Finally managed to complete something!

Exams are over (kind of). I was too ill to attend them so I have no idea what's going to happen. Since there's no work left to do I've been catching up on some sewing. I finally finished quilting the Rural Jardin bear paw quilt and I love the way it turned out.

I was unsure about the thread choice when I started but I'm glad I stuck with it because, once I'd quilted all the "paws", it all blended really well. 

I echo quilted a quarter inch inside each paw and then repeated another quarter inch. I love the way that it has brought the bear paw pattern through to the back.

I still love the woven fabric I used for the back. It is so silky I'd love to make a quilt using all these woven fabrics, I'm sure it would drape beautifully. I used a bamboo/cotton blended batting and it has given it a gorgeous weight.

It's taken me an awfully long time to finish this quilt but it was worth it (many threads to bury when you do each paw separately). I think I'm going to free-motion quilt the second bear paw to see how different it looks.

A Quilting Conundrum

I started quilting my bear paw quilt 3 months ago but I put it on pause because I wasn't happy with the way it was turning out. I started by quilting on every vertical and horizontal 2" strip but once I'd done them all (which was no easy feat on my little machine!) I didn't like the way it was looking.

I like the grid effect itself, which looks great from a distance, but when you look closer I'm not happy with the cream coloured thread that I've used.

I ordered some darker thread which has finally arrived but now I can't decide whether to unpick it all and try again with the new thread or just go with it and see how it turns out.

There are 14 lines which are 78" long and 18 lines which are 62" long giving a grand total of 2208" or 61 feet of quilting to be unpicked!!!

When you put it that way I think I'll just grit my teeth and go with it.

Back to school

I moved back to Durham this weekend to get some work done before term starts next week. Being a university town means that it's eerily quiet around here out of term time but the peace does mean that you end up getting a lot done (the peace and the fact that the bar isn't open!).

I've redesigned my banner (do you like it?) and I've managed to make a start on the quilting of my bear paw quilt.

It's larger than I'm used to (86"x70") and it takes a lot of effort to get it through my little machine but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end. 

I'm the only one in the flat so I've commandeered the kitchen for sewing purposes.

The positives are that I have more space, there's wifi, it's festively decorated with a mixture of Alice in Wonderland and Halloween bunting and the tea and biscuits are only a couple of steps away. On the downside, we live on the ground floor so I have the bored porter lurking outside my window giving me "helpful" advice.

Just before I came back I went to The Fat Quarters and they had 20% off everything! I picked up a jelly roll in Bella neutral colours and started wondering what this quilt would look like with plain paws and a patterned background. It was just too tempting so I bought the jelly roll and some coordinating fabric to have a go.

The fabric is from the Zippity Doo Dah range by Sandy Gervais. Two of the neutrals match the cream and tan confetti pieces perfectly so I can't wait to see how it comes together.

Rural Jardin coming together

I finally got a chance to squeeze in a bit of sewing between lectures and coursework and have managed to get all my bear paw blocks stitched together in rows. Here are 4 out of the 5 rows pinned up on my notice board (the fifth didn't fit)

I really like the neutral plain in the background, it goes a long way to offset the busyness of some of the prints. These strips will be sashed together with the same width sashing as the separate blocks and then bordered with a double width strip.

I think the "paws" themselves have come out quite well. They look a little disjointed with the large prints:

But I think they work really well with the smaller, more even prints:

I'm going to leave these up on the board so that I see them constantly, Hopefully that will encourage me to get them finished sooner!

Decisions, decisions...

I think I may have been a little too optimistic in thinking that I could get this top finished in 2 days. The sashing is taking a lot longer than I expected.

I've been stitching away like a maniac but have completely neglected to do any laundry, organizing or packing for my move this weekend.  Now the question is do I carry on sewing and throw all my dirty washing into bin bags to move or do I do the sensible thing and pack up the machine?

But I love my little machine so much .....

The last leg of a sewing marathon

I'm determined to get this quilt layered up before I have to move back into the university accommodation on Saturday.  I won't have the space to do any layering there unless I sweet talk the staff into letting me use the dining room tables.

So, marathon sewing sessions it is.  I've been sewing non stop every night after work and I've turned my lovely pile of dog eared strips into 80 beautiful bear paws.  Here's a selection of them:

Whites and reds

Reds

Blues

Light blues

I'm not sure which group I like best but they've all exceeded my expectations. The background colour is Moda's Bella Solid in Stone and it seems to be doing a fantastic job of setting off the Rural Jardin fabrics.  Sashing tomorrow night and then I'm getting close to the finish line.

Jelly teddy bear paws

This week I've started work on my Rural Jardin quilt.  I thought I would share a bit of my process so you could see what's going on between posts. 

I knew I wanted to do a bear paw style block so first I figured out how to split it up into strips.

Then I drew up the pattern in Photoshop to see if it was going to work with this fabric.  This step can be a bit of a faff but I'm still a bit too new to this to jump right in.  The photoshop version can be seen in one of my previous posts.

I cut all my strips and started dog earing them all to get the points.

I'm almost done with my points, only the 2 1/2" squares left to do.  I just love how they look all stacked up together.

USPS excitement

I came home from work to a big pile of USPS flat rate envelopes.  They're fairly hefty when they're stuffed to the gills - I could barely get through the door!

After some frantic ripping and excited bobbing around (I can't sit still when I'm excited) I discovered my lovely fabric purchases from Missouri Star Quilt Company and Fat Quarter Shop.

This is what happens when you're bored at work and have an active internet connection!  First up is the lovely yardage from Fat Quarter Shop.

The top two are from the Rural Jardin range by French General and the bottom is a Bella Solid in Stone (both from Moda).  I bought the jelly roll at my LQS a couple of weeks ago but I was too late to get enough yardage for backing and she doesn't stock any of the plains which is why I went on an internet spree.  

I came up with an idea and - with some fancy photoshop jiggery pokery - this is what my quilt will look like:

Well, at least this is what it SHOULD look like.  There's no way my points will line up that cleanly!  Next was the package from the Missouri Star girls.  I love their packages because they always have handwritten notes in them.

It's a layer cake of Bella solid in Snow which is going to be put with a Verna layer cake that I've had sitting around for ages.  I'll wave my photoshop wand and try and give you a preview of that quilt too.