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 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.

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.