Some finishes

In between all the other stuff I have going I have grabbed some time here and there to make a few things, like these little mug rugs from my scrap bag. 

And for a 75^th birthday I made a table runner. It is a very simple designs, but I got to show off this lovely leaf fabric which I knew would be perfect for the room it would be in. It was very well received.

One thing about being busy during the day is that it can be quite relaxing to sink down in front of the TV and grab a piece of embroidery or some knitting, and as evidence I have a new shawl and a tapestry cushion to show you. The shawl is Bitterroot from Knitty, made up in a really soft and lovely Malabrigo Yarn Lace – it’s so light and fluffy that you want to immerse yourself in it, but alas it’s just the small version to go round my neck. I’ll remember to look out for that yarn though – lovely! There should have been some glass beads knitted into it, but I didn't find any locally and was eager to finish it, so I managed without. Maybe next time.

The cushion is from a pattern by Emily Peacock and has been in the works for a while, but a bit of friendly pushing among other peacock-stitchers on IG spurred me on to actually finish it. Yay!

I'm done!

Yes, I did it! Finished the quilt last night, that is. So here it is in all it's rippled glory. I really need to device some kind of method for hanging my quilts up for photographing them, so I can show them off to their best advantage - it isn't actually as rippled as it looks, although the dense quilting on the green strips and the looser curlicues on the floral strips won't let it lie completely flat. Never mind, it is to be a lap quilt to snuggle under on the sofa during the winter to serve as a reminder that there is such a thing as summer.
Here it is draped across the sofa for a closer look.
Remember I was inspired by the scroll pattern used as part of the Olympic design themes, but for continuous line machine quilting that pattern wouldn't have worked, and it would have become too dense, so the quilt would have lost its softness and drape, so I went with a much looser spirally pattern instead. I quilted alternate floral strips in red and blue thread, and did the green stripes in green thread, to provide some interest on the back as well.
This is the way I'll see it most, I suppose - as a rolling landscape of hills covered in flowers and grassy paths in between. I think I'll enjoy the view :-)

I have used a pre-washed Hobbs Heirloom Premium batting (80 per cent cotton/20 per cent polyester) which is a delight to work with and makes the finished quilt nice and soft. I know some people shy away from washing batting before it is actually in a quilt, but I have had no problems with it. I just put it in the machine, wash on a gentle cycle, pump the water out, run it through the spin cycle and let it dry draped over my drying rack, making it nice and fluffy.

- miles to go before I sleep...

- but I'm getting there. There hasn't been much time for sewing lately, but I'm doing the final lap on my Olympic quilt now: sewing on the binding and I'm determined to finish it before I go to bed. Pictures tomorrow!

And the winner is...

-Red!

For her warm and cheery character, swirly personality and ability to bind the other members of the crew together, creating a cohesive whole.

At least that's what I hope will happen. I brought the Sunflower Quilt to the quilt shop yesterday and we laid it out on the floor and tried out numerous bolt of different colours and shades. Each and every passing customer was drawn in to have their say, great fun was had by all, and eventually we settled on this red fabric. It has the swirly pattern of the red Bali I tried out earlier, without the purple bits. I tried various yellows, but with such a wide border (6 1/2") it just became too dominant, so red it is.

But first, there will be some more quilting on this, hopefully finishing later today. The closing ceremony has started, and I didn't reach my goal of watching it while hand stitching the binding, but I'm not very far from the finishing line...

So where did the week go?

Monday it was back to work again and boy has it been hard! I returned to a full mail box and a lot of stuff to deal with, so at least the first week went really fast, but there has been little time or, let's face it: energy, left for quilting. The last couple of weeks I have seemed to be able to whizz through one sewing project after another: two new quilt tops, a bag and two sets of new curtains (none of them for me, yet...), but this week, just a little half-hearted quilting.

It didn't actually help that my sewing machine started to act up. No sooner had I left some well-meant advice for Lily about cleaning sewing machines (as if I'm an expert...), and read about Kathy's machine problems, before my own started giving me grief (something going around, perhaps). In came the q-tips and the hoover, all loose parts were removed before all the dust and grime was removed. Oil was added, new needle, tension disks cleaned - all the tricks of the trade (at least the ones I know about...) but the thread kept breaking. OK. Too small a needle, perhaps? Change of needle. Thread broke again. Well, this was a quilting thread I had had for a while - maybe it was too old? Out and get some new thread. A yard-long seam - oh, this is going well! No. Thread broke again. A new round of cleaning and re threading. New attempt. The thread got shredded in the tension disk area. Turned tension way down, then back up again. Re threaded the machine and started sewing again while holding my breath. One long seam. OK. Another. OK. Gradually I let my shoulders down and started breathing normally again. So today I did actually manage to get all the green strips quilted with parallel seams. The mystery of the sewing machine...

- I don't know what happened, but some speck of dust causing trouble, I expect. Or maybe the machine heard me muttering about having it replaced...
Anyhow, I'm on my way now, and tomorrow I'll do the flowery areas with some kind of swirly pattern. The more I've been working on this Olympic quilt the more I keep thinking of a swimming pool with marked lanes for the contestants, so maybe I should change the name to "Swimming in Flowers", "Pool of flowers" or something like that?

