The good, the bad, and the plain ugly

The good.

I noticed a lot of bloggers showing us some favourite Christmas decorations so I thought I'd join in.

This is my all time favourite because it was made by my DD, SIL and two of the grandkids in 2007. One of the grandkids was only two at the time. It has very special meaning for me and It reminds me what Christmas is all about on so many levels.  Note the sheep!

Another goodie, this parcel arrived last week. I love these dots. In fact there aren't many dots I don't like but these have a retro feel and will go with thirties fabrics as well as the brighter designer lines. It's Kai Honeycomb and I got it from here.

I decided I'd better get onto quilting the cot quilt for my grandson before he gets too big for the baby hammock and goes into a cot. You might remember this one from earlier this year. I got a bit lazy and decided I would machine quilt it in a simple way. Since it's small, why not use basting spray?

I lightly starched the backing and pinned it to the mat in the sewing room. Placed newspaper around the perimeter to catch the overspray and opened up the doors for ventilation.

So far so good, I'm using a beautiful wool batt, Tuscany by Hobbs. It's so soft and luxurious.

The bad.

I merrily quilted some loop de loops over the majority of the quilt. All the time, I'm thinking how puffy the wool looks and I prefer the look of cotton. I carry on because this baby will need the warmth in cold New Zealand in winter.

About 3/4 of the way through, I look on the back and notice some bad tension problems that weren't occuring at the beginning. I'm too ashamed to show that part but I really hate the puffy look on the front.

The ugly

I can live with some things that aren't exactly what I'd like but this was just too yucky and embarrasing for me to pass it on as a gift so I decided I would have to bite the bullet and unpick it. One evening of unpicking and I'm over half way there to getting this back to the starting point.

I't's been another valuable learning experience and now I'll hand quilt this using perle cotton in a big stitch, it should go fairly quickly. The hard part is that it's pretty hot weather here so sitting with wool might get a little uncomfortable.

A cot quilt and a cushion.

I really wish I had bought some more applique to do on my trip but I didn't plan to be here so long. I'll have to settle with showing you DD's 2nd quilt. She made this out of small leftover strips of Japanese fabrics in my scrap bin on one of her visits to me. Wonky stars crib quilt a la Gwen Marston, aren't they great?You can see I showed her how to do the big stitch quilting with perle cotton which is ideal for beginners that don't have a lot of time or have the skills yet to machine or hand quilt.
Unfortunately, the bright pink perle cotton bled a little so be aware and plan for the washing with dye catchers if you use the cotton.

I've taken the opportunity to wash a few cushion covers and quilts while here and this bolster cushion I made for one of the grandchildren needed new ribbons.

I quite enjoyed the stitchery on this but I'm sorry, I just can't recall the name of the book I used.

Two fabulous giveaways to tell you about that maybe you have already entered. Kellie from Don't look now has a quilt that she's giving away that will knock your socks off.Rush over to Lekaquilt to be in with a chance to win an adorable pouch, she has five to give away and you have until September 9th.

Thank you so very much for all the warm and wonderful best wishes for the new baby in our family. It really is appreciated. As yet he still doesn't have a name.

The week that was

At last I have a taa-daah moment to share. I finally finished the hand quilting on this reproduction style crib quilt I first posted about here. I don't do a lot of hand quilting in the summer months but this was picked up from time to time. I always like to have a hand quilted project at the ready.

My favourite part was doing the quilting inside the leaves, I love the effect, but I'll think twice about doing double lines again for the background.

The quilt measures 38.5" square and has 100% cotton batting.

So now that the weather is colder at night, I can go back to this old thing again. Yes I'm talking about the DWR. These corner blocks are a bit of a bear to quilt.

I did do my nine patches for Christine's nine patch swap so that got crossed off the list.

And really do I need yet another pincushion? No, but I made one anyway. This has silica sand in it so it can sit on the arm of my chair without getting knocked off as it's so weighty.

There's a softie on my list for this coming week, some more hand quilting and blocks to piece. I think I can handle that!

The week before Christmas

Last weekend we had DH's kids over for afternoon tea and that called for some baking. We enjoyed some lovely summer fruits, pikelets with jam and cream and these pecan brownies, I got the recipe here. For the Aussies, for 3/4 cup shortening I used 170 gm's butter. The leftovers freeze very well.Now don't be horrified when you see the photo below. Yes I've cut out the back of the appliques on my crib quilt. I know the stories as often told, if you cut out the back, it won't be strong and if it gets worn, it won't be easy to repair. Or this one, "they never did it on the antique quilts." I don't cut out the backs of the applique on my bed quilts and it makes it hard to quilt within the applique. But this is not something that's going to get used and I wanted to make it easy on myself. So It's all basted up now. I'd be interested to know what you do, cut out or not? Are the quilt police going to come and get me? And here's a thought, are the applique stitches more secure than hand piecing stitches in a quilt since they're smaller?

I'll probably do my last post before Christmas tomorrow, until then, have a good day.

Applique and Stitcheries

I was inspired to make a crib size quilt after purchasing Gwen Marston's book on four block quilts and then I saw that Lucy had the same idea so I cut some shapes from freezer paper and placed them by eye and made it up as I went. It was a lot of fun and quite freeing not to follow a pattern. I won't be quilting this one until next year.

To answer the questions on my double wedding ring quilt, I don't usually design my own quilts, originally I wanted to make a double wedding ring and used perspex templates and machine pieced in the watercolour style. Well I got bored looking at it and put it away, as you do. Then I had the idea to spark it up using an applique border and was inspired to draw up one similar to the above quilt by Kathy Nakajima which was on the cover of a quilters newsletter magazine. This was before the pattern was available so I had to draw it out on paper to suit the rings. Of course I had to buy the pattern when it did become available.

Needle turned applique is a real love of mine and I have started to make quilts in the red and green colourway which may become a theme for a series, more of those later. I'll have to show some finished quilts or you might think I only do ufo's.

This is what I took to my sewing group last night, we meet in each others homes every Tuesday night and there are eight of us in the group. I don't work on this too often but it's a good take-along project, so I don't care if it takes a long time to do.

Come to think of it, I have a lot of these types of ufo's which is why I probably justify starting new projects.

When I was young, my mother said I shouldn't start anything new until I had finished the last thing so I think I missed out on the fun of making and creating. I'm in my rebellious period now! My mother also said a hobby should be one that earns you money so that it pays for itself, I guess that's to do with the period she grew up in.

There are 9 blocks in the quilt and the pattern is from Cinderberry Stitches. As you can see I'm doing it in girly girly fabrics and so it will probably end up in one of the grandaughter's hands.

Thank you all so much for the warm and welcoming comments, I really appreciate them, I hope I answered some questions for you.

Janet