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Thursday 18 April 2013

Skyloft quilt - finished!

Over the weekend I managed to find the right backing fabric for the Skyloft quilt top I blogged about here. It's a cotton print, magenta-pink flowers on a teal-blue background. Isn't the colour gorgeous?



I already had the batting ready, so I basted it on Saturday and I finished the quilting a couple of days ago. In the end I went with a loopy machine-quilting, mostly stippling and loops but with several swirls and curlicues, to give the whole thing a breezy look, full of movement. I hope I succeeded.






I also decided to quilt over the seam where the prairie points join the border. I was worried they might come loose as the quilt is used (and I like my quilts to be things that can be snuggled in and draped and scrunched, not delicate decorative things), so I decided to make a feature of it, and used a red zigzag stitch.





I even made the binding myself, something I've not really done before. In the past I've always bought bias binding from a haberdasher's, but this can be a little restrictive, as you're stuck with only the colours they've got in stock; bias binding also tends to be a bit narrower. It was surprisingly easy to make in the end, and used much less fabric than I had assumed.

Here's the whole thing in all its glory. The edges aren't as wobbly in real life as they look in these pictures; I hung the quilt on the rather unruly hedge in my back garden to take the shots.


And of course, a blog post about a quilt I made wouldn't be complete without an in-progress shot featuring my cat "helping".


The Skyloft quilt is now for sale in my Etsy shop, for the bargain price of £85.

Monday 8 April 2013

A quilt for a new home

Ever since my partner and I bought our house last August, I've been wanting to make a quilt in celebration of that. I'd bought a selection of fabrics but not really found myself inspired yet.

This weekend I finally found my brain starting to tick over with ideas, and made a start. I've decided to make a sort of a sampler quilt, using all different sorts of block designs. I've made two so far and I've got ideas for several more. 

First, I used English paper piecing (i.e. sewing by hand) to make a hexagon block, which I then machine-appliqued to a white background. The block measures 9.5 inches square, which will be the size of each block or patch in the quilt as a whole.




Here's the back, once the applique was done. I love the way the backs of appliqued things look.



The second block is a granny square. I had assumed this was a traditional block, but I've just discovered it's a relatively recent invention. You can read about it over at Blue Elephant Stitches



I measured this and found that it will trim perfectly to 9.5 inches without cutting off the tips of the blocks, which is rather pleasing.

Here's a close-up of the fabrics:


The fabric in this quilt is largely from Aneela Hoey's A Walk In The Woods collection. I bought a charm pack of it a while ago, as well as some fat quarters. I've since supplemented it from my stash (since a charm pack is nowhere near enough for a double bed size quilt) and I will continue to do so as I see fabrics I like. 

I really like the new Red Riding Hood print by Tasha Noel for Riley Blake, which you can see here. The colours aren't an exact match for the ones I'm already using (they seem brighter and more saturated) but I rather like that. I might have to invest in some, and if it doesn't match, well. I've bought myself some lovely fabric to use later. :)

Also this weekend, I worked on a Super Secret Project for my sister. On the offchance she visits here, I won't be posting any pictures that give much away -- but here's another picture of my cat "helping", in which you might catch a glimpse of what I'm working on.