And a cushion for luck

I finished the bed runner and thought it looked a bit strange on its own, so I whipped up a little cushion to go with it with the scraps and bits left over.

Nearly there!

Ok my last post was in draft for two weeks after being on holiday for my grandads/husbands big birthdays - born exactly 50 years apart in the same day.
But I finally sat down to the runner again this weekend after really missing it.

Its looking pretty!

I finished the top of the runner yesterday, hibernating in my sewing (spare) room most of last Saturday afternoon and evening, but I'm really proud of how it turned out in the end :)I added some trimmed grey bias tape as flat piped edging (thanks to this great video tutorial)

The piping was re-ironed pre made bias tape and I sewed it using the needle slightly right to centre to minimise the seams & it worked really well I think.

Not the dirty kind of stripping

The complicated part of the runner is finished! Once I got all the measurements right it all fit together with little problems along the way. Had a few times where the pinwheels were larger than the blanks but with a bit of careful pining, I minimised the pleat effects and got them together.
Here's what I did:

All the squares were sewn in strips according to the grand plan, if any overlapped with a large square pinwheel, I left them as much as strips as possible, sewing any single rows together and then onto the large squares (if that makes any sense!)

All planned out

Planned out my pinwheel runner at the weekend, so just need to trim all 90 of my white squares now, woo!

I must be mad

I caught myself properly thinking and planning a star & hexie bed runner last night. Am I flipping mental?! I've just finished the big one and I want to do more hexes still?!
Based on this one and hand stitched again...

I present to you: Mr Quilty!

The last stitch was sewn at 10 o’clock last night.!

Its only taken around 600 hours in 10 ½ months, nearly 940 hexies, around 100,500 stitches (!) but its FINISHED!

Mr quilty is on the home stretch!

All the quilting is done.

The edges of the wadding and backing were carefully trimmed to the shape of the new hexie edge (with the help of a few late night TV sessions)

I’ve sewn all the edging hexies on to the main body, remembering to reverse them rather than add them to the main section, so I can fold them over to make the hexie binding a la badskirt.

I’ve made the corner flower and label (newly embroidered for the occasion, the one I did 2nd time round was much nicer using a small running stitch rather than a weird loop lazy daisy type stitch) and that’s been stitched on with the binding edging.

Weekend fun & my fabric addiction

Had a long week without blogging, but back now :)

At the start of the week my husband too me to an aquarium for a pre-birthday treat (touched a rays nose!) so exciting like a five year old.

Had a fab birthday morning on my own, so dashed out to the local village, frustrated & unable to get a manicure anywhere, the fabric shop was open to save the day! Got some FQs and sample strips in the sale for my windy days runner & Christmas quilt for mum, yay birthday sale! Then had lovely afternoon with hubby & posh dinner in the evening (with much wine)

Bought some more sale strips in John Lewis, who've got some lovely Tanya Weylyn and Amy Butler pieces that I'll use for the runner.

Then had a super busy few days at work of meetings & big brain needing things for starting my new job in the next few weeks, not good when you're full of birthday cake...

But found the time through the week to experiment with embroidery from my new doodle stitching book (ignore the odd cat, it's very odd...)

Garden Quilting & Future Projects

My quilting’s going well, I had a gorgeous day in the garden on a blanket, quilting in the sun with a cup of coffee. I really got into the swing of it and got nicely brown in the process, all be it on my shoulders and on one arm as my other arm was underneath the quilt helping with my stab stitching.

Our pusskins was running about causing havoc with the birds and voles as usual, but kept on coming up to me to see what I was doing and as if asking me why I was sitting outside with the garden being her territory :)

Impatience of Mr Quilty

Knackered, fed & glass of wine in my hand, my quilt looked at me from it's coffee table perch all nicely folded...
Couldn't resist...



One (very wonky and uneven) flower down, 60 left!

Sammich time!

Having a childlike sense of humour & vocabulary, I like my title & how cute would it be to find a smiling sandwich on your lunchbox! :)

Here we go!

The quilt top is finished, I've sewn my last stitch joining all my hexies together. As I did, I was quite nostalgic and slightly sad about not handling my little guys again.
But onwards to the next stage!
(is it like a quilting right of passage, I now have a near adolescent school going quilt waiting for it's final additions and then out into the world eventually!)

Mr Quilty

I have absolutely no idea why my quilt takes a male persona but there you go...

Anyway...
It all started with this: