Sunday 21 November 2021

A Comedy of Errors

 This week I have managed to baste, machine quilt and bind my 49 squares RSC quilt.

Basting went well, the machine quilting went pretty well too. Thank you to the two ladies who suggested quilting ideas for me on last week’s blogpost. I am going to try your idea Jenny on the next smaller baby quilt I make for the hospital. I found a You Tube video that I think is doable for me. But I decided to go with Raewyn’s idea of going from corner to corner. But I just did that on the centre section of sashed 49 squares blocks, then sewed along the borders like I usually do. Pleased with the result.

Then the curtain was raised on the  Comedy of Errors as I began to sew on my binding, a job I’ve done hundreds of times. But for some reason I never stopped making mistakes: I didn’t notice (twice!) that the machine was looping because the thread had fallen off the screw that the cotton reel feeds around, two or three times I discovered I had completely gone wrong with the distance I was using for the seam line, etc etc. Finally got the binding on and I called it a day. My husband said I should just have stopped sewing near the beginning of this frustrating sewing session and I agree with him! Even more so the following day when I came to hand sew the binding because I had put it on the wrong side of the quilt. My group said don’t unpick it, just fold it to the front and stitch it down. I have, and it looks fine. I can only think I sewed it wrongly because both the outer border and the backing are the same fabric. That or old age!


Anyway, here it is:


It measures 42” square and will be donated to the Linus Project when I have another couple of quilts to add. The lady who used to be the local distributor has retired and no one has taken over so I know I’ll have to look further afield for a distributor. A job for 2022 I think.


A few close ups of some of the blocks:






I finished another baby cardigan and two matching hats which I love!


Linking up with Angela’s Soscrappy RSC blog.

Sunday 7 November 2021

49 Patch flimsy

 I managed to find time this week to turn last week’s 49 Patch blocks centre into a flimsy, adding two borders to frame it: a narrower deep pink/fuchsia solid and a pink striped wider border. Pleased with both.

The flimsy measures 43” square and I hope to find time to baste it and think about how it can be quilted.

I’m limited with my machine quilting abilities and can only do straight lines , usually following the columns and rows of the blocks. Can’t see how to make that work with this quilt. Can’t do stippling or free motion which is what it probably calls for! I’m wondering if I do my usual quilting in the sashing and borders and tie the centre of each 49 patch block that it will be sufficient to hold the quilt.

Any thoughts on this would be very welcome!



Another grey dreary November day here so the photo colours are not a true representation of the flimsy. In reality the colours are really bright and cheerful!

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC 2021 blog.

Wednesday 3 November 2021

Made in 2019, gifted in 2021

 On 18th November 2019 I completed a Crumb quilt, made from scraps, including Crumb blocks from my stash. I blogged about it at the time. It was put away as I didn’t need to gift it at that time. 

A few days ago we received an email from a young New Zealand friend to say she had had a second daughter on 15th October, named Lucy Jane. I gifted a quilt to her first daughter Izzy when she was born a couple of years ago so of course Lucy had to have a quilt too. The Crumb quilt in my stash was a perfect choice as there are some scraps in it that were leftovers from her big sister Izzy’s quilt.


This was Izzy’s quilt.




This is Lucy’s quilt.
It measures 40” square.


Some close ups:


And a glimpse of the backing, such a pretty strawberry fabric.

I have renamed the quilt Dolly Mixtures - my favourite sweets when I was a little girl.
I’m posting it off to New Zealand this afternoon.