Spiders

Do you think these rare Australian spiders

will make it through customs?

Edit: These are off to Jane for the Spooktacular Halloween Block Swap!

At the Retreat recently I was able to continue work on a project I started at the last retreat held in April. I blogged about it here. Working with so many different fibres and weights was difficult and I finally decided to stabilise the fabrics with lightweight interfacing. Overall I am happy with the results, although as I had already cut all my pieces, I had to cut the interfacing the same and then iron it to the back of each piece, except the four patches were already sewn together so they have just one piece. It was like cutting the quilt out all over again.

The blocks are laid out to continue the piecing...

The interfacing...

This is coming together nicely, but taking too long... no more swaps! (sigh) I need to be independently wealthy so I can totally indulge myself in my sewing... maybe one day...

Cheers

Shari

The retreat seems so long ago now as it was all work and taking kids to the doctors and all that sort of thing this week! Whew!

So I did manage to finish a quilt this week. The bulk of the work was done at the retreat with the hand sewing of the binding done at home. This is a 48 inch by 60 inch child's quilt that is going to Italy and hopefully won't have missed the deadline.

I did something interesting with this quilt. I sewed the squares in to rows. I pin-basted the wadding to the backing. I then sewed/quilted in one step to add the rows to the wadding/backing using a stitch and flip method. I've done this with smaller projects and it occurred to me to try it with a larger project. In theory it should work. One thing I didn't do was put a guideline on the wadding which I will do if I do this again, although overall the drift was hardly noticeable and only because I went looking for it.

Wadding and backing...

Lots of pinning...

Lots of pinning at corners...

Like rows of soldiers...

That's a lot of pins! Thank goodness for a Kwik Klip!

Cheers

Shari

Sneak Peak

Early Quilt

I've seen a few 'first quilts' on blogs lately so decided to show you this. This is my second finished quilt (the first was a Barbie quilt and it is in the possession of one of my daughters).

I traced a tumbler out of a quilt book which I then traced onto fabric. I added the seam allowance with a clear quilter's quarter and cut them out with scissors. I then hand-stitched them together in rows. I used scraps from my grandmother's box and made two of each fabric. I laid them out in opposites so where they met in the middle row were two of the same (the tee-pee fabric). I then added some old curtain off-cuts (not from my curtains but picked up from a neighbour). I padded it with an old mattress protector but did not pad the borders.

(Yes, I still have that hideous rug...)

I tied it at the corners with a cross-stitch of embroidery thread - very tedious!!

I made if for the bench seat in my Tarago (a.k.a. Previa) and I did not pad the edges so it could be tucked into the seat easier.
This was about 1996 or 1997. It's lasted pretty well, but I have just noticed a couple of spots that will need a patch.

The nine-patch below is published just for Jane to show her I am working on my Halloween blocks for the swap. I'm not going to show my other block just yet - it will be a surprise!

The winter weather has been sunny and warm during the day, but really cold at night. The warmish days are forecast for all week, with an occasional shower. Hope you are enjoying the weather where you are...

Cheers

Shari