Glimpses of Speed Quilt 1

Looking at this pic, perhaps I ought to have entitled this post "glimpses of quilting accoutrements" - as the quilt doesn't necessarily leap out as much as the tea, chocolate, cats and remote do - although perhaps the cats dominate this one.

The rest are all variations on a theme - me sewing on the binding - with assistance from my furry quilt police.  

Who'm I kidding - the theme here is cats!

Ferret's Speed Quilt courses are great fun - usually held as a one-day workshop.  Participants arrive with all their fabric and wadding pre-cut - and then a day is spent sewing it all together in the good company of other quilting buddies.   Looking at Ferret's blog this particular workshop was back in June 2010 - lovely pics of other's quilts on the blog.

Ferret is an inspirational teacher.  Her talent is awesome.  I don't have the words to describe her work - phenomenal is conservative.  I've been fortunate enough to see some of the quilts on her blog and the talent and artistry therein have blown me away.   I say she's an inspirational teacher because she's always encouraging her students to step out of their safety zones and take things one step further.  Students are also encouraged to work on their own designs in her classes.  Although I'm not attending regular classes at the moment (work and school commitments) - I still get to go when friends are on holiday.   I've just been to 3 classes and it was great to be back.  Classes are held at Patchwork Corner, so there's always the temptation of yummy fabric just across the courtyard!!!

I'd better go and get ready for work.  Have a good week, all. 

Bound with Crosshatch in Tangerine!

 

Front, 

and back, below:

 

Detail, below:

This quilt was begun in 2011, in one of  Ferret's  one-day "Speed Quilt" classes.   It's a quilt-as-you-go quilt, with minimal quilting.   I then reached an impasse with the colours I'd chosen.  (This is actually the second speed quilt I made - the first (the third quilt I ever made) went to my niece abroad, unphotographed.  Again, I shall have to remedy that.  This was an attempt to recreate that quilt for memememe.   

I adore the AMH innocent crush rose in the centre, but was concerned that the colour didn't link into the rest of the quilt.  Hence the butterfly - which I think needs tilting a little - it's turned out a little too uniformly placed.  It did take many months to arrive at this particular solution!

I outline quilted the central rose, which shows up nicely on the back (photo not uploading for some inscrutable to me reason). 

The quilt then sat for years, whilst I auditioned bindings.   And then, Architextures arrived, and everything fell into place.  

 

 And then the fudge, my favourite bit of this quilt.  I was actually binding it (yes I was) when I noticed a slight lack of linen....   I hunted around in my fabrics (more auditioning) and this virtually fell at my feet.

It was a scrap that had been used to wrap a Fat Quarter bundle from far away shores - reader, I keep them all!!   Of course then there was a slight diversion whilst I googled furiously in an attempt to identify it - Avant Garden from Modernology by Pat Bravo.

And this one's a keeper!  

Quilt Stats:  59" x 59"

Fabrics Front:  

Turn of Evens in Plum -Innocent Crush - Anna Maria Horner

Sandlewood in Tangerine - Love - Amy Butler

Clippings in Passion - Loulouthi - Anna Maria Horner

Sun Spots in Olive - Love - Amy Butler

Crosshatch in Tangerine - Architextures - Carolyn Friedlander 

Fabrics Back: 

Stof Linen

Doughty's White

Avant Garden in Blanc - Modernology - Pat Bravo

& the teeny strip of stripes is Wa-Modern by Hokkoh.

Right, housework beckons (joke - it never does).  My next UFO does though.  And perhaps some reading up of HTML codes!

Here's One I Made Earlier....

I'd fully intended to blog about the quilt linked tantalisingly to the last post BUT, as often happens when I make plans - somehow they don't always work out in real life like they do in my head.  May I just for the record state that I did finish a quilt yesterday.  I photographed it this evening, when willing arms were available, but the light was awful.   So I'll try again in the morning before willing arms head off to school.  I am realising that I will have to up my photography/camera skills.   

In the meantime, as promised, here's a quilt I made a few years ago for a friend's special birthday.  Completed as per the date on the photograph - ahem, her actual birthday (many, many last-minute late nights).  I seem to remember in one of my earlier blog posts I hinted that I had a self-imposed rule never to sew late at night - well that's tosh.  I do, often.  I like that time of day, when the house and all in it are sleeping, and I'm quiely sewing the wrong sides of fabric together.  Yes, I do make more mistakes in the wee hours.  But hey, that's why seam rippers were invented.  And I have many of those, because at that time of night I can never find one once I've put it down...

On to the quilt:

 A simple colour brick pattern.  All the fabrics in the blocks were gifted to me by a work colleague who'd given up quilting in favour of knitting and crochet at which she is phenomenally talented.  Although I love the fabrics here, they're not my colours - but they are my friend's favourite colours - so just perfect for this gift.  The brick-coloured background fabric I bought from Hobbycraft.  The colours are actually more vibrant than these photographs show.  The quilt went together really quickly, as you can imagine.

  A closer look.

The back.

And detail - simple stipple quilting. 

I didn't measure it - I should, and I will.  It's a comfortable lap quilt and currently covers a two-seat sofa in my friend's house. 

I shall complete my previous post soon - and here's a little part of it.