End of FAL Quarter 2

I am sneaking in here under the wire with a finish for the FAL quarter ending June.

I have just refreshed my memory as to the rules and also to my pledges to finish - didn't realise I had said four!! If you go HERE you will see the four projects I hoped to tackle.

I did quickly produce a finish early on in the quarter but it was only a pincushion so I am not counting that one seriously.

My Biscornu pinnie

The main focus of the quarter was my Mod Pop quilt that I started I think back in September with Leanne. I always knew I wouldn't be able to keep up as I only squeeze in personal sewing between class stuff and I had a busy class schedule last year. However, classes ended at the end of March so I made an effort and finished up the piecing.

This is what I had done by the beginning of April............

I always intended to quilt this in chunks and join them in a QAYG manner - so before I set off on holiday in early June, I managed to complete and quilt the three sections I had divided Mod Pop in to. My original plan was to make the great big version but I adapted a bit and have ended up with a quilt that is about 84" square.

I really need to learn quilt photography - we have had shocking weather here this week (heating on Tuesday for an hour, unheard of!!) so no chance of a really nice outdoor pic.

Can you see the two joining strips? I don't think they spoil the overall pattern, it just makes it so much more of a pleasure for me to tackle the actual quilting knowing I don't have to manhandle a great big quilt about.

On the back I used two bargain buys, a beige houndstooth by Barbara Jones for Quilt Soup (?) and Innocent Crush by AMH. I also had to use a wee bit of Kate Spain's Fandango (another bargain buy)

The pattern for this quilt is by Julie Pickles and you can find it for sale in her Etsy shop. Even although I teach P & Q I haven't done all that much curved piecing, a little Drunkard's Path but not a lot. I bought Julie's plastic templates for this project and did my cutting in many sessions with a smaller rotary cutter. My piecing confidence grew and I ended up chain piecing with no pins (thanks Leanne). Some of my patches & blocks looked a bit rough around the edges but I found overall that the block pattern was quite forgiving and I always live in hope that imperfections will "quilt oot", a favourite saying in these parts amongst quilters.

I had been a bit slapdash when I cut my backing and in places around the edges things were not as even as they might have been. I didn't want to trim too much as I would lose too much of the patches so I decided to go for a wider cut binding. When I started quilting I always cut my binding to 3" and eventually realised that I had way too much on the back. But I decided on 3" for Mod Pop and sewed it on using a 3/8" seam allowance. This covered the imperfections. As I had a FAL deadline in mind I decided against hand sewing the binding down - something I usually enjoy - and thought I would try machine stitching it on the right side in the ditch. Those of you who know me well know that I hate in the ditch quilting. I see it suggested in so many books as if it's easy peasy for beginners but so often you end up out of the ditch and stressed out with sore shoulders. But I have a ditch foot with my new machine and I wasn't afraid (yes I was) to use it. Well, the black guide was right up against the binding but the stitches were pretty visible and wasn't always catching the back binding. Hmmm...........I changed to my plastic craft foot, but the combination of glare, poor eyesight and beige on beige fabric had me gritting my teeth. Hmmmph...........I changed to my lovely open toed walking foot, discarded binding clips and pins and eyeballed my progress from there.....much better although not 100% catching on the back. I just went back over those wee bits though. 

So as I often say, every day a school day. Could do better.

Still have that nice feeling that I have a finish and I am happy to link to Leanne's FAL.

PS (Didn't even look at the other two projects - Fail!)