Saving the best till last

I am finally finished hand quilting my Emperor's Wheel quilt and I feel a little lost.

For the past six months, when I've had some spare evening moments, I've stitched away at it.

I've straight line quilted it fairly densely, which has taken time but been completely worth it.

I am reliably informed the quilt is being held upside down - oops

It's given it a fantastic texture.

I originally blogged about the piecing of the quilt here which gives details of the pattern I purchased from Chris Jurd. It's been a brilliant pattern to just use up all those random scraps and will definitely be a family heirloom.

I just need to find something else now to do in spare evening moments.

A self-indulgent quilt

Self-indulgent in the sense that I just wanted to cut up as many Anna Maria Horner fabrics as possible.
And also because I just bought her latest fabric line, Fibs & Fables and was itching to cut into it.

I started by thinking I was going to follow a pattern in a booklet I'd bought to accompany the Triangler ruler so I duly strip pieced two fabrics with different values and started cutting.

But by the time I'd done a fair amount of cutting, I'd gone right off the idea of following a pattern and just decided to play around with the triangles and see what I cam up with.

Which is how I ended up thinking this might not be a bad idea.

Even by my broad standards, it felt just a little too distractingly chaotic.
Solids felt too hard and restrictive so I went with a linen text fabric I found.

And sewed it all up to make this.

Then it was back to more random cutting to make it a border.
Because I felt it needed one.

And then it just felt balanced and finished so it was on to quilting it.

It feels rich and moody and luxurious and eclectic and I LOVE it.

The back has the left over border strips because I never work out beforehand the amounts I'll need.
It's too restrictive.
I'd rather guesstimate and then use any leftovers on the back.

Oops...missed a couple of parallel quilting lines there

And that's it.
My last complete quilt finish for 2015.

I think.

Soy Amado's 72-75 and an update

Instagram is making me lax. I post the finished Soy Amado quilt there and tell myself when I have a bit more time, I'll blog it.

That hasn't happened so a condenses post on the last four quilts now follows.

No. 72 - taken on the south coast cliffs of Guernsey.

And the back.

No. 73.

And the back.

No. 74 arrived this week in the post as a completed quilt. There was no name or address identifying the UK sender so whoever you are, thank you.

There is no back picture...because I forgot to take one.

And finally, to bring it up-to-date, No. 75.

And I don't have a 'behind' photo for this one either - slacking on the job.

I've reached my goal of a quilt on every bed for the home in Mexico City so a big thank you to everyone who either sent whole quilts or the mountain of quilt blocks I have slowly worked my way through.

Now I have a new goal: a quilt on every bed for a children's home in Johannesburg, South Africa. So my post box is flapping wildly now in giddy expectation of anyone who would like to send me 12 1/2" quilted blocks. Please email me if you'd like to join in, for my postal address.

Thank you.

(Linking up to Finish It Up Friday)

A rainbow quilt finish

It's a mixture of phone and camera pictures but hopefully you get the gist.

First off the back.

All the backing and binding fabrics are from my stash - the binding is a Jinny Beyer pushing 20 years.

And I've had to alternate the pics from outside: (theoretically better light but tipping down with rain) to inside: dry.

The background to the Geese is just a selection of light turquoise/blu fabrics with either text or some tonal additions. I didn't want a solid as the background as I felt that was going to make it too stark.

A shot of rainbow colour in the depths of a wet and windy winter.

A rainbow quilt

I've never made a rainbow quilt before.
They just seem too ordered and not random enough for me.

I thought I'd have a go though.
Just because I thought I should.

Fabrics were picked.

And the decision to go with a Flying Geese block was made, with much cutting ensuing.

And much boringly essential trimming with the Bloc-Loc ruler.

I sewed one row up and then pondered my next move.

And then over the past couple of weeks, I've slowly, slowly added to it.

Until today, when 286 Flying Geese units later,  I was finally done.

I enjoyed making it but I think I am hankering after a quilt with slightly more wild fabrics now.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday

Just need to decide what the pattern will look like and then cutting will commence.

Soy Amado No. 71

All the blocks came from one person in Australia, with the package containing a rather nice packet of Tim Tams.

In the interests of full disclosure, they didn't even make it as far as the biscuit tin.

I'm afraid it's not the best lighting for these pics as I went for the more aesthetically pleasing sunset shot instead.

It still makes for a lovely quilt though.

On a separate note, some people have said they can't read my ebook because they don't have a Kindle. You don't actually need one!
Just download the free Kindle app and then you can read ebooks on smartphones and tablets.

Thank you to everyone who already has. x

Soy Amado No. 70...And Other News

Soy Amado No. 70

With a beautiful, panoramic backdrop.

And the back.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday

And in other news.

I wrote a book.

It's not about quilting - I felt there were enough books on the subject.

Instead, I felt the urge to write about something else.

It's available here.