I have recently joined the British Quilters Guild and this week attended my first meeting with the ladies of Region Six in Wokingham for a Christmas coffee morning. It was a very relaxed morning with a 'bring and buy' and a raffle, and then a wonderful 'show and tell'. Most of the ladies had brought something in, some works in progress, others completed items, all done recently. Some of the group has been doing a 'mystery block' project and they brought their quilt tops in. Although they had all used the same pattern, it was amazing to see how different they all turned out as they had all used fabrics to their own taste.
I look forward to next week meeting the Guild ladies of Oxfordshire and can't wait to see what treasures will be shown at the 'show and tell'
I have worked some more on my hexagon quilt, all the applique is now done and I have cut all the pieces for the first border. In my haste I decided to stitch the first row of blocks straight onto the thin border surrounding the centre panel and guess what.... I made no allowance for the return of the border on the adjoining sides, so my lovely little squares are now out by half a square at each end!
I did think I could fudge it, and no one will know, being small triangles in the square blocks I sewed half squares at the ends to 'fix' this, but then I thought that I cannot kid myself and that I would think about it everytime I look at this quilt and who needs constant reminders of their own mistakes? So tonight I have painstakingly unpicked it all so that I can have, if not a perfect border, one that is at least correctly sewn on.
I have started a new wallhanging, at least, the instructions are for a wall hanging, but knowing what I am like, I will probably find a way of turning it into a quilt. This is the pattern and I am so excited about the quilting possibilities in this one.
It has taken quite a long time to copy the design out onto my fusible web (I always use Steam-a-seam 2) and then even longer to cut out the intricate design. It is now, however, ironed into place and in the near future, I will machine applique it into place.
I am wondering whether I should stick to the flat colour black or make it look a bit more 3D with fabric paints or do some shading with quilting threads? But this must wait for another day....
I have also started a small wall hanging this week called "Coffee time" (not because I don't have enough sewing projects on the go, just that I didn't have any hand sewing to do now that I have finished all my hexagons).
The hand stitching kept me busy for 2 evenings and now it has joined all the other projects in the machine sewing pile.
This is what it looks like at the moment:
And then, I had to decide what my next hand sewing project is going to be. I have seen these lovely pumpkin dolls, made out of yo-yo's in Golden, just perfect for Halloween, and yes I know we have just had Halloween, but if I don't do it now, by next year October, I will be busy with some other project and probably not have time to prepare for halloween, so now seems like a really good time. So, I have cut my little squares, to be turned into yo-yo's for the arms and legs and have even started some of the yo-yo's during a car journey.
I am using the Clover yo-yo maker and they are turning out really lovely
Thank you for looking, if you liked what you've seen, please leave a comment. Enjoy your day :-)
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