24 January 2005

Off to a new project:

using 100% cotton fabric, all from IKEA, I will make a baby quilt for my second daughter (not that first daughter's bedspread is anywhere near finished but she will not need it until she is much older whereas this one is meant for playing on so will be used now).

I'm using a floral on cream pattern together with vivid stripes for the border and fabric from old bed linen as the backing (detecting a pattern here? bed linen?). There will be no patchworking in this project, just quilting along the pattern using a light blue yarn. The assembly will be done using my trusted Janome because I cannot be asked to sew so many straight lines.

I'm really excited about this project as I love the vivid colours of the fabric. Will add pictures as soon as poss.

20 January 2005

It's finished!

Yay, late THU night I finished my first all hand-made quilt. I will post a picture as soon as I can download the software needed for this (my usual laptop being sweeped for a virus so maybe I should stop the downloading but anyway ...).

It is a table cloth made entirely of Makower cotton fabrics, hand pieced over paper using 100% cotton Gütermann yarn and then hand-quilted using 100% cotton Gütermann quilting yarn. I am mighty pleased with myself and so is hubby.

19 January 2005

Oh, the addiction!

My new drug: not books, not CDs, no, fabric! I am currently into buying bed linen as it is much cheaper than "proper" patchwork fabrics and usually 100% cotton. Now I'll have to pray that hubby doesn't find my stash. I may therefore have to alter my list of un-started projects but time will tell.

Next job is to find out about flame-retardant wadding/batting. The one I saw yesterday goes up in flames in a literal instant. Not suitable for a baby blankie ... sigh! Plus it could be fluffier.

13 January 2005

Show Time ;-)

This is my first quilt, well, the first top I ever did. It's a sampler made entirely of 9 and 12 patch blocks in cotton fabric, solid yellow, blue check and red check (do I need to point out that the red fabric *bleeds*, argh?).

It will be a 1m * 2m bed spread for my elder daughter.



Edited to add: I will re-attempt to hand-quilt this monster, purely because I was hoping to receive wadding in the post but didn't which means I cannot start a new project but must finish an old one. Thankfully I went out the other week and got myself some sunshine yellow quilting yarn. So maybe it will be a joyous experience.

11 January 2005

My confession of the day:

... the number of unfinished - no, unstarted! - projects!

(1) all white fabric, samples from my FIL's job as a sales representative, to be turned into a star quilt, all machined probably.
(2) jungle animals and grass pattern to be turned into a baby quilt
(3) a selection of jewel design and colour fabrics to be turned into a lap quilt
(4) IKEA fabric to be turned into a baby quilt
(5) a finished top 1m by 2m of sample blocks to be turned into a bed spread
(6) a ton of men's shirts, all in different blues and different or no patterns
(7) a selection of Noah's Arc design fabrics to be turned into a baby quilt.
(8) a set of bed linen with blue-green stripes and matching floral design to be turned into a quilted-only quilt
(9) a set of bed linen with pink and red stripes and matching floral design to be turned into a quilted-only quilt

(Maybe I should start recruiting god-children in order to find owners for my quilts ...)

I thought I needed to start logging my projects

... so here you go:

I am currently finishing my first all-hand-made quilt. It is a "delectable mountain" with extensive hand quilting, all in Christmas-sy colours. I said I'd finish it for Christmas when I started it in early 2004. And I will finish it for Christmas - question is: which one. I dread washing this quilt as I have made the very stupid mistake of not washing the fabric before paper-piecing them. As I am using a dark red Makower fabric which bleeds excessively, this may also be my first ruined project.

I'll post a photo after I've finished the quilting and before the washing. Meanwhile I'm praying to the Laundry God that glo care's fabric protector sheets will protect my handiwork from bleeds.

Sigh.