Gail is keeping me busy!

Gail started putting this disappearing nine patch quilt together while we were at our last retreat as a gift for her mum.  Gail was going to quilt it herself but life got in the way so she asked me to help.  Out of interest I recorded how long it took me to complete this project.

I reinforced the seams.

I pinned the backing to the frame and laid the wadding and quilt top on top.  I then had to decide what colour thread to use.  I thought grey would work but the best colour turned out to be a light brown.  So I filled a few bobbins, created the design in CAD and made sure the quilt was square before I started.

This all took me an hour.

This is the quilting pattern.  It's called Trillium and Judy chose it for me because I was having one of those days where I just couldn't decide what to use!

I enlarged it a fair bit because not only does it look great but it's quick to quilt.  And...ahem...it's also quick to unpick.  I played around too much with the automation and started quilting the last row on the first row.  I noticed fairly quickly but it still took me half an hour to unpick my silly error!

As you roll the quilt on to start the next row of quilting you then have to smooth out the wadding and quilt top and make sure everything is still square.  I added some basting lines as I went which helps keep everything straight and I'm always relieved when I get to the end of the quilting and the bottom edge is relatively nice and even.

And Ta Da! Here it is!

Look at the lovely texture of the quilting.  

My last job was removing the basting lines, which I did whilst watching TV and then I added up my timings and worked out that start to finish this little quilt took me five and a half hours to complete.  I had no idea it took that long!  Ha ha!

A few of us are going away for retreat at Ballarat soon.  I hear that Judy and Kate have been busy prepping so they can sew sew sew.  I'm still busy wondering what wine to take!  I'm thinking that I should crack on with burying threads in my camera quilt so I can get it back up on the frame to finish off.  I might even take my greyhound cross stitch.  Hopefully it makes it out of the bag this time!

Quilting! I bet you thought this was a crochet blog!

 

Gail asked me to quilt this Halloween quilt for her granddaughter.  Gail tried quilting it herself but her machine was playing up.  The top is very busy so I was going to do a simple meander or something but the backing Gail gave me to use was plain-ish so I decided to do a Halloween design.  

I didn't have any Halloween designs so I bought this digital design from Urban Elementz 

I noticed that one of Gail's seams was coming undone so I repaired that.

And all the seams along the edges were coming undone so I repaired those before sewing my usual 1/8th inch stay stitching around the whole quilt.

I'm going away for the weekend with my family and dogs so I have a billion things to do so, of course, I decided to quilt the quilt instead!  I was only going to get it up on the frame but I couldn't stop once I got started!

Here's the quilting on the top.  Totally wasted!

Minnie inspected the quilt!

Here's the backing that Gail pieced.  I didn't manage to get the quilt top centred on the backing (which is why I make my backings deliberately off centre ha ha!) 

Here's the quilting on the back.

It was good to get a quilting project done for a change!

Not much to see…

 I went to retreat and all I have is this picture!  It's a shame because the other ladies did lovely work and I have no pictures!   I didn't want to spoil my reputation of doing nothing at retreat so I did nothing ha ha!  Actually, I did do all the cooking so that was enough work I guess.  And I didn't poison anyone.  Win win!

A while back I bought a value pack of yarn from Spotlight that I wanted to use to learn with before buying decent yarn.  It was horrible to work with so I ended up buying decent wool after all!  But now that I've had a bit of practice I went back to the value stuff and found it easier to use.  I did have plans to do some kind of large granny square blanket but I'm not a fan of granny squares so that idea went out the window and I'm now looking for smaller projects to do so that I can learn new techniques whilst getting rid of this horrible yarn!  It is pretty though!

Wellington loves this value yarn!

I made this Linked Heart Blanket and used up a fair bit of the yarn.  I'm umming and ahhing over a couple of different projects to use up the rest.  But then again, I've since purchased some decent yarn so I'm tempted to start something else!  Who would have thought I'd get so "hooked" on crochet?! It is the perfect craft to do in front of the fire in winter!

I haven't forgotten my quilting!  I'm busy working on my camera quilt unpicking the thread that ended up in the wrong places and burying threads.  There are hundreds of threads so I suspect it'll take a bit of time.  Once they're done it can go back on the frame to be finished.

