Rainbow Single quilt, finished

I have been having a very busy and productive time sewing and have managed to finish several projects in the last few days.

My latest finish is a large quilt based on Emily Cier's  pattern in her Scrap Republic book.

The quilt design is called Beeline and the pattern is for a baby quilt.  I made a baby sized one last year but decided I had more than enough fabrics to enlarge it to a generous single bed size. 
The finished quilt measures 88" x 54".

I started the quilt back in February when we were in New Zealand and I managed to complete the top by the time we came home at the end of March.  I used lots of rainbow coloured scraps from my NZ stash but took out a few more and many of the neutral fabric scraps I needed for the borders.
Whilst I was there I managed to find a suitable fabric for the backing and, even better, it was on sale at a good price.

So, on and off over the past months I have hand quilted it with Perle cottons. I used cream for the borders and coloured Perles to match the colour of the rainbow stripe.

I love rainbows and this year we have seen lots, both here and in NZ so I have decided to call the quilt Remembering Rainbows.

Showing the backing:

 

I am giving it to a friend's 5 year old daughter, just in time for the winter.  It is a surprise and I shall be handing it over on Monday. Hope she likes it!

All rolled up, ready to gift.

 

 

Gift for a new baby

At the end of last year I completed a few baby quilts to stash away ready for a few babies I knew were going to be born this year.

Our next door neighbour's son and his wife had their third daughter on 29th March.
From my stash of quilts I chose this cheerful Rainbow Strips Quilt:

 

This quilt for Freya joins the two others I gave to her older sisters, Isla and Neve.

 

I have been searching my quilt photos for a picture of Isla's quilt but frustratingly I cannot find it!

 

A few years ago I made a series of baby quilts featuring appliqued cats and teddy bears which you can see on my Flickr page, koshka2 photostream. They can be found in the Teddy bear quilts and Cat quilts sets.

Isla's quilt was the same design featuring cats and Sunbonnet Sues and Overall Bills.

 

However, sister Neve's quilt is this one:

 

 

 

It's nice to be able to welcome a new baby into the world with a quilt for snuggling.  Isla and Neve have loved their quilts so I hope little Freya does too.

 

 

 

Triangle scraps being turned into Pinwheels

Linking up with Maybush Studio blog on her Brit Thursday Sewing Linky.

I have been continuing to turn my bag of gifted scrap paired triangles into HSTs and then into Pinwheels.  Quite a time consuming task but I am doing bits at a time.

I have now sewn all the paired triangles into HSTs and they are all trimmed to 1.75".  Most of those have been turned into Pinwheel blocks, with about 8 more left to sew into Pinwheels.  Some of the finished Pinwheels have also been trimmed to a scant 3" block.

This is what they are looking like:

 

The top row are waiting to be sewn, the middle row need trimming (not 4 Pinwheels there, but 4 PILES of Pinwheels!) and the bottom row ARE trimmed!

 

As I was congratulating myself on being so productive with the bag of gifted scraps I suddenly remembered a previous bag of paired triangle scraps the same lady had given me several months ago.  At the time I had lots of projects on the go and decided to put the bag away in a drawer.  And then forgot about it!

So, a couple of days ago I looked it out and was a bit non-plussed to find this bag 2 or 3 times the size of the previous one!  Oh my goodness!

 

Here it is!

 

The triangle pairs are literally stuffed into the bag! 100s of them!

For the past hour I have sewn paired triangles together and am now off to press them.  Then I will put all the piles into plastic bags until next week.  Of course I have barely put a dint into the stack of scraps in the bag.

However we have our granddaughter for the weekend, so no sewing can be done then.

I have also finished hand blanket stitching the I Spy bubbles to my Freckles Quilt.  That's now ready to be sandwiched.

And I have done a lot of hand quilting on my Rainbow Beeline Quilt.  It's looking great, the rainbow bands of colour being embellished with a row of largish Perle cotton stitches.

So a lot accomplished on the sewing front this week.  Hurrah!

 

 

 

A bits and pieces sort of week

A busy week: lots of gardening, a couple of sessions with our little granddaughter, a great talk by the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce, a mind blowing concert in Coventry Cathedral by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, two Patchwork group meetings and a little sewing at home. 

Oh, and I have just returned home from a first read through of Mother Goose, the radio pantomime we are recording this year for Radio Warneford, hospital radio station for Warwick Hospital.  I have been a member for over 16 years and a Duty Producer for many of those years!  Now I'm also the Fairy Queen! Until Christmas, anyway.

Phew!  So, a few moments to catch up on what I have been sewing this week.

I have been continuing to hand blanket stitch the I Spy freckles on my latest version of Emily Ciers' Freckles Quilt.  There are 25 circles to stitch around and I am working on number 20.  I love blanket stitching, very restful and soothing and good to do whilst watching TV.  Tonight I shall be glued to the TV watching Strictly Come Dancing, quite a long programme so I should be able to complete a few more circles this evening.

This is how it looks at the moment:

 

I have also continued to work with the HSTs I made from the paired triangle scraps I was given.  All sewn together, mainly sewn as I used them as leaders/enders as I pieced my latest Beeline Quilt.  I am now slowly working my way through the pile, trimming them to 1.75".  Hope to finish this task this afternoon whilst I listen to some lovely Classical music on Classic FM.

 

Here's my cutting board, all ready and waiting!

 

And I managed to sandwich together my Rainbow Beeline Quilt at the Patchwork group I went to on Monday afternoon and started the hand quilting with Perle Cotton at the Patchwork group I attend every Thursday morning.  I have decided to match the Perle Cotton to the particular Rainbow band. On Thursday I managed to complete all the red section.  Using a larger stitch than I do with normal quilting thread so it sews up quite quickly.

During the past few weeks I have been trying to link up with Clare's blog Maybush Studio, but I am probably a bit too late this week.  Perhaps next week?

Off to have a quick sandwich before I tackle those HST blocks!