Sutton Grange Progress

It is almost twelve months since I started this quilt in a class by Di Ford Hall at Sue Watter's home. Progress has been slow but held up by a long search for a suitable fabric to use as the narrow border which frames each round. I think I found the best one and I am pleased with the progress. It still needs a little something in the centre and in the corner squares but for that I am still waiting for inspiration. The next round consists of lots of little drunkard's path blocks so it may be a long while till you see this again.

I thought of making little stars for the corners and the colour is perfect but it does not fit the square so it is back to the drawing board. I still may or may not applique butterflies. There is no rush. At least I shall have something to show Di on her return visit. Oh yes! More trouble and a brand new quilt. I am so excited.

I have also started a new baby quilt. Following on from the bubble theme. Fussy cut bubbles.

A bit of sock knitting going on and I have learnt a new skill of adding beads to knitting by using a crochet hook. This yarn is amazing and has a bit of silk in it. Most luxurious.

This week in the UK we experienced a partial eclipse. At least it was in my part of the world. The further north you went the more it blocked out the sun.  It was very cloudy and dismal here but spectacular just the same. Scared the pigeon off the roof in the eeriness that followed. I held my ipad up and pressed but looked away as I did it so I am amazed to capture anything at all. 

Happy Stitching.

Shirley.

Bubbles #1

Woohoo! I have a finish. It may be small but it is action packed.

Bubbles #1 measures 18.5 x18.5 inches.

Amazing what you can do with a bag of scraps and a bit of imagination. It is hand appliqued and needleturned and hand quilted too.  One dolly quilt.

For the binding I decided to try something different. It gave me a few problems but I worked it out. I saw on YouTube a video called Susie's Magic Binding by Aunt Marti's 52 Quilts. If you google it it will come up and if you use Facebook it is also on there. It is a fabulous binding and one I shall definitely be trying again. It is stitched on from the back and turned to the front and machined in the ditch to give that tiny little flange. What the video does not say is that from the back the binding is a quarter inch but a half inch on the front plus the flange. I had not allowed for that because I did not know it. At least I don't recall it being said. Eventually I went to bed just gone midnight satisfied after unpicking, trimming and restitching that it looked good.  I wanted the edge of the flange to meet the edge of the quilting. The flange is sewn down by hand to match the quilting. Watch the video to see how it is done. For my first attempt I am pleased. I personally don't like flanges that cover stitching and points on blocks.

On deciding the quilting here was my first attempt. I printed off a photo of the quilt itself and then drew on it the idea in my head of how I thought it might look. It works well and a great way of seeing if you will like how it will turn out. At this point I was not sure whether to quilt bubbles or straight lines and asked my Instagram followers which they preferred. Most said straight lines but in my head the bubbles would not go away until a certain Barbara Chainey said compromise and do both. I simplified it by adding circles in two opposite corners and straight lines in the other two corners with a few bubbles escaping. I used a thin cotton wadding and Sulky 30wt cotton thread in shade 1558 just because it was what I had and it happened to work well.

In my head now are many more bubbles waiting to escape. I think the next one will be a bit bigger but I can see it as a border with lovely quilting in the centre, as a fussy cut I Spy and even in the borders one or two scrappy bubbles appearing. See how many ideas spark off. One thing is for sure, I am not short of scraps.

Happy Stitching

Shirley.