In a Bind

Sometimes I amaze myself.

I was incredibly lucky again.

I didn't measure...,

I just cut a piece of fabric into binding strips

and hoped that it was enough for two quilts.

Even after I sewed the binding on the first quilt,

I didn't measure to check if I had enough for the second quilt...

Gosh, I must have felt foolishly confident

because the small strip of green in this photo is all I had left!!!

At the same time I cut binding for a quilt I am working on

for a very expedited project.

 Again...I haven't measured...

I'll keep you posted!

This is the work in progress....

 It feels like drawing with thread...

Perhaps swifter than I would have preferred,

but time is of the essence...

And done in an evening.

The longest day of the year,

so done in a day!

A long day!

Time to Sew

Time to rest,

means time to sew!!

So I have managed to get all the borders

hand stitched to my rose star hexagon quilt.

But sitting around resting

means you might get decorated

with flower petals :o)

I told Miss Kalico that I was making this quilt for her room

and I think she is pleased about that because

 she wanted to touch the quilt while eating an ice lolly

and so I said 'Don't touch' and she said: 'But it's mine!' ;o)

*****

I have taken all the papers out

of this quilt and hope that as soon as possible,

I can iron this top

and get it on my Longarm.

*****

I took this photo

to show my tiny hand stitches.

I love handwork!

*****

Now I am on to the next thing!

Hand stitching the binding down on this baby quilt...

I feel the need to sew as much as possible at the moment

as I'm sure this 'enforced' resting won't last long!!!

In a Bind

I don't think I have ever

in my Quilting Life,

EVER

had 2 large (king-size)

quilts waiting for binding.

Never EVER!

And yet, I have no time

to bind them.

 

However, as the nights draw in,

I am looking forward to binding them,

but just one more Christmas market to go!

 

The quilt on the left

is my first ever quilt,

started in circa 1986/7/8/9... in

 Laura Ashley etc fabrics

with the help of my mother.

When I put the first pictures of this quilt

FINALLY (after all these years) quilted

(that had been taken by Chris),

my Mother sent me a text message saying:

"Had a look at yr Blog

but nothing new only yr quilt..."

(she did say "it looks lovely",

but that ruins my story LOL)

"Glad u put the blocks 2gether

and not made cushions!"

Say no more LOL.

 

I had wanted to take more photos of the unbound quilts,

but my camera is playing up so I had to use my phone.

When I uploaded the above photo,

I found these photos on my phone too...

taken over the last few months..

 

Autumn: the road to Slaidburn:

Sunday: the flooded road to Ripon
(taken out of the window by DS2, age 6)

The terrible trio:

 

 

Borders, Binding & the Hopes of Mindless Sewing

Last night we thought that baby Kalico was coming (again).

You'd think seeing as we've done this twice already that we'd know better by now LOL,

but we got it wrong and so we had a dreadful night and hardly slept a wink.

This morning when I finally surfaced, I asked my DH

if he minded if I carved myself a way into my sewing room

to just do a bit of mindless sewing.... for me...

He didn't mind, but I had nothing really ready to just sew,

so instead I had to do some cutting first and deciding and planning...

I wanted to do something with my Leader and Ender 9 patches:

So I cut some

 setting squares and triangles, but changed my mind and the quilt idea

(from Bonnie's books) twice at least!

So the 9 patches got abandoned.... for now.

In desperation to just sew. Something.

I put borders on these Corn & Beans blocks that Kate kindly gave me.

I LOVE the colours Kate used in these blocks!

 

(The runner looks a little yellow in the evening light...)

The runner and bedside table mat are ready to quilt now

and the binding is prepped too so hopefully I'll get another chance

to sew before baby Kalico arrives.

I also ironed the binding that I'd cut for baby Kalico's quilt,

which Kandy has very kindly offered to quilt for me.

Hopefully little Miss Kalico will not be early and I'll get both

Kate's Corn & Bean blocks quilted and Baby's quilt bound before D-Day :o)

Young Abby, approves of me being in the sewing room

and even tidying one or two things away

so that she has more surface area to spread out.

Miaow!

Stitches (and Vegetables) in Ditches...

I guess from now on, no blog post will exist without my (lazy) quilty cat! :-D

Yesterday I discovered that my friend and his wife had had their baby on Sunday so the baby quilt top that has been sitting around waiting to be basted, quilted and bound needed doing a.s.a.p. With a spurt of energy, I ironed the backing, which I had with some foresight pre-washed last week, and pin basted the quilt. I only S.I.T.D.-ed, but hey, I prefer making tops to finishing them :-)

Then I sewed the binding on. I used this lovely purpley-pink batik I have had in my stash for a while. It's definitely time to use those fabrics I love or someone else will be when I am gone!!

I hope to get it done tonight and then I can move on to another deadline quilt. This one is the novelty or pink string one with a self-imposed deadline by me... I think I need deadlines LOL

On the weekend I finally cut into the charm pack that I won in the raffle when I visited Germany and the Black Forest Quilters. I had donated 2 prizes so was allowed as an exception and a non-member (although I would LOVE to be a member and fly over EVERY month for meetings!!) to buy a ticket.

