2 completed quilts

Today I can share 2 quilts that I am over the moon with, I have successfully quilted thanks to an amazing book      Machine Quilting with style by Christa Watson,    what a wonderful book   I had really thought I would never be able to do a large quilt on my domestic machine but success!
I started by quilting the 6 mini quilts I had made,  will add photos of these in a few days then moved on to the row quilt I did as a BOM with Little Bunny blog last year.  This I quilted with the walking foot and as it was in rows was not too bad to manipulate,  I used different patterns for each row,  maybe I should have done more quilting but quite pleased with how it is,  for now it will be on the spare bed along with others waiting to be quilted.

This is my scrap vortex quilt also made last year,  I just love scrappy,   this I quilted free motion with a sort of squiggle,  the stitches are not all the same size but I definitely improved as I went on with it,
My granddaughter Sal is 18 on Sunday and she is off to uni in September,  this might brighten up the halls of residence but will be more than happy to bring it home if she turns her nose up at it!  I will make a label and take it with me, if Sal decides she would like it I will sew it on

I think I mentioned in a previous blog that I now have my machine in my horn cabinet,  I am sure this has helped with the quilting as the machine is flat to the surface making it a bit easier to do.

My next quilting project is a baby quilt for a colleague of Helen`s,  not sure how I will quilt this will try and photo it better when quilted.

Once this is done I am on hold as I have used all the wadding,  I had a roll of recycled but wold like to get some warm and natural,  having priced it on line think I will have to do some saving first! I wonder what anyone else uses and what you recommend,  I have a small piece of the warm and bright which is polyester that I will use for a playmat,  it feels nice to touch but do not think there is much difference in price,  maybe it is good for baby quilts as it will be easy to wash and will dry quicker.

cats, hexies and flimsies

I have not managed to complete anything these past few weeks,  seem to have too many projects on the go at once,  I am sure most of you have the same problem!

The cat wall hanging is progressing   4 new blocks stitched,

I have used a different perle thread for each block,  some have worked better than others, hoping when completed it will be okay otherwise I will restitch some of them,  3 more to go and then the patchwork blocks to make sashing and borders to do   followed by the dreaded quilting!

I have also done the july hexie for the BOM
sorry not too good a photo,  thought I had taken one with the camera but can`t find it,  this is on the tablet and still learning with that but can at least email ti to myself to download to the blog   must be learning something.

I took part in the littlebunnyquilts blog row by row quilt,  I did not do it till this week,  prefer to collect the BOM posts and save till I have them all,  not sure about it,  the sashing and borders should be done in the background fabric which is a white on white but of course did not read the instructions fully when cutting out the blocks. They were all cut out together but the sashing and borders should have been cut first,  serves me right not enough fabric as you had to cut 2 76" lengths. I had to buy more and the shop had sold out so got a new roll but it is a different white to the first,  not to worry we decided on the bright pink instead, I think it works okay. It measures 54" x 76". The colours are brighter than they look here, think the second row is too wishy washy and noticed a mistake in it, not sure if I will correct it will decide later when I get around to quilting it.

Now here is the steps to the altar   also on a flimsy stage . It measures 56" x 70". I am not planning on a border   to be honest not planning to do anything with it for now,   dread layering it up and quilting it.  When I was doing embroidery I would complete each project before starting anything new   how times have changed.

I also did the scrap vortex quilt with crazymoms blog,  what a great way to use up scraps   now I need more. This is made up by adding scraps to. scraps until I got a block about 12.5", it measures 60" square   I loved doing this and can see me cutting fabric into scraps to do more

Off to Birmingham on friday for 2 days for the Festival of Quilts. Was not planning to go this year but had a change of heart,  wish I could have gone for the 4 days but too pricey,  no plans to buy any fabric but would like to get the loc bloc rulers,  HST and flying goose which also works on square in a square,  aparently it is much quicker using them and I do not enjoy trimming HST blocks I always cut mine a little bigger to allow for errors! .Last year I left it till the last day and they had sold out.  Hopefully we will soon have a supplier in this country that sells them rather than waiting till they come over form USA for the show.

I have 2 more sets of blocks waiting to be joined into 2 quilts,  one a square in a square project and the other a disappearing nine patch with a pinwheel in one corner of each block