BLOG 427

Blog 427 Jan 2019

 

In my ‘creative round-up’ for 2018, I included the Linus quilts tops that I had made and I described them as ‘in progress’. In this first week of the New Year, it just seems like a good idea to quilt and bind them first and effectively clear my sewing decks. A new year gives a sense of new beginnings but I feel as though I need to finish these before I move forward. I believe I did the same in January last year and it felt good to make for and give to others before immersing myself in my own work again.

 

 

               Linus 1

              Linus 2

 

And so began a marathon of cutting backing and wadding to size, layering them up and pushing them under the sewing machine. Generally, my fabric stocks are much depleted now but I did find enough to back all 7 quilts, even resorting to cutting chunks off my beloved batiks (and that hurt a bit!!) Some I quilted with lines running across the surface but I was much happier when I decided to free-motion quilt. I tried to quilt 1 a day and now all I have to do is bind them. Once the binding is machine sewn in place, the mindless hand sewing of the turned seam is a job that I can do and I can talk at the same time! It will be perfect for in front of the TV, for taking to the Gresford craft group and our village craft group!

             Batik backing

 

           Free motion quilting

 

 

I used the temporary adhesive 505 to hold the layers together. It isn’t something I have used before but I do recommend it for saving time. All I had to do was to pin around the outside edge of each quilt and the adhesive held the layers together even through the rough manoeuvring of the quilt under the machine. This product has its uses.

         Temporary adhesive

 

           Pinned edges

 

            Linus 3

 

And so the rhythms of the year begin again. The snow drops have made an appearance, there are early lambs in a local field and the days are lengthening, what’s not to like? I look forward to recounting my sewing adventures over the months ahead so please visit often.