I’ve stitched the January block for my Mum’s wall hanging…

Here is an image of it - I haven’t cut the jump threads and probably won’t bother because it’s just to give my mother an idea of the style and size.

We were hoping to fit three months into one hoop, but it was all a bit squishy and a bit unreadable. The best I could do was two months in one hoop. Although I think it would be better to do each month separately and then join them and maybe use bias strips to hide the join.

I’m back to working on my alphabet wall hanging…

In the above photo I’ve pin basted (not enough, but more of that later) the quilt and I’m using YLI ‘rinse away’ thread to put in some anchoring lines.

I found that starching the fabric (both the quilt top and the backing fabric) and using the anchoring lines made the quilting much easier. Although, I still have one pucker and a few lumpy bits.

I decided to use a double diagonal quilting pattern - why do I always make more work for myself?

Sorry for the image - I took the photo late at night and the light was poor. Here is a close up …

I do like the effect of the diagonal quilting and I will certainly try it again. I learnt, however, that I need to pin baste more. Harriet Hargrave in my quilting bible (Heirloom Machine Quilting ) writes ‘My general guide is no further apart than three knuckles…’ I certainly didn’t do that. Plus while I was sewing the anchoring lines, there was a bit of puckering which I just ignored. Why? What was I thinking? The puckering just got worse.

Now I just have to bind it and add a hanging sleeve. This is the first time I’ve added a hanging sleeve, so it could be interesting.

Oh and I just love that purple low tac masking tape! I used it to mark all of my lines (and one piece lasts for ages). Best marking tool I’ve ever had.

My mum is planning on making a calendar using machine embroidery. I thought I would help her with the design.

I’ve been using my Janome Scansoft software (very old - I bought it for $5 in the bargain bin) to design the letters and numbers and Embird to merge the designs and place them in the appropriate place. Somewhat time consuming but pretty easy.

My mum wants the public holidays in one colour and  school holidays in another. That should be easy to do once I find out the 2008 term dates. 

As you can see from the image, I’ve been working on January. I’ll get my mum to approve the design before I continue with the other months. My current thinking (which could change at any moment), is to make a quilted wall hanging with the months as blocks.

I love the design aspect of all projects, but as you all know I’m not so good at finishing things off!

One of my goals is to become an embroidery designer so this is all grist to the mill so to speak.

I went shopping (to my local Lincraft).

I bought Bias Tape makers, flower head pins and fusible web tape.

Why?

I watched the ‘Quilt as You Go’ dvd by Margaret Cormack - it comes free with the latest ‘Quilters Companion’ magazine. Margaret used bias strips to cover up the joins in her quilt and I thought they looked fabulous. At first I thought I would be limited to block based quilts, but she had some examples of her work and it was amazing what she achieved with this quilt as you go technique. So I’m motivated to get started on something new. However, I am determined to finish my Alphabet wall hanging first. I’ve cut the backing and the batting, now I just (ha ha) need to get on with the quilting.

I took time of from my somewhat depressing quilting endeavours to make a birthday card for one of my daughter’s friends.

I designed the Olivia text using my very old (and clunky) Scan and Sew software (from Janome).

I bought the card at Officeworks - they seem to have quite a range of invitation/card stuff.

So I made my 36 blocks…

Only to discover that my maths was wrong and I needed another two blocks. I made another two blocks. I decided to sew a strip of the blocks together and then join them to one side of the quilt. Aahhh, it’s half a block too short or if I still a block from another side it’s half a block too long! Too much to fudge it. Seam allowances you are my nemesis! Each block is only slightly out, but when you multiply the error by 12 blocks it’s way out.

Lesson learnt: It might be easier to piece block borders first and then the inner unpieced border to fit.

I’m feeling disgruntled and I want this quilt finished - so I’m going to quilt it and bind it. I will use all of those hour glass blocks (all 38 of them) to make a dolls quilt.