A Very Important Date

Not one to do things in a methodical structured fashion, I find myself frantically hand quilting to a deadline.

November 30th, 2014 to be precise.

On a quilt that I've been making since 2004 (possibly).  It's been so long in gestation that I've forgotten when it was conceived.  Only two more borders,  81" and 92".  That's 173" X 6.5" more to go!!
 

You may not be able to see the pattern easily on the picture above.  That is very likely because you cannot see the pattern very easily on the quilt either.  In my earlier quilting days, I was unaware that the complex patterned fabric I chose for the border would obscure the quilting pattern.

It's a double baptist fan pattern.  Not a single, a DOUBLE.  That may explain why it has taken so long to finish the quilt.  But the other, correct reason is that knