Well this is it so far......

This is my quilt top, pieced. I'm not sure whether to make it bigger or not. It's currently 45" x 54". Now that I've seen that measurement written down, I'm almost certain I will make it bigger, possibly 54" square. It looks as though the seams are a bit wonky but it's just the way the quilt is lying, honest! However, I notice that some of the squares aren't cut straight, which is entirely my fault. Back to the drawing board.....

Now what to back it with? Should I use a fabric from the same fabric line or should I use bleached muslin? Decisions, decisions.....

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Accucut was my Christmas gift to myself and I opened it all this morning and Ive just had a chance to play with it! It's very accurate, which is good but I can't really say that it's quicker..... I've used the 5" square die as I want to do a charm quilt. I had to cut the fabric into 6" strips before I could put it through the machine so in my opinion, not really a lot quicker. But if anyone out there disagrees with me please let me know what I'm doing wrong!

Having said that though, I cut out 336 squares in about 30 minutes!

This is the tumbler quilt top all pieced together. Now I don't know how I'm going to quilt it as it won't go in my sewing machine. I do hope it won't sit in my sewing room for months before I can get it quilted.

My latest work in progress

This was a quilt kit bought from SFO quilter on etsy. The fabric is Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut line and there are 160 tumbler shapes in the kit. The top is almost pieced but I haven't bought the backing fabric yet. It's going to be around 88 x 66 inches - quite big! I'm dreading the quilting though, very difficult to quilt such a big quilt on my Brother sewing machine!

I bought this quilt kit in Australia. I love bright colours so couldn't resist this. It was very quickly done (which I like) and it's all warm and snuggly. What shall I do next???

This didn't take long to do

I bought this panel on a trip to Western Australia. I fell in love with this panel, which I found at a local quilt shop. When I got back home, I found the same thing on eBay in the UK at half the price. Oh well..... I had exactly the right backing in my stash so it was all cut, quilted and bound before I knew it. I love the colours in it.























I also bought a quilt kit, which I've been working on and should finish that in the next few days.

A new toy

Well, I've gone and done it! This is going to revolutionise my quilt making by ensuring everything is cut properly to size. I hate cutting and rarely do it accurately. Here it is



<-------------- Click the picture!





Not cheap, especially when you consider the shipping to the UK but hey, you only live once, right? I don't know when it will arrive as customs will need to inspect it and there will be tax to pay, I'm sure. Maybe it will be here in time for Christmas! Watch out for some pictures of some stunning creations!

Back to quilts

This is another quilt I did when my step daughter was pregnant and I was so sure she was expecting a girl!

I recently gave it to my son's girl friend as she was ill and wrapped up in her robe and was cold.

Anyhow, I really don't remember which pattern I used but I only have two : the Turning Twenty quilt and the Yellow Brick Road, so it must be one of those :-)

This is a cushion I made for my step daughter just after Max was born - he's nearly two now! Nothing to do with quilting but I was really proud of it!

And while I'm in digressing mode -

I just love this bag! I love the colours, the style and I really enjoyed making it, so I've included it here. I gave this to my other step-daughter's 7 year old daughter (but I've never seen her use it so maybe she doesn't like it as much as I do!)

Just to digress.......

Any sewing enthusiasts out there should check out Erica B's blog. This lady inspires me so much! I wish I could sew like she does!

Check out her blog here:

http://www.ericabunker.com/

I know I said I'd never make another BUT

This quilt panel was on sale at my local sewing machine dealers. I took in a machine for a service and while they were "locating" it I had a look round the shop, to find that they were closing their fabric section and everything was on sale! I bought this panel for next to nothing and I already had the burgundy fabric, which I used to back it and put a small (masculine, I thought!) frill round it. The whole thing cost me very little and I was really impressed at the finished quilt, even though it cost me next to nothing both in money and time. This was given to my step-daughter who by now had had Max. I hope she uses it!

Can I just add here that I'm completely self taught?!

Feeling very confident now!

I actually bought a quilt pattern, the "Turning Twenty" quilt book. It took forever to get 20 fat quarters together, all the right colour and I'm sorry to say, I didn't manage it on this quilt! It wasn't difficult to do at all, but putting it all together so that I didn't get the same pattern next to another of the same pattern was very hard. Strangely, cutting these pieces straight didn't present any problems, it was the placing of the blocks.
How does everybody machine quilt a quilt as big as this? Not the easiest thing I've ever done and I swore I'd never make another quilt!

Pooh!!

I was feeling very brave and saw this on the Brother web site. Having just bought a Disney embroidery machine, I wanted to use it, so I did, on this quilt. A LOT lol.

It took me hours and hours and I had to rip out a lot of seams because I put some blocks in upside down.

At this time it did occur to me that I didn't have any babies to make this for. My own were grown up and no grandchildren of the right age. I kept it for 4 years before my stepdaughter finally gave birth! How rude of her to wait so long.

What I thought was a "proper" quilt

This was just a panel I bought from a quilt shop, sandwiched it, quilted it then bound it. I thought I was the bees knees! Notice the half triangles in the corners!


This is my quilt of choice when watching TV and feeling a bit chilly.

The quilt that first got me started!

This was just some 4 inch squares which I sewed together, put a backing on and put lace all the way round. My own design, and I was very pleased with it. I thought "this is easy" and moved on to this one.

Just started this blog so bear with me as I fumble my way through!

I love quilts, I love to quilt, I'm just not very good.... My big peeve is having to cut the pieces. I never seem to cut accurately and they never seem straight and the seams don't match. Sigh.
Bear with me, I WILL get better.