A Quilt for Elsie.

I did manage to get Elsie's quilt finished and it was delivered yesterday. It is the first rag quilt I have made and I have to say I am pleased with the results. Although it took ages to clip all the exposed seams it frayed to a lovely soft finish. I will certainly be making more quilts like this - I think they would make lovely Linus quilts.

Here is a closer photo - click on it for a larger image.

And here I am with Elsie my new great - neice!

Quilting Under Pressure.

I always seem to leave things until the last minute and here I am again under pressure to get a quilt finished for tomorrow. It is a baby quilt for my new great-neice Elsie who was born in June. Tomorrow I am going to the Festival Of Quilts in Birmingham and in the evening we are going to visit Elsie who lives near Rugby.

After finding a pile of flannel scraps in my stash a few months ago I decided to have a go at a rag quilt. This is one of those quilts with the exposed frayed seams. I don't really like the term rag quilt so I am calling mine a snuggle or cuddle quilt.

I have put together 25 10 inch squares from the scraps and taken a photo of the results. I am quite pleased with the effect. I also really like the fabric - the animals are really great and I am sure that Elsie will enjoy looking at them all when she gets a bit older.


So why am I even writing this when I should be putting this quilt together NOW. Well at just after 11pm last night I ran out of washed flannel for the backing and batting squares so I had to wash some more and it is now on the washing line in the garden. I vastly underestimated how much fabric I needed but luckily I have two large pieces of baby flannel in my stash which I bought very cheaply at the Shuttle in Bradford.

When I get it finished I will take more photos and show you the finished result but it may not be for a couple of days as we are off to Birmingham in the morning.

I had intended to boycott the FOQ this year due to the problems I had with them losing my entry last year but you know the old saying 'don't cut your nose off to spite your face!' I am going because there is lots I want to see - the C&G students work, Ferret's exhibition, long arm quilters, and I think there might be a few traders there........

Maverick Stars quilt top completed.

This was finished a few days ago but no time to post as we have been away at two very wet car rallies this weekend. After being promised a lovely summer by the weather people July has been a very wet month particularly the weekends. There have been record sales of camping equipment this year with the credit crunch but after the last couple of weeks I suspect some of it has ended up in the wheelie bin or at the charity shop!
Anyway, back to the quilt! I finished it with a random border which I always wanted to try plus its a great way to use up leftover scraps. Also I think using the three fabrics in the border help to finish the quilt off properly and balance the different fabrics.

Here are closer views of a corner.

The plan now is to use this top as a practise piece for machine quilting - I want to try some different techniques and experiment with echo quilting.
Over the weekend I have done some stitchery for a birthday block and a Noah's Ark block which I hope to be able to show soon.

Next border on Maverick Stars Quilt

This morning I completed the next border on Maverick Stars. I have used the same zig zag border that I used on the Laura Ashley quilt. I really like the framing effect of this border but of course you do need to get your measurements correct to get the triangles to fit.

Here is a closer view of the corner. One of the things that stands out to me is the randomness of the stripes on the white zig zags. At one time I would have hated this and tried to get the stripes to match but now I think it adds to the scrappiness and the design as a whole.
I do want to look into working with stripes more as this accounts for most of the recycled shirts that I love to use!

There will only be one more border which will be scrappy bricks in the blue fabrics. I hope that this will frame the quilt nicely and help to use up all the bits of blue I have left over. I have decided that there is enough black and white spot fabric in the quilt now.

I took this photo a couple of days ago. Most of my sons' clothing is black and this shows what happens if you wash a couple of hundred red charm squares in with your dark wash!

Maverick Stars Quilt

This quilt was started in February this year and is another that was abandoned, partly due to time and partly due to being undecided about the next border.
I was really pleased with it when I first made it so I do really want to get it to the quilting stage as it will be great for practising my machine quilting and also it will make a great quilt for a child. It would be lovely to have some quilts 'in hand' for when a gift is needed.

The stars are a Bonnie Hunter design from quiltville.com, they are made from a selection of 2 inch squares.

This was where I had got to in February and stopped. This was 25 inches square. First I decided I wanted a rectangular quilt not a square.

So I have added sections to each end, this now measures approx 25 x 33 inches. Next border coming soon! Luckily I have found all the fabrics I was using!

Birthday Block Swap - May Blocks

May was 'my' month in this swap and I thought I would share photos of the blocks I have received.
My theme was black and white log cabin with red centres. I did not give any instructions about the sizes of logs or centres because I wanted the scrappy effect.
There are 12 of us in the group so I was expecting 11 blocks. So far I have received 9, although one lady made two and one block was made for me by Sue who was in a different group from me. 4 members of the group have not sent a block although 2 have been in touch to say that they are still intending to make my block.

I really love the blocks I have received - the advantage of swapping is that you get a much scrappier effect than you could just using your own fabrics (unless you had a mega stash!). What I have decided to do is to use 8 of the blocks as the central panel of the quilt and then add more panels to the sides. The first will be flying geese. I think this could make a really attractive quilt.

Here are some close up photos.

The block I have left over will be made into a cushion for DS2's girlfriend for her birthday next week.

Noahs Ark BOM

A few months ago I started Lynette Anderson's Noahs Ark free Block of the Month. I completed three blocks which can be viewed in previous posts and then had to put them to one side when I was doing my C&G pieces. Anyway they have come out again this week as part of the 'Free Summer of Quilting' and 'Finish Up Project'. There are a couple of blocks I am going to leave out and one I have changed but I am now on track to get this done.
When I looked in the bag I found that this lion block had been completed but never posted. I really enjoyed stitching this and I love the lioness with the heart on her chest!

When I showed these blocks to my friends on the City & Guilds course Anthea was really taken with them and has decided to make them as one of her summer projects. So we have challenged each other to get this completed by September and I promised I would post my progress on my blog!
While I am on the subject of Anthea, she does not have a blog (Yet!) but she is a follower of this one, so I am taking the liberty of showing two of her pieces which were on show in our end of year exhibition. She is a very talented and creative quilter and if you want to comment, feel free because she will read this!

This is Anthea's kite quilt - all the fabrics were dyed by her and she came up with this lovely way of grading the colours in her flying geese.

Her fish cushion is all hand stitched with clam shells, Anthea loves hand stitching and applique and I think her creativity really shines through in this piece.