2010 - 2nd Quarter Report.

I can hardly believe we're at the end of June already and it's time to assess my achievements for the 2nd quarter.  Another productive time with 4 donation quilts made and 16 HeartString blocks sent into the group project.  In addtion I've finished the 30s Shoofly duvet cover and the Nickel Nine Patch for my mum.  Stash used stands at a pleasing 39 metres and stash acquired is an even more pleasing figure - only 4.5 metres!
In summary: I've completed the same number of projects as in the first quarter, used a bit more stash and acquired a lot less - goals met :)

Here's a close up of the quilting on my mum's quilt.  It is a design from the Patsy Thompson DVDs (Fast & Free vol 2, I think) and I love those swirly flower shapes!  Will get a picture of the whole quilt to share soon.

Ready to quilt ...

A month ago, when I was procrastinating over the shoo fly, I pulled some blue/cream nickels for a quilt for my mum.  Today I was able to baste it ready to start quilting tomorrow.

I looked up the name of the block in Barbara Brackman's "Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns" and she lists 4 names: A Plain Block; Nine Patch: Sheepfold Quilt; Irish Chain.  However, I'm going to call it the name given to the method of assembling it from nickels (5" squares) derived by Dorothy Young - Nickel Nine Patch.

The quilt top finished at approx 43" wide, so just too wide to back with one width of fabric.  However, I split the backing lengthwise and added a strip of pieced nickels to bring it up to a perfect width.  This way I can do it all from stash and the finished quilt will be interesting on the back too and therefore reversible :)

Shoo Fly Duvet Cover Finished!

Yes, you read that right ... the duvet cover is finished and on the bed!  At times it felt like it would never get done, but done it is.  DH helped me with the laying out on the floor to pin the final seam and it is SOOOOOO much easier with two people at this stage!!  I really don't know how I've managed it before on my own.

I'm so pleased this is on the bed now because it is perfect for summer :)

Some progress ...

The Shoo Fly now has it's borders sewn on and is a completed top - yeah!!  What with current lack of 'mo-jo', my back deciding to throw a wobbly and the size of this project, it seems to be taking FOR EVER!!!  As you can see I decided to go for no inner border and random size pieces for the outer border.  When I looked over the 30s material I had left, the decision was sort of made for me as I didn't have anywhere near as much as I thought.

The fabric for the duvet back needs washing, then I'll need to find the space (and energy) to lay the whole thing out on the floor to pin both pieces together before I can make the french seam that will hold it altogether and turn it into a duvet cover.   I desperately want to finish this by end of June, so please wish me luck ....

Shoo Flying ...

I admit that I've been putting off working on the Shoo Fly duvet cover.  Well, the centre section measures 70" square and then there are the borders ... so the backing sheet that everything gets stitched and flipped onto is over 100" square.  That's a lot of fabric to be manoeuvring about!!

But today I set up my ironing board in the living room as a pinning/pressing station and got on with it!  So I now have all the centre blocks stitched down onto the backing sheet.  Next, I need to decide on borders.  Firstly, do I do an inner border of white?  Secondly the main borders ... do I go with the original plan of 2.5" piano keys? or do I speed things up a bit by doing a chunkier pieced border?  Decisions, decisions :)