Sunday Stash Report. A Finish

Yes I have another finish to report. Yay. Love it when I get something done. I have finished a quilt I only began about 10 days ago. It only got one entry in WIP Wednesday as I started it on a Wednesday evening after I had done my WIP report for that week. 

Here it is... Peaceful Hearts. I love it. This one is mine. 

I wrote about it fairly extensively in this week's WIP Wednesday report here. I didn't have a name for it when I wrote the report but have decided to call it "Peaceful Hearts" as most of the hearts were contributed by friends from Patch n Peace retreat 2008. 




When I wrote the report I hadn't decided how to quilt it. In the end I shadow quilted around all the hearts (some of the shadows were more reflections with the wind blowing on the water... bit wobbley) 



I did fairly widely spaced meandering on the rest of the body of the quilt. 

On the borders I stitched a heart in the centre of each square and then just a row of stitching to link them. 



I machined down the binding, stitching it to the wrong side first and then turning it over and using a decorative stitch to secure it to the front. Several podcasters have been talking about machine binding and how they do it wrong but have found that they do it the same way as each other which is also the way I do mine. I try to lay the edge of the binding on the row of stitching you can see but inevitably things migrate about the place and I don't sweat the small stuff. I love trying out different decorative stitches each time. Decorative stitches do take so much longer than straight sewing though... but still quicker than hand stitching it down





The back was patched together pieces of minky dot fabric I had on hand. I love the feel of minky dot. After I took these photos I was sitting in the kitchen rubbing the backing against my face and Fixit Guy told me not to use it to wipe my face on.


I LOVE it. Its all mine






The quilt measured 160cm square so it was 5.95 used.

Had a few purchases as well.  I got some white tone on tone to finish off my Disappearing into the Blue quilt. The fabric was quilt backing wide and they would only cut it .5 metre at a time so I will have oodles left over but it will come in handy. I counted it as double metreage.

Whilst I was at the shop getting the the tone on tone I saw some fabric that I think will be great as the backing for the round the world quilt. Its a bit of an impost on this week's numbers but since I have a plan for both lots of fabric I will use it up in the not too distant future. 

So to sum up

Used this week:                        5.95m
Added this week                       6.6 m

Year to Date Used                     89.32
Year to Date added                   72.27
Net Used                                  17.05

Linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times

WIP Wednesday

I started working on a new quilt, playing with my design board last Wednesday night. I forgot to take any progress photos... ooops my bad. In 2008 when my Dad died the women who attend Patch n Peace made healing heart blocks... blocks featuring a heart on 6.5" squares of white or cream. Some blocks were crotched, appliqued, some made from lace... all sorts of blocks from a group of women who cared for me in my sad time. I had put the hearts away and not done anything with them, had actually forgotten about them till I sorted through my sewing room a few weeks ago. 

At Patch n Peace this year I saw a quilt made by another retreat member that had a pattern I thought would work with the hearts. It featured 3 different sized blocks - 12, 8 and 6 ". They all basically 9 patches with 8 patches one colour and the centre block a different colour. Last Wednesday I started to play with it the blocks. Because I wanted the centre of each block to be the heart which was 6" finished but I wanted different sized blocks I changed from the 9 patch pattern idea. I went with 18" 12" and 6" blocks instead. The 18" blocks were basically 9 patches. The 12" blocks had the 6" heart in the centre and 3" strips around.The 6" blocks were just the hearts. I made 4 x18" blocks, 7x12" blocks and 17 single hearts. 

For the border I made 5" blocks. Half had 3" square centres and the other half had 2" centres. 

Yesterday I worked on the backing. This quilt is my lap quilt and I love minky. I had some brown minky dot fabric but not enough so I patched together all the rest of the minky dot I had... some blue scraps and some lilac. I was really pleased with the final look. 

Today at Patchwork I got it Pin basted. Now to quilt it I think I will do an all over meander with echo quilting around the hearts. In the borders I might do something more geometric... unless I do something more geometric over the centre and put a chain of hearts into the border... hmmm still thinking. What do you reckon?

I used another UFO up in the backing for my Teddies and Pinwheel quilt. Many years ago I had put together small quilt using a variety of pink and blue nine patches. Many of the fabrics were my hand dyes and it was just a bit small to be the back of the Teddies and Pinwheels quilt which also features a good few of my hand dyed fabrics. I put some white borders on it and now it will be a great backing for the quilt. Now I have to get it basted and quilted. 

The Disappearing 9 Patch with a Twist also needed a backing. I had a piece of polar fleece which is just big enough. I will have to be careful when I baste it to make sure it doesn't shift.

My other big WIP has been the bathroom renovations which are on going. Last Wednesday the builder started work on our ensuite bathroom, ripping out the vanity and pedestal. Thursday the asbestos removalists came in and removed all the walls and the ceiling. Friday the builder started to put in the new wall panels. Over the weekend Fixit Guy started painting the family bathroom. He still has to do the trim but he will probably be able to get to it this weekend. Today they finally fitted the shower screen. Still have to put up the towel rails. 

In the en suite they have done the plumbing and electrical work, have water proofed it and laid the bed for the tiles to go on. They will put the tiles down this coming week. 

Linking up with WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced