Quilting.

Its been rather a busy and single-minded week this last week or so. Lots more quilting completed on Rosie's Quilt.

Here is a close-up of the blue sashing. Leaves moving out from the centre of each square, with a small flower stitched in the centre.

The reverse of each square looks something like this. The irritating thing is that I just cannot get the tension to let me have just the light coloured thread on this side. (YLI Machine Quilting thread Sand, 16V) I always get some of the darker thread leaching through from the other side. (YLI Machine Quilting Thread Paris Boutique, V74 for the flowers, and Danube Blues, V80 for the sashing.)

Coco just loved lying on top of this pile of completed squares. Yes, for all the world she looked like the Princess in The Princess and the Pea.

Then the worst happened...........I started quilting the blue sashing strips on the nineteenth block when I ran out of thread! Disaster! I won't be able to get back to Jaycotts for some more thread until later this week. It is just too far to go for a few sewing items. Yes, I could phone and get them to send me some, but I am trying really hard to be good. I have rather a lot of other things I should be getting on with.

The Traveling Pages for May still needs completing and I need to make a start on June.

There is a longstanding UFO I really need to look at and baste - there is something not quite right with the piecing which will drive me mad if I don't get it sorted out before finally quilting the thing.

These photos show the top of the quilt.

And this is the back. The design was the Mystery Quilt for the Quilters Guild some years back. As you can see my photos date from 2007! I really should get this one completed.

Then there is the mending............ as usual, this has become rather a large pile. Also the altering and completing of dressmaking projects - three skirts in there............

Then the two bags which need a rebuild.

This is a photo of one of the bags in healthier days - the corners are now getting rather large holes in them and the whole bag is being kept together by the lining. So they really do need some work. The handles are still good.

Yes, there is rather more than a weeks worth of work there, so I shall not phone Jaycotts.

That apart, my whole workroom is a muddle and needs sorting out before anything else gets started. I wish I could work and keep things tidy at the same time, but that is something I find impossible. I am such a messy worker.
A well, off to work - I think I shall get some handstitching done on my Traveling Page for May ready to post it later on.

Have you ever done this?

Have you ever walked down the street and found yourself thinking, "Now that would be perfect for ......" I found myself doing just this yesterday, whilst walking down the main shopping street in Northwich. I had just seen a man's shirt walking towards me (the man, not the shirt), and knew that it would have solved my current problems with the Indian fabric quilt I have been working on.

I'd better start from the beginning. I showed the start of the Indian Cotton Quilt, working name "Rosie's Quilt", last time. Laying it out, Rosie and I felt it needed a couple more bright areas to balance one already in place.

(My helper, Felix with the completed blocks.)

On Thursday, I had treated myself to a morning spent with Dot's UFO group - a social Quilting group which meets to sew and chat. I took my new sewing machine along and sat beside some really interesting people. During the course of the morning, I actually managed to wind a bobbin first time - I had been having difficulty getting this right whilst at home on my own. The nice thiong about chatting to other quilters is the variety of ideas which are exchanged. It was suggested that I used quilt-as-you-fo to complete this one. I must admit I hadn't got as far as considering how to proceed with Rosie's Quilt. However, what a good idea. Now I need to decide what to use for the backs of each block.

One of the downsides of going to this group is the amount of wonderful fabrics which Dot brings to sell. (Sadly, her shop is not online.) She had brought a large collection of sale fabrics along. There were some beautiful new fabrics too, but it was the sale fabrics that became my undoing. I bought these:

The smaller pieces - all fat quarters.

And these:

Some metre length pieces. I wondered about using the dark grey for the back of Rosie's quilt using this as a contrast to another paler fabric, perhaps making a chequerboard style of colour arrangement.

Alongside these fabrics I found one cotton suitable for Rosie's quilt. Bright and just what I need to balance the lighter, duller squares. Sadly there was no second colourway to go with it. Which was why I found myself searching around Northwich for material on Saturday.

After a search of the market, I started going into the local Charity shops. In the first shop, I found this.

It was originally a nice little tunic top - too small for me to wear, the fabric was just right and so the tunic was cut up.

Well I am now off to get some serious sewing done. Have fun!