Multi-coloured Blackwork

You will have noticed that hand stitching featured very heavily throughout my lockdown activity.  Mainly, because of lack of access to my sewing machine, but also I suspect because it felt smaller and more manageable at a time when my head was full to bursting with all sorts of concerns.

Scrolling IG one night I happened upon a reference to Peppermint Purple and was intrigued. Of course, I fell down the rabbit hole into a site of the most beautiful counted blackwork designs.  What I really loved was how modern these designs looked.  I have a history of cross stitching with a little blackwork thrown in, but it has been some time since I opened those supplies and tackled any counted stitch work.  If anything was going to tempt me back in, it was these designs and more specifically a couple that reminded of quilting.

So, I purchased two patterns.  This one is the Rainbow Cross Quilt and I just love how the stitches are worked in all of the colours!  Check out the other quilt inspired rainbow patterns here.

I had forgotten how intense counted work can be, especially on middle-aged eyes, but oh my, the results are lovely.  The grid outlining alone took me hours and hours but now that it is at this stage, it's a lot of fun just to choose one or two of the grid sections to fill when I pick it up again.

You can see that I still have a lot to do.  I'll admit I'm a bit intimidated by the yellow section that's next as it's pretty tricky to see your stitches well, and to be sure you've stitched correctly.  It's been so dull lately too, and that isn't helping.  But, I guess I should try and make the most of summer light while we still have it and stop putting those yellows off!

Let's see if I have any progress to show soon.

Rainbow Crumbs Quilt Finish

My rainbow crumb quilt top measures approx 36.5" x 45.5" so it's not huge but when I went looking for an appropriate backing in my stash I couldn't find a single piece of fabric large enough to work nicely. 

So, in keeping with the theme of the front I chose eight prints/blenders in a rainbow of colours and stitched a simple stripey backing piece.  I think I like it almost as much as the front.

When it came to the quilting I decided to stitch my wavy lines.  Do you know, of all the quilts I have quilted with wavy lines I don't actually have one that I've kept in our home?  Since the rainbow quilt is likely to stay with us I thought it was about time I had some waves for myself.

The jury is still out over my choice of quilting thread.  It is a beautiful variegated thread but it seems to be quite blue on the paler shades of the rainbow and I'm not so sure it was the right choice in the end.  But I'm not so bothered by it as to want to rip it all out.  I suspect it will grow on me.

The next decision was what colour to bind in.  I imagine if I had asked for advice that black or black/white stripe would have been a popular suggestion as that seems to have been a trend with rainbow quilts for a while now.  But, black just didn't do it for me.   I wanted something brighter and chose a tiny yellow polka dot which certainly keeps things cheery!

So, after all my waffle, here is the finished rainbow quilt -

front

I promise it's straight even though this pic makes it look as if the top is wider than the bottom!

and rainbow stripe backing.

I love this little quilt made from scraps that might otherwise have ended up in the bin.  I don't regret anything about it, except perhaps that it isn't bigger but there's always another time, right?

Scraptastic Tuesday - rainbow crumbs

I'm linking up with Nicky and Leanne for Scraptastic Tuesday this week because at last I've got a scrap project to talk about!

I haven't mentioned my scrappy crumb blocks for a while, but I did tell you all about them quite some time ago.  These are little 5" scrappy charm squares which I've been stitching up over the past few years on the tail end of other projects and leaving aside for some future purpose.  These are mostly either less than 2" wide or 2" square and making up the little squares as I go along helps to control my small scraps basket.

In my current programme of clearing out and condensing all of my sewing supplies, I thought now seemed like a good time to use the little squares in a project.  So after a quick layout and whipping up a few extra blocks to fill some of the gaps, this is my rainbow crumbs quilt.  (I took the picture in horrible glaring nightime light - sorry.)

Getting them all stacked and labelled ready for stitching together was progress in clearing the two little storage boxes in the top pic - so that's a success for condensing, right?

And now, I have a small colourful rainbow flimsy with what feels like a thousand seams awaiting quilting.

Interestingly, this little quilt top got the greatest response any of my IG pics have generated to date.   Who'd have thought that a wee quilt top full of scrappy leftovers would be so very popular?  Seems everybody loves a rainbow and scraps!