Foot Free and Fancy Loose

Have you ever tried FMQ without a foot?

I had a project that I've been putting off for ages: my boss (the best boss I've ever had, possibly the best boss anyone has ever had) asked me to quilt a blanket to a sheet for him, so I said yes.  He taught himself knitting and crochet earlier this year, and was very pleased with the resulting blanket

I roped mum and Jackie in to help me, we stretched and bullied it into a neat rectangle, and pinned and tacked the rectangle onto a sheet, and I then started to quilt it by hand.

However, what we hadn't considered was that the stretched bits didn't really want to stay stretched, so they were springing back to their original shape, and taking the sheet with it.

I had long discussions with the Broom Farm ladies, and the final decision was to spray baste it, in it's preferred shape, onto a fleece blanket (in fact two joined to be big enough) and then quilt it along the seams.

But the knitting was quite high (is that the right work? loft?) and whatever foot I tried to use got hooked up in the wool, so I abandoned the idea of a foot, and went ahead and quilted.  Yes I know the lines and wobbly, and the quilting leaves a lot to be desired, but it was blinking hard work.

Do you want to see the blanket?

Are you sure?


Ta da!

Almost finished :-)

Reducing the UFO list

A finish - not a quilty finish, but a patchwork finish all the same

I spent most of Sunday adding the last row of squares, and sewing in the loose ends of wool.  It's been on my bed unfinished for quite a few weeks, but I swear it's even warmer now for being finished!

Baby blanket (nightmare)

We've lived in our house for 24 years, and there are a few families still in the road who were here before us.  The first friends we made were Pat and Paul, and their daughter Samantha, who later became big sister to Danielle.  Sam is mum to 4, and Danielle had just had her first baby.  When Sam asked if I could embroider the baby's name onto a blanket, of course I said yes ... then I saw the blanket

I really didn't want to embroider direct onto the blanket, as the stitches would just become straight lines every time they hit those holes.

So I stitched his name onto fleece

and stitched the fleece onto the blanket - phew!

Now I can get on with the patchwork for him from us!

(and another two block lotto blocks :-)