I am not very happy with the quilting. Am in two minds whether to rip the machine stitching and do the white border by hand. I do think it would be worth the while. The shabby quilting adds no value to the quilt. I also need to block it and add a label. All this will have to wait. I have had enough of it for now!
One more thing…every quilt needs a name. What do you suggest for this?
I posted just a couple of hours ago and I am back again and this is the reason why!
My red and white miniature quilt top is ready! It finishes at 10″x 10″ and has 505 pieces, including the 4 pieces for the white inner border.
The border was the most insane bit of paper piecing I have ever done and I would not even have attempted it had I not chanced upon the most wonderful free tutorial and pattern for the delectable mountain border here. She has the cleverest way of paper piecing! I had such a ‘duh’ moment when I saw what she does. This technique will come in really useful in my Nearly Insane blocks and I will definitely share it with you when I use it. By the way, I have not used the pattern given on the buzzinbumble.com website, only her technique. My ‘blocks’ for the border finish at 1″x 2″, whereas her patterns are for larger (though still mini) blocks.
I will also never, never, ever make a border like this again. Once is enough, in fact, more than enough!
Now for the quilting? How on earth can this be quilted? Hand quilting will look pretty, but I do not relish the idea of trying to push the needle through those seams by hand. I do need suggestions!
What do you do as a quilter when you owe your Queen Bees something for their block parties? Try to sweeten up things a bit, right?
Queen Bee for Desi Quilters Bee Desi for September, Vidya had to wait till now for her block! For not killing me, she gets this little Scottie (whom she has named Patchy) to guard the felt farm animals she is making for her grand-daughter.
I had the pattern from my first patchwork book “All About Patchwork” (published Marshall Cavendish Ltd., London 1973).
It is made with 1.5″ squares from a jelly roll, partly machined, partly hand sewed; the ears and tail are paper pieced! It uses 92 squares – 30 for either side and 32 for the centre strip. I would highly recommend EPP if you decide to make this yourself. Sew the toy shapes first (remember to reverse the front and back!) and then join the 32 square strip.
My only regret – wish I had used brighter fabric for it – it should probably look delightful in bright solids.
October Queen Brinda deserved something for not asking me even once for her block. Since she celebrates Christmas in a big way, I made her this little festive quilt which could be used as a mat. Or she could use it as a wall quilt, if she added a sleeve.
I was inspired by a mini-quilt I saw on flickr.com, but am sorry am unable to trace it now:-) Shall add the acknowledgement as soon as I find it again. The 4-patch blocks are 1.5″ square made by my easy/ quick 4-patch method, which I shall tell you about in another blog! The buntings are fused using Heat and Bond (red). A few buntings are 3-dimensional, made by adding fabric to the back and attaching them only on the top. Brinda is a great hand quilter, so I wanted to add a bit by hand to it. So I embroidered tiny motifs in gold thread. This was the first time I did whole quilt by my new Brother, so it is not as neat as I would wish, but…
So, we come to November.
I made a block in prints instead of solids for Queen Nirmala.
And made this little scissors cozy to make her feel a little better
(Psst…do you recognise the prints from Vidya’s Scottie? I used the one inch strip leftover from the jelly roll after cutting 1.5″ squares to make this 😉 )
For December, I was not late 🙂
But…the mess that I made of poor Elvira’s block is really nobody’s business. Besides cutting it wrong and sewing wrong pieces together, I had a lot of thread tension problems, which no amount of fiddling with the tension knob could sort. Adding to my woes, I could not find my 1/4″ seam! I would have made her another block, but I had no other black cotton thread and a friend told me it was not available in the market either. Perhaps Elvira, who sews so beautifully, will be able to tell me how to adjust my machine!
The only good thing was that I had a lot of hsts – a by-product of Elvira’s flying geese, besides a few rectangles left over. I decided to put them together to make a mini quilt for Elvira. I do think it looks quite Amish, I wish I had the confidence to do some more quilting on it!
So those were the gifts I really enjoyed making! Before I sign off, here is wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
Am mulling over making a miniature sampler with all the blocks I’ve ever wanted to do! I’ll keep the squares 5″ – actually 6 is a better size (divisible by 3 – gives more options)
Part of Block 1 is here – a mini compass that shall be appliqued on a square background!
Here is Block 2 – 3″ diameter – again would need to be extended to make a square…
Let’s see what I do next! Maybe a kaleidoscope?
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