Phew!

I'm not sure what happened to my post.  Apparently, when you press a few buttons to see what they are you lose all your work!  Oops!  Anyway, if you're just seeing this you'll be wondering what I'm even talking about but that's ok because I have no idea either!

So this post was all about quilting Gail's Steam punk quilt.  Gail had asked me to trim the top to make it even and I didn't want to touch it for fear of making it worse so I ended up quilting the whole top but then adding a basting stitch line so that Gail could trim it square herself. You can see in the picture where the top went wobbly.

The quilting went well except for one row when luckily I ran out of bobbin thread and noticed I'd quilted the wrong row so I had to unpick that which was annoying but entirely my own mistake.  The bobbin ran out of thread on every row and I usually bury the threads while the quilt is on the frame so once I've finished quilting I'm done with the whole thing. I feared these threads would just pop out and show on the backing rather than get buried inside the sandwich so I had to bury them later.  I marked each thread with a piece of masking tape and I was very glad I had done that because they were very difficult to spot!

Here's the finished quilt laid out on my design floor.  I've been trying to think about other ways to display quilts for photos and think I may use a curtain pole with ring clips.

Here is the quilting design on the backing.

And here is where I was up to with my cross stitch picture.  I was getting ready to go to retreat and planned on taking the cross stitch.  I'd been working hard on the fiddly stuff so that I could just fill in blocks of colour and that way I wouldn't have to think about what I was doing too much.

Steampunk

I had a brilliant idea to get me off the sofa and into the studio!  I decided to treat the sewing as a 9-5 job.  Well then I revised it to 9-4 and after waking a few mornings at 9 I tried 10-4.  I've settled on a three hour shift and it starts and finishes whenever I can be bothered.  I've done two shifts of my "job" so far ha ha ha ha!  I don't think I should put this blog on my resume.

My next project is quilting a steampunk quilt top for Gail.  It's a free pattern you can find HERE. Gail picked up EFM and sheepishly handed over Steampunk. Gail wanted me to piece the backing and straighten the top and bottom of the quilt.  I pieced the backing but left the wobbly edge fearing the quilt would end up a small wall hanging if I kept trimming it.

 The backing was a length of 42 inches WOF so I had to cut it in half and sew the two pieces together.  The fabric was lovely so I can't complain about that for a change!  I decided to pattern match the backing and the repeat wasn't too far apart so I didn't waste much fabric.  The backing I ended up with was wide enough for the quilt top but not for my frame so I added a few inches of scrap down each side.  It took longer than I expected but these things always do.  After thirty plus years of quilting I don't know why I'm always surprised at this!

My faithful shadows were on hand to support me. 

Pattern matched and somewhat pressed backing.

I put the backing on the frame.

Then I tackled the top.  Unfortunately most of the seams on the edges had come undone so I had to repair those.

And here it is on the frame ready to be quilted.

I'm going to retreat with Judy and Kate in 17 sleeps.  Not that I'm counting or anything!  So I need a project to take.  I discovered that the townhouse we're staying in is an upside down house so the living is upstairs and I don't want to lug my sewing things up those stairs.  I decided to bring my cross stitch that has been in a box for five years. 

The company I bought the pattern from no longer exists so I can't show you a picture but it's a black greyhound.  I may be a little obsessed with them.

It looks like I have a fair few stitches to go.  

I've pottered with my camera quilt.  I had to make flying geese and I saw a Facebook reel of someone trimming multiple ones at the same time so I gave it a go.  You lay them down partially covering each other with the stitching line lined up with the lines on your cutting board.

And then you cut them all in one go.  Or in my case, a few because my rotary cutter blade is blunt and I need a new cutting board.

Ta da!

I also had lots of bonus HSTs to put in a box and forget about for a few years.

I sewed my flying geese together and put them on my display wall.  It was at this point I realised I'd sewn them in the wrong order.  Grrr!  I did wonder if I could get away with it but after looking at the pattern I think it's better the designer's way so I'll be unpicking one of those rows.  Ah well.

 I wonder how much I'll get done during my next shift...