Archie The Wonder Dog

In June last year I went on a Bargello workshop run by my talented friend Beryl at her teaching studio and a month later I added the resulting project to my Finish-Along list.  It's been on every list since, including my current one , and I'm thrilled to be able to say that it's finished! This is how it started: Four FQs and half a metre of Kaffe shot cotton (tip: if you're using this, starch it well - it likes to move and stretch!) After quite a bit of sewing and cutting, I had sets of strips of varying widths (Daddy (wide), Mammy (medium) and Baby (narrow)!): Dreadful photo, sorry!  Still, at least you won't have to see it again after this! Once I got started again (it sat in a bag from July 2014 until last week!), it didn't take me long to get the panel complete, even though I had to unpick three strips (two because I hadn't double-checked my seam allowance when I started and one because I made a daft mistake). The grey pieces towards t...

Please read the title in a sing-song voice 'cos that's how it sounds in my head! Last night I (finally) put the final stitch in the binding of my Stained QAL quilt.  I got up this morning to take some (really bad) photos before putting it in the washer.  I then went back to bed to read doze until the washer played its tune and I got up to put it in the drier. My apologies for the bad 'before washing' photos (and, now I've uploaded the 'after washing' photos, I can see that they're no better!) - I waited until it was as light as it was going to get (it's been one of those 'lights on from 9am onwards' days) but they're not brilliant mild understatement and the colours look so washed out compared to real life.  Even faffing on Picmonkey didn't help but I wanted to get my 'ta da!' post in before the year was out so I haven't got time to wait for the sun to shine!  I really need to find a better place in my house/gard...

November has been a month of hexies and Stained QAL blocks... All but one of my November hexies - there wasn't room for the other one! Progress on the Stained QAL blocks I've now got four hexies left to piece (and another four that are pieced but haven't been shared) and then I'll have 195 hexies, seventeen of which are 'whole' (i.e. unpieced) and the remaining 178 are pieced. All my Stained QAL blocks are now in rows and all the vertical joins on the back have been stitched down and Nicky has promised that if I ever plan to use Klona on something that's going to need hand stitching then she's going to shoot me!  Stitching a folded Klona edge to a quilted Klona piece is not something I intend to ever do again once this quilt is finished - it took probably three times as long as it would have done with other quilting cotton and I needed a thimble at all times as I couldn't push the needle through with my finger -  it went thr...

I'd love to be able to tell you that I've been hard at work since I last blogged but I haven't!  I have made some progress though... Firstly, though, I want to apologise for all the photos - it's not going to get light today (it's tanking down) so they're not the brightest photos in the world! I've quilted sixteen of the Stained QAL blocks.  I went with the wavy lines in the end and I'm really pleased with the texture of the blocks.  The heavy quilting (perhaps combined with a double layer of wadding) has pulled the blocks in so they're going to be 11.5" finished rather than the planned 12" but that's not a problem, it ends up measuring what it ends up measuring. Four blocks from the front:   and the back: I'm trying to do a couple of blocks a day.  Sometimes I manage more, more often I manage none but I've only got eight left to quilt so I hope to be trimming them next week. The main thing I've b...

I've finally managed to muster enough energy to stop staring at the pile of Stained QAL blocks on my sewing table and do something with them... I cut 48 squares of wadding and used 505 basting spray for the first time: A not very interesting pile of squares of wadding And then sorted out the blocks and stuck them to the wadding.  I learnt my lesson about the after-effects of spray basting (tight chest and very sore, itchy hands) and, instead of spraying them in my sewing room in front of a wide-open window, I decamped to the conservatory... I briefly considered donning g loves but decided that would be a step too far - I just washed my hands at regular intervals and then three times when I ' d finished! ...where I could stand in front of the open door.  I just brought through one set of squares at a time so I could get out of the room every few minutes and allow the fumes/smell to dissipate and keeping the door through to the house closed meant the smell did...