Archie The Wonder Dog

This test block has been on my FAL list for a while now and I've just never got round to making it into a mini quilt.  This quarter ( Q4 FAL 2015 ), I was determined to cross it off! Here's how it looked at the start of the quarter (and at the start of several quarters before that!): The block is hand pieced and was made to test the templates for the block.  I (eventually) want to make a quilt using this block, in pale Oakshotts and pale grey backgrounds.  I have the fabrics, just not the time/energy to start! Impetus to finish this mini quilt came in the form of a new to me in the ditch/edge stitch sole plate for my walking foot (thanks, Sheila !) and a need to test it before I embarked on a bigger quilting project.  I quilted in all the ditches and found that the foot was great for straight ditches but not for curved ones, mainly because the design of the foot means that you can't see where the needle is going to land.  It's also easier if the ditc...

One of the items on my FAL list was this 12" (finished) hand-pieced ( not EPP!) test block for the ET Phone Home block  (pattern by  Lynne of Lily's Quilts ): The first thing I needed to do was to give it a good press! I'd made the block to test the templates (and work out my stitching sequence) before starting to hand piece enough blocks for a quilt - I haven't made much progress with the quilt but more on that later! I used fusible wadding on the back and then machine quilted (with navy thread) in all the ditches, apart from the four 'squaring up' corner triangles, in an attempt to reinforce the circular appearance of the block: As seems to be usual with me and fusible wadding, I forgot to add a backing fabric!  I think it's because I usually use fusible wadding with cushions or bags/pouches where a backing fabric isn't strictly necessary and so my brain forgets to remind me.  It forgets to remind me about a lot of things... Anyway,...

I feel I've done quite well this quarter, particularly when you take into account that I've probably spent more time asleep than awake in the last three months.  And that my machine was out of action from just after putting the binding on the Dresden mini (end of January) until about a week ago - that's why most of my finishes only required hand sewing (or no sewing at all, in one case!).   My list is here , in case you fancy seeing what I didn't finish! My first finish was this mini for Yvonne : Sorry about the dreadful photo but that's the middle of a dreary day for you! This was machine pieced, hand appliquéd, embroidered and hand quilted.  It measures about 14" square (I think, I can't quite remember now!) and has a couple of extra layers of wadding behind the centre to give a bit more texture.  You can find out more about it in this post . My next finish was my clock: This is 12" square and the gubbins to make it (canvas b...

Thanks for popping in to see my entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  I haven't managed many finished quilts since the last festival (no surprise there!) and didn't think I'd be entering this time round, but Nicky reminded me about the mini category and so here I am! I made this little quilt, 'City Walk' (naming quilts isn't something I usually do but I felt that participating in a blog hop and designing a pattern for Oakshott warranted a quilt name!) in July when I was part of an Oakshott blog hop  and is designed around the traditional 'walking triangles' block.  I wrote a rather  ridiculously long tutorial for it as part of the blog hop and you can find that here , should you wish to make your own version. The quilt is made from a F8 bundle (plus a piece of wadding and a piece of fusible fleece) and I decided that I wanted to make something useful as well as decorative so this little quilt also doubles as a block roll (to keep piec...

Sometime in May, Lynne  asked if I'd be interested in making a project with one of Oakshott's new fat eighth colourshott bundles .  (These will be available at the Festival of Quilts  in August and, I assume, on the website somewhere around the same time.)  After a little ponder about whether I could manage to make a whole project (and write the tutorial) within the time frame (deadlines and pacing don't necessarily go together!), I said yes and I'm so glad I did! I missed all the pointy elbow emails that came as a result of us calling dibs on our chosen bundles as I was out with my mam and so I was left with the 'mystery' bundle which, a couple of days later, was revealed to be a 'neutrals' bundle.  Not my usual stomping ground but I decided to decline the kind offers to swap (we hadn't yet seen a photo of this bundle so I had no idea what I was going to get!) and accept the challenge.  Again, I'm glad I did as this gorgeous 'Metro...