30s Repro Fabric Cushion

Recently, I was sorting the leftovers from the 30s repro fabric quilt I made last winter (above) and about the same time Sedef Imer's Scandi Throw Pillow tutorial popped up on Amy's blog. It seemed as good a prompt as any to make a co-ordinating cushion cover for the quilt.  (Any excuse, really.)

I chose to use 8 different fabrics in my cushion instead of 4 like Sedef's tutorial and I also enlarged the cushion to 18.5", so I was forced to do a little recalculating of the cutting but it worked out reasonably well, even if there are some rather large offcuts from this project.

It was really quite simple to stitch together after that, and you can see below that I didn't over complicate the quilting either.  In the ditches and 1" echoing for simplicity and speed.

Dolly seems to approve and I like the larger bold pieces of this cushion front.  They should work well with the chunky piecing of the quilt too.

Although this photo makes the backing dimensions look odd, they're not really.  Must be the angle I took the pic from.  This is my go to means of backing a cushion, courtesy of Judith's fab tutorial which is very easily upscaled from her 16.5" cushion dimensions.

Definitely scratched an itch with this project (saw a new tutorial and had to make) and used up more fabrics already in my possession.  All good!!

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.

30's Repro Spring Bed Quilt

I think I must have had a yearning for the lightness of spring when, during the long, dark months of the beginning of the year, I pulled a bunch of 30's style reproduction fat quarters and started cutting. Slice, slice, slice.  There wasn't much of a plan to be honest, not beyond something quick, simple and big enough for a single bed.

I cut 3.5" strips, some 6.5" long, some 12.5" long and just kept piecing these very basic blocks.  Totally a classic case of avoiding my own, already healthy, WIP list, and starting something new, something for which I didn't really have time (except because it was so simple, I did).

The top came together very quickly once all the cutting was done and I enjoyed not having too much to worry about in the piecing beyond keeping a consistent seam allowance.  It was also lovely to watch all those beautiful fabrics squishing through my machine.  Such lovely spring, happy colours!  (Mostly sourced from the lovely Sarah and Penny at Pretty Fabrics and Trims quite some time ago, though they still have a huge range of 30's Repro fabrics if you're interested.)

All the effort of unearthing supplies to baste the quilt made me think I should really baste my two other completed flimsies while I was at it.  Not entirely sure it was the great idea I thought it was, but quilting into the wee small hours over the Easter holiday weekend did mean that all three are now ready for their binding.  Progress of this sort is definitely a result for me these days!!

Just to prove that the other two are quilted, here are some sneaky peeks -

Hopefully, you should be able to make out that all three have been quilted on the diagonal with the serpentine stitch on my machine. It's such a lovely stitch to use and really quite easy and forgiving, too.

Of course the 30's Repro quilt top is now another addition to that healthy WIP list I was avoiding!  But on the plus side, all it needs now is this pretty scrappy binding.

And, now I think it probably is time for a more serious look at that WIPs list.  Maybe next time ...