2020 Wk 17 - a bit tidier and a bit of sewing

Thank you so much to the lovely friends who gave great suggestions for how to cheer myself up.  I have tidied a bit (not enough that I can bear to show you, but enough that I can see the work bench!)

The birthday bunting has been done (Breeze is the birthday girl, and I made a banner for her sister Sky too)  "Birthday" has it's back to us, but it is there!!

I stitched an air ambulance Doctor for my key workers window hanging

And a teacher

And designed and stitched a "frazzled mum" at the request of Breeze and Sky's mum - the best I could do with the 'feral children' request!!!

 They'll be added one-at-a-time to these

The (experimental) dress got finished.  It was donated fabric so nothing precious, although it would have been better used for scrubs - it just looks like a sack of potatoes.  But it was an experiment: I've worn it for a day and now I will chop the bottom off and turn it into a tunic

We've been out in the garden looking for Elon Musk's satellites - calling to neighbours over the fences every time we saw one.  Any excuse to lay on a sunbed in the dark with a glass of wine and a quilt!

I have joined a whole load of short sections of selvedges to make a long length (about 4m)

They be added to this when I have a bit more space cleared, and then it might be done.  I may have reached my limit on selvedges!!!!

And Jackie and I have been speed dating these blocks through WhatApp.  At least if we have to cope with not visiting each other we CAN talk and video phone and send daft messages back and forth (and baby pics come this way too - thank you Jackie!!)

Finished for the Festival

I expect every quilter in the world knows about Amy's Bloggers' Quilt Festival by now, but if you haven't visited, make yourself a big cuppa and start looking at the entries for this festival - my gosh there are some fab quilts to be seen!

I usually find a new blogger to follow too - and have found some great ones in the past!  Thanks Amy for all the work you put into this

My first humble offering this year is my Irish Chain.

It was inspired by a quilt made by my non-blogging but awesome quilting bestie, Jackie, I wimped out of copying hers as it had too many HSTs, but I went with the sort of colours she is drawn to.  She's Irish, and this design is an Irish Chain and the fabric is Moda's Essential Dots - so it has the imaginative name "Essential Irish". 

 The Moda fabric is really soft, so I decided to back it with an incredibly soft fleece blanket (technically it is a coverlet not a quilt as it's two layers rather than 3)

(Edit: I'm really pleased with the result.  I love Irish chains, but not too keen on the ones with single blocks mixed with nine patches.  This way was a lot more work, but worth it!  The construction is a variation on the quilt as you go method, but a *really* quick version!  I taught myself to quilt (made it up as I went along) before the days of blogging, so I didn't know about the rules - just figured out a quick and cheap method!!)

The back story can be read in various posts:

• Cutting the fabric and starting the 9 patch blocks here last November
• More blocks and initial layout here in January 2014
• Final layout here in February
• How to quick piece/assemble/initially quilt a coverlet here in May
• Extra quilting here in June
• Making it into a Quillow and machining the binding here in July 2014
• And finally this week the binding has been hand stitched to the back (you can see I don't like to rush these things)

 It is lovely and big - I just kept going until I'd filled the fleece, and the few remaining blocks went into the quillow front: The whole thing is appx 50 x 78 inches (130 x 200cm) and oh so warm and soft and snugly - and in the warmer months when we don't need *another* quit on the back of the sofa . . . it can be a cushion

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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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

21st Century Girl

New phone delivered, charged, backed up and working!!!

Yippee!!!

Now I can show you the results of speed dating the Essential Irish blocks at mum's last Monday:

Now all pinned and ready to stitch

Ireland Indeed

Not only am I off to visit Jackie in Ireland* on Friday (YIPPEE) but I've also finished making the 9 patch blocks for my Essential Irish quilt.  The next stage is taking them to mum's so we can speed date the blocks on her thankfully uncluttered floor (unlike mine) and work out how to best arrange them.

I have temporarily mislaid the sketch of the layout, so I hope I have the right number of all darks, 6 darks and 4 darks, but I do have 130 blocks made and pressed

(*baddies need not bother trying to establish my address: the rest of the family are staying home and the police, military and other emergency services are camped in the village repairing the flood damage - this must be the safest three square miles in the south east of England!!!!!)

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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Essentially Irish

Now that I have my delivery of essential dots I have done some more work on the Irish Chain top.

I have changed the design slightly as I felt that this looked too much like a nine patch alternating with an X block

So instead I have reduced the number of X blocks and added some / blocks (there are probably technical names, but I don't know them)

Anyway the design is now like this

and here are the first 59 blocks - exactly half way on making blocks

Selvedge Surprise

I hadn't expected to post anything on my blog today, but that was before the post arrived!

My order from Thread-Bear arrived - lots and lots of yummy Eternal Dots so I can carry on with my Irish Chain

And far more exciting . . .

Back in September, fellow blogger, and all round lovely lady, Fiona was making a quilt that needed scrappy triangles, and I just happened to have loads so I packaged them up (I did send them to you, didn't I Fiona?) and felt good that I'd got rid of some stuff I would never use

Well Fiona saw my Selvedge Edge post and offered my some scraps that she didn't have a need for. And look what else my postie brought me today

A big 'baggie' full of selvedge strips, and a doubly useful calendar diary too, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Fiona, this is great xxx

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