Well, I never thought I'd achieve 6 finished quilts in a year but I guess I stayed home a bit more this year.
The first was started last year - a candlewick quilt which I hand quilted.
The second was a quilt I'd been working on for a while having saved the fabrics for ages - the rose quilt, also handquilted.
Then there was the grandson's quilt - it was fun. Handquilted.
And I had 2 UFO's I got out of a box and finished them. One flannel shirts and flannel. All second hand fabrics. Handquilted again.
And finally an easy 3" squares quilt ordered by a friend which she wanted stippled. Arggh. Stippling gives me a dreadful pain in the neck and I can only do it in small doses. I so enjoy hand quilting compared to machine quilting by me. I've only ever had one quilt machine quilted by someone else. It was just too big and too many seams to handquilt.
I have only done 2 this year and thought I was going well. I am not starting anything else this side of Christmas and as we hope to be on the road a lot next year I think the handmade one ( patchwork of the crosses) will be the only one for next year.
I have never done quilting but understand it is veeeeery time consuming, I imagine your 6 quilts would have to be a record. Well done and lets see piccys. Quilting is not my thing but I do love the finished product.
Finally here are some pictures of the finished quilts. All very different. It looks as if there are 7 quilts but the one with the red borders is the back of the previous quilt. She wanted a reversible quilt. I also made a pillow case to match. Can you pick out the flannelette shirt pockets on the blue one?
-- Edited by neilnruth on Wednesday 30th of October 2013 03:00:02 PM
No Pam. It was mostly 30cm of fabric that the young mum chose under my 'guidance'. I had no idea what sort of pattern she wanted or whether I had estimated enough fabric but it worked out well. There was very little left. I would have given the quilt rounded corners too but I really didn't have enough fabric left to cut bias strips to do that.
Yes, countryroad. There are many hours of embroidery and hours of piecing in the pink and green quilt which was for my guest room. I'd dreamt of a shabby chic room for years - when it was really in fashion - I started collecting fabrics for that one about 10 years ago. Fortunately they stayed 'fashionable'. Have you noticed how sewing/quilting fabrics also go round and come back again just like dress fabrics do??
Yes pockets are noted. A friend of mine did a quilt for her teenage Grandson made from old jeans. Looked fabulous and the zips and pockets were all included.
They are all beautiful. I love quilting but it doesn't love my back, had to give it up unfortunately.
Every one of yours is a masterpiece Ruth. Well done.
Talking about jeans Pam. Was in a furniture shop with my sister last week. The sight of the day were 2 sofas made from jean material including jeans pockets on the front of the arms.
Would suit a bachelor pad perfectly.
But watch out Rosie - it's addictive. I'm going to have a break for a while and do some mosaicking (is there such a word?). I have a mirror I want to break up more and mosaic and a table to do the top. Then I'll go back to make a quilt for grandchild no 6 for his 'big' bed.
Glad you all like no 2. It's probably my favourite too.
Yes, we have to be disciplined to finish off UFOs. I knew they were there but it took a few years to get around to them. Now there is a lull in the grandchildren being born I might get ahead. I ideally like to have 2 or 3 quilts on the go at once so I don't get bored with one. I can machine sew one in the day and handquilt one at night. Oh and I have a bit of knitting or crochet on the go too.
Beautiful. Love how all your quilts are so different. Do you quilt them as well? How hard is it to do reverse quilting as I would love to know how to do it. I have finished one hand sample quilt, never again..now I want to do it by machine instead.
hi Boofa. Sorry I've taken so long to answer your question. Yes, I quilt them - 5 out of the 6 were quilted by hand. Machine quilting gives me a literal 'pain-in-the-neck'! Reverse quilting is easy if you know how to do needle turn applique. I find machine piecing the quilt then hand quilting it is very relaxing. I also make use of larger threads as a feature in my quilting - eg 2 or 3 threads of DMC. Makes the quilting quicker as you can do larger stitches but also adds interest. And of course there is 'knotting' to hold the layers together. Knotting with buttons looks good too.
