Feeling the fear and doing it anyway...

...or maybe a more accurate title would be "Having to quilt the quilt on my frame because the central heating engineer needs space to work!".

The Sparkle Punch Quilt was attached to my quilting frame in late March.

In the normal course of things I would have started quilting it shortly after but whilst setting it up I found that, due to being clever when purchasing the fabric and the forgetting that I had been clever, the backing fabric was too short for the quilt. Loading up the frame had been quite an effort so I wasn't massively keen on starting again having bought new backing, likewise the alternative of makinvbthd top shorter also didn't fill me with joy.

This dilemma took me ages to resolve.

Eventually I decided that the better of the two options was to buy a new backing, which actually was quite easy to swap onto the frame. I actuallynalso prefer this second backing and I know the recipient does too.

A couple more weeks of procrastination passed, I enjoy using me frame and once I get going all is fine but this is a big quilt and the machine a use tends to play up a bit in the early stages requiring unpacking.

Eventually confirming that our central heating replacement was going to take place at the end of July spurred me into action as th frame takesmip a lot of space and would make lifting floorboards in the room tricky.

After all my procrastination the quilting went well, no unpicking required.  I also tried out glide thread which had been recommended in various places and it was brilliant and didn't break once. My free motion quilting it still a big wonky but overall I'm pleased with the effect and am thrilled that this quilt that's been on the go on and off since 2013 is almost finished.

A bit of this and that

A very productive Friday night, for once I didn't fall asleep while knitting ( I have actually knitted while asleep - not a great success). Unfortunately two of the items I worked on are to be gifts, so there are some obscure photos coming up.

Firstly I finally got the quilting done on what I'd planned to be a quick project.

I've used my "in the ditch" foot for the first time and it seems to have worked. (Bought it as I'm not great at following lines, then when looking for something else I found that I'd had one all the time I've had the machine). I also basted the quilt within an inch of its life, so hopefully no pleats.

I also machined the binding, hand stitching awaits.

Another block of the Sparkle Punch Quilt was constructed; another seven to go. This quilt is still really pleasing to put together and thanks to some inspiration from an upcoming baby quilt I now know how I want to quilt this (I think!).

And finally I even managed a bit of knitting while catching up with last week's TV.

Quilting with rulers

A couple of years ago (at least) I treated myself to a Westerlee arc ruler and associated foot with the intention of using it on my quilts. 

Unfortunately the intention never became reality, I wasn't brave enough to try the ruler and was even considering getting rid of it. Then I saw some posts by Sue Moore (Sue's Stitch by Stitch) who is an accredited Westerlee tutor, so I bit the bullet and booked a course.

And I'm really glad I did. The ruler does take a bit of brain power to use but it's not impossible and I quickly learnt how to do some very pleasing quilting.

From this...

...which was useful for both learning the technique and setting my machine up.

Via this...

...to this...

All done using the one ruler and foot during a five hour course. I now need to continue practicing but there is no question of getting rid of the ruler, in fact I think I'll be buying more.

Getting my festive on

Obviously it's the time of year for Xmas decorations.  Whilst digging out my tree and baubles I discovered a table runner which I finished last year but forgot to blog about.

It's made from a Christmassy charm pack using the Santa's Cookie Mat design from Ruby Blue Quilting Studio.  Good fun, a little fiddly, but definitely a design I'll use again.

I think I used a heat proof wadding but have never actually put anything hot on it. I did a swirly free motion quilting pattern and used different colour threads top and bottom.

Really love how this worked out.

This may take some time...

Its a little difficult to see thanks to my sister's ability to match the sewing threads perfectly to the fabric, but I have started the hand quilting on the rainbow quilt.  Not doing anything fancy just a single line of stitching in each round following the chalk lines, I don't want to detract from the hexagons themselves.  As this is meat to be a curling up on the sofa quilt (even though it is huge) I'm going against the "rules" of quilting and not including any batting just the quilt top and a thinnish fleece blanket banking.  Hopefully it'll work okay else I could be undoing a lot of stitching!

"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.

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.