Finished Quilt for Diane

This is my 'easiest quilt top ever' using two charm packs (previously explained here) and it is now completed and bound, ready for gifting to a dear lady named Diane.  She isn't an internet user so I am happy to share it on here before she receives it.

I did the quilting myself on a long-arm machine at Beechwood quilting, which I wrote about here.  Diane likes bumble bees and so I tried my hand at a few bees and flowers in a variegated thread.

It is by no means perfect, but it is my first attempt, and I really enjoyed the quilting process.  I'm either brave or naive to have chosen a plain fabric for the back, most likely naive, as patterned prints hide mistakes so much better!

And one last final photo before it is rolled up and gifted:

How could a 65 year old lady not love this? - or at least the affection and effort involved anyway.


I'll be linking up this finish with Katy's Finish Along, as it is one of my five Q2 goals that I had hoped to complete by the end of Spring, and now I have finished 3 out of my 5 projects on my list!  Yay!

Look at me Free-Styling!

Sorry, not dancing.  This week I have had a go on a HUGE sewing machine, and I loved it!  It felt like drawing or doodling but instead of a pencil I was wielding a big, purple, sparkly, computerised machine.  Sometimes I went a bit too fast and it over-revs just like when you drive a friend's car for the first time.

This sewing studio belongs to Carole and Brian at Beechwood Quilting in Stirling, Scotland.  You can leave your patchwork and backing with them and they'll quilt it for you, or like me, you can have a lesson on how to use the machine on some calico before sewing directly onto your own work.  Here you can see my practice of large, small and medium swirls.  In the end I decided to stick with large swirls for my quilt.

Carole and Brian take it in turns to stay with you in case you need help or get stuck, which is very comforting and supportive.  They of course load up your backing fabric, wadding and patchwork top into the machine for you, but they also tell you how it's done and what to look out for whilst you're sewing, like bits of fluff that Carole is checking for here on my backing fabric.

At the beginning Carole showed me how to thread the bobbin and what to do to start and to finish.  She secured all three layers together by sewing a straight line along the top at the beginning, as you can see she is about to do here:

Brian even took a video of me in action on their machine!  eek - the concentration!  Not even a smile from me, I'm so focused.

I learnt a lot about quilting freehand and about using such a huge machine.  It is nowhere near as scary or as noisy as I thought it would be and is very light to the touch.  And the price was very reasonable, it is an hourly rate once the lesson has finished, and you can buy your wadding there too.  If you live in the area or visiting, I would highly recommend having a go at quilting something for yourself.

I have posted about the construction of this quilt top here, and now just have to bind it, label it, photograph it, then I'll share it with you just one more time before I give it to my friend Diane.

The Easiest Quilt Top EVER

This is a patchwork quilt top using two 5" charm packs, and adding a few other bits and bobs I already had for a border.  This is a quick and easy way to make a quilt, especially if you have never done one before but have been seduced into buying some of these deliciously tempting little bundles of coordinating fabric!

  If you have bought a 10" layer cake bundle, then you will end up with a lot more diamonds, tripling  the size of your quilt!  Just cut the 10" fabric into 5" squares first and keep going til it's all gone.

1.  Split your bundles into large prints and small prints and pair the small prints up with their twin - you will have two of each fabric if you have bought two charm packs.
2.  Cut the two smaller print squares into triangles and pair them up with a contrasting large print square.

3.  Sew a pair of triangles using a quarter inch seam allowance to either side of your square and then press it open.  See the left hand side patchwork blocks in the next two photos.
4.  Sew the other pair of triangles to the other two sides of your square and press this open.  See the right hand side patchwork blocks in the next two photos.

5.  Trim off all the little dog-ear triangles that are hanging out along the outside edges, then arrange all your blocks into rows of any combination you desire!  I took a few photos of my layout so that I could check each square wasn't next to any similar squares and that all my dark colours were relatively spread out.

Yield

If you use two 5" charm packs you will probably end up with 28 blocks.  I added in some fabric squares of my own to make 7 more blocks.  If you use one 10" layer cake, and cut it up into 5" squares, this will probably give you 56 blocks.

Border

As I had a few other bits of fabric already I used these to create a border of 2" strips cut on a 45 degree angle, but you could do anything or nothing for a border and it would still look impressive!

Now to purchase some backing fabric and get it quilted!  This is going to be a gift for a very dear lady.