Espritpatch

  If you read me regularly, you'll know that the big event that has marked this year for me has been put move from the UK back to France after 21 years. A major change that has required some planning and organising made quite difficult by the pandemic. And of course, moving after so long and after 16 years in the same house has required some serious decluttering in all areas, including sewing and crafting supplies. And of course while going trig my stash and boxes, I have unearthed a (large) number of UFOs in various degrees of completion. I had never really considered letting go of my UFOs until probably about last year. First I never thought anyone would be interested in some partly done projects from someone else. Well, I was wrong! So I took a good look at these projects that I hadn't touched for years before deciding if they realistically had any hope to be finished one day, and as a result were worth packing and moving with us. I posted on most of those throughout the yea

So I was nearly there last month to meet my deadline, and then I ran out of thread half way through the quilting. So I ordered another spool of thread and finished the quilting but it was too late for the gift giving. So I finished the quilting and added the binding by machine. There was a few hundred centimeters of binding to be hand sewn.... which I left for a few weeks. But then we were going home twice where there was a good occasion to finally gift my quilt to Mum so last week, over the course of 2 evenings, I sat down with my huge triangle quilt to finally bind it and give it away this week-end. So 322 triangles later, the quilt is finished, no longer a UFO and an OPAM for July. Linking to Whoop Whoop Friday  and that's my item 12 on Q3 Finish Along . Celine

Last year I cut 285 triangles to make a Triangle quilt for my Mum after she saw the one I made for my friend's birthday and asked for the same one. But then the enthusiasm to do the same quilt again wore out and I stashed away my pile of triangles for later, hoping it would be done by last Christmas. Before the dust settled too much, I decided to make it for her birthdays and got the pile out earlier this month, banking on a 2-weeks turnaround to finish the quilt. Overambitious, me? Of course, I changed my plans (twice) while I started sewing my triangles, which meant that I had to cut more triangles (twice) to get to a grand total of 322 and a 14 x 23 arrangement. I was planning to have the top pieced the first week of June ready for quilting at the week-end but of course, I just didn't keep up and the top wasn't ready until early last week. By which time my backing fabric that I ordered at the last minute hadn't turned up. When it finally arrived,

I have been going through a quilting marathon in the last few days and I am happy to report that I crossed the finish line on time! I finish my triangle quilt top last week in time for the link up and also we have 2 weeks to complete the quilt, I needed mine finished by Monday afternoon to gift it to my friend for her 60th birthday. I quilted my top on my frame last Thursday night. I used a Superior Thread King Tut variegated quilting thread in shades of medium blue. It quilted beautifully and my machine seemed to like it! with an all-over sea wave pattern with a few inclusions, like my friend's name Isabel or her big birthday number I decided to keep the zig-zag border in the end and used the same fabric (Bike Path from Alison Glass) for the backing and the binding. I finished machine stitching my border late into the night on Thursday as we were going away Friday morning for the Easter week-end. I hand-stitched the binding on the back over the week-end at my

As soon as everything was put away on Sunday, I picked up my piles of triangles again to finish my rows as randomly as possible to make 12 rows of 17 triangles. After I sew all my 204 triangles into rows, I played with them again and again until I got to this arrangement which (I thought) was pleasing and also didn't have any triangles touching the same one, and that was a real challenge, I also wanted all the birdies to be head up! And yesterday I finally tarted to sew my rows together. I started without using pins but after having to unpick a few seams to have my points matching, I started using pins. There has been a certain amount of unpicking but this is it now, I don't think it is too bad (if I say so myself :-) ), no more unpicking. Now I have a flimsy and I have the backing fabric ready too! At the moment, I am not planning to square my quilt but to keep the zig-zag. I might come to regret it later when I come to sew the binding on. Next step, free motion quil

Last week was all about cutting 200+ triangles, this week it is about sewing them into rows, exactly 12 rows of 17 triangles. I have cut 17 different fabric for my quilt but I don't have an equal number of triangles from each fabric, I have 8, 16 or 24 triangles for the different patterns. Bearing those numbers in mind, I have been trying to sew my rows of triangles randomly with some order! I want a balance of the fabric I use in the rows so I don't end up with one rows with 8 fabrics and one with 17. And an orderly random arrangement is more difficult than it seems! This is where I have got to so far! I have sewn 75 triangles together so far and started my 12 rows,  129 more to add. I must say it is coming along together relatively quickly, I think it takes me more time to decide which triangle to pick rather than actually sewing it! I like how it is coming along so far I need to finish all the 12 rows promptly as we are putting them together next week to get the

Cutting, cutting, cutting to get a grand total of 208 triangles, that's quite a big pile! For the first time, I have used starch and I really liked the feel of the fabric, so maybe I'll use it again in the future. I have used 17 fabric in total. Here is a closer view of my triangles, ready for the next step of sewing! Linking to WIP Wednesday , WOW ,  Brit Sewing Thursday Linky , Needle and Thread Thursday , Fabric Frenzy Friday and of course, the Triangle quilt-along . Celine