Essential Irish

Having actually cleared the dining table for bunting at the weekend, I took advantage of the space to start on the assembly / basting / basic quilting stage of my Essential Irish quilt.

For those who don't know, I was making patchwork quilts for at least a dozen years before I even read a book about them, let alone attended a class or saw a blog.  This means I made it all up as I went along - I didn't know about flimsies or basting but made up my own way - and my way works fine for me so I stick with it: Even though I teach students the "right" way, I do show them my way too!

So my Essential Irish blocks have been arranged, and stitched into strips- which are numbered.

I take the middle strip (#5 in this case) and spray baste it, right side up, down the middle of my fleece.  I take strip 4 and pin it in place, and also strip 6

I then stitch these two pinned lines - so I'm stitching through #6, #5 and the fleece, then I'm stitching through #4, #5 and the fleece

Once I've pressed these seams open and spray basted them onto the fleece I can repeat with strips 7 and 3, then 8 and 2, then finally  9 and 1.

I may quilt this one, at least through the chains, but I don't need to; the fabric won't be moving at all, so in the same amount of stitching that would make a conventional flimsey, I could instead have a quilt that is ready for binding!   (ooops, that should be "coverlet" as it's only two layers not three) 

That was it for today, and the girls come home tomorrow (Lisa) and Thursday. (Niki) so I might not get much sewing done for a few days!

Night night xxx