AbFab Update

The sewing machines have decided they’ve done enough work for the moment, so I’ve been doing some hand quilting, especially on my AbFab quilt.

For relative newcomers to my blog, AbFab is a piece of fabric I found at the Riberac Brocante in 2007. I was fascinated with the colours and the design so decided to hand quilt it.  It will eventually be a wall hanging.

I’ve called it AbFab because of the abstract fabric design – obvious really!

You can see what it looked like at the last updates by clicking here and here.

and a close up

Now for a question.

Remember the houses quilt I did for Tonya’s Lazy Gal Summer Class?  I’ve decided to quilt it with the names of sweets and I need some suggestions from you please.

So far I’ve got :-

• Gob Stoppers
• Bubble Gum
• Liquorice Allsorts (yummy!)
• Candy Floss
• Love Hearts; and
• Fruit Salad (don’t know if you can get them in the States).

Any more from anyone?

Stained Glass or Sugar Candy Houses

This is one of the projects I did for Lazy Gal’s Summer Class 2008.

This is the stained glass version.  Pretty isn’t it?

But I think I’m going to stick with the original idea.

Question now is how do I quilt it?  I don’t want to detract from the houses so perhaps stitch the ditch round the rooves and the house blocks and then fans on the black?

Anyone any ideas?

Sewing like I’m possessed

For Tonya’s Summer Class. I’m continuing the repetition theme by doing some wonky houses.

The picture has come out a bit dark – bit of a grey day here today.

Quilt No 7 for Qs4L

I love the apple block and Irene’s block, first left, second row down.

It’s a Bank Holiday here today (Victorie 1945), Alex is off school until next Tuesday and it’s raining! DH and I spent yesterday making flower beds in the courtyard. Didn’t get very far, but a start is better than nothing.

Itching to get back to the sewing machine, but the list of outside chores is growing by the day. The pool has got to be power washed, with treated with acid, power washed again and then painted and if we want it open soon, as we do, then sewing is going to have to take a back seat.

Donc, A+

We have borders

I rustled up 2 long strips of piano keys, sewed one of them on. The consenus of opinion was too much. Off they came.

So here we are.

It’s gone into the flimsey bag. I really must get my head round unpicking that batting.

Got another project going at the moment.

A+

I’m back …….

and the secret is out. Most of you guessed where I was going. Well, it was pretty obvious wasn’t it.

I’m all quilted out. Talk, talk, talk, read, read, read, walk, walk, walk and more talk, talk,talk and I got to read Gwen Marston’s Liberated Quiltmaking, Liberated Strings and Collaborative Quilting, not to mention loads of other books and magazines. Tonya gave me some gorgeous fabric for Quilts4 Leukaemia. Photo soonest.

Weather was not on its best behaviour, but we did manage to get some walking in and I wandered off on my own and walked my feet off!

More as and when.

A+

Monday Mutterings

Quite a lot to say, but not all quilting related.

First of all Tamzin’s quilt.  I hand quilted “alway”s in the ditch, then stem stitched “love” to the left of it.  (You can see where I had started in the photo link).  The whole quilt puckered up and could not be smoothed out.  Desperate attempts to try and sort it out without unpicking everything, but it was not to be.  So spent most of Saturday unpicking it all - hurrrumph! 

I know the “official line” for quilting is “start from the centre and work outwards”, but a word of warning.  If you hand quilt Tonya’s Fantabulous Fans (which I do on most of my quilts), then start from one of the corners (I prefer bottom right) and work upwards (or downwards) and outwards. 

 

If you start from the middle, even stitching the ditch, it won’t work.  Well that’s the conclusion I’ve come to anyway.

November is the time for pruning trees and shrubs.  The weather has been so bad – either pouring with rain or freezing brrrrrrrrrrr cold – that I haven’t been able to get outside to do it.  Sooooooo I’ve been pruning my blog roll instead.  There was over 200 quilting blogs alone - OM Goodness!  I got out the pruning shears and pruned and pruned.  I decided that if I hadn’t commented on a blog for weeks or months, or if the person hadn’t posted for a long time (certain people excepted), then that blog was going to be snipped.  That’s why I haven’t been commenting a lot.

There was something else I was going to say, but I’m having a senior moment.