The only thing I really dislike about quilting...

...is quilting.

Bear with me - I love picking out fabrics, I love choosing patterns and cutting out and piecing - I even like hand-sewing the back of the binding.  Unfortunately there's another quite important part of quilting, and that's layering up your backing, batting and quilt top and then sewing them together, and it's that part that makes me groan.

Ella's Doll Quilt is FINALLY at the stage where I can begin quilting it, but I'm not at all sure what sort of pattern to use.  I wanted to free-motion quilt it with some cheerful stars and hearts, so I thought I'd have a practice on my kaleidoscope scrappy quilt.

I set up my beautiful machine very carefully, quilting table and all:

What could possibly go wrong?

I had a quick practice on a spare bit of batting and some of the backing fabric I was using.  I decided to do a nice, simple, quatrefoil motif to sit in the middle of the diamond shapes.  I drew it out in white pencil, took a deep breath, and got stuck in.

But unfortunately, free-motion quilting is not my friend.

...oh, my.

So I spent a jolly hour or two cursing and unpicking all those horrible wonky stitches, vowed not to be beaten, and quilted the entire thing with GOOD, SENSIBLE STRAIGHT LINES.

*phew*

It doesn't have the binding on yet since I wanted to crack on with Ella's quilt, but now you see the dilemma I am in.  I have finished the top, pieced the back, and pin-basted Ella's very carefully, but December is hurtling onwards and it MUST, MUST be finished by Christmas.  Any thoughts?

Pins in, time to get stitching.  Um.

The things I do...

Yes, I have been ironing the brown paper that came in my last Amazon parcel.  It's the sort of thing that makes you really wonder where your marbles went, although I did have a very good reason - it makes great foundation-piecing paper.

I have been obsessing (as readers will know) over scrap quilts lately, and it is a fact that not all scraps are quite 2.5" wide and suitable to be made into squares, so I needed something to use up strips.  I stumbled upon Film In The Fridge's "Kaleidoscope Quilt"and BOOM - the search was over.

I love how the little diamond shaped white frames give structure to the quilt, and the blocks are so easy they rapidly become addictive.  There are some very treasured scraps in there, mixed in with bits of old shirts, and a helpful quantity of "scrap rolls" from any number of online fabric shops.  Looking at them all gives me properly warm feelings, which is what this quilting business is all about, I think.  Of course you do have to tear the paper off afterwards, which could be a bit of a chore... luckily I have a very useful helper for that bit.  I knew he was good for something.

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P.S. That girl's quilt I mentioned last week is in the shop, at last!

Wouldn't you know it...

Well, I phoned up the Sewing Machine fellow on Thursday, and very helpful he was too.  We had my machine humming along brilliantly again in no time.

Then of course, 1/2 hour after I put the phone down, my stitches started skipping again...  ARGH!

I haven't had a chance to ring back (I feel a bit embarrassed, too, if I'm honest) but I've managed to wrangle my girlish scrap quilt without using the walking foot, and if some swearing was involved, at least there are no skips.  Houpla!

As soon as the back of the binding is sewn, it'll be ready for the shop.  Did I mention I had a shop?  I'll have to put it in the sidebar linkies.

Thanks to the frustrations of my machine, I've also been up to a spot of hand-sewing lately.  I have a grand project that uses up my smaller scraps, and I call it The Hexagon Project.  It's brilliant on the train - it practically guarantees you a seat all to yourself for some reason.  Here are this week's contributions:

Those hexagons are all about 1 1/4 " in size, so they use up pretty much anything.  One day, I will sew ALL these lozenges together and make a bedcover for our spare room.  How long do you reckon it'll take?  20 years?  Ah well, it keeps me out of trouble!

When good stitches go bad

Well, I know I said I was going to get on with that big Denyse Schmidt quilt for this week, but wouldn't you know, the scrappy quilting bug has bitten me good and proper.  I finished off that boy's quilt and got stuck into a girlier one straight away - it's too much fun watching all those little squares tuck up neatly against one another!

Isn't it pretty?  So far so good, eh?  Except... look a bit closer...

Yeah.  That stitch.  For some reason, when I came to quilting the rotten thing, my machine decided not to play.  I fiddled around with needle size, tension, thread weight, cleaned out the bobbin case - still no dice.  I had the same issue with the boy's quilt but didn't notice until I was already finished, and none of the skips on that one are too big - look:

There on the yellow flag is about as bad as they get (sorry, that photo is terribly out of focus...)

So the boy quilt can go in the shop, at a discount, and the girlier one is sitting waiting to be unpicked, and for the Sewing Machine engineer to call me back.  Ohhh the frustration!

Positive Procrastination

For about a month now I've been working on a slightly ambitious quilt using fabrics from my most favourite designer ever, Denyse Schmidt.  It's mostly Shelburne Falls with a bit of the reissued Flea Market Fancy range, and some odds and sods from my Fabric Cupboard of Shame.  I had it in my head that I would finish it today and blog it, to make sure I started things off on a high note.

...instead my eye fell on the scrap-quilted top I have also been fiddling with for about a month, and I realised that was a lot closer to finished and REALLY needed backing, quilting and binding so I could draw a line under it.  I dug out a piece of yellow polyester fleece which came from a scrap bin somewhere - goodness knows what I was going to do with it - and realised it was just the right size to back my scrappy top, and I could dispense with batting entirely!  Serendipity.

So here is my scrappy blanket.  It's only wee, just big enough for a cot blanket or to go on a buggy.

Perhaps I should try a properly "bloggy" photo of it:

Oooh, yes.  Now, having used up all those scraps (maybe a metre or so at most) I had clearly cleared a space for more fabric, right?

Just as well, since I ordered the entirety of Denyse Schmidt's new range, Florence, from the Village Haberdashery in their pre-order sale the other day.  Hee hee!  Now where am I going to put it...

Meet me back here next Wednesday and I'll try to have my big exciting Denyse Schmidt quilt finished.  Wish me luck!