Emma's Cot Quilt

I have finished sewing together the top of Emma's Cot Quilt. I am so happy to finally be making some progress with this quilt, it seems like I've been working on everything else but this recently. I love the chevrons, I will defo be making this pattern again. Spot the deliberate mistake in the top left corner. I spent FOREVER sewing and resewing all the pieces so no two fabric patterns were together (or so I thought!). I didn't notice the error until after I'd sewn the whole quilt top. It actually made me laugh out loud because I've been so particular about it. I've decided to live with it (and Emma won't notice!).

 

Here's a close up. Look at the points of those triangles, what a relief!

 

 

This last one boggles the eye.

I'll be hitting the fabric shops of York tomorrow for the backing and binding! Yippee!

Half Square Triangle Layouts

I've finally finished trimming my half square triangles (hst), so I'm ready to start sewing them together. Yay! I've spent most of this afternoon trying a few different layouts in my design space (aka the lounge floor). Each hst is made up of one 'dark' and one 'light' fabric, unfortunately I think my fabric choices were a bit too similar so it lacks a bit of contrast! When I started these blocks I had in mind that I'd do chevrons. First I tried keeping the chevrons the same fabric right across the quilt. It looks quite nice in this photo, but just didn't really work in real life. Too bold.

Then I tried pairing the 'dark' fabrics, so the blues together, the pinks together, the greens together. This didn't work as I didn't have a pair for all the fabrics. Hmm.

I then gave up on the hst idea and tried pinwheels. I wasn't happy with this either. It looks too confused, again because the contrast between the 'dark' and 'light' fabrics isn't bold enough.

 

I then had one more go with the chevrons, using a random layout of all the 'darks' and all the 'lights' for each chevron. I think I'm happiest with this pattern, what do you think?

 

 

I think I've learnt a lesson here from this quilt - contrast, contrast, contrast! I'm not giving up though, I will carefully choose a binding fabric and hopefully that will make the colours in the final quilt really pop.

 

 

A Busy Day

I booked a days annual leave from work today so that I could crack on with my stained glass window. The lovely Tim ordered me some cut running pliers online, which are used to break the glass along a scored line. Typically they haven't been delivered (they should have arrived on Saturday) so my plans were scuppered. Most annoying.

I didn't want to waste the day so I decided to get cracking on cutting the lovely fabric I've bought for Emma's quilt. I've sewn half square triangles. Why did nobody warn me how labour intensive the cutting, sewing, then re-cutting these blocks are? Harrumph! It has taken FOREVER! Anyway, here are the results of today's hard work - lovely, square, 4 inch blocks (and a huge pile of trimmings).

 

 

Quilting Is Catching!

My younger sister (Minnie Loves...) asked that I show her how to quilt. We made a start this weekend. She has decided on a half square triangles (hst) pattern. I must say her cutting was not the most accurate I have ever seen. Somehow none of the pieces seemed to fit together! Here she is hard at work.

As she loves anything vintage she has been collecting old fabrics for a while. She has got some gorgeous, retro, 1970s prints. Yeah!

She decided to use plain white to contrast with the prints so each block will be half 70s print and half white. I think it's going to be lovely. Good Luck Anna!