler quilt. Here are all the blocks so far laid out on one of the options I have for the sashing (probably not the final choice because I think the purple fades into it).

There's one more block to go, which I'll be doing tomorrow afternoon. I'll also be taking lots of potential sashing fabric and making a decision on that.

WIP: Blanket 2 & More Bunting

Sorry for the late WIP post this week. I've not managed to get anything finished this week so there's no FO Friday post. Still, I hope you enjoy seeing what I'm working on. First up is the second kid's blanket. I still haven't decided which child is getting which blanket. At the moment I'm thinking of wrapping each of them in a gift bag and letting Alan write the name on the bag so it's a surprise on Christmas Day.

I'm now up to 60 stripes. another 10 to go and then a border to go on.

60 Stripes done, 10 to go!

I'm really loving the Halloween bunting I made and decided that really I should have some bunting in the same place when it's not Halloween. I had a little search around in my fabric stash and was sooooo happy when the little scrap pack of 4 fabrics I bought at the Festival of Quilts were big enough to get two front pieces from. That was enough for the 8 flags and I just backed them in some leftover off-white I had from another project.

I bought these fabrics with the idea of making 'something' for the kitchen but I didn't know what. I think they're perfect for bunting. It's just one line of sewing left to do (to join them to the binding) and it'll be finished but it's such a small job that I've not managed to convince myself to drag the sewing machine out for that one line!

Also this week I treated myself to two new craft books as I got a £20 Amazon voucher.

First up is this crochet book I've had my eye on for a while: Around The Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman. I make a lot of crochet blankets so I'm looking forward to trying out a few more borders for them.

Secondly, Country Cottage Quilting by Lynette Anderson. There's a lovely little purse and needlebook if you look through the preview that I'm looking forward to making.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed they arrive early next week so that I can add a different border to the granny stripe blanket above. My other two granny stripes use the border that Lucy used on hers.

WIP Weds: Can you guess what it is?

Here's a sneak peak of a current work in progress. Any guesses?

I have really enjoyed making this. It's been so relaxing. The pattern is great - I'll reveal the pattern seller when I show off the finished object. Hopefully it'll be finished by Friday - I just didn't have one colour that I need so will try and get some in time to finish this.

Also in progress is the hexagon quilt. I have decided to put a few random flowers into it as some of my scraps were big enough to cut 6 hexagons from. Since I now have over 100 hexagons I've started sewing some together.

First two flowers for Hexagon Quilt

I was a bit worried when I started this that I'd be frustrated by how long it takes as I tend to feel like I need to get stuff finished really quickly so I can move onto the next thing but actually I'm finding that I don't feel at all rushed to complete it.

 

WIP: Neat Ripple Cushion

I just couldn't resist getting my hook out and starting on the Stylecraft I bought from Coldspring Mill. I knew I was going to make a cushion cover with it and had a browse on Ravelry to see if there was a pattern I liked. I was really struggling to decide, mainly because I really fancy doing a circular cushion but the pads I have are square. In the end I decided to do another ripple cushion but this time I'm going to make the whole thing crocheted, rather than backing it with a jumper.

Here's the progress so far:

The yarn is lovely to work with, though it's a bit thinner than the Jarol Heritage DK.