Hand quilting finished!

I'm so happy with this "quilt".  It doesn't have batting, so I feel weird calling it a quilt; it does have three layers, but the middle layer is muslin.

I love it!

I like the backing nearly as much as the top.

I'm not finished yet, of course.  Ive still got the binding to go.  Not sure when that's going to happen though, because I put hand quilting cotton in my machine and now the tension is buggered!

Stay tuned!

Does it need more?

I enjoyed quilting this little number so much.  The Perle cotton no.8 is a joy to sew with...

Hand quilting is so much fun.  I'm surprised that I like it as much as hand piecing.

I was going to create a cross-hatch pattern with the quilting, but a seed of doubt has been planted by someone else's opinion ("Cross hatching it would kill it.... Have you thought about doing something less structured in keeping with the modern look of the piece?").

Now I'm stuck.  Frozen.  Blocked.

Maybe it does need something more "interesting" that the same stitching running in the opposite direction.  I don't know.  And I really love this little piece.  I don't want to mess it up.

Another option: leaving it as it is.

Liberated Log Cabin - progress

Remember this quilt?

Well, I started quilting it last night...

My plan is to cross hatch the whole thing, using royal blue Perle cotton no 8 in the dark areas and maybe pink or yellow in the light areas.

The only problem is, the logs are liberated, so I think I want the quilting to be "unliberated", if you know what I mean.  I mean, I want the quilting to be as neat as possible.

The quilting lines are about one inch apart, but they are pretty uneven looking.  I found it quite stressful as I was quilting, trying to keep the lines straight just by eye.  I think if I mark the quilt with straight lines it will take all of the worry out of the project.

Any suggestions for what to use to mark my quilt?

ANZAC Bee Quilt - Liberated Log Cabin

This is my liberated log cabin quilt top (a la Gwen Marston "Liberated Quiltmaking" style).

Pinned and ready for quilting

I am yet to decide how I will quilt this quilt.

Hand quilt or machine quilt?

All over design or custom quilting?

Any suggestions are welcome, as always!

Bits and Pieces

Well, it's been a while, I know, but I have been working on a few bits and pieces...

I am the Queen Bee this month for the online quilting bee, ANZAC Bee.

I have received a few blocks in the last couple of days and although I am yet to piece them together, this is the look I'm going for.  I think it's going to be a really beautiful quilt!

I'm also working on a good old fashioned 9-patch using fabrics from the American Jane "Breath of Avignon" range.  I love these colours with a navy background.  This will be a gift for the next baby boy that comes along (there are plenty of babies on the way!).

I have completed 30 hexagon flowers with Judie Rothermel civil war reproduction fabric, ostensibly for the Hexagon Charm Quilt piece-along that I am a member of, but it's not going to be a charm quilt, so now it's just a hexagon project I'm working on.  I was going to applique the flowers to a background fabric, with sashing in between each piece of appliqued fabric, but I didn't really enjoy the applique, so I'm thinking I may now need to make an awful lot of hexagons to go in between the flowers....  Not sure yet.

And because I am basically insane, I have started making another set of hexagons out of liberty prints.  Don't ask me why, because I don't know myself!

This is a sneak peak of yet another project I have on the go at the moment.  The technique is called "pojagi", which is Korean patchwork.  It is a double-sided piece of patchwork, with no batting in between, making it an excellent patchwork project for someone living in a warm climate.  I first learned of this at The Silly BooDilly's blog.  This woman's work is seriously beautiful!  Do yourself a favour and check out her blog.

  Then I found this lovely blog, which gives EXCELLENT instructions on how to make pojagi patchwork.  This blog is written by a Japanese lady in English, which is her second language, but her instructioins are nonetheless really clear.  She has used pojagi to make a furoshiki, which is a Japanese wrapping cloth.  Her furoshiki is divine.

So, as usual, I have an enormous number of projects on the go, with many more UFOs waiting for some much needed attention piling up in the corner of the dining room!  Oh well, I don't fight it anymore.  This is how I work.  Now I just go with it.

Thanks for dropping by, and if you are reading this now, thanks for reading all the text as well!

Cheers!

ANZAC Bee - April blocks

This was a fun project for me - to create "intuitive" log cabin blocks using just red centre squares and white "logs".  I have to confess... these are my first ever log cabins!  And I really enjoyed the process!  I now want to add a log cabin quilt to my list of things to do (one day!). 

The other request was for a hand embroidered label for the back of the quilt with name and location.  I won't post a pic because I don't want to advertise my personal details on blogger, but I am looking forward to getting a bit more practice at hand embroidery.