Pins, pins and more pins!

I'm preparing for 9 or 10 days of relative peace and quiet, with both hubby and the girls away for 7 or more days ...

... and that means good progress on the HST Neptune, disguised as test-driving my new cordless iron ...


... so that I can move onto the Night on the Tiles.

Auditioning the backing for a Night on the Tiles

I admit that I have been stalling ... again. The main reason is that I wasn't happy with the backing I had planned earlier.



While it is nice in its simplicity and "drama", I don't think it goes at all with the front or the planned quilting. But I didn't know how to remedy the situation ... that is until I realised that I had well over 5 yards of Victorian-esque cream coloured from an online shopping spree about 18 months ago. And as you can see in the top image, it goes well with the rest of the quilt. I don't mind that it is darker than the front. And I am hoping that a simple backing will show off the hand quilting to (relative) perfection.

Now, will I get it done in time for this year's quilt retreat? I'm not too sure about that!

HST Neptune top assembled

Now I need to work on the wadding which will be scrappy. All in all, things are moving along nicely here ...

Stalling .... and assembling

So much for the July deadling ... but at least I am enjoying making progress somewhere!

A bowl of HST: you want process, you get process

It all started out with a stack of charms from Tula Pink's Neptune range, that I didn't really know what to do with. Since I really don't have any other projects planed - ahem - and I saw lots of quilters making lots of lovely HST quilts, I thought I'd just give it a whirl.

And so the process began ... with me wanting the triangles to gradually chance colour from bottom left to top right and thinking at a white stripe, achieved with a change of direction of the triangles, would add a nice break.



... and maybe a red stripe



... nope, didn't like it ... add some blue maybe ...



again, no.



I might even drop the white stripe altogether ...

Kids Project: Butterfly lanterns

Check out this great lantern tutorial by Jan of Bemused - click on image to be taken to it. That's definitely something I will make with my girls this summer!

The Pink Zig - finished top

Done - good fun to make and soon off to its new owner, born this Tuesday in Southern Germany.

Ongoing Projects - what to do next!?

This is a picture I took in mid March showing clock-wise from the top left:
1) Bassetti Quilt - since untouched
2) In the Pink - done
3) Computer Music quilt - done
4) Quilt for my daughter - since untouched
5) Caroline's Objects - done
6) another crocheting project - awaiting frogging of another project for more material
7) napkins and coasters for Sandra - done
8) The Pink Zig - almost finished
as well as hanging over the banister in the top right side of the photo: Night on the Tiles - since untouched.

I have since added a HST project in Tula Pink's Neptune fabric ...

So in order to not lose track, this is my grand plan in the run-up to my quilt retreat (why a grand plan, you ask? Because I started working on Night on the Tiles two years ago and this time, I want to finally present the finished article).

1) Finish the Pink Zig
2) Fiddle with HST Neptune a bit longer
3) Move to Night on the Tiles so that by late July I can start with the hand-quilting. Why I think this is such a great idea in this scorcher of a summer, I don't know. But I remain determined!

Postponed:
- Bassetti Quilt - since untouched
- Quilt for my daughter - since untouched
- another crocheting project - awaiting frogging of another project for more material

Pink Zig is almost finished!

The binding has gone on ... more photo documentary to follow on this. I have taken a shine to machining binding on, very quick and I am getting quite good at it.

Now I only need to tie up loose ends and this one's finished too.

Finished table runner

I'm making good progress on a number of smaller projects and this is one of them. The table runner is for my best friend and it matches the tray as well as her oil cloth and patio chair cushions.

I hope she'll like it.

As for a "critique": After much fretting and indecisiveness, I tried to go for a buzzing bee sort of look, which IMO looks fine on the front. The back's another story because of the contrasting thread and no logical explanation for where the stitches are. Next time I'll use a complementary colour.

The binding caused some worry too because I thought I have skimped too much by only allowing 1cm (3/8 inch) of width. But I think it looks nice and I am getting much better at simply machining it on.

V&A: Quilts: 1700 - 2010

I've just got back from my trip to England, mostly for work, but I managed to sneak in lunch with my dear friend Caroline (new owner of Caroline's Objects) as well as a visit to the Quilt Exhibit at the V&A.

The Victoria & Albert Museum is the largest museum of Art & Design in the world and absolutely stunning. If you're ever in London, do visit.

The exhibition showed a great variety of works, grouped by themes like expression of opinion and thought or making money. The themes allowed for different perspectives on quilting and the resulting pieces as well as making me reflect why I personally quilt.

Obviously, the exhibition was heaving with quilters, commenting and critiqueing, and the odd son attempting to discuss exhibits with his mum, poor fellow having to listen to her shooting down his every attempt to engage with the material on show and his stroppy companion.

There were several works I enjoyed best, especially one called "Punctuation" by Sara Impey. Read more on her by going to Quiltart.org.uk/SaraImpey. Also very interesting were the two works by Jo Budd called Male/Winter and Female/Summer.

Another thing I took away from the show is that nobody cares 150 years on whether your corners line up. Also: not all of the hand quilting was up to scratch. This may have had to do with bad lighting ... and is oddly comforting. I will never rip out hand quilting again because the stitches are not-small-enough or too-wonky.

Obviously, I paid a visit to the museum shop (not that I could avoid it, upon exiting the quilt show, you are automatically led into the shop) and came away with a small loot, mainly Liberty Art designed fabric:



If you want some of that goodness for yourself, simply go to the museum online shop.

If you like to read more about the exhibit, go to Sneaky Magpie's website. I don't know why she was allowed to take photos ... but then it was a relief to not have to worry about that and just enjoy the works.