Sherbert Pips - AKA The Experiment...Ta Dah!...

Sherbet Pips...AKA The Experiment (because I experimented with chopping the corners of a Sherbet Pips by Aneela Hoey layer cake to make big hexies and machined them together)...that was started so long ago I don't even remember...but a trip back through 15 years of blog posts (this one and the original Wordpress one just in case) has turned up two posts...one from 23 July 2011 when I sewed the rows together and one from 16 July 2012 when the top was finished...hey, only a year apart that is a miracle in itself....so started sometime in the first half of 2011 I suspect...hand quilting started maybe 2-3 years ago? can't remember that either...quilting finished and trimmed up on the weekend of 11 and 12 May 2024...you just can't rush these things...

Big stitch hand quilted in perle 5 silvery thread in lines 1/2" apart.  I liked the idea of modern quilts matchstick quilting but 1/4" apart was just too much madness.

 

I was so excited, pulled out the piece of fabric from the range put aside for the binding all those years ago...and...It Did Not Work At All...seriously wrong...disaster and disappointment.  Scrounging about to see if I had any bits of the other prints (nope) I found a scrap of a solid grey that was just enough to audition to see if a solid was what it needed and...yep...perfect! Except, probably poly not cotton and a 6" scrap wasn't going to be enough regardless.  I'd have to wait until I could get to a shop - whenever that might be.  I ran out of patience within a few days and started the online search. Found what seemed the right colour in a Devonshire solid...tossed up between two shades...considered buying both - I only needed 1/2 metre so to get both wouldn't be too much of stretch...decided that was silly and went for the one I thought was closest...probably should have gone with the other as it seemed a bit light when it arrived but too bad so sad it will have to do...

Ta dah!  Quilted and bound...so happy...it still needs a good bath which will snuggle it up nicely but it's so so so cold and randomly has remembered how to rain again (we haven't had rain for months so that's not a bad thing), so still waiting a couple of weeks since it was finished...maybe this weekend...

There has been more but I don't want to cause too much shock so one thing at a time...

Happy Stitching...

Little Quilt on the Prairie...Point...

And the winner of Gold in the event of Procrastinating...Prairie Point Doll Quilt from Kathleen Tracy's Remembering Adelia book.  Kathy set it as one of her monthly challenges in her Small Quilt Talk Yahoo Group and on checking - that was April 2014...and all it was waiting on was two straight lines of hand quilting on three borders (yes folks the binding was a done deal and one short end border was quilted) and it wasn't even out of sight out of mind!...

The crowd goes wild as the finish line not only comes into view but is finally crossed....

An extra challenge I added myself was to use only and all the leftovers remaining in the stash of Judi Rothermel's Rocky Mountains range (the original range) including...

using every piece I could for the backing to use it all up (except the stripes which I have metreage of)...the binding is also pieced...if there is any left (except the stripes) it is teeny tiny bits in the scrap bucket...so two challenges met!...

It was my first time making prairie points, always wanted to but never had...measures 23 1/2" x 29 1/2"...feels all soft and cuddly...and I do love it...

Happy Stitching...

Miniature Family Complete....

Um, two weeks after writing up a couple of posts...here goes at pushing the Publish button (yeah yeah don't rush me)...

The last of the Miniature Family is done and dusted...

Miniature Log Cabin Quilt 10" square

The whole family...

When I decided to make them four mini's instead of the original whole quilt project I also had a plan of how to hang them ... which is proving a tad more difficult to source than first imagined ... so until I get that sorted they sit and wait (and if Plan A eventually fails there is a Plan B which would be kinda cute).

Happy Stitching...

A Day with Friends Results in a Finish...

Had a great day yesterday with friends over to play and after attending to a mending job - it was quilt related, repairing broken stitching on a section of binding so not evil mending - I moved on to finishing an in-progress quilt by stitching down the binding...

First finish of the Miniature Family - Stars - 10" square

What? You expected something larger for a day's work! *LOL*...

Would love to report the finishing continued but that was it really...I did move on to the next miniature to finish off the hand quilting but failed miserably...what I learnt was I don't do hand quilting well distracted by good company!...so after a few reverses admitted defeat...

I've actually two finishes for OPAM for May but the other quilt is drying after finally been persuaded to take its bath, the photo session is booked for later in the day...

