A Window of Green.

I finished a quilt. Don't fall off your chair! This quilt was started back here in April and the birthday it was intended for came upon me very quickly..... last Thursday!

 

I'm pleased with the quilting, very textural. I did have some issues with some of the seams being pulled out of shape with the quilting but overall you can't notice it. And I am learning if you don't point out the faults to anyone then they don't notice them!

Nice size for a picnic rug. It ended up measuring 82 inches by 60 inches.

The backing was fun to sew. Used up a bit of green! Its spinning around in the washing machine as I type this post. I don't usually wash a quilt before gifting it but the binding got dirty during the photo shoot! Bugger!! I hope to walk over to the 15 year old's house later on this afternoon, she loves green so I'm sure she will love this quilt for her bed.... fingers crossed!

Fun Fact!

Fun fact I have discoverd while quilting this quilt. I am using two different types of thred, about 30 to 40 lines of green, then about 4 - 9 lines of yellow. Gutterman 100% cotton will sew about 9 lines before the bobbin needs changing.  Aurifil 40 weight cotton thread will do about 39 lines before the bobbin runs out! There you go!

Getting ready to quilt!

 

Thank you for your kind comments about Alyssa's quilt in my last post. Milly has been sick the last three days, just a gastro bug going around town. During her napping in the day though I have been working on Alyssa's quilt and am up to sewing down the binding which I have been doing while sitting up in bed whne Milly is awake and answering her questions. "Mummy, will we ever go to London?" "Mummy, why do you like sewing?" "Mummy, am I going to be sick forever?" "Mummy, are adverts on the radio the same as adverts on tv?" "Mummy, why does your head get smaller when I close one eye?" All the while I am sewing a quilt for a little girl who is very sick and thinking of her parents and what they are going through. Making my three days of emptying buckets of bile vomit and cooling down Milly's brow with a wet flannel seem easy..... 

On Saturday however, I realized that the girl this quilt is for, her birthday is rapidly approaching next month. So I took it out from were it had been hanging in our wardrobe and went over to her house - she was at work - to check with her Mum if it would fit on her bed okay. Good thing I did as I then realized it needed just one more row. So thankfully I added that in quickly over the rest of the weekend.

Here it is on our lounge room floor stretched out ready to be pinned. It measures 63 by 87 inches. I was thinking of quilting it like this quilt here which I had admired since I saw it. But all that twisting and turning which such a large quilt...... Maybe I'll just go with straight wonky lines, right to left. Easier and less stressful. Save the spiral quilting for next time.

Green Windows - Top Finished!

The school holidays end for us on Monday, well for Daz and I on Monday, the girls don't go back till Thursday lucky things! So I have managed to finish the top for this quilt this week. Can I admit I am a bit over it? There has been a few times where I have wanted to fold it up and pack it away for later, I kept on sewing though. I have't enough for the backing so am going to sew fat quarters and 1 metre lengths together to make a patchy backing.

Mary Poppins.

With the pink and purple zig zag quilt folded away it was time to turn the attention to a new project. One without white fabric. One not intended for a baby! The sister of the Miss C who got this quilt last Christmas is 14 and she likes green. She babysits for us when we need it and I'd like to make her something, she's lovely. The kind of teenager I hope my girls will grow up into. So I pulled some green from the stash, even broke into some of the fabric purchased over the holidays. Added some yellow because I couldn't do it all green. I have been admiring Lynne's "Pick Up Sticks" red cross quilt as she has sewed it. And I have had this photo in my favourites for ages, so I had a rough idea what to do.

Within a very short time I had half of the first seven blocks sewn and with a quick cut in half again....

All these blocks started tumbling out of the sewing machine! I didn't have time to stop and take a progress photo for the blog! Milly commented "You making a windows quilt Mummy?" Ummm, I thought it was "modern liberated improv crosses" Milly but windows works too! I've moved the machine onto the dining table to spread out and the ironing board is just to the left outside this photo to save me walking back and forth to the laundry.

So now I have all these and more cut ready to sew. I'm aiming for double bed size. And what does the lovely Mary Poppins have to do with this quilt? Well she has been a Nanny to the girls while I have sewn this. Mum sent up the DVD for Grace's birthday and they have been absolutely captivated by her and watched it twice allowing me to sew in peace! Thanks Miss Poppins!