A Work Slightly Further In Progress

I have now managed to sew together 6 rows worth of blocks for the batik wave quilt, so I thought to treat myself and to check that the finished project will look ok I'd sew the finished rows together.  I the end I only managed 3 rows but I like the way this quilt is going (the colours in the photo are a bit washed out by the camera flash and energy saving light bulb combo).


The other thing sewing 3 rows together let me see was how much of a monster the finished quilt is going to be.

 The waves will run horizontally along the finished quilt.  Another couple of weekends and hopefully this top will be finished.  Then all I have to do is figure our how to back and quilt it!

Fantastic Fabric

Browsing the internet is excellent inspiration and education for my quilting, it does mean that I have a long wishlist of what I want to make. I do try to keep my fabric purchases (nowadays) purely to my current project, and once that is underway for the next one.


My most recent purchase of fabric was a little pre-emptive but I knew which design I wanted to make (Elizabeth Hartman's Sparkle Punch Quilt if you were wondering) and I was keeping an eye out for the perfect fabric.


After a lot of looking and discussing with the intended recipient, it was decided that a scrappy, turquoise/aqua based collection would work.


A bit more keeping a look out online and...

...the following selection was gathered.  It's definitely turquoise and its definitely scrappy.  And it's definitely a fairly large pile of fabric to store!  Now all I need to do is finish the batik wave quilt.

Wavy Lacy

Honestly you disappear for a few days and they change everything! That'll teach me.  


I have finally got round to blocking the lace scarf that I actually finished knitting around a month ago.  I've figured out how to make the waves more apparent but I haven't figured how to take a photo of the whole scarf whilst its still damp.

Although there was a lot of stitches on the needle I found this design (it's Westerwald Waves which can be found on Ravelry) easy and fairly quick to knit.  One I may make again

Bakeathon

It's my turn to provide the cakes in the office tomorrow and so I thought I'd use the opportunity to do some baking rather than buy the cakes.  Hopefully the effort will be appreciated.

Gingerbread biscuits, banana and toffee muffins and chocolate brownie - I think I know which will go first!


The gingerbread men are a reminder of my childhood.  When I was about five I used to make gingerbread biscuits with my parents using my set of homepride men cutters.  Unfortunately the homepride cutters, as is the way with many similar items, disappeared.


Late last year in a fit of nostalgia I realised that e bay may be the solution and it was.

Along with Fred I also have a chef, king and Santa.

They look as good as I remember them.

"Perforated Fingertips" or "The Gentle Art of Hand Quilting"

On Saturday I attended an introduction to hand quilting class at my LQS.  I booked this several weeks ago and when I booked it was purely to find out how to hand quilt with no intention of using my hopefully new found skill in the near future.  That was until I received the rainbow hexagons quilt and, as it is totally hand sewn, I started to toy with the idea of hand quilting it somehow.


Rather than jumping the gun and buying all the necessary threads, needles etc, I was patient and waited until I'd found out at the class a) if I could manage hand quilting and b) if I enjoyed it enough to embark on a large project.

And even though it was only a small piece I'm happy to say I enjoyed hand quilting (although it does take a lot of concentration) and I love the effect and look of it.

I'm going to have to find a better fitting, and if at all possible more comfortable, thimble but I'm now considering how best to hand quilt a large quilt.


And why the slightly odd post title?

You use one of the fingers on your none sewing hand to tell when the tip of the quilting needle is through the quilt.  After only a very short period of time hand quilting the skin on my middle finger is already quite roughed up.  Not helped by sewing myself to the work once or twice.  Goodness knows what it'll be like after doing a whole quilt! Any tips on how to avoid a callous on that finger gratefully received.

First Wave

The first strip of the Batik Wave quilt has gone together really well, and has given me a nasty shock as to how large a king size quilt really is.  The thought of quilting it is a little daunting.  I have also realised that I have seriously under bought the binding fabric and I am now having a rethink about that.  Luckily I know of a nearby quilt shop which stocks lots of batiks and if all else fails there's always black fabric!

However, these slights snags aside I'm loving how this quilt is turning out.

Ready for the next Millennium!

One craft I do from time to time is cross stitch. I really enjoy the effect of large cross stitch pictures, but when I start one I basically only nibble at it doing a small area at a time which means a cross stitch can be a very long term project for me. Not a great approach to a cross stitch celebrating the year 2000 and bought in the year 2000, but I found that I didn't have or really enjoy dedicating the long periods of time the cross stitch required (I was reminded of this fact when I did some cross stitch last weekend during the sewing thread crisis).  The added problem with this year 2000 cross stitch was that there was huge areas of borders that should be finished before the more interesting pictures could be done.


Luckily my sister does not have the same attitude to cross stitch.  Towards the end of last year she rescued the cross stitch, rectified a counting error I had made in the borders and got on with it.

Its looking great, I think she's just got the single strand running stitch detail to do. 


The big question is...when she finishes this does it count as a finish on my UFO list or should I let her have all the glory????










(It's ok I know the answer to that question)

Stalled

Isn't it often the way I'd got into a good rhythm with the batik wave quilt, with two thirds of the blocks complete and plenty of the day left when...

... no more black thread and a closed LQS, meaning no more work on the batik wave quilt until next weekend.  Even more annoyingly I can't seem to find any sewing thread of any practical colour so all sewing here is at a stop.  To add insult to injury all my in progress knitting projects are elsewhere too.


Seems like  perfect time to link up with Lynne at Lily's Quilts monthly Small Blog Meet and hopefully normal crafty service will be resumed very shortly (I'm sure I have a half finished cross stitch lurking somewhere round here).  Mean while anyone reading via the small blog meet please feel free to have a nosey round my blog and I will pop round to yours later.