The weather here is so woeful I'm thinking it's a great day to hibernate in the sewing room with Chookyblue and join in her Chookshed birthday celebrations...

Happy Stitching...

A Finish to Welcome Spring...

Further work took place on uncovering the "started in 1988 still not finished" tapestry on the floor frame that seems to have become the dumping ground hanging storage space for hand quilting projects with the next in size now a done deal...coincidentally 30's repros again (as far as I'm aware the only two 30's repros tops in that pile), the top put together using left over units from Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush mystery quilt project in 200?...hey, at least it's from this Century!...the binding finished Friday afternoon while waiting for new tyres to be fitted on the car, have to take advantage of all opportunities as they are still few and far between...

This one is 24 1/4" squarish (give or take an 1/8" or 1/16th here and there, which when it is given a bath and crinkles up won't be a big deal).  Quilted in big stitch using white perle 8 with circles, lines and scallops...in the light Friday night I couldn't get the quilting to show up...had another go this yesterday morning (yeah yeah hitting publish makes it work on the blog I know, missed that bit didn't I)...

Same quilt, same position, different light and it goes from flat looking to quilty crinkly...and it still hasn't hadn't been bathed yet (it has now and has crinkled up all nice and quilty)...(Mmmm, photos slightly out of focus, must look into that when I've more time - sorry)...

I have no idea what is going to put it's hand up to be worked on next...by the time I get to that point I may have my partner in this year's SSCS swap and new projects may be on the table, oh where will I send to this year, I love this swap - so glad Chookyblue found time in her life gone nuts to let us play along again...thanks Chooky and also Googy Girl for putting on your Elf hat to help her out and make it possible this year, so looking forward to finding out who I send to, stalk her blog, plan the parcel contents...

Happy stitching...

A Miniature UFO Finish...

Way back in the mists of time, at a crafty peeps weekend away in the year of can't  remember, some 1930's repros were turned into a miniature quilt top...eventually in a very much "on again/off again which spool of thread was I using oh who cares this one will do for this attempt" fashion it had over the ensuing years ended up at about 3/5ths hand quilted...Friday night it was unburied when moving something else and the weekend stitchy task became "get it from hanging over the tapestry frame in a state of being ignored and into the state of a finished quilt"...and wonder of wonders I actually achieved that objective...

The hanger is just for taking the photo, it will find a home on a horizontal surface.

Double X: from "Fat Quarter Quilting: 1930's Style" by Lori Smith", 16" x 20", hand quilted in the ditch

Enjoy your week.

Happy Stitching...

A Title Would Go Here if I Could Think of One...

A couple of posts ago (yes the posts are so infrequent May wasn't that long ago on this blog - sad but true) while at Retreat in Maldon doing my bit for the local economy at The Village Patch, I picked up a pre-printed mini wholecloth "Ribbons and Lace" by The Stencil Company.  Made it into a mini quilt finished at 16 1/2" square, the binding was stitched down in company Friday night while enjoying the fun and friendship of our regular 6-Midnight stitchy hijinks...so, without further ado...presenting...Ta Dah!...

my first ever Wholecloth Quilt...

Hand quilted using Mölnlycke Sytrȧd Core Quilt Thread colour 6644...the lovely turquoise colour quilting thread thread just demanded to be purchased at the same time as the cloth and I couldn't resist. It was a good way to practise the hand quilting and test drive the wholequilt concept without committing to a new UFO large project. The only thing I'd not do again is use a colour thread that was so close to the colour of the printing - it would have been so much easier to see where there was wonky not so even stitching and some not so invisible stop/starts and I didn't catch them all but live and learn and I was treating it as a learning project so not going to beat myself up over that. 

I was a bit concerned about how the printed design would wash out as it was printed with quite thick blue lines (almost the same colour as the thread I used) but I followed the instructions of simply soaking in cold water (and it's so nippy outside the water out of the tap is icy) for 30-60 minutes (so I left it for the full hour just to be sure) and it was just gone, like magic, no trace left.

I've not pressed it after washing (I did dry it flat on a towel) as I like the "crinkled antique-y touch me" look rather than the "polished perfect do not touch" look of a finished quilt, I want quilts that look like they can be used not hung in an art gallery, but that is just me so please forgive the wrinkles...

And I realised when uploading the photo...that is OPAM ticked off for August as well, wahoo!!! One project, two ticks, gotta like that :)

Happy Stitching...