I'm sewing.....

Has Spring sprung?

You won't believe it but one of my resolves for this year was to get myself organised. I figured that I wasted a lot of time searching for things that have been misplaced or buried. Unfortunately this takes some time to achieve & blogging has taken a back seat as usual.... Enough..!

I am juggling a lot of 'Sewing Balls' in the air at the moment..... Bee Blocks.... Class Teaching Samples, Projects for a book (not mine) and finally a quilt for my parents....

I don't know about you but I have always been a 'last minute' type person..... I work best with a deadline..... My parents celebrate their Diamond (60 years) Wedding Anniversary on March 6th - and before you ask...... they waited a few years for me to come along.... so there!  So last week I suddenly decided that a quilt would be a great present.... I'm not such an airhead to think I could get this done in such time that I have available ... So I searched my UFO's...... Ta Dah....!! I found one.... 

This was a design I came up with 2 or 3 years ago for a class using a Layer Cake... The fabrics are William Morris designs and the colours are, thankfully suitable for my parents.... I cheated by using a border stripe fabric for speed and am now quilting it.. 

I bought a class from Craftsy - Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine...with Ann Petersen 

This is a really good class, she has a ton of information - some of which I already knew but she takes it a step further, and some ideas which are totally knew to me. The tips on spray basting have speeded up the process and given me a super sandwich to sew on... And there is more than one process to quilt a large quilt on a domestic machine..   I'm not advertising but I always thinks it helps to hear from a neutral party... 

That little patch in the bottom right is auditioning for the quilting.... It is simple and can be sewn in one continuous line.... Both of which tick my limited machine quilting skills box....

Doti has been 'patiently' waiting on my blocks for the Siblings bee.... I have to confess they have been finished for a couple of weeks but got 'tidied' away with another project.... I thought I would be remaking them.... Happily they were found and have gone off in the post.... Her designs request was for Slab Blocks.... Simple monotone scrap blocks with a flash of white.... She has been hand quilting them as they arrive... I think this quilt will be lovely & snugly...

A siren red block....

And a precious purple......

If my stash had been organised this would be a really speedy process..... Off to sort a bit more & finish the quilting on Diamond Links..... I may put the binding on as I have already fixed the edge down & can handsew it during the evenings.... Time is getting tight....