Playing Catch Up

I am now officially on my Summer break, my workshops are done and I have a free run through until July when I start all over again!

Three weeks ago I told you about my Foundation Piecing workshop - I intended this to be individually tailored to the needs of the students, to have them leave at the end of the day feeling more confident about foundation/paper piecing. Last week, a coupe of ladies showed me their projects.

This is Lesley's Compass project - Lesley completed my Beginners' Course in March so I think you will agree she really took on a challenge, isn't it stunning?

Wendy has completed her project by making a bound cushion - she tells me that this pattern took her out of her comfort zone and built her FP confidence - result!! She made this as a Christmas project, can you spot the subtle Santas?

Last Thursday was my final workshop before Summer - I advertised it as an introduction to Cathedral Windows, by hand, and was overwhelmed at the interest. First of all I had to hone my own skills and bought this book by the wonderful Lynne Edwards.

This is a truly beautiful book that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. I considered the methods in the book to be the "proper & traditional" way to construct a CW unit. I almost fell at the first fence though when my first fabric sample refused to behave and lie flat. I tried again using a printed cotton, success. I was cooking with gas and completed a pincushion that I thought would be a great starting point for the class.

I continued to research other methods and discovered most online tutorials make their CW units using a square of card and a folding technique, so I tried it and had 100% success. On the day I decided to go with the card method and if time allowed, which indeed it did, the ladies could try the more trad route. Those who did try the traditional way had complete success - shows what a numpty I am!

Taking guidance from both the internet, and Lynne Edwards, I prepped another sample that I think will go on to be my holiday project - it is a combination of Cathedral Windows and Secret garden units and you can see the Secret Garden colours beginning to peek through behind the windows. (It is actually straight & flat just a useless photo.)

And here is a finished pinnie, made by Freda, I am hoping the others will let me see their finished pinnies too.

Since last Thursday we have had a Bank Holiday weekend, sun shone and in between family stuff, I managed a few hours to myself sewing ...........

I quilted my Mod Pop leftovers cushion in a sort of square spiral - I rushed at it and next time would go a bit slower, but I enjoyed it immensely and would explore this quilting style again.

I finished up my foundation pieced hexies - I did plan to EPP these together but found that despite the 3/8" seam allowance, the outer edges had too many seams to allow neat folding so I machined them together. Not sure where I am going with this, applique will give me the same problem so I might draft the right shapes to square it all up. I have a notion I might make it the centre of a new quilt, but it is just a notion at the moment.

And lastly, Mod Pop inches forward. On Sunday I cut  my wadding into three big chunks and using my bed as the best space, I laid out the three sections of quilt. I also managed to prep the backing fabrics too.

Today I got started on the actual quilting - when I made my Strippy a few months back I quilted it in three main sections, each one the full length of the quilt. I was nervous about the quilting at the time, thinking my heavy straight line style might cause the fabric to "creep" but it behaved perfectly. Not so today. It became obvious that the pieced section was going to move so I unpicked my first couple of rows of quilting and repinned, I also quilted from the centre out to each end and things were a lot better. This is the first quilt I have done on Bertha, my new machine, and so far, I am loving her, she has such power!!

So that's me all caught up - can I just say thank you to anyone who took the trouble to go and vote for me in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival - I appreciate it, and hope you enjoyed visiting all the great quilts on show.