Changed the Chain

After yesterday's failed attempts to get on with any project I decided I needed to achieve something today . . .

I dug out the Irish Chain quilt which only needed the binding attaching. The rest of the quilt has been made from the more muted colours in the Moda Essential Dots range, but I really love the bright red - as the back is a red fleece, and only a little bit of the binding will be seen I figured I could get away with a bright binding

 

Machine bound on the front:

 

Before I got too far on attaching the binding I remembered a suggestion Plum made a while ago, and with a bit of text help from her I added a casing on the back to turn it into a quillow.

I used the few remaining unused nine patches, cobbled together scraps for a nine patch star, and used some kona black to made the size block I needed

 

I attached it, inside out, to the back of the quilt (Plum says this makes a nice foot warmer pocket when the quilt is being used)

 

Then I folded the quilt into 3 width ways, and into 4 longways, and pulled the pillowcase right side out

 

So now I can use it as a cushion, and I can ignore that the binding needs finishing - I'll do that when it's colder: I can't have a whole load of fleece on my lap when it's 28/82 degrees outside, and I don't think anyone will need it for warmth just yet (and this will keep the cats from adding their own layer of fur to it!)

 

 

 

 

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Essentially Exhausted

Over the last few days I have finished assembling and have actually quilted the Essential Irish quilt -,quite a battle at times, but I'm loving the colours in the darker essential dots from Moda:

I've quilted either side of the chains . . .

. . . which isn't very easy to see, but if you look on the back, sunk into the oh so soft fleece, you can see the quilt lines

As if that wasn't enough with the Essential dots, I've also got as far as I can go with the Essential Dots Lone Star:

I've echo quilted twice both inside and outside the edge of the star, and have also triple quilted another star within the shape

I can't go any further with these until I can buy some more dots for the binding, and I think it will be a while before I work on even one quilt as big as these (lone star is about 2m x 2.5m, and Irish Chain isn't much smaller) let alone two!!
Plans for today include Kids's Crafty Church and a evening Bunting class - followed by a large glass of wine!!!!

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Real Wrestling

Many years ago the Giant Lone Start quilt was all the rage in blogland.  I started one, and then ran out of fabric, then ran out of fleece for the backing, then kind of lost interest, but it has now sat in a box, maturing, for long enough that I'm in love with it again

Mind you, trying to quit it could be a severe test of our relationship - there is an awful lot of it, hence the wrestling!!

I nearly went with Hadley's 3 / 6 quilting - and it wasn't long before I wished I had, but I wasn't going to unsew anything, so I carried on with double echo quilting.  I did each of the diagonals, and the vertical and the horizontal

And as if that wasn't barmy enough, I've gone on to repeat the double echo: so far I've done outside the star, and next I will do inside, and then I think she'll be done!
 

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

Selfish Sewing, and So Long, School Sewing

I have stitched another 30 nine-patch blocks for my essential Irish quilt, just 20 left to stitch. I'm really loving it - this one is just for me!

The Wednesday night sewing club at school has now come to an end, but I thought I'd show you some of the projects the ladies will continue to work on
Tara did some work on this bucket for her knitting

And Tracey brought in some fabrics she created some years ago for A'level textiles. She took them all off the display board and we fitted them together

.

I especially liked these steam punk wheel prints

and these hand prints

Sadly the course is finished, but I hope they will keep in touch and let me know how their projects finish

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Essential Irish Extras

I decided to work on some more Essential Irish blocks! 

 

Nothing difficult or complicated, just repetitive and therapeutic - perfect!

Now I've done 71 out of 108, and I'm off to join the Richmond & Kew Quilters for our monthly meeting

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Essential Irish

This quilt is a long way off being finished, indeed will grow as an ender/leader project, but already has the name of Essential Irish

I have had a number of the Moda Essential Dot fabric in dark colours for ages.  I used some for the giant lone star

but there was plenty left over, so I have now cut the remainder into 2.5 inch strips, along with a cream fabric with slightly darker small stars

 

I have wanted to make an Irish Chain for a while, but didn't want the big plain squares in between the nine patch blocks.  I also didn't want it in the conventional coloured chain on light background, so I started stitching strips to strips.  (not the tan fabric at the top: that didn't make the cut)

Then the strips were pressed and crosscut

And stitched into nine patch blocks, which are the start of my Essential Irish quilt

Waiting for the Weekend

Squishy arrived

8 perfect fabrics for my Giant Star

(again rubbish photos, the colours are more muted than shown.  I'm not using the 3 vertical ones, just the horizontal ones)

Hurry up weekend , I want to get started (suppose I *ought* to give Niki's birthday priority today!  Happy Birthday sweetie xxxxx)

A Little Lull

I haven't blogged much about sewing recently as I haven't really done much.  I think it's due to some fabric that I really want to use (but not sure what to do with it) and a design I really want to make (but don't know what fabric to use). Very disheartening.

Instead I've been despondently plodding with an old UFO from a workshop I did with Jan Hassard and the Richmond and Kew  Quilters in 2011.  I haven't really been feeling the love here either but after 18 months I just decided to get on with it. 

I was so 'bleugh' about everything I didn't take stage photos, but basically I had loads of 1 and 1.5 inch strips in shades of red and black and beige.  I used these to make 36 offset log cabin blocks.  Half had the two narrow sides made of red, 

and the other half had them made of cream.

 (Indoor, flash photos, the cream colour is somewhere between these two shades)


As I made these I pondered my two problems: one being the fabric I want to use, and the other being the quilt top I want to make

This is the fabric: Essential Dots from Moda,

 I love, love LOVE the colours, but feel that the bottom two don't really belong with the other shades, and without them I don't have enough fabric to make anything.

As for the quilt I want to make - it's the giant star that lots of people made a while ago:

This is Katy's version

And this is Nicky's 

Aren't they yummy!  I also fell in love with a version Hadley made a year or so ago, but I certainly don't have charm squares in the right colours

(hope it was OK to borrow your photos, girls xxxx)

I *may* have come up with a solution, I'm off to bed now, I'll let you know tomorrow