What's wrong with this picture?

- well, maybe not so much with the picture as with the pictured quilt, I suppose. Looks slightly curved, right? It was. Not just slightly, but extremely! Usually when sewing strips together I measure, mark with pins on both pieces, match up the pins and sew - to the amazement of some of my quilting friends: "you have a Pfaff with dual feed - it pulls top and bottom layers along at the same speed, so there will be no stretching anyway, so there's no need to pin", they kept telling me. Not true.

For once I decided to silence that inner voice whispering "pin, pin, pin" and just stitched my strips happily together, just trimming the bottom after I had finished stitching. When I put the finished (I thought) top on the floor for a photoshoot, I noticed it didn't look quite right, but I just thought I hadn't ironed it properly. When I picked it up and tried to fold it, however, I knew I was in trouble. One side was definitely longer than the other. Much longer. 8 inches longer. Yes, it's true! I had thought that there might be a slight pulling out of shape here, but 8 inches??? I measured again, with the same result. Back to the drawing board, or rather, get the seam ripper! Sigh. But it had to be done.

So that's what I was busy doing yesterday. I ripped all the long seams, measured each and every strip, recut, marked with pins, pinned to the previous strip and stitched again. Not the most exciting job I've ever had, but it had to be done! So here we are. Much happier now, and I have learned my lesson. I'll remember to listen to that inner voice in future. Measure twice, cut once, and all that... I do realize that my problem was not due to a faulty dual feed. But when sewing narrow strips like that together it is inevitable that they get pulled a bit too much before going under that dual feed. But, never mind (I wasn't quite so easygoing about it yesterday - you might have learned a few new words...), I'm back in the right lane again now, and can say yet again that it is going swimmingly...
I'll be back with auditions for the Sunflower Quilt tomorrow - I'll be grateful for some input on that one!

Going swimmingly

Just a few more laps, and the top is done. I've been wondering about how many sports cliches I could cram into a post - how many hurdles to finish, a marathon of stitching, and so on, but I'll spare you :-)

I found a dark blue with black flowers in my stash that will be a good backing for this, so I should be able to layer it tomorrow.

I have also finished stitching the blocks together on my Sunflower quilt, but have yet to take a picture. It still needs a couple of borders, and I have been trying out a few different colours, but haven't found the right fabric yet, so I might need to go shopping... In my mind it needs a dark blue border, but I will post a picture and maybe get a second opinion on that. Anyway, my stash only holds small pieces of all the fabrics I think might work, and with 6 1/2" borders I will need a lot of fabric. Hmmm, and I have placed a few fabric orders already... - Well I didn't go far for my holidays this year, think of all the money I saved... ;-)

First cut

The Olympic flame has been lit, and the sparks are flying from my rotary cutter... The first 6" strips for my new quilt has been cut, crosscut and the stitching has begun. You might think that an easy pattern like this is not enough of a challenge, but remember that there is also a backing to be made, assembly of the top and of course the quilting. While watching the opening ceremony, I noticed a recurring spiral-pattern, on the scroll in the arena, on the torches and other places as well - like a quilting pattern... Hm, maybe that's what I'll do? I'll have my work cut out for me then, for sure. We'll see - first things first, I need to cut more strips!

And don't worry, I haven't abandoned my Sunflower Quilt! I finished all the blocks today, so now I'll have to decide on the placement before I start piecing them together. I fully intend to put some work in on both quilts during the next couple of days - it's a good thing I still have a week off from work!

Quilting Olympics

Let the Games begin! The Quilting Olympics I mean. Read all about it at Going to Pieces. This is just my suggestion for a button for now.

Added later: I'm happy to announce that the button has become the official one - so feel free to copy it ( in the size you prefer), save it to your own computer and post it in your sidebar to show you are taking part.

Sunflower blocks

So I have started on the Sunflower quilt - which is what it will be called from now on. There are only glimpses of sunflowers in these blocks, but the sunflower fabric giving the quilt it's name is cut in 18 1/2" squares ready to go in between these courthouse step blocks.

It's raining heavily today, so my pictures seem to be getting that underwater feeling, with colours seeming colder than they actually are. But you get the idea. I made the first blocks, choosing fabrics randomly, just alternating light and dark strips but I wasn't quite happy with them. Back to the book, to study the pictures. I discovered that the blocks I liked the most had at least one fabric being repeated throughout the block, like I've done with the blue in the block above.
I find I like these much more, because the repetition gives some kind of rythm to it. The first two are just too random I think, but I'm counting on them working together with the rest of the blocks anyway.So, that's it, I finished five blocks yesterday, in between chores and all, so it doesn't really take that much time. I'll see if I can finish the final six today, so I'm ready for the Quilting Olympics by the time the opening ceremony starts tomorrow. Diane has suggested we challenge ourselves to start and finish a piece of work within the timeframe of the Olympics, and I'm ready to take on the challenge with my floral strippy. Care to join? What will you make? Oh, glorious summer, how great it is to have time to sew! It almost doesn't matter that it is raining...