I had a procedure the other day which meant having IV sedation.  I begged the anaesthetist to put the IV in my already ruined left hand just in case but he wouldn't listen claiming I was paranoid and scared of a teeny tiny needle and put the IV in my right hand.

And this is how that ended up.  I need to find a better way of articulating my wishes so these "I know better" doctors don't railroad me into doing things I know are bad for me.

I'm left with numb fingertips but the numbness is wearing off so hopefully I'll have the full use of this hand soon.  The procedure went well otherwise.

I don't have any plans to do any quilting other than burying the threads on the camera quilt so I may be quiet for a while.  But I'll be back!

Phew! Finished!

I finished the borders and put the quilt on the frame.

I did consider using my gum leaves quilting pattern but felt it wasn't childlike enough so I did bubbles.  I love the bubbles! It's very exciting when you get to the bottom row of your quilting and everything has lined up.

My favourite part is unrolling the quilt and seeing it finished.

I'm not quite so keen on the binding part!

Ever get the feeling you're being watched?

I hand stitched the binding and my sons helped me design a label which looks like the sun in the corner of the quilt.

Ta da!  This was the quilt before I washed it.  The animals aren't as dark as they look in this picture but I was leaning over whilst standing on the sofa which was very wobbly and I wasn't going to attempt to do another picture!

After I washed the quilt it crinkled up which is fine but it's always nice to give gifts when they're at the new looking stage.  I just don't like gifting unwashed quilts.  What if the colours run???  The two colour catchers I used came out purple so some colour came off it.  The quilt is now drying flat on my dining table.  

Yeah!  I got it finished in time!  I'm going to retreat next week.  What shall I take to work on?

Fly away geese!

I'm over making you!  And I'm definitely over trying not to cut the points off them!  Why didn't I do a simple border??

Well it's coming along.  I have made the top and bottom borders so I just need to sew those on and then there's a simple rectangle border to finish it off.  It's my birthday on Sunday and my birthday is in May so that means the May deadline is approaching very quickly!  Yikes!

We had our Easter Sunday dinner yesterday.  My morning started off with this mess to clean up.  The culprit looks quite innocent doesn't he?

Here's my table all set up.  My oldest son kept turning the cutlery because he thinks he's funny.  He won't be laughing when he's hosting next year.  But I will!

I couldn't get a good shot from above without standing on the table and I didn't think that was a good idea!  I put chocolate eggs in the bowl in the centre.

Hopefully my next post will be of the finished baby quilt!

Well the table will look nice

It's just a shame there's no one around to see it!  There wasn't a day we could all get together because of work or other plans.  I bet they'll all still want chocolate eggs though won't they?!  We'll have our dinner whenever we can squeeze it in.  Christmastime at this rate ha ha!

                                                                    I made tablemats.

I made decorations.

I've still got fabric so I'll keep on making things.  Perhaps they'll make an appearance next year!

I went to my crochet class and was encouraged to make granny square blocks so I've bought Granny Square Academy Digital – Shelley Husband Crochet and made a start.  I can now vaguely read a pattern now so that was useful.  I'm not a fan of granny squares.  I'd rather make something I can use but I'll finish these and see what I can do with them. 

I haven't touched the Land Down Under baby quilt.  I am going to be very busy panicking very soon!

Just in time for Winter

I finished my shawl!  Minnie is very glad because she wasn't a fan of the yarn rubbing on her ear while I was crocheting!

Shawl looks great.  Shame about the model ha ha!

My biggest problem now is that I'm going to crochet class tonight and now I have nothing to work on.  This means I'll be starting something new!  Why did I do this to myself???

I embroidered this little cutie ready for Easter.

I finished my napkins.  I looked at a few tutorials to get an idea of size and to remind me how to do mitred corners and all the pictures I saw had the napkins artfully and creatively draped.  I attempted to do the same and it just looked like my napkins had already been used and scrunched up.  So nice neat rectangles it is!

I've quilted tablemats and have a couple left to hand stitch the binding on.  I'm not sure I have time to do any more Easter projects but my table will look nice!  I haven't touched the baby quilt.  Yikes!  When is May?