Difficult Decision - Help!?

Ok folks, I need your advice. Which of these should be the quilt top? I can't decide. Why does it matter, you ask? Well, the top will be quilted which means the quilting on the back is not as neat. That's all.







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Wordless Wednesday (2)

:) xxx

Secret Santa Swap

Anyone up for a Secret Santa Swap?

Check out Lynda's blog for the details. This is a great idea.

The more the merrier. So spread the word.

Ho ho ho!

:) Nadine

Sunday Stash (... on Monday, ooops)

I think you all know how much I love, no, LOOOOOVE fabric and I think I need to get into the habit of sharing more of my fabric with you, well pictures of my fabric, of course, duh.

So here is a little random selection of the fabrics I found at the Festival of Quilts.



I am currently trying to get Heather Ross's "Far Far Away 2" but am really struggling to find them in the UK. I bought a few FQs off Katy from I'm a ginger monkey but was hoping to find the darker greys and purples too. If anyone has a suggestion where I could find them in the UK (can't bear waiting for up to 6 weeks for a package and pay horrendous customs charges) I would love you forever.

These are the ones I have.



Love, Nadine

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Paid it forward

Hello everyone,

Look what's just arrived. The lovely Justine from Sew, Justine, Sew! Sent me my Pay it forward gift and it's absolutely adorable.

The strawberry fabric looks good enough to eat and the pincushion is adorable and comes just in time. I was about to finally make one for myself.

Thanks Justine, this made my day.

Love, Nadine

PS: I sent out my Pay it Forward gifts a few weeks ago. I hope the recipients liked them :)



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Giveaway ... on Me? A mom?

Hello everyone,

look at these yummy fabrics, actually I sure hope you won't see this so my chances of WINNING are higher, hehe.

But there is a lovely giveaway on Me? A mom?

Check it out here.

Love, Nadine

Wordless Wednesday

:)

xoxo

Quilt-as-you-go-Quilt (III)

Finally, my first reversible Quilt-as-you-go-Quilt project is finished and I am quite happy with the result. By using the Quilt-as-you-go method I was able to work more precisely and quilt it more thoroughly, which I am usually not able to do.

My hands are now very sore and I need to nurse them back to health, but all in all I can say I enjoyed it very much and will definitely do this again.

The plus side:
- more thorough quilting
- easier to quilt smaller pieces
- less "air bubbles" on the back (normally that's a real problem when working entirely without a sewing machine)

The negative:
- exhausting
- not really faster
- uneven sashing when blocks are not exactly matching in size on front and back
- quilting on the back still not exactly even

(will add more points when I can think of them)

The finished two-sided Quilt-As-You-Go-Quilt entirely handpieced, handsewn and handquilted (46" x 58")

sorry for the low quality images due to bad lighting indoors, taken on the iPhone



close up




hanging over a chair



folded





... and the back





close up



folded





Pheewww. Now I need a little break. All my major projects are finished and I might just go back to painting for a little while (though I will still quilt in the evenings or while watching telly with the Monkey).

I hope you like this one.

Love, Nadine

PS: This quilt is made up entirely by leftover scraps. At some point I will blog about the quilt which produced these scraps.

Quilt-as-you-go-Quilt (II)

Now on to the difficult part, attaching the different pieces and sashing to make up rows of finished quilted blocks.

I originally intended to follow the instructions on this video on how to use the quilt as you go method but I was not happy with the results and just experimented a bit and came up with my own method.

It is fairly simple actually.

First, I attached the sashing to the finished quilted block on the quilt top.



I turned the pieces around and attached the other side of the sashing to the next block in the row.




Et Voila, the two pieces are attached.




The back is a little more tricky.

First I attached the sashing to one block on the back of the quilt.




Then I folded the other edge and sew it carefully tightly along the edge.




and I quilted the sashing to fix the batting in between the 2 layers of fabric:





And then I continued that way until I had my rows finished.


The finished row front:



and back



It still looks a bit messy and now needs tidying up. (With a machine this would probably look a lot neater.)

Hope this is useful.

Love, Nadine

Quilt-as-you-go-Quilt (I)

Finally I am making some progress. Only two more projects to go and then I can cut into new fabric, hurrah.

I showed you the blocks I made from scraps for my first attempt at using the quilt as you go method on a reversible quilt.

I finally got around to quilting them and as I took the Process Pledge I thought I might show you how I did it.

It is pretty easy and self-explanatory really.

I placed the blocks on the batting and tried to place the blocks for the back as precisely over the blocks for the other side as I could. (Not so easy when the blocks aren't exactly the same size, but eh, let's see where this leads me)



Then quilted them using straight line quilting. of course everything done by hand as usual.





close up:



The quilting as it shows on the back (slightly wonky I know):



And next time I'll show you how I attached the pieces together and made rows. Let's see if this will become a quilt yet.

Nadine