Retro Rainbow

This top has been a PHD (project half done) since the autumn, but I managed to get it basted and quilted over the last few days, and the binding is half done.

For once I actually did real quilting, inspired by Hadley's Constellation quilting. I'm not sure you can see it here, but its a diamond spiral from the centre.

Yay, clearing the UFO pile :-)

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Baby Ben

After Harry's disaster (now finished and delivered, phew) I need to be sure that I could see a project through from start to finish!

I went to a 40th birthday bash back in November, and we kind of hi-jacked the birthday with a baby shower as the birthday girl was also 8 months pregnant with her first baby.  I had cut 30 x 8" squares, and taken along fabric pens for the guests to decorate a square each.  Baby Ben arrived a few days before Christmas, and I then waited until I received a good photos of him, plus photos of his mum and dad as babies.  These then got printed onto photo fabric, and then got pushed to one side to work on other projects.

I'm actually going to meet Ben, and get my first cuddle next Friday, so it was time for his quilt to go back to the top of the pile

I'm really pleased with the way is has come out so far (pieced, basted, quilted in the ditch, and binding attached at the front)

 

I love the binding, and think it works really well with the colour pens used, but there wasn't quite enough.  I then remembered a blog post I had seen a while ago (sorry, cant remember where or find the origin) where the binding included a plain section, and the label is written on the binding.  So I added a white strip at the busiest block (the red number 23) and now have to steel myself to write on it after I have stitched it down

Finished!

Harry's quilt has been finished, and the accompanying fleece blanket, and the customer has seen this photo, and is happy - phew!

Good night

Horrid Henry and Happy Harry (?)

I've been working more hours than usual this week - on my day job, freelancing as a grant finder, AND trying to make amends for the problem with Henry's Harry's quilt.

Last night's grant meeting with the Borough was luckily more than half way to my nearest quilting shop, Helen's, so I took advantage!  Helen has a wooden log cabin in her garden which serves as a shop and a workroom, and Helen is there pretty much 12 hours a day for help and advice.  I haven't been on a Wednesday night for a while, and it was lovely to see two regulars, and a further 6 who have been claimed by the dark side (and the light, along with medium values, stripes, spots, batik, etc)


Anyways,  I picked up some more half yards of assorted cream fabrics as I have at least one more cream (unisex) quilt to make for Debbie, and to finish Harry's quilt, I got wadding, fabric for the back, and the binding, as well as a few other half yards that were calling my name.

This evening I have been very unsociable, and have managed to get Harry pieced, basted, quilted and half the binding done. 

Tomorrow I can finish the binding, and then take a deep breath and put his name on the quilt

Harry

Harry

Harry

Harry

Harry 

(it is starting to look wrong now, sigh!)

Henry and Harry

After saying some rude words over Henry's quilt, (and virtually no sympathy at all from my bloggy buddies, so glad I was able to entertain you all!) I am now making Harry's quilt

I do like random quilts, but I'm not capable of making one, I think because I approach quilting mathematically.  So I have discovered a way (and an easy way at that) of making a random top:  I  made up 27 squares all at 6.5 inches.  Some were just one fabric, a few were HSTs, a few were pinwheels, a few were 9 patches, and a few other ideas got chucked in too.

I made up larger 9 patches, using the pieced squares in the 4 corners, and the plainer pieces as the 5 that make up the +

 Then I cut the 9 patch into 4 equal parts (Disappearing 9 Patch)

 And then I can put the back together and I have a random quilt, or an Orphan D9P

Hopefully tomorrow all 12 new blocks will be stitched together - with quilting on Thursday, binding on Friday, and delivery on Saturday . . . isn't working to a deadline fun?

Menopause and Marbles

I know I meant to show you what the girls got up to at the classes this weekend, and I will, but you'll have to wait.

Before Christmas a friend, Debbie, commissioned me to make 3 baby quilts (one blue, two cream) for babies that were due this year.  I was to make the quilt and then, when the baby arrived, embroider their name onto the quilt and also onto a fleece blanket.

The blue one was the Pure Blue London bricks, and I'd finished one of the creams in a sort of orphan block-cum-vanishing 9 patch design that I was really pleased with (the other cream is still under construction as the baby isn't due for another month or so)

So the blue baby arrived - Edward - and I did his embroidery (forgetting to photograph his quilt, sigh,) and then one of the cream babies arrived, so I embroidered "Henry" onto his quilt and his fleece, and delivered them to Debbie

Nice name, isn't it, Henry?  Well I though so, shame his parents didn't think that - his name isn't Henry at all, never was, it's Harry

Hence the post title.  I'm experiencing one, and have totally lost the other.

I'm now frantically making another cream quilt, and have been to Ikea to get another cream fleece.  If you know of anyone having a baby called Henry I can sell you a quilt and a fleece blanket ready named!!! (what are the odds that the third baby will be a boy and they call him Henry?  Not too great :-(

Yes, it's OK to laugh!

Chertsey Museum Class

I was away for the December session at the museum, so I left them with a box of felt, a basic sewing kit, some retractable tape measures and shome sheets of inspiration so they could make themselves a Christmas present!

Some of the ladies then brought back their tape measures this month to show

Didn't they do well!

What to do next: Groups, swaps and charities

Lots of very exciting groups have started up this year:

Hadley and friends are running a swap they are calling Mouthy Stitchers - they are encouraging lots of chat via Flickr as each member makes a purse for a randomly allocated victim




Sarah is hosting the Stained Glass Quilt Along that I have decided to have a go at:











I'm getting so little sewing time at the moment, and I'm getting behind with blogging, blog reading, and emails, so I have decided not to join Hadley's, much as I'd love to.  I know that's I'd either not be as chatty as the group would like, or I'd let other stuff slip, and risk resenting the swap

However, I am going to have a go at a suggestion from Annabelle at Annabelle Serendipity.  She has blogged about Blankets of Love . . . [copied straight from her blog, hope you don't mind Annabelle]

In 1992 a charity was set up in Australia by two sisters, one a midwife and the other a quilter, the aim of which was to provide grieving parents with a special quilted memento of the child they lost. This lovely idea then spread all around the world and is now followed in almost all neo-natal wards.

The quilts requested are to be 'nappy' sized - approximately twenty-four inches square, extremely soft and extra special. The quilt is then tagged with a label provided by the charity.

If you would like to take part in this worthwhile project do contact The Child Bereavement Charity - Blankets Of  Love via Julie Cullingworth on 01494 568917.

And this is something I will be making quilts for.