WIP Wednesday

I am really excited. I have made fantastic progress on 2 projects this week.

Hexie quilt: The top is completed - as far as stitching goes. I put the last stitch in it at the conclusion of our church council meeting last night. It was a long meeting and I was able to get the "Sky" connected to the rest of the quilt.

This morning at Patchwork I took out the basting stitches and removed all the papers apart from around the edge. I am leaving them in till I have it pinned ready to quilt. The hand stitching is a little too fragile to take the dragging around. The seams unravel easily even though I double knotted them as much as possible.

 Now to work out the backing! I have left over hexies and I am wondering about incorporating them but think I might leave them for another project and do a non pieced backing

I am so thrilled to have it done. People ask me what I am going to do with it and honestly I don't know. I have no plans for it... no particular place for it to go. But I am sure I will find somewhere special for it.

Dash That Cat (that I have called Drat that Cat a few times....) The quilting is completed. Yes. under the needle was tricky although made easier by the fact I quilted in rows... along each row of blocks. Still restling that mammoth quilt (91"x 104") was awkward 

 Just the binding to go. I am a pretty slack quilter compared to some of the quilting I see others do. But... I don't get excited by it, quilting I mean. I do a pretty good meander and other times I do a lovely loose free motion free form quilting pattern and that is what I have done on DTC. 

I tried out a variety of different patterns on the blocks going across the quilt... spirals, meander and this loose swirl and dip thing... which I also did on the sashing and  the top and bottom borders. I did a chain of hearts on the side borders and they were all different sizes and free form. I enjoyed doing them. I used an Aurifil thread from Tula Pink's collection - choosing a varigated peachy pink. 

I made the binding at Patchwork group this morning. I needed 400 inches. I used some of the bits I trimmed off the backing after I had quilted it plus other bits of left over fabric and cut up one more fat quarter from the Japanese fabric bundle - Uki. There seems to be oodles of it but I can use leftovers in the binding for  Diamond Dash 2 quilt

At Handmade Love this week I was able to do some fun sewing. I made a little zipper bag to go on a key fob using a pattern called Teeny Tiny Mini Zipper Pouch keyring by So Sew Easy found here (the title is bigger than the pouch)

I also made a casserole carrier using some African fabric the director of Our Rainbow House Alison bought back with her on trip to our school in Zambia

It was good to get a couple of finishes under the belt. I cut out the fabric for a 2nd casserole carrier which will be the reverse of this one (green on the outside, blue inside) and there are scraps to make pot mitts to match. 

What have you been sewing this week?

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