30's Repro Quilt Finish

Woohoo!  Another binding finish to knock those WIPs down another number, and of course, to have a gorgeous quilty finish!!

This quilt is 72" x 84", though the pics show it sideways because it was too long to hang on my line.  This one is for CT when she moves to a single bed (which will be a while).  I love that this quilt wasn't very planned and just came together for no particular reason.  Perhaps, I also love it because it was a little bit illicit, in that I should have really been doing other things, not starting a new quilt ;-)

A light gust of wind upset the shot but shifted the quilt into better lighting to reveal the texture of the diagonal serpentine quilting. I really like this stitch for a gentle quilted finish.

It feels good to have finished the binding on those three quilts that were so close to finishes as I reported when I was Taking Stock.  With all of my other WIPs still quite far from completion I'm not sure which should be my focus next.  Hmmm, need to have a think.

Twister Quilt Finish

Next up for a finish from my WIPs list is the Twister Quilt.  

She got a bit of diagonal serpentine stitch quilting attention and looks so good for it!

Then, I used this bright Joel Dewberry print, which was the inspiration print for this quilt's colour palette, to bind it.  I LOVE binding, have I told you that before? (Only a hundred times, probably.)

And then, there was proper sunshine to take a picture of the finished article!

This shot is just to show off that quilt texture. Isn't it nice?

Just like that 10 WIPs is now 9!  Go me!

If you like this quilt, you will find my tutorial here for this really satisfying simple block.  I am determined that one day I WILL make another one.  This one is being gifted later this summer to my one niece who hasn't yet had a quilt from me.

Vinyl Pouches

Back in November, when there was sew-a-long for Aneela Hoey's Stitched Sewing Organisers book, I tried out a couple of her pouch patterns but got no further.  There were a couple of the other organisers in the book I fancied trying, so a few weeks ago I decided it was time to have a go at them.  As you can see above I tried the Two-in-one Pouch and the See It All Pouch.

My poor Two-in-one Pouch has a rather religious vinyl middle - hol(e)y - as I had problems stitching the vinyl and it all went wonky had to be redone.  By the time the centre run of stitching is done, lots of other parts have already been stitched (like the zipper enclosures) and since the pouch is just for me, I was too lazy to want to start afresh with an unspoilt piece of vinyl.  Next time I will remember that stitching the vinyl with paper or tissue paper over the top of it works so much better ;-)  Actually, I wish I'd just thought at the time to add a folded strip of fabric down the centre to cover the holes I made.  Hindsight is surely a wonderful thing.

There was also a mishap with the positioning of my kam snap fastening and the two don't quite meet level.  It adds a bit of a tilt to the closure but I'll live with it.  Though it is still a mystery as to how it happened.  I've checked and double checked the pattern and my measuring but am still none the wiser as to why it should be 'off'.  I'm feeling very out of practice sewing little things and making so very many mistakes!!

Anyhow, the pouch will serve its purpose nicely as the holder of many things, no doubt, in spite of its shortcomings.  I kind of think that yummy coral fabric makes up for its little foibles!

When I tried the See-it-all pouch I had learnt my lesson and remembered to have paper between the sewing machine and the vinyl for easier stitching.  I had some pain getting a nice smooth turn on the biased binding strips that were used to cover the zips (yes, the straight bits).  All sorts of horrible puckering was going on, but many suggestions from IG friends and many, many trials later I got a better, though still not perfect, turn on the binding.  Oddly enough, I didn't have any such drama on the curved part of the binding - go figure!

So there you have it - two more pouches tried and finished.  The last one on my list is the Triple Pouch. There are very lengthy instructions for it and it looks a little scary but I'd still like to see if I can do it. Maybe I should start thinking about fabric options ...

Bonnie & Camille Around the World Quilt Finish

I have finished binding my Bonnie & Camille Around the World Quilt!

It is made up of 2" squares (2.5" cut) from many of my beloved Bonnie & Camille fabrics.  It was pieced on my Singer 99k hand cranked beauty but quilted on my Pfaff Ambition Essential.

