Perfect for a wet June day! Every day seems to be wet at the moment!
Weeks ago Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts announced a Summer Sewing Contest. I thought I might make a bag for my summer holidays. My "summer" holiday was last week. No bag. A brolly would have been more useful.
At the beginning of the year Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap announced a 2012 Finish Along.
Last Summer I chose to make a quilt with Ambrosia fabrics.
Last night was Friday Night Sew In.
Today all those fourthings come together!
I signed up to the Finish Along at the start of the second quarter (for the first quarter I was having my own personal start-along!), and I picked three quilts I wanted finished. At that time my sewing machine was misbehaving when I was free motion quilting, so I picked three quilts that I planned to straight line quilt. This was one of them.
April passed
May passed
June started passing very quickly.
I hadn't touched any of the three quilts.
We got back from Tenby last week, and separated from my sewing machine for seven whole days, I grabbed the nearest project. A week later, I have a finished quilt!
This quilt started life last year when I saw the fabrics at my local quilt shop and just had to have them. I picked five fabrics from the same range and then added in a sixth. A fat quarter of each, some white sashing and the book "Fast Quilts from Fat Quarters". After just twelve hours of cutting, arranging and piecing I had a twelve-block quilt top.... but I didn't know what the hell I was going to do with it. So I bought another half meter of each of the fabrics, so that when inspiration struck, I would have enough fabric. Then the quilt went into the cupboard.
I put it on my finish-along list at the start of April and pulled it out of the cupboard. Then I ran out of thread one Friday evening and ended up in Hobbycraft (for the non-Brits it's a crafting superstore, that tends to be a bit pricey and the staff don't know the first thing about crafts - that's my experience anyway). To get to the thread I passed the fabric. Normally I wouldn't look twice, because the choice is limited and the price high. But I noticed out of the corner of my eye a print from Ambrosia. So went to look. They had a print I didn't have. Sold. They had a hug scale red fabric with roses on from the same range. Backing? SOLD! But, wait.... on SALE? Yes! £7 a meter - SCORE!
So, back to this week: by Wednesday night I had a finished quilt top (and I only used another fat quarter of each fabric so I have fabric to spare). Thursday I bought batting and pieced the back (I had only just bought enough....) and Michael (grudgingly) helped me layer it up. Turns out he doesn't actually like it.
Friday night was Friday Night Sew In. I planned to quilt it. My evening started with three hours of unplanned overtime.... but I did do four hours worth of quilting. Since deciding to do straight-line quilting, my machine has been fixed, so I decided this would be my first quilt fully covered in free motion stippling. If it went totally tits up, then my local shop still has all of the fabrics in stock! It went beautifully! My machine really is fixed. Not all of my stitches are the same length, but very few are tiny and none are stupidly long. And only my Mum would look close enough to see anyway!
This morning, another hour of FMQ, then I attached the binding (by machine). Then straight into the washing machine and the tumble drier and I have a lovely crinkly quilt (though most of the photos are pre-wash).
The fabrics are so summery (despite being red and green) and a year later they still make me think of summer. So I'm linking this mammoth blog post up to Ellison Lane Summer Sewing Contest, Friday Night Sew In and once the linky opens at the end of June/beginning of July, Rhonda's Finish Along.
Quilt stats:
Fabric: Ambrosia from Westminster fabrics (except one which I don't know)
Sashing: a white on white print - no idea....
Backing: also from Ambrosia
Binding: a bright pinky red from Kona
Wadding: bamboo cotton blend
Thread: Aurifil (I'm a recent but total convert)
Pre- washing size: 76 x 66"
Weeks ago Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts announced a Summer Sewing Contest. I thought I might make a bag for my summer holidays. My "summer" holiday was last week. No bag. A brolly would have been more useful.
At the beginning of the year Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap announced a 2012 Finish Along.
Last night was Friday Night Sew In.
Today all those fourthings come together!
I signed up to the Finish Along at the start of the second quarter (for the first quarter I was having my own personal start-along!), and I picked three quilts I wanted finished. At that time my sewing machine was misbehaving when I was free motion quilting, so I picked three quilts that I planned to straight line quilt. This was one of them.
 |
| This is how far I'd got at the start of April |
April passed
May passed
June started passing very quickly.
I hadn't touched any of the three quilts.
We got back from Tenby last week, and separated from my sewing machine for seven whole days, I grabbed the nearest project. A week later, I have a finished quilt!
 |
| Just about big enough to cover the top of our spare bed, but this wil be a generous lap quilt |
This quilt started life last year when I saw the fabrics at my local quilt shop and just had to have them. I picked five fabrics from the same range and then added in a sixth. A fat quarter of each, some white sashing and the book "Fast Quilts from Fat Quarters". After just twelve hours of cutting, arranging and piecing I had a twelve-block quilt top.... but I didn't know what the hell I was going to do with it. So I bought another half meter of each of the fabrics, so that when inspiration struck, I would have enough fabric. Then the quilt went into the cupboard.
I put it on my finish-along list at the start of April and pulled it out of the cupboard. Then I ran out of thread one Friday evening and ended up in Hobbycraft (for the non-Brits it's a crafting superstore, that tends to be a bit pricey and the staff don't know the first thing about crafts - that's my experience anyway). To get to the thread I passed the fabric. Normally I wouldn't look twice, because the choice is limited and the price high. But I noticed out of the corner of my eye a print from Ambrosia. So went to look. They had a print I didn't have. Sold. They had a hug scale red fabric with roses on from the same range. Backing? SOLD! But, wait.... on SALE? Yes! £7 a meter - SCORE!
 |
| The backing fabric |
So, back to this week: by Wednesday night I had a finished quilt top (and I only used another fat quarter of each fabric so I have fabric to spare). Thursday I bought batting and pieced the back (I had only just bought enough....) and Michael (grudgingly) helped me layer it up. Turns out he doesn't actually like it.
Friday night was Friday Night Sew In. I planned to quilt it. My evening started with three hours of unplanned overtime.... but I did do four hours worth of quilting. Since deciding to do straight-line quilting, my machine has been fixed, so I decided this would be my first quilt fully covered in free motion stippling. If it went totally tits up, then my local shop still has all of the fabrics in stock! It went beautifully! My machine really is fixed. Not all of my stitches are the same length, but very few are tiny and none are stupidly long. And only my Mum would look close enough to see anyway!
This morning, another hour of FMQ, then I attached the binding (by machine). Then straight into the washing machine and the tumble drier and I have a lovely crinkly quilt (though most of the photos are pre-wash).
 |
| A post-wash crinkly photo |
The fabrics are so summery (despite being red and green) and a year later they still make me think of summer. So I'm linking this mammoth blog post up to Ellison Lane Summer Sewing Contest, Friday Night Sew In and once the linky opens at the end of June/beginning of July, Rhonda's Finish Along.
Quilt stats:
Fabric: Ambrosia from Westminster fabrics (except one which I don't know)
Sashing: a white on white print - no idea....
Backing: also from Ambrosia
Binding: a bright pinky red from Kona
Wadding: bamboo cotton blend
Thread: Aurifil (I'm a recent but total convert)
Pre- washing size: 76 x 66"
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