Quilty Folk Quilt Along

I finally finished my prints on solids quilt, which I am very happy with. At the time I was making it, I planned to hand quilt it and my local quilt shop recommended using 100% bamboo batting. In the end I could not get my quilt stitches to look as nice as I wanted, so I gave up and straight line quilted it with my walking foot instead. However, I found the bamboo batting very messy to deal with and I was constantly sneezing. I also find it rather cold - it seems to wick body heat away - has anyone else experienced this? I won’t be using 100% bamboo batting ever again.

 I quilted this in a cross-hatch diagonal with my walking foot.

I love the brown and orange backing which I found as a remnant at my local quilt shop.

I’ve decided to join Audrey’s - Quilty Folk - slow quilt along. 

I have admired her work for many years and this is a chance to learn how to be a lot more creative with my quilts.

Applique will be a first for me.  Hand quilting is an almost first - even though I have tried to do it Audrey’s way several times in the last year.

The QAL starts with creating your own fabric background for the centre of a medallion quilt. I like medallion quilts to be square so I pieced a 20” by 20” piece of fabric from cream value prints left over from a wedding quilt I made for my sister, plus a piece of a fat quarter that I originally purchased when I planned to make one of Lynne’s - Patchery Menagerie - pieced birds quilts.

20" by 20" creamy value background

After I pieced my centre I felt it looked too regular, so I cut it down the middle and sewed one side upside down to the other.

I’ll have a lot more seams than Audrey has, but I like the look better than my original effort.

Confession: I haven't pulled a lot of fabrics from stash as suggested by Audrey.  I have a few uglies that I want to use, but my stash is really small by the standards of other quilters.  I generally buy only to make the quilt I have in mind and as you will see below, I am rapidly running out of scrap fabric for another project.  My intention, therefore, is to haunt garage sales, thrift shops and any 'estate sales' to build up what I have.  I feel I'm starting behind the eighth ball here, but will not let that put me off!

I’m linking to the QAL on Audrey’s website, and I’m excited to see where this takes me. I have never taken part in a QAL before and this will take some self-discipline to keep me on track.

Other projects

Thorny roses is having some time out, and has had time out for quite a while. I need to make two more blocks. But I got a bit tired of it, and then got distracted by making a fairy quilt for my granddaughter’s birthday. 

I found the panel at a garage sale for $3.50 and coordinating fabric at the same garage sale for a total of $6.00. I did have a go at hand quilting this little quilt and just made things up as I went along. I can't remember the last time that I actually used a quilt pattern for anything, so I am pleased with my progress on just designing my own quilts.

An old fashioned fairy panel.  I hand quilted parts of the fairy panel.

I made a heart template and traced hearts in the borders which I then hand quilted.  I also made templates for butterflies which I hand quilted in the fairy panel.

I’ve also been bitten by a bug to piece scrap blocks together for another quilt that I’ve wanted to do for some time. I was spurred into action when I took another look at Terry Rowland's video for her scrap blocks. After also watching Karen from Just Get it Done quilts make her adding tape strips to use up her scraps, I’ve devised a scrappy border. This quilt will need 400 3.5” (finished) blocks and around 18 adding tape strips for borders. I won’t be attempting a colour wash and have instead opted for a light/dark cross-hatch look.

The first 100 4" blocks which will finish at 3.5", plus the first of the adding paper borders.  The pieced borders will have a 1 inch skinny border on each side.  Colour and fabric to be determined.

The second 100 blocks.  I felt I needed a lot more dark blocks.

The first 50 mostly dark blocks.  I like the moody look of the dark blocks.  All will be mixed up together, of course.  At the moment I am just putting them up on my 'design wall' as I make them.

By the way - many thanks to my local stationery supplier for splitting a four pack of adding tape stock to sell me just one for my needs - they didn't have to do it, and I am very grateful.  I've promised to show them the finished quilt!

I have made 250 blocks so far, and 16 strips for the borders. I’m obsessed with finishing it.

As you can tell, I am on a mission to use up all my scraps and old fabrics. Believe it or not, I am running out of scraps but I am determined not to buy any new fabrics. This means cutting into some yardage, but that’s okay. Also, my gorgeous younger son surprised me on my birthday with 20 fat quarters, six new blades for my rotary cutter, and a packet of needles for my sewing machine - what a gem he is!  I'll be cutting some strips from these.

I’m also still churning out a few knitted hexies for the hexie flower blanket experiment. Trouble is, this takes me away from quilting. But I tend to do that in the evenings when I need less light and can knit in front of the television.

In the last few weeks I have also been really pleased to see that one of my favourite bloggers is back after going silent for a few months. Trudi from the Objects of Design is so creative. I absolutely love her quilts. She must have a phenomenal fabric stash too. If you haven’t read her blog, please take time to check it out. She is posting daily at the moment. She has a wry sense of humour and always makes me chuckle.