I had thought to quilt in the ditch on this one, but choose the serpentine stitch (wavy, snaky line) instead and basically followed what would have been the ditch lines anyway.  The quilting isn't as hidden as it would be with 'in the ditch' and I'm pretty happy with the result.  The fact that serpentine stitch is a very forgiving alternative to stitching in the ditch is a huge bonus!!

I am also congratulating myself on making a reasonable dent in my B&C stash with this quilt and the quilt I made for my friend last year.  Three boxes has become two, and pretty as they are all folded up, they look so much better as quilts!!

And, just in case you aren't tired of looking at this quilt yet either  ;-) here's a final shot - 

11 WIPs has become 10!

Taking Stock

It's time to take stock of where it's all at (or not) as the case may be.

By nature, I'm a finisher.  I like things to progress in their natural order towards a conclusion.  But of course, I'm also a quilter/sewist and I have far more ideas than time to finish - hence the WIP and UFO list of 11 items.  It might not sound like the biggest list in the world to some of you, but now that I find myself without any regular or lengthy time to tackle those items, it feels honestly rather HUGE to me.  

Ultimately, I'd love to reduce this list to three projects at any one time - one machine WIP, one hand stitching WIP and one crochet WIP.  This would leave choice of project when I spy an opening for some stitching amid the chaos of life, and also allow for small projects to be undertaken along the way without having loads of mid-progress projects cluttering up space (which they do).

Of course, that wish is the stuff of unicorns (I know... some of you believe).  Still, maybe I can do something to make headway reducing this list and freeing up headspace and storage space for the unfinished projects.

 Let's see what needs to happen -

Quilt Now BOM - I haven't taken any pics of this Quilt for quite some time, but there have been occasional efforts to progress the hand quilting. I've made it as far as the motifs in the outer border now and while it's slow, it is going to be worth it (eventually). 

Cosy Christmas Quilt - This one stalled somewhere after appliquéing the gingerbread man I believe. It's all in a box somewhere and I will get back to it.  However, Little Miss CT is still a wee bit wee to appreciate it, so there's no big rush.

Sarah Fielke's Happy Days BOM - There hasn't been any progress since this last shot of the completed quilt top.  In the absence of any free motion quilting skills of my own, I think that this might get some hand quilting attention when the time is right.

Dear Jane Quilt - there are 21 blocks stitched now (not all pictured here).  Still a VERY long way to go.

French Knitting Yarn Crochet Rug - I love crocheting with the yarn results from the French Knitting dolly.  It's chunky and squidgy but boy is it slow!  Though I have spied a gizmo being advertised which might speed up the yarn production aspect.  I need to investigate - could be a swizz.

Twister Quilt - Just binding and labelling required to complete this quilt now.

 B&C Around The World Quilt - Also ready for binding and labelling.

30's Repro Bed Quilt - Quilted and ready to be bound and labelled.

B&C Scrap Vortex Quilt - I have a small stack of scrappy shapes now from this leaders and enders project. Not one for a speedy finish yet though.

Crocheted Hexagon Throw - This project has been sitting on my UFO list because I really haven't touched it for an extremely long time.  It's too lovely to leave unfinished, so I need to think about how to bring it back into progress.  Maybe one for the autumn.

EPP Hexie Diamond Quilt - Another untouched project languishing on the UFO list.  I think I left it aside when I felt a bit 'meh' about the diamond shapes and didn't really know if I wanted to keep going with this plan.  I need to give it some more thought.  Though I have a lot of hexies already prepared that it would be a shame not to use.


So, while there are still a number of longterm projects to tackle, it seems the obvious place to start in reducing my WIPs is to finish the three quilts that just need bound and labelled.  After that I have plenty of options, don't I?  I'm not expecting to suddenly discover hours of stitching time each week (more's the pity) but I just don't want to NOT finish the projects I still love.  Progress is progress, even if it is just a little here and there.  Keep an eye out for my efforts to keep things moving!