Wednesday 24 April 2013

Quilting Round in Circles

Hi all :)

A little while back I asked for thoughts RE quilting this baby:


People suggested lots of great ideas, but I was still quite stuck! Finally I decided to go a bit out of the box - and quilt it in circles. Yup, circles. So with the help of a side plate and a vase I mimicked the pattern in the mushrooms-in-circles pattern. Ta-da!



I practised free motioning circles to see if that would work but although my skills are definitely improving - I reckon I can manage a passable free motion squiggle now - my circles weren't up to scratch, so I used my normal machine foot. And it was really good fun!


My stitch lengths aren't the most consistent thing in the world, but (a) they're pretty good and (b) I'm pretty sure the baby won't notice. The only downside about this style of quilting was the amount of knots I had to hand-tie and bury. It took ages! Lots of time crawling round on my hands and knees tying them and then trying to bury them securely. I think it was worth it, although I might not be in a rush to do it again.

The best thing about the quilting is how cool it makes the back look:


It really adds some interest to the otherwise plain green back :)

It shouldn't be too long now till I'm showing you the completed quilt, woop woop!


I'm linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday.

Friday 5 April 2013

A Confession

Hi everyone! Hope you're enjoying your April. I'm loving the sun now that we've had our hour change. Shame it's still so cold, but I'll make the most of what we've got :)

I haven't been doing a lot of sewing recently. And I'm afraid I have a confession to make - I've been cheating on quilt blogs. Shocking, I know. You see, I've fallen rather head-over-heels in love with a blog called I Heart Organising. It's so beautiful! So my mind has been buzzing with ideas of how to organise our home and make things pretty. Not much has been implemented yet, but lots is going on in my head. We'll see how it goes!

In the meantime though, while I was on holiday with my church my lovely friend Jenny taught us to make felt animals:
 

And I've been making a few more Christmas blocks:


So I haven't completely given up on the needle and thread yet :) See you soon!