I saw the pattern in 'Triangle Free Quilts' by Judy Hopkins (Great book!) and have sewed all the charms into these blocks so far.

Obviously (if you know me) I did not do it the same size and obviously (me again!) I am going to change it and add sashings in white similar to Kate's first Baby quilt in this post.

DH has been very industrious in the veg patch this year. I have been designated chief seed sower LOL.

This basically means that my job is to get seeds to seedlings, he then plants the seedlings or mini plants and then takes all the glory. Considering it's back breaking work digging bean trenches, I'll give him his well-deserved praise, although we're going 50/50 with the vegetables (especially the peas) LOL

19 months later...

..and I'm ready to add the binding to DS2's BABY quilt.

Ok, so he's 19 months old, life got in the way LOL
Actually now he'll probably get more use out of it as one doesn't have to worry about baby's regulating their body temperature etc.

Here's the back...

I didn't have enough teal fabric for the binding so I've decided to go scrappy yet again as I am not buying any more fabric!

All I have to do now (after I've put the binding on!) is to decide what to handquilt next:
The +/-20 year old 'monster' I started when I was at school with my Mother's help..



or My BQL Ostrich from 2006? Basted by Chris and ready to go...



The monster is King-size and I've already started a bit of the quilting and the Ostrich is much smaller and only 2 years in the making. Both are UFO's in need of finishing. What to do, oh what to do...

ps we have a new gate..

perfect for dispaying quilts...

Scrappy to the end

About this time last year, I signed up to the Scrapbuster swap that Kate was hosting on Delphi. I had already made several larger blocks as a Postage Stamp Round Robin swap with my Blockbuddys. I added these to the Delphi swap and had enough to make this quilt. Each little square is 2 inches in finished size. Here you can see it as a flimsie.

And here...

you can see it bound and finished. I did my first ever 'proper binding'! (in scraps of course!) I actually finished it a few days ago, but have not managed to get a shot of it until now as the weather has been dire: rainy and grey! (Time for some sun , yes, oh yes!)

It's on our bed because DH likes it. It was originally supposed to be a picnic blanket, but I actually think it's too nice to be covered in mud or left to rot in the back of my car (If you've ever seen my car...!!!). So then it was to be a sofa quilt for me, but for now it's on our bed. It's not quite big enough (!) but that's a good excuse to do another one in rose hexagons which is already started.

Talking of roses... Andrea send me some wonderful roses today. Thank you Andrea, they are perfect. Consider them packed with the rest of my lovely rose fabrics that I've had sent from some of my wonderful fellow bloggers. I will not be able to blog much while I'm away, but I will try and show you how far I am on the rose hexagons already.



Andrea also kindly included 2 FQ's for the boys.

DS1 was very impressed and I think the owls may be perfect for the pillowcase/s that will be needed to be made for next year!

I agree with a lot of the comments on my last post about keeping up with traditions. Stockings are DH's family traditions and pillowcases are mine so there will be compromise and a combination of the two!

Cheater's Binding - a mini tutorial

I have always done my binding like this, I honestly didn't know there was any other way. Obviously I do now, but I guess that's what happens when you are largely self-taught LOL.

Ok, here goes... CHEATER's BINDING (A binding for quick quilts , NOT for Heirlooms etc!)

Cut your binding strips... I cut them about 2.5 inches, but you can do them 3inches wide if you want it really easy (But a bit more wasteful)

Fold the width in half and press it flat

Then fold the half up towards the centre...so that the fold measures approx. 3/4 of an inch. (if you are using 3 inch strips, just fold them in half and then the halves in half again)

Do this on both sides

And then fold them together

Pin this fold closed. It is essential that the fold meets exactly. Pin it (closed) together as the pinning is the most important part later on!!

Here you can see the binding measures 3/4of an inch.

Now, pin the binding to the edge of the quilt.

Make sure that your pin goes through to the same part of the binding on the front as on the back. This IS the most important part. Your pins mimmick your stitches so pin well making sure that the binding is exact on both sides!!

When you come to the corners, fold at right angles

and fold down to get your mitred corners

Pin down

I pin a lot :O) (it's important and saves you time later!)

Check the back to make sure that your pins are in the same position on the back as front.

Continue around the whole quilt until you come back to the start

Fold the edges of the end over

and pin. Now you are ready to sew...

I use a decorative stitch to sew around the edges. (I would not recommend a straight stitch in case your pinning is not perfect) You can use a zig-zag too.

And you are done. I don't sew anything other than the edge. Because it's a sturdy method, I don't even handstitch the corners or the join done as it should not come apart. I hope this wasn't too basic or obvious to anyone. I use it a lot as you can bind a quilt quick-quick and with practice it actually looks very presentable - not for Heirloom quilts, but for those quick ones :O)