Improv Dresden plate finished

Once I had taken this UFO out of my cupboard, I realised that there wasn't that much to do, which is fortunate as I can't remember how we made the Dresden plate blades. I drew up an oval in CorelDraw and printed it out onto light card to use to applique a centre in black and repeated that with a second oval in the butterfly fabric which picks up the colours of the blades.

I did simple quilting in white extending the lines of the blades to the edge and a simple swirl in the centre oval. Then I machined a 2.5" folded binding to the front of the quilt. I think another time 2.25" would suffice. I chose this size as the quit is destined for Romania and will be well used, so I felt a machine stitched binding would be better. I then pressed the binding outwards from the centre and got out my Elmers school glue.

This glue is now widely available in the UK from WH Smiths as it's used to make slime. My 20 year old daughter couldn't believe how excited I could get over glue. It was an unexpected find in our town centre. I apply the glue along the stitching line of the binding on the back of my mini quilt and then press the binding to the back of the quilt and the heat of the iron sets the glue and holds it firmly for the next part.

 You may have noticed that I haven't matched the stripes on the binding. All I had of this stripe was one fat quarter, so matching was not an option, and as it's a busy design, I don't' think the mismatch is too distracting.

I swapped to the number 10 foot on my Bernina as it has a central guide. The only difference to how I've seen others machine the binding is that I turn and take four stitches into the mitred corner to hold it down.

I should have fussy cut the centre of the oval better and made a narrower binding, however it's a pleasing finish which will be given to a Romanian family through a local aid charity.

Quilters Planner BOM 2019 finished

I did propose that I would finish this before the Trinket sewalong started and that starts tomorrow, so I call that a result. Though I have half finished my blocks for the sewalong. Just don't tell anyone.

It is a very windy day here today so this is not the best of photographs but I wanted to share this project with you whilst we are in Iceland. The blocks are to be completed every month, sometimes one block, but mostly two a month.

I spent a couple of days making the blocks and focussing on only this project and I am amazed that it came together so quickly. I usually underestimate the amount of background that I need and have to reorder but I have a whole bolt of this white Kona, so that helped.

The layout of the blocks is designed to look like a snowflake so I chose a snowflake design with swirls and a white thread.

I chose a red and white stripe from Riley Blake for the binding which looks great. The backing was what I had to hand and picks out the navy in some of the locks. A bit random but you generally only see one side of the quilt at a time. And I'm sticking to that rationale.

March APQS UFO chosen

With a week spent volunteering for a local craft Eisteddfod and a four night trip away, I was pleased that an easy project was my number 8. I have finished the January number 3 which was The Lion but still need to quilt my February number 6, which was five impossible things.

I should get this project finished before we go away as it is further along than I'd realised. It was the sample I made at Jo Avery's Improv Dresden plate class at Festival of Quilts in 2017. 

I also have our local Guild's retreat to look forward to at the end of March and I plan to work on my La Fin du Monde quilt by Libs Elliott and my Trinket SAL as that weekend is a sew day according to the Trinket schedule. There are at least four or five of us out of 16 at the retreat who have joined the sewalong. Exciting.

March BOM progress

I have focussed on both the quilter's Planner Block of the Month which I now quilted and the blocks for March that have come in over the last few days.

1. 2019 Perfect HST BOM Block-of-the-Month program with Freshly Pieced

This is released on the first Monday of each month and I have completed the March block which arrived today. They are looking good and each month you make extra units for following months.

2. Threadology with Fat Quarter Shop

I have decided to use plain white for the background which I have in stash along with Ombre Confetti by V & Co (also in stash).

I have finished the three blocks to date but didn't make the 12" version of Friday's block as I'm not going to piece the backing.

3. Quiet Play Pattern Club

I have only completed one block of the six received so far so I need to focus on this for the remainder of the month. I did decide on onyx grunge for the background so small progress has been made.

4. The Quilter's Planner BOM

I have finished piecing and quilting this BOM and purchased a red striped binding today. I plan to trim the quilt tomorrow and cut and piece the binding ready to apply to the quilt tomorrow night.

5. Trinket SAL

I have enjoyed making some of the forty blocks this week. I am making two of each and plan to make a square quilt. I have made good progress and plan to put this on hold as the sew along doesn't start until next Monday, when we are going to Iceland for four nights.

I have already sewn the first five blocks and photographed them ready to post on Instagram during our holiday.

The Lion

OMG I can’t quite believe that this project started in 2016 is complete. The pattern is The Lion by Violetcraft and I purchased a kit from Hawthorne Threads. I started quilting this last year but a crisis of confidence meant that I took it off the machine and unpicked the lot. I browsed the internet for inspiration and Trudi Wood’s version which I had seen at Festival of quilts was closer to what I had in mind than the matchstick quilting used by many. I printed an A4 picture of the quilt and started drawing lines. I started my quilting journey by quilting the grey background with swirls and pebbles. For some reason I had thought that starting at the bottom was a good idea so after finishing the background quilting, I turned the quilt 180 degrees. I changed the thread to a variegated peach thread and started to quilt.

Would the back of the quit have excess fabric in areas due to turning the quilt? Spoiler alert – the back was perfect. Once I started on the face, it moved quicker than I had hoped possible. I wanted it finished to enter into the Jersey Eisteddfod and the hand in date for physical entries is 2 March, no pressure.

Having taken the quilt off the frame, I cleared the kitchen island and trimmed the quilt ready for binding. I had just enough of the grey to cut seven 2” strips and only needed six. I was so engrossed in trimming and machining the binding to the font of the quilt that I forgot to eat breakfast!! I started stitching the binding down by hand on Wednesday afternoon and slowly got two and a half sides done. Thursday I woke early, so came downstairs to sew the rest of the binding and the sleeve down. 

I am thrilled with how it has come out and have more confidence in my ability to free machine quilt on my long arm, though a lot more practice is need and I finished two days ahead of my deadline. Time to sew on labels to all of my entries.