I'm back and guess what I've finished?!

I realise that the title for this particular blog might be Stephen King's Shining-esque but it's how I feel at the moment. I'm so glad to be back in the world of technology! I've trying to catch up with everything I've missed but first things first - Kermet and Miss Piggy broke up?! Say it isn't so!

The detox is actually continuing for another two weeks but at least I'm now allowed to use technology again. Let's hope the migraines start to behave now.

Any way, back to quilt news. On the days when I was able to do something practical I got on with the  double pinwheel king-sized quilt and guess what? Yep, the top is pieced, the binding is made and the back is pressed. Short of pre winding the bobbins, I'm ready for basting! I (and probably you) never though this moment would arrive.

I'm not a fan of basting (is anyone?) but I have my semi-willing assistant poised and ready to assist so hopefully it shouldn't take too long.

I would show you a picture of the top but, hand on heart, I actually don't have anywhere big enough to lay it all out fully. I've renamed it "Big Momma" in honour of its size. It's 102" by 120" so it's going to be a squeeze to even bast it in halves on our conservatory floor. If we manage it I'll try and take pics.

In the meantime here's a reminder of what a quarter of it looks like. Please excuse the feet.

And here's it all scrunched up as I finished sewing the last 6" border on.

Two finishes in eight months isn't bad right? Oh dear.

So close I can touch it: double pinwheel block

After a lot of grumbling, moaning and prevarication, the end is almost in sight for the king-sized double pinwheel commission.

All of the blocks are pieced and sewn into quarters. Rather than sewing 12 rows of 10 together I decided to split the quilt into four blocks and sew 6 rows of 5. Then all I have to do is sew the quarters together and put the border on. Simples!

Here's one of the quarters. Excuse the feet please. 

It was only when I was laying the quarters out that I realised quite how big this quilt was going to be; even without it's border on I'm struggling to find floor space big enough to lay it all out on.

Rather than do my usual all-over quilting which would be incredibly time consuming and leave the quilt rather stiff and with little drape, I've decided instead to straight line quilt it using a walking foot. I think I'm going to echo quilt the diagonals rather than the horizontal or vertical lines.

I've found the perfect Aurifil variegated thread in 4650 which is called "Leaves" apparently. All I know is that it's the right combination of red and green with a little yellow/cream mixed in. Sadly there's no blue in it but, as the key colour here was meant to be green, I can live with that.

Perhaps one day I can show you a picture of a finished quilt?!

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th August.

Pumpkins and pastures

I've snuck ahead in the Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage sew along by piecing next week's blocks early. Although, by the time this blog goes live they'll be last week's blocks. So perhaps I'm behind. Doh.

I can't believe we're up to "P" already in this sew along.

First up is Out to Pasture, a deceptively simple looking block which actually has a partial seam in it. See that innocent looking turquoise strip to the right? Yep, that sucker is a partial seam. I'm always terrified that my two halves of a seam won't match up but they do. Phew!

Next is Patchwork Pumpkin, which called for 30 different orange fabrics. Now, I have a bit of an orange phobia (which I have promised Molli Sparkles that I will resolve one day) so don't have 30 different orange scraps lying around. Instead I used 5 different orange FQs 6 times. Hope that's ok?

I think they came out rather well despite the hidden little challenges?!

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th August.

Curvemaster: the curate's egg

This month's GenX Quilters Moccasin block is a curvy variation on a simple nine patch.

 After weeks of straight lines it's good to do something even a little bit curvy! Plus I thought this was an excellent opportunity for me to whip out my Curvemaster foot and give it a whirl.

To cut out the pieces for the patches I used my freezer paper method for tracing templates. This involves tracing the template onto freezer paper, trimming to size with scissions, ironing the freezer paper onto the fabric and then cutting carefully around with a rotary cutter. To avoid cutting my template I mark both the "true" shape and then the larger seam allowance shape outside of the "true" shape. When cutting I line my 1/4" mark on my ruler cut with the "true" shape. A few rotary cutter passes later and I had all my pieces ready to go.

The first step in using the Curvemaster foot is (unsurprisingly) to fit it to your machine. Despite the instructions on the packaging and website, it soon became clear that the foot wouldn't just snap onto Naomi the Janome's ankle. The little bar on the foot (no idea what the technical term is) just wasn't wide enough to fit Naomi's ankle (she's a 8200QC if anyone's interested). 

With a bit of trial and error (and some very careful tightening with a screwdriver) I discovered that the number 4 ankle supplied with the Curvemaster could replace Naomi's standard ankle and then the Curvemaster foot would snap on. 

The next issue was getting the fabric to feed evenly. I'm not sure whether this problem was caused by me choosing the wrong adapter but the two layers of material wouldn't feed even through the machine about 30-50% of the time. Instead the top layer would feed through but the bottom layer would remain static. After a while I was reduced to starting sewing a good 1/8" into my block just to get the feed dogs to bite, backstitching back to the edge of the fabric and then going forwards again. Sometimes even that didn't work.

On the occasions when the material did feed properly, the Curvemaster works like a pro, zipping around those curves and fitting convex and concave pieces together beautifully. Yes, it takes a bit of practice but doesn't anything worthwhile in life?

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th August.

Thread love and loyalty

Thread is the centre of the universe. It makes up the core of the earth and holds the planets together. The sun wouldn't shine without thread.

Ok, so I may be over-stating the issue slightly but isn't thread what holds all our projects together? What would a log cabin block or a Dresden plate be without thread? Just a pile of scraps!

I'm fairly picky when it comes to thread because I want my projects to last. I choose the highest quality fabrics and batting so it only makes sense that I choose quality for my thread too.

I piece exclusively with Aurifil 50wt, usually in either 2024 or 2021. I understand that the technical names for these colors are natural white and white but to be honest they seem pretty interchangeable to me!

After a recent rummage through my spools i also discovered a couple of rogue colours - a navy/indigo which I used to piece a white and blue Jacob's ladder, a mini spool of blonde caramel 2000 and a 2600 dove grey which I think I picked up last year at the Festival of Quilts. I think i was planning to branch out away from 2024/2021 with the 2600 dove grey but after a year it's still sitting there! They're still Aurifil 50wt of course. I haven't gone completely crazy.

For quilting I've tried cotton but it always seems to break. I tend to quilt all over quilting patterns in very curvy designs (spirals, paisley, feathers etc) which means that there's a lot of thread build up. Cotton tends to break easily when you quilt over the same line. 

Instead I use Isacord which is a polyester mono fibre. It comes in a variety of colours, of which I've so far used navy, purple, grey and my ubiquitous white. You can quilt over and over and it doesn't break. Perfect! 

Finally I seem to have a random spool of verdant green from Gutermann and some natural white Superior quilting thread. Heaven knows where this came from but I suspect it was a freebie. And it'll probably live at the bottom of my thread box forever more. Or until I run out of thread. But probably the former. 

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th Auagust.

Hmm, blue ice cream - my favourite

I'm madly trying to catch up with my various block of the month projects. I'm so behind that it's going to take a while.

I have managed to do June's block (eek!) for the Fat Quarter Shop Snapshots BoM. This one is called "Triple Scoop Sunday" and features my favourite flavor of ice cream - blue.

It's fairly simple to put together and as always with this project, it took almost as long to cut the pieces out as it did to see the block together. 

It also comes in at a fairly hefty 12.5" by 16.5" which is nice and chunky. 

Kind of like how I like my ice cream - blue with chunks. 

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th Auagust.

Trans chicken and technicolor milk

First up this week are two blocks from the Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage sew along project. And they're slightly unusual...

First up - Mama Hen. Now I've not lived there for a while but I'm a country girl at heart and I know a hen when I see one. And that doesn't look like any female chicken I've seen.

When I showed it to my (very gay) housemate he nodded wisely and said "ah yes, missing the wattle but with the comb? It's a mid transition trans chicken." I'm not sure which direction its heading in but it's certainly confused at the moment. But I'm sure we all celebrate it becoming the chicken it was always meant to be. 

Next up is the Milking Day block. Again, the straw-chewing bit of me is frowning at that technicolor milk churn and wondering how hygienic it can be compared to the stainless steel version but I've got to admit that it's cuter! And yes, the Scottie dogs are back floating around in liquids. It's almost a tradition now.

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th Auagust.