An early quilt top...unsurprisingly unfinished!

So in checking my blog for whether I'd ever mentioned this quilt top before I learnt a few things:

1. I make a lot of kindle covers (not all for other people, I think I've lost two so far)

2. I'm rubbish at finishing things, my early to-do lists seem to contain projects which are still in progress 

3. I need some quality control on my blog as I've posted about the same thing twice at least once (if that makes sense).

Anyway the point of today's post is the dilemma I'm having over an unfinished top. My very first quilting class was how to make a french braid, or at least that was the outcome of it. Which I then made in to a top. Unfortunately my choice of fabrics as based on a random jelly roll I'd picked up some time before and to tell the truth I'm not madly keen about the colours.

The top consists of four columns of braid and a fairly large quantity  of the border fabric - it seems I always had a taste for large quilts!

I feel bad leaving this top unfinished and I really can't bring myself to bin it, so I am going to finish it and them decide it's fate. At the moment I'm leaning towards donating it to Project Linus or a charity raffle prize but we'll see.  Judging on my past abilities to finish things that decision will be way off in the future!

Finished Fishies

This Dancing Koi wall-hanging has actually been finished (apart from the sewing in of the threads) for a few weeks.  I had been meaning to take a photo of it outdoors on a sunny day but as is often the way I haven't managed that and if I wait for another sunny day it could be weeks more before the fish made an appearance on here.

I really love how this wall-hanging has ended up.  I was going to give it as a gift but now I plan to keep it for my own home.  It also means I now have an excuse to make another one as a gift.

This has really helped me to develop my confidence with FMQ too (not that you can actually see it in the photo below!).

All a little fishy...

Finally managed to attend the Dancing Koi course at Nimble Thimble. I had originally booked to attend this course in January but due to snow it was postponed, kind of ironic waking up to go to the course on Saturday and finding a good couple of inches of snow had appeared overnight.

Unfortunately I didn't take any in progress shots during the class (really must do that one day). But hopefully you can see a little more detail in this photo.

The class was to teach a machine appliqué technique using bondaweb. Only the fish are complete, I still have the wall hanging to put together. I was intending to give this as a gift but I love the fish so much I'm going to keep it for myself. Gives me an excellent excuse to make some more. I want to use this technique again, I think it might make some cool gently used scatter cushions. I'm also keeping an eye out for other suitable subjects for wall hangers using the technique.

And even better this is another one of my 13 in 2013 projects. I'm on a roll!

Totally Hooked

I've been waiting with anticipation for today's course at Nimble Thimble and my patience was paid off royally.  I am now pleased to say that I can crochet...well at least I now know the basics.

I haven't concentrated so intently for so many hours in ages.

I even managed to make this camera shy flower (it looks better in real life).

"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.

Winter Mitts During Autmn Heatwave!

On being told a few weeks ago that during the Debbie Abrahams led fairisle and beadwork knitting class at Nimble Thimble I would be working towards a pair of mittens I thought what a lovely autumnal project that I'll probably be very keen to wear at the end of the day!


I didn't count on the temperature, on Saturday, during the course being 29 degrees centigrade (hotter than any day this summer.


Luckily the high temperatures did not do anything to dampen my enjoyment of the course and they gave me the perfect excuse for an ice cream break!


Debbie Abrahams is a very friendly and enthusiastic teacher; I learnt more than expected during the day and managed to get further throught the mitten than I imagined possible.

This was what I had to show by the end of the session.
Not only have I leant how to incorporate beads into my knitting, to strand and weave the back of fairisle properly, and to keep the whole lot untangled.  I also found out that I have been doing the thumb cast on wrong for the last 20 years - I had wondered why this supposedly stretchy cast on wasn't so stretchy!


I am definitely hooked on beads and colourwork and Debbie's designs, and spent the rest of the weekend poring over the copies of her books which I have had for years trying to figure out what to try next.

Lazy Evening

I know I should be doing something - tidying up before my flat turns into a total pigsty, basting and quilting my cousin's baby's quilt, prepping one of the two other baby quilts I've decided to make, knitting - plenty of stuff to do but I've settled to vegging out on the sofa!  It's not like I haven't done anything all day,  I've been to my local quilt shop and commenced a small quilted sampler.

Nothing overly spectctular but I really enjoyed learning some new skills and want to carry on developing them, busy trying to spot places to use free motion on upcoming projects.  It was mentally exhausting though.  I also managed to set my bank pin number to something I can finally remember, it's only taken four attempts with the bank sending me replacement pin numbers embarassingly often.



A Wonderfully Productive Weekend

After a relatively slow start at the FNSI I have been on a roll this weekend.  The final class for my log cabin quilt at Nimble Thimble saw me trying out my quilting skills for the very first time.  It went ok except my machine doesn't like sewing for long periods of time and the tension goes weird and the stitching on the underside is all loopy.  I only realised this had happened on my quiltonce I had done a fair amount of quilting so first job today was unpicking that.  Still got some to do.

Work in progress

Front

(Where you can just about make out the quilting lines - sorry about the colours,energy saving bulbs and a flat camera battery)

Back

(Look closely at the centre)

I've even managed to put a small dent in Ganny's Xmas quilt, make 16 Xmas muffins and get loads of sleep.  A very productive weekend I'd say.



And The Winner Is...

So another weekend and another Saturday spent sewing at Nimble Thimble.  Session 2 in the Log Cabin course was complete and I finished the central panel of my log cabin quilt.  And the design I eventually chose was...

Somewhat conventional but effective. And with a little persuasion I managed to get all of the seams to match perfectly (as you may be able to see); perhaps my sewing isn't as wonky as I thought.  Next step thin and pieced borders - how to cut 2 and a half inch strips almost 2 metres long?

And on a related note a slight changes in plans regarding the colourway of Ganny's Xmas quilt - rather than red and purple I think I will have to settle for the more conventional red and cream colour combination.

Things Learnt Whilst Sewing

A good day at the Nimble Thimble log cabin workshop and several unexpected things learnt... apart from how to build a log cabin patch...

- Chain piecing isn't as hard as it sounds

- It's not impossible to get new feet for 20 year old sewing machines but it does put paid to the idea of a new, shiny, lighter machine

- Mothers are always right when forecasting the health of previously mentioned ancient sewing machine