Picnic Quilt Ready to Gift

It's finished (and on time) so here it is in all its ragged edge fluffy glory -

It's hanging sideways to keep it off the wet grass!

Look at those lovely fluffy, cuddly seams.

All folded, ready to be wrapped!

All ready to be a pressie next week.  The beauty of this quilt belies the thread-fest that was required to get it to this state (I had to clean the lint filter 6 times during tumble drying and had to hoover it on the washing line when it came out) - but all totally worth it!

Check out Judith's blog post to see the other amazing picnic quilts made by the ladies at her class.

Picnic Rug Progress

Doesn't a wee bit of sunshine do your heart good?  It's been an absolutely fantastic weekend for weather and today the sunshine was glorious! I even managed to pick up a wee bit more steam today and made some headway on the picnic rug.

Isn't she lovely?

Got the rug on the line to prove that yes, the sun does sometimes shine in Northern Ireland.

Back of quilt - no raw seams on this side.

It's not quite finished - needs a label for its recipient and then I have to snip into all those raw seams and wash and tumble dry it to bring up those lovely fluffy seams. At least it now looks like it will have a chance of being ready on time to be gifted just after next weekend.

Catching Up

Being out of action for a couple weeks is wreaking havoc with my projects list and I really need to catch up. All being well I'll be able to go to class next week and I'd like to be on track before then as it's the last class for this project and I need to be able to gift the quilt a few days thereafter.  No pressure then!  So after a spell in the sewing room this afternoon I have managed to join all the blocks into rows -

Wish the light had been better in these pics.

Stitching these blocks took much longer than I thought it would - think it's a combination of both me and the Toyota being a bit under par today - which was a little frustrating.  I hadn't enough room to lay it all out so in the pics the rows are all overlapping, but in the finished quilt each row will be as wide as the one you can see far right.

I am really looking forward to snipping the seams in this quilt and getting that lovely soft raggy look once it's washed and dried.  Must keep reminding myself not to fall too much in love with this one as I am giving it away.  Hope to post the finished quilt before too long!

Summer Picnic Rug

Remember these?

Heather Bailey, Nicey Jane

I flashed the stash with a wee blog post a few weeks back as I was gathering these Nicey Jane prints for a class project.  Well, 78 full brick cuts later (plus 39 wadding bricks) and 12 half brick cuts (plus 6 wadding half bricks) - whew(!), here's where I've got to:

Bricks cut and all sorted and labelled into rows

This class project is the Rag Quilted Picnic Rug, but I am beginning to wonder if this little quilt will ever see a picnic given the unreliability of our weather for the last four summers!  Anyway, picnic or no, this one is intended as a summer gift for someone in the family and will find a use at those summer bbq evenings where we all put on fleeces and huddle around the chimnea on the decking like hardy fools!  Imagine this cosy, but summery quilt around your legs while you finish a Pimms or G&T in the fading light (all sounds a bit more romantic than reality probably).

So all these lovelies will be quilted individually, like so

I am really enjoying this wavy line quilting!

then stitched together in a brick like format and finished by ragging up the raw seams, I think. If you want to see how it should look when it's done take a peek at Judith's own version which she is teaching us from.  I love her combination of fabrics which give this such a vintage feel.  I love this look - it's really cosy and familiar without some of the formality of other quilts, perfect for relaxed summer evenings.

I am enjoying the fabrics in this project so much - don't think I've ever had so much of one co-ordinating collection before and I really do love the lightness of the colours (though the yellows do add a bit of zing to proceedings).  I am going to struggle to part with this one and if I feel it's not being loved as it should might just sneak it away again at next year's family 'do'!  Alas, I think it will be loved and we will be parted forever.

PS you really should keep an eye on Judith's blog in early July when this class finishes up because there are some really gorgeous fabric combinations going into this project from all the other 'girls' at the class - I am envious of them all!