A Flourish Of Finishes: Sewing Machine Little Quilt

Last November, I went to the Knit and Stitch Show in Harrogate and found this lovely pattern on a stall (sorry, I have no idea what the stall was called!).  I knew I wanted to change the look and that I didn't want to make an embroidery for framing so I decided to make a cushion.  (You'll notice that the title of this post doesn't match this intention!)

My lovely friend Beryl gave me a piece of 28 count evenweave and a quick introduction to stitching on it (I've only ever used Aida and canvas for counted work) and I got to work.

I changed the spellings of some words to their British English versions and added touches of colour as I went.  For future reference, the threads I used were: Anchor 399 (grey), Anchor 55 (pink), DMC 211 (lilac), DMC 3846 (turquoise), DMC 703 (green) and Metz 0295 (yellow) (I don't think this brand exists, but I have a collection  of stranded cotton going back to the 1980s and some of the shades are perfect and don't exist in either Anchor or DMC, which are the easiest to get locally.).  I used Aurifil 50wt in 5006 (turquoise) and 2021 (off-white) when assembling and quilting the little quilt.

A few months after starting and in between other projects, I finished the embroidery

and then added it to my FAL Q3 list, where I stated my intention to turn it into a cushion (I even had the cushion pad ready) using these fabrics and putting a covered zip in the back

Well, it sat in my 'FAL/WIP' bag for weeks and weeks and weeks.  Then, when Archie was poorly and I was taking a break from knitting, I spent a few days turning it into a little quilt for my sewing room wall.  It took a while because Archie didn't like me out of his sight for more than a couple of minutes.  (I even spent five nights 'sleeping' on the front room carpet in front of his cage.)  While working on turning the embroidery into a little quilt, I would nip upstairs for a couple of minutes and cut a piece of border fabric or pin something together or thread the machine, etc. and would then come halfway down the stairs and reassure Archie I was still in the house and was coming back soon and then go back up for another couple of minutes before coming downstairs for a while.  I got the accent border attached and quilted in the ditch between the border and the embroidery, before attaching turquoise borders in a QAYG style.  I then spent a whole evening unquilting and unattaching said turquoise borders as I didn't like the way the piece was hanging!  The next day I reattached the borders (as normal) and then quilted in the ditch between the pink and the turquoise.  It hangs much better now!!

It is currently hanging with my other little quilts (made by lovely friends) and my fabric postcards (made by me and others for swaps) until I can get my new 'hanging wall' sorted.  I've rearranged my sewing room (more on that in another post) and I now have a spare wall that's crying out to be covered in little quilts!


Today I finally found the time and energy to plant up the 60 new bulbs I bought a few weeks ago.  A fortnight ago I repotted my existing bulb pots (it took ages and I was broken after it!) and now I've finally finished the job I started.  While I was mixing compost and grit and planting crocus, dwarf iris, tete-a-tete daffs and allium (not in a pot but in one of my raised beds), Archie enjoyed some sun

Look at that lovely blue sky, you'd never think it was October!!

Thanks for popping in, I hope you aren't getting sick of me - nothing for weeks on end and then three posts in less than a week!  I'll be caught up soon, promise!