A new quilt is on my bed

Large stipple over the main blocks

Well finally last night I finished the quilt. This was a long time in the making as it languished under my desk for almost a year. Does that happen to you? You almost finish and then for some reason get disillusioned or dissatisfied with it.

But now I am in love love with it. The pattern is so easy to do and when I did it I put a pile of tips on my blog - check out here how easy it is.

I link up to Finish it up Friday - over at Crazy Mum quilts. I love it because it pushes me to finish things. Well I had hoped to link this up as a finish last friday but in my late night haste some things went wrong!!!

The gorgeous scalloped free motion quilting

I quilted this quilt over two nights - till about midnight. The main quilt I just did a very large stipple pattern. But my "piece de resistance", for which I am so proud, is the gorgeous scallop which I free-motion quilted around the edge. I am so so happy with it and it turned out so much better than I hoped. I have been trying not to do the same stipple on everything. But more intense quilting takes so much more time.

Anyway the disaster was the binding. I had 0.5 metre of one of the matching materials to use as binding. BUT it was not enough. I cut it all so I had the right amount of length but that left the
binding too skinny (unless I went for a single layer - which I nearly did - but if you do not double over your binding then it wears really badly and frays quickly). So a big rethink and in the end the only fabric I had that was at all suitable was a $6 per metre sale piece from Quilters Quarters in Rangiora.

I link to some of these places

Resurrecting the Quilt

I stopped doing this quilt over a year ago. I had initially thought it finished. But when I put it on my bed I realised it was too small. I wanted a quilt that hung over the edge, not a bed topper. I made an edge of one white row, patterned squares and then another white row. I was seriously unhappy with that, it still wasn't big enough and so I parked it.

What was also in the mix was that I totally ran out of material to make it any bigger. Then the middle of last year I found some of the material line at the online shop Sew Pretty. (now you can go to The Make Cafe if you are in town - fab!). I still sat on it.

Finally yesterday I was watching the worst movie ever with Aaron, what a waste of 2 hours of my time. So I pulled out the quilt and the ironing board and cut material. I was going to unpick the entire border I had put on but today I have sewn a new edging on and it is looking more finished. And it is looking the right size. So now it is actually a finished top. Just the quilting to do (and that will be no mean feat as it is a huge quilt!!).

I link to these places

A finished quilt

Yes in the weekend I managed to finally get a quilt sandwiched together, quilted and bound. The pattern is one from Cluck Cluck Sew -I have made a tutorial how I assembled the blocks that made it more straightforward and a lot quicker for me.

I made this quilt out of the leftovers from a quilt I made for our bed - here. This quilt will be for the charity that I support - Hope Homes - an amazing orphanage in Kenya.

I was using this as a trial for quilting as I am a bit daunted over quilting the queen size one for our bed. I was going to be really fancy with flowers etc in each block, but stipple quilting is fast and opening the stipple up and making it really big worked for me on this. I am really pleased with the result. Next job - do our big one.

Tips on making the double hourglass quilt

As I have said in some other posts I have a few tips on making the double hourglass quilt, listed by Alison at Cluck Cluck Sew. Refer to her easy to understand instructions but add a few of these tips and you will have a double hourglass quilt of your own, whipped up in a jiffy.
1. It's all about the ironing. 

a.When sewing the initial coloured strips and solid colour together press the seam to the patterned material.

b. Before opening each sewn triangle press the seam in the closed position first. This will set the seam and stop the stretch and buckle happening that can occur when dealing with seams on the bias.

c. When opening the first set of triangles sewn together (after setting the seam in the closed position), press the seam toward the triangle that has the print material.

All of these items will ensure that when you sew blocks together and / or assemble the triangles that the seams will all be in opposite directions so that they butt up closely and form really sharp corners.

2. Use the square rulers you have available
Alison's instructions regarding how to get your quilt triangles the correct size do work well. But I found that I could not cut the material off the template plastic, so had to put my ruler over it to have an edge, then it gets messy.

For using a Jelly roll - 2 1/2" strips I used my 6.5" ruler. The 45deg angle line is aligned to be straight with the bottom of the fabric and then you cut. Just like that.
For a Jolly roll - 1.5" strips I used my 4.5"ruler.

3. Chain piece
It will make the quilt sew a lot faster than getting up and ironing after every small seam.

4. Concentrate on each individual seam as it goes under your presser foot.
Make sure the seam is aligned and butting up. If you have to use pins then put one through each join. If you are confident without them just check each one as it goes through.

Have fun.

Double Hourglass Quilt - Finally finished!!

Well I said about 6 weeks ago that I could not make a quilt in a week and I was right!!. Since then this is all I have worked on. On Mothers Day I did a last ditch clean up of my overflowing craft stuff. Completed all my mending and cut and sewed the last strip on this quilt.
I still felt it was not big enough for the bed (Aaron agreed!!!). But I am over it and it will have to do. It is more of a summer quilt anyway so does not have to cover so much. It is also going to be very hard to quilt as it is soooo big.
Aaron immediately got under it to test try and then we discussed how to quilt it. So that is now the quandry, a good quandry to have.

This quilt and the method came from Cluck Cluck Sew. Though I have quite a few tips re ironing that makes the assembly of the blocks easier. I also tried to make the template occording to her directions but in the end the good old 6.5" square board does the trick.
So with the left overs I am going to make a little quilt for the charity I support, so will take photos and put up my tips later.

Don't make foolish statements

Last Thursday my patchwork and quilting buddies Sheryl, Paula, Kylie and Steff meet for our weekly sewing night. During the night I was started my series on how to use pre cut packs. I have started focusing on Jelly Rolls. I demonstrated how to make fast and easy double hourglass squares. I then said that it was so good and so easy that I might have a quilt top completed by this week. Oh foolish me!!! I have NEVER EVER made a patchwork top in a week. It is starting to look like I never will!!! I still have washing to do, bathroom to clean etc etc and our get together is tomorrow.

Morris insisted on staying on my sewing 

Here is a quick peek at what I am doing.
The pattern is taken from Cluck Cluck Sew (a blog that I follow). I do tackle the cutting a bit differently from her as I have worked out how to use my 6.5" square ruler instead of using the template she describes as needing. Makes it to be nice and fast for cutting. I am always on the lookout for faster, easier ways to do things.

This has a little bit of my upcycling, recycling ethos - the white fabric is a 100% cotton sheet bought from the Op Shop. It is one in very good condition and so easy to use.