The Lighthouse has Landed

The on-going saga of the Lighthouse quilt has now ended - it has been delivered to its owner who was very happy with it!

The aunts were delighted with their washing line bowls (although there is clearly a translation problem!)

 

And our host loved his shirt quilts

 

We had a fab long weekend in Norway and even less crafting than usual has occurred!

(I did hand sew bunting on the plane for the party - thank you Amo!!!)

Feeling Shirty

There have been quite a few posts about some blue quits for my cousin Bård's I owed him a huge thank you, and he asked for blue quilts.  You can click on the label Bård's Blues to see the other posts .  

I finally got sorted in my new sewing room and decided it was time to sew - time to convert the final strips of shirt fabric into something approaching a quilt.

(this looks a bit like sunlight reflecting off the sea!)

Just the binding to add then I'll have three quilts for him when I see him in June.

A Few Finishes

The bulk of the work has been done on these quilts ages ago, but the binding needed finishing.  A few seasons behind the rest of the world we have got into Game of Thrones,  - and plenty of binding can be sewn on during a 50 minute episode!

So the final Cars quilt is finished

And the Bonus shirt fabric quilt for my cousin in Norway is finished - the second *proper* quilt is still in strips on the work bench, sigh, it will be done eventually!

A Few Finishes

Its been cold here for a while so I've spent more time than usual watching TV with a quilt on my lap - no, not slacking, but finishing the binding by hand.

That means I actually have a few finishes to show:

My Rainbow floating charms (or LJR7 ) quilt

And the first of three quilts from shirt fabric

 I've also finished another dozen named fleece jackets

 

And I've finally done the Magna Carta 1215 2015 embridery panel

In other news I've had three creative classes this week.  Hopefully you can see photos if you click on the SLIKstitches Facebook page, please let me know if the link doesn't work for you.

In short we have a nearly finished baby changing bag from Monday, a cushion made from our transfer paints fun in January, a proggy owl and some faux cathedral windows from Chertsey and a great two hour session with kids dipping in and out of all the craft resources boxes at church yesterday

Blitzing the Binding

I had a whole load of quilts needing binding: I bought the bindi g last weekend (and went back in the week to buy the rest after my previous miscalculation!)
So this weekend I have added binding and more binding and more binding:
One shirt quilt

Another shirt quilt

The rainbow 'floating squares' (LJ 7R) quilt

A boy's ISpy quilt for a friend

And another boy's ISpy quilt for the same friend

A "just in case" ISpy bricks quilt

And an enormous Lone Star quilt

That'll keep me busy for a while!

Posted with Blogsy

Quicker than Quilt As You Go

I've mentioned this method before on the blog, and it's what is helping me assemble / baste and quilt these strips of blocks so quickly - a few hours and they are ready for binding.

I know the result is a Coverlet rather than a Quilt (two layers rather than three) but it is just as long lasting, much cheaper, and MUCH quicker than the conventional method.

So I have my blocks in strips (in this case just 'bricks' of fabric joined into strips the same measurement as the width of the fleece)

I have already done the middle ones (numbered  16 to 21) and I am now joining the next two (15 and 22).  I have pinned them to their next door neighbours, and to the fleece below

Then I stitch through 15, 16 and the fleece, (and 22, 21 and the fleece). I press 15 and 22 open, and repeat with 14 and 23 etc.

I'm not a great fan of heavily quilted patchworks (unless its quilting in the negative spaces - Jen, you rock!) so I'm very happy with there being no visable quilting on the surface and there is no crawling around on the floor stretching, taping, pinning, or tacking the flimsey.

And I managed two and a half tops today!

Blues Forever

Blues Forever is not a football chant, its a description of how long I seem to have been ironing, cutting, stitching  and pressing recently - even the dust is blue!

From the delivery and the pile of strips I blogged about here, I have enough strips to make two tops like this,

And a third one, slightly smaller, like this from the scraps!

Not too shabby eh?

PS, if you want some of the shirt fabric, text Lorraine on 07977 588 583

Rewind, then Recycle

I don't know if you saw this article in May's copy of the Quilter (let's rewind)

I confess I didn't, but one of the ladies at Richmond and Kew quilters did, and shared it with the rest of us.  The summary is that a lady called Lorraine is able to get shirt offcuts from a factory that makes prestigious shirts (including for Prince Charles)

The charge is minimal (from £3 a metre) and all proceeds go to charity - that has to be a win win arrangement! (edit: you can text Lorraine on 07977 588 583)

So, in order to help the charity, and keep fabric out of landfill (selfless person that I am) I bought a bag and a bundle (plus p&p it came to £10.50), and Lorraine very kindly sorted blues and creams for me.

I'd cut into the smaller pieces before I thought to take any photos, but this box was pretty much filled with fabric, and here are the larger pieces waiting to be cut, together with the smaller pieces cut into 10x2.5" strips.

I've been collecting men's shirts to recycle for bunting classes too, but dont have another session planned, so I've gone through those shirts finding blues and creams, and cutting 10" strips: I think I have quite a few now

Inspired by this,

I'm finally making a quilt for my cousin in Norway