Bee, Myself and I #26

Here you are, block 17 is quilted.

It was a bit of a mad rush at the end. I had my nephew staying with us this week and we were out and about a fair bit. Oh, the hardship of that: lovely food, beautiful scenery, good company… Still, I did get my month’s hatbox quilted and got my Rainbow Quilt backing done, so it wasn’t all torture!

I think this is another of my favourite hatbox fabrics. It’s a Phillip Jacobs design for Westminster Fibers, and I will be very sorry when the last scrap is gone, as I don’t think it’s made any more. Still, I’ll always have this lovely block to look at. You know the hatbox quilt isn’t going anywhere, right? Mine, mine, mine!

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not to a deadline or for anyone else. The original concept belongs to Carla of Granny Maud’s Girl. To find out more, you can click through on either her blog link, or using the button a fair way down in the left hand column.

Till next time.

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Bonnard: quilted!

All those thousands of stitches… Tis done 🙂

For hand quilting, it hasn’t taken too long, nor has it totally destroyed my fingers. But I am very glad to get my dining table back! The really nice thing about hand quilting (well, apart from the texture, that is) is that there’s no going back to bury the ends and tidy everything up, you tidy and bury as you go.

Still to do is trimming it out; making the label (the transfer sheet is printed, I just have to iron it onto fabric); cutting and stitching together the binding strip; and finally, stitching on the binding and hand hemming it all down.

Sorry the picture’s a bit dark and dull. It’s rather gloomy and pouring with rain outside, so I’m making do with dull daylight and artificial lights. No complaints here, though, it’ a good bit cooler too, at only 26°C/79°F

Fingers crossed we have some sunny weather when I have the finish to show you!

Bonnard quilting: 8 lines to go

I reckon a week, or maybe less, will see the quilting done.

In case you thought I hadn’t been at work on Bonnard, plugging away in the background… It has been a bit of a marathon, and got interrupted by other projects, embroidery, crochet, holidays, etc, so I’m really quite pleased at the progress I’ve made.

I offered my sister a choice between the rusty red and a dark green I’d used on the front for the binding.

Right now, where she lives is covered in snow and frost, and it’s bitterly cold. She made the decision to go with the red, because it felt warmer and more cosy. That’s the colour I’d have chosen myself – although it’s boiling hot here – as it will disappear on the back, but create a lovely narrow ‘ping’ of colour around the pale edges of the front.

The next row is marked up. Back to Bonnard, and my needle.

Bee, Myself and I #24

It’s the end of the month, so it must be time for BM&I 🙂

I’d prepared a couple of blocks to take on holiday with me to do the hand quilting. In the event, I only got one done; too many other interesting things to do during the day, and I found I missed my good work light for evening stitching, so I didn’t get the second one done in the end. Also, to be fair, I did do a lot of crocheting of dishcloths (10 of them), but this is not the place to show those.

Here, then, is this month’s solitary offering, Block 14 quilted:

I think this is one of my favourite fabrics, or more precisely, I mean it’s a favourite for the results of the quilting. Look how those lovely paisley designs have puffed up and give a dimensional effect. Hopefully that will distract you from the slight wonkiness of the filler lines on the background 🙂 One more block to go and I’m halfway through the quilting phase.

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not to a deadline or for anyone else. The original concept belongs to Carla of Granny Maud’s Girl. To find out more, you can click through on either her blog link, or using the button a fair way down in the left hand column.

I think for next month, I won’t wait for a holiday or until the last moment to get it done. So much nicer when you don’t have to rush…

 

Bee, Myself & I #23

Wasn’t sure I’d get this one done in time!

There’s been a lot of hand quilting going on round here, so slotting in my monthly Hatbox block wasn’t a problem, but I’m doing a few other things which are also taking time, so it was a question of what was going to give. Luckily, it wasn’t this!

This is the thirteenth hand-quilted block, and I’m following the format I’ve used for all the others so there will be an additional uniformity of look despite all the different colours. I’ll be taking the next two blocks away on holiday with me; they’re light, take up almost no space, and need a very small sewing kit – perfect for caravan holidays! So at least I’ll get the BM&I post sorted, even if I’m not going to manage many other sewing posts while we’re away.

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not to a deadline or for anyone else. The original concept belongs to Carla of Granny Maud’s Girl. To find out more, you can click through on either her blog link, or using the button a fair way down in the left hand column.

Hopefully I’ll have a bit more to show you next time 🙂

Bonnard quilting: halfway

We’re getting there.

This clamshell quilting design creates a lovely texture under the hand and looks really good when it catches the light. I’m glad I finally listened to the quilt.

I was worried red quilting thread would stand out too much on the front, but as you can see, it works really well, and disappears on the back.

The spray basting has held up very well, I haven’t had to manage any saggy bits or excess fullness, and despite not using a frame, working with the quilt simply laid across the table, everything is still good and stuck! I also haven’t had any issues with spray baste gumming up my needle, possibly because I was fairly frugal with the spraying. The 505 spray I use is quite a ‘dry’ product, you don’t get wet splatter. If anything, it goes a bit like Crazy String, which is a sign you need to clear the nozzle. I’m also happy to report that some of the excessive fluffiness of the backing fabric seems to disappear as I work, which is probably due to my right arm rubbing across it as I sew.

At this point, I’m allowing myself to think ahead to the binding, and what colour I might use. No fixed ideas yet, but it has to work with both back and front. I have a fair bit of the red backing fabric left, and I might use that if it doesn’t look too strong against the front when I audition it. Otherwise, maybe a dark green. I’ll see…

Halfway there. 16 lines quilted, 16 more to go.

Right, onwards and upwards. I’m not going to post about every additional small increment; the next time you see this quilt it’ll be fully quilted and I’ll be ready to bind it.

Bonnard: quilting progress

I’ve been stitching away in the background.

Progress photos of quilting are a bit dull unless you’ve reached some kind of landmark. It’s not terribly exciting to look at, but I’ve reached the one-third point.

The last row of quilting is just above the fold of the fabric where you see the red backing. The safety pin with the tuft of red yarn at top right marks the halfway point of the quilt, and as you can see, I have only 5 lines to go before I reach halfway, at 16 lines. I’ve done 11 lines and I’m just over 30% through. Hurray!

You’ll have to forgive the fluffiness of the backing fabric – there’s batting fluff everywhere on the table. I’ll give the quilt a good grooming with the lint roller once it’s done, and before it goes in the washing machine, otherwise the fluff’ll be all over the front too.

I like the new needle I’m working with. It’s medium-long (compared with a short quilting ‘Between’ needle) and fine, but has a large eye. On the upside, it goes through multiple layers of fabric easily. On the downside, it slips just as easily into my finger… ouch! On balance, though, I greatly prefer it to the one I was using before. It’s a Birch size 7 Embroidery needle, in case you’d like to try one.

Right, back to it.