Memory Quilt: Block No. 8

Posted on 30th January 2017 by perfectly4med

No, you haven’t missed seven previous instalments – this is the first of nine blocks that I’ve tackled for a new memory quilt. I wanted to make a quilt as a ‘souvenir’ of our trip to the USA over Christmas – in addition to my travel journal which is yet to be finished…

We chose the fabric whilst away, in a lovely quilting shop, Stowe Fabric & Yarn, in Stowe, Vermont, and once I got home and had five minutes to myself, I started designing. It’s the first quilt I have made that uses appliqué techniques – and I’m going to need a bit more practice on my satin stitches I think. The quilt is going to feature nine appliqué panels, and here’s the first. No guesses as to which tourist venue this panel refers to…

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Quilt No. 018: ‘Great Expectations’

Posted on 4th January 2017 by perfectly4med

It has been 18 months in the making. Well, may be a couple of weeks in the actual making, but with lots of gaps! This is my first (and possibly last) double wedding ring quilt, made as a wedding gift to good friends. I missed the wedding deadline, and their first anniversary, but managed to get it finished for Christmas.

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Quilt No 017: Aldi Christmas Special

Posted on 23rd October 2016 by perfectly4med

I can’t believe it has been over a year since I have completed a quilt. That’s not to say I haven’t been quilting – I have a couple of tops that I have been procrastinating over (I really hate laying out and pinning), one of which is a year late being delivered (so sorry Beth and Mike!). These two table runners use Christmas-themed fat quarters that were part of Aldi’s recent ‘So Crafty’ promotion. You really can’t go wrong with six fat quarters for less than £4. They’re not necessarily patterns and contrasts that I would have chosen but after cutting them according to Barbara Chainey’s ‘Fast Quilts From Fat Quarters’ cutting plan, I put them together to make the main squares (12″x12″), before sashing and binding with left over fabric.

I used basic stitch-in-the-ditch quilting in the long table runner, and a holly leaf design of my own making for the shorter side table runner below. I actually quilted the smaller runner first, and had such a hard time marking the quilting pattern on the dark fabric that it put pay to more complex quilting on the larger.

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Quilt No 016: Scrappy Strip QAYG

Posted on 20th May 2015 by perfectly4med

I’m leading another quilt workshop at Quorn Country Crafts in Loughborough next month, and I decided to set myself the challenge of making a second sample in as short a time as I could (the first being here), to see how far an experienced quilter might get during the session. From start to finish, this small sampler took me just over 6 hours, including the quilting and hand binding. It measures 13″x24″ and used up some scrap fabric kindly donated by Sue who runs the shop. I took the opportunity to try some quilting designs I’d not attempted before, and given a little more time, I’d have done them a little more carefully (and across the whole of the quilt)! It’s somewhat eclectic, but quick to make as a sampler, and a great way to use up bits and pieces of fabric that languish in every quilter’s stash.

Quilt No. 15: Honey Meadow

Posted on 26th March 2015 by perfectly4med

Started just three weeks ago, I have just finished a mammoth session of hand-binding and have just the label to do to complete this superking size quilt (100″x84″) featuring Lewis & Irene’s Fabulous Forties Honey Meadow Fabric Roll for the centre panel, and yards of finest calico for the rest. I’ve learnt how to use Electric Quilt 7 for designing, how to make pintucks, make sure that I have the right machine needle for the top thread to avoid constant breakages, and that I really should have bought the 16″ long arm quilter I was drooling over at the NEC Hobbycraft show last week! I’ve also learnt that measuring twice and cutting once holds just as true for quilters as for carpenters! I hope to have a pattern sorted for the panel soon – I’ll add the link to this page when it’s ready 🙂

Scrap-Yard – Quilt No. 14

Posted on 5th March 2015 by perfectly4med

Ok, coming in at 15″x20″ this quilt is no where near a yard in size, but it is certainly made from scrap pieces of fabric that every quilter has in their stash (insisting they will come in useful at some point). I sort of made up my own rules to get all the scraps in place with a minimum of pressing or planning, before backing and binding it. It’s taken about 7 hours to make from start to finish.

I’ll be teaching my method at Quorn Country Crafts on Friday, 19th June, 2015 between 10-4pm – feel free to join the waiting list as apparently the initial class is already booked up!

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‘1704’ – Quilt No. 13

Posted on 27th February 2015 by perfectly4med

Notwithstanding a minor burn injury caused by not having my arm far enough away from the iron whilst folding the binding for this quilt, I’ve finished my sampler quilt for the workshop I am running at Quorn Country Crafts in Loughborough on 17th April. As you can see, it’s a nine 10×10″ panel quilt-as-you-go with contrast joining strips featuring continuous line free motion quilt patterns that I have adapted from my tangle patterns.

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Chocolate & Teal Puzzle Quilt Pattern

Posted on 24th February 2015 by perfectly4med

Just a quick note to say that my very popular Chocolate & Teal Puzzle Quilt now has a pattern available to download from my original post.

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The Imperfectionist’s Quilt

Posted on 22nd December 2014 by perfectly4med

The overlocker/serger has been flying away over the last couple of days. Buoyed by the success of my thread catcher, I decided to attempt a quilt using only the overlocker to make. Including making up my own design, working out how to quilt as I went, and all the ironing and cutting and hand-stitched binding, it has taken 14 and a half hours. I think that’s pretty fast! Feature fabric is a Fabric Freedom Noodles Roll (FJ-1/11 Sherbets), alongside calico sashing. The finished size is 44″ x 60″ and I used the majority of the jelly roll.

And the title? Well this made up pattern/technique does not have matching corners – which is just as well, as it’s fairly tricky to line things up on the overlocker as pins and overlockers don’t get on. So I know some quilt purists who would shudder at the thought of this, but I reckon it’s turned out ok! The alternate title is the noughts and crosses quilt… and it’s Quilt No. 011.

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Christmas Quilt 2014

Posted on 14th December 2014 by perfectly4med

I started this year’s Christmas Quilt earlier in the year, but it stalled, and as has started to become traditional, I spent a week in December finishing it off. I didn’t follow any particular pattern, being guided by the sizes of fabric pieces I had. After designing and cutting a stencil for the swirl and spending two days doing all the quilting on the calico border alone, I am so glad it’s finished. The overall quilt size is 56″ x 71″ (142cm x 180cm). The centre blocks are from fat quarters, with the borders added and mitred (finally got the hang of that!). There’s approximately 1 km of sewing thread, with 400m of quilting (I know this as I used exactly one 400m reel of the variegated gold/brown thread!).

I’m looking forward to the arrival of my ‘what do I get a man who has just about everything’ Christmas present, which after much thought is going to be …. an overlocker 🙂

I’m also going to be hosting a sewing/stitching/quilting session in the studio on Wednesday afternoons in the new year, so keep an eye on my workshops page if you’re interested in joining the group.

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