Peek-a-boo I sew you!

I have finished the top of my blue and cream version of Di Ford's Antique Wedding Sampler (re-visited) - yay! 

Unfortunately my closeline no longer winds up to its full height so the quilt is left dragging on the ground. It's quite a big quilt as my sashings were cut wider to accomodate the design on the fabric. The last time I blogged about this quilt I was doing the broderie perse and I don't think you've seen the centre vase and you can see how I cut the sashing fabric. I got the sashing idea from Sofie and the vase of flowers design from Lynne - it's great to have friends to get inspiration from!

I felt as though I needed a border or some kind of break between the busy triangle blocks of broderie perse and toile and for some crazy idea I decided to do a 'peek-a-boo' inner border (hmmmm, I think I can blame/credit Veronique for this one). Initially I just pinned the binding style strip sandwiched between the quilt top and the outer border and sewed it together on the machine. 

Well this was a complete failure and came out all uneven. Would you believe I sewed on two sides without really looking at it and then I had to do about 4 metres of reverse sewing (unpicking) - ugh!!

So I decided to be a lot more methodical - this is the process I came up with. First carefully measure across the quilt top and mark to match up equal distances.

One problem I had was strip not staying folded and together nicely...

....so I spray starched it (as I would for bias stems). 

Even though I did not cut the strip on the bias it was still acting floppy and stretchy so I stitched the two raw edges together onto the outer border with a large tacking stitch on the machine 1/8" from the edges.

Then I sandwiched it together and pinned, using the lines I had marked earlier with the frixion pen.

Also pinning carefully on the diagonal to catch the seam allowances on the triangle keystones.

Then sewing it all together, with a 1/4" seam and I used a slightly larger seam stitch.

Hopefully you can see the 1st large tacking 1/8" seam that attached the strip to the outer border and the normal 1/4" seam that sandwiched it all together.

A good press...

...and voila!!! Nice and straight and even.

I then mitred the corners the Di Ford way...

Where you hand fold, pin, tack and hand sew the border strips together. You can find Di's mitring method on YouTube.

I don't know if I would ever do another peek-a-boo border on a large quilt but I think it was worth it in the end.

Be sure to hop over to the G'nT Sisters where you can see Lynne and Sofie's AWS quilts just back from the quilter.

Thanks for your well wishes from my last post, I'm completely recovered from the flu.

Oops I nearly forgot, what's one of my posts without a CCCQ update. Here are my latest blocks only one more to go....

CCCQ Block #28

CCCQ Block #33 or the 'Jatz Biscuit'

I have substituted this wreath block from

 Corliss' Celebrating Mary Brown pattern there were lots of inner curves in this one!

Cheers

Carole

Hexie therapy

I've had one of those flu/virus things so sewing hexies has been easy to do whilst resting up.

Value Proposition Quilt Block #16

Value Proposition Quilt Block #17

With some occaisional work on this challenging block...

Chester County Criswell Quilt #Block 33 in progress

...I'm glad I fussy cut those little melons. I was only doing it for the dark spots and happily got that daisy effect in the centres by sheer fluke!

btw to answer some queries of late:
a) we have sold our home
b) we will be moving to the country in a couple of months
c) in the meantime I continue to communte & sew on the bus.

Have a lovely Sunday

Carole

Catching up on Chester

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on the Chester County Criswell Quilt and the blocks are good for taking on the bus.

CCCQ Block #26

CCCQ Block #31

CCCQ Block #30

 I am now sewing one of the more difficult blocks, Block #33, to see the original visit here. There are different ways of tackling this block, I have been using reverse applique so far so good. 

The hardest part has been those little maggots jelly beans around the centre with their tiny inner curves, this quilt has been a doozy for inner curves!

'Only' a few more blocks to go...but then I'm planning on adding dog tooth sashings so still a way to go yet.

Cheers

Carole

Unpacking the mojo

I've had a self enforced break from sewing after we made a rather snap decision to sell our home of 30 years and find a place in the country. This meant converting my sewing room back to a bedroom, for enhanced saleability (I might have just made up that word) and packing away my design wall and all traces of sewing. After renovating and selling whilst working full time I was using the bus commute time to either catch up on sleep or to text and email agents, tradies, lawyers or bankers. No time to sew.

Unpacking the mojo

Anyway I have recently been able to unpack some of the sewing, spread the love throughout the house and finish all of the AWS blocks.

AWS Block #22

AWS Block #21

Sometimes I hand piece and sometimes I piece by machine, sometimes I even combine both techniques in the same block. I like the accuracy of hand piecing so I thought 'why not prep for machine piecing as per hand piecing?' So for this block I drew lines and pinned as I would for hand piecing.

Quite a good result but I'm afraid this block didn't quite pass muster with the G'nT Sisters At 2am (after some wine) the leaves I had drawn myself were thought to resemble "reindeer on steroids" and it was too brown. It has now been renovated and admittedly it does look better now.

AWS Block #12

I've really missed having the design wall, which is currently living with Judy. I do have visitation rights so I was able to lay out all the AWS blocks and get advice on their placement.

Did you notice Judy's AWS on the spare bed? We were lying on top of it (ugg boots and all!) whilst trying different layouts. Now I 'just' need to finish the broderie perse for the outer triangles.

Last Saturday Judy and I dropped in to Linda's book launch in the Barn last Saturday. We purchased a copy of her new book Treasures from the Barn published by Quiltnania.

Me, Linda & Judy

It was great seeing Linda and all the original antique quilts that the book is based on,this gave us inspiration for our current and future projects. We were both taken by the Little Boys Britches quilt behind us in the photo above and the first quilt below.

Little Boys Britches

Chocolate Mill detail

Chocolate Mill border detail

Unfinished block showcasing Linda's precise hand-piecing from Fireworks 

Brenda's Bounty

It was also a wonderful thrill to meet Marianne (DreamWeaver) in person. She has been a Dear Jane and design wall inspiration for me.

And what would a blog post be without a Chester County Criswell block? So I'll finish with Block #24 that I completed last night.

Cheers

Carole

Blockbuster

This post is a blockbuster with some of the blocks I have made in the last couple of months.

First up is my latest for the Value Proposition Quilt...

Value Proposition Quilt #15

Next are a couple more for the Chester County Criswell Quilt... 

CCCQ Block #25

CCCQ Block #32

I have been putting most of my effort into my blue version of Antique Wedding Sampler. The first 'J Block' below was designed by my sister from the original quilt.

AWS 'J' Block

AWS Block #14

AWS Block #23

AWS Block #11

AWS Block #25

AWS Block #24

AWS Block #10

AWS Block #17

AWS Block #16

Cheers

Carole