Finished Friday

Whew!

First week back at work done and a completed quilt to show off to boot - not too shabby!

Diamond Jubilee Jelly Roll Race

And here it is...my Diamond Jubilee jelly roll race quilt.  Started in 2012 in actual race format, this poor quilt top sat folded up and unloved for nearly three years.  In just two months, the borders have been added, the quilting has been stitched and the binding rounded it off.

In the main body of the quilt, I stitched gently rolling wavy lines that intersect periodically.  I wanted to break up the harsh, vertical lines and add some sense of movement.

In the borders, I used FMQ to stitch a playful doodle of loops and hearts.  I also stitched some cursive words into each border - on the top and bottom borders, 'Diamond Jubilee' (one word per border) and then on the left and right borders, 'I love London'.  I used the tissue paper template method (more info here & video links) for all the FMQ and it worked really well.

And then my love affair with binding...

7 Week summer holiday recap:

• Completed tote bag for a friend
• Completed handbag for me
• Completed Harmonic Convergence wallhanging
• Completed Diamond Jubilee quilt
• Completed baby quilt with my friend Ingrid (photos forthcoming)
• Pieced HST layer cake QAL top
• Pieced Red Velvet top

Needless to say, I'm very pleased with my summer projects!

WIP Wednesday

Welcome back!

Well, I have officially returned to work this week and while it's always a bit sad to see the summer holidays come to a close, I will especially miss having all of this extra leisure time to sew and quilt.  There are, of course, evenings (work too late, come home far too tired) and weekends (AKA recovery & errand-running days) but it's just not the same.

So, a quick update on the statue of my Diamond Jubilee jelly roll race quilt.  Saturday morning I got up early and sewed like a banshee to get the binding on this quilt so I could take it to work on at guild.  A wee bit stressful?  Yes, yes indeed.

After guild (and a seriously much-needed nap), I spent the remainder of the afternoon out on the balcony, enjoying the good weather, listening to some Paperclipping Roundtable (nothing quite like mixing and matching your hobbies) and hand stitching that binding down.

While I do enjoy building quilt blocks and seeing a design come together, I think it's hand stitching the binding at the end that I actually love the most and look forward to during a quilt project.

And of course I had some help...

Linking up to Freshly Pieced:

WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

I've been busy, busy sewing away - here's a little update on my current WIP status:

• HST sampler QAL - add borders, quilt & bind
• Red Velvet layer cake - quilt & bind
• Diamond Jubilee jelly roll race - quilt & bind

And here's a little sneak peak at the work I've been doing today on my jelly roll race quilt.  First, sandwiching and spray basting, which was a real joy with Greta (cat) involved, I can assure you.

Then under the machine and the quilting began!  I decided on soft rolling waves along the length of the strips, so as to give some sense of movement and soften all of those hard lines.

 

Everything was going swimmingly until I ran out of thread - eek!   Another trip to the quilt shop is clearly in order and in the meantime, I have another - new - project to begin.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced: