Saturday 30 March 2013

Arran's Quilt

All packed up, ready to be given to Arran. My first patchwork quilt! I hope he likes it as much as I've enjoyed making it. :)

Thursday 28 March 2013

Burp Cloths

I saw some hand towels on sale in the department store in Blyth and tried making some little burp cloths. What do you think? Some of the fabric is used in the summer baby's quilt so it coordinates nicely.

I'm going to go back and buy some more towels today in various colours...

Monday 25 March 2013

Dillan's Quilt

Now in the final stages of making Dillan's quilt. See how it grows!

Friday 22 March 2013

Guest post

I wrote a guest post about quilting on my good friend Hannah's blog (she's lovely) - pop over to http://www.makedoandpush.co.uk/ to read it :)

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Bunny tin

Bunny tin from M&S as part of their Easter range...comes with chocolate eggs in. When you've munched them (in about three minutes if you're like me), it's the perfect size for bobbins. I like to thread about ten at a time and this stops them getting all tangled up. And who doesn't love a bunny rabbit?

Friday 15 March 2013

Just Quilting

I love this shop. It may not look much from the outside but it inside it is a fabric lovers dream. Walls full of bolts of fabric, all the accessories you could need, huge tables, helpful staff. Can't ask for more, really!

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Today's bundle from Just Quilting

Cotton wadding, wool wadding, FQs, half metre fabrics, twin needles, square ruler for mum...... It's hard to go in and not buy everything in the shop!

Monday 11 March 2013

Bias Binding

I made my own bias binding, something that for some reason has always frightened me. Well, no more! I even joined all my strips with diagonal seams (oh yes) to ensure that when attaching to the quilt there weren't so many layers for the needle to go through. I'll link in the tutorial I used later - I'm currently writing this on my phone on the bus to work.

I used the blue transport fabric (see earlier post) in a single fold of 3" strips as calculated by the lovely lady at Just Quilting which worked like a charm. I know that 3" is larger than normal but having used it now, I think I might struggle using anything smaller. I stayed up late last night attaching the binding to the front, the only thing left to do is fold and pin it to the back! It's almost finished.....

I have neck strain from sitting at my machine all weekend. :(

Janome Ditch Quilting Foot

On Friday I popped into John Lewis and bought myself the Janome Ditch Quilting foot (aka Stitch-in-the-ditch foot) for £13. As you can see from the picture, it has a handy black plastic guide which enables the user to easily see where their stitches are going.  I used stitch width 3.5 and stitch length 2.4 which I tested beforehand to make sure it was suitable for all those layers. It took a fair bit of adjusting the tension (and me interpreting the pictures in the user manual wrongly!) fo me to get it right. However, once on it worked a charm and made the job of sewing over the square seams so much easier. I'm going to buy one for my mum!

(Janome DC3050 is a Cat B machine and uses snap-on feet.)

Friday 8 March 2013

Bobbin lamp

The window of Next...all these lamps are gorgeous, mind!

Arran's Quilt - Update

So I finally finished the patchwork top layer for Arran's quilt last night. It's close enough to the recommended 54"x90" for a single bed that I've been aiming for. I was over an hour late going to see the boyfriend play his pool match as I "just had a little bit more to do" and wanted to get this part done before the weekend when I plan on wrestling with the wadding.

I've ordered a few more sewing machine feet - the "darning foot - open toe". I think this is the right one for free motion embroidery. I must look up what needle to use. When I popped into Just Quilting yesterday (see previous post) the lady gave me lots of advice about the best way to bind and make a mitred edge for a neat finish. They are having a free-motion demonstration drop-in session next Saturday but I will be away at a wedding. I'll be going to the next one whenever it may be! The lady also very kindly gave me some wadding remnants to practice on. That's my weekend sorted!

Binding fabric

How cute are these?! Bought them from Just Quilting in Camperdown, which has sooo many lovely fabrics. The lady gave me lots of helpful advice too - I can see me becoming a regular.

Monday 4 March 2013

Arran's quilt so far...

Those are my fingers holding it as high up as I can in the top corners...

Eeek, it grows so quickly. 

I'm going to visit a shop close to where I work tomorrow that should hopefully have some non-polyester wadding for me to complete this and begin the "machine doodling" that I'm really looking forward to.  Failing that, it looks like a stop off trip in London on my way down for a wedding in Sussex next weekend.  It seems odd that non-polyester wadding just isn't available in Newcastle but hey-ho.  


Now to carry on sewing strips to make this wider....

Fabric fabric fabric

Yet another fabric parcel came today in the post for me. It really is the highlight of going to work. I should've taken photos of all the parcels last week too, haha. I am in love with these cute fabrics.

Arran's quilt is coming along nicely, it's now taller than me and almost finished length wise, just needs to be a bit wider. I've started cutting out the squares to make Dillan's, the trickiest bit is making a red quilt not have too much white on it, so it doesn't look like a Sunderland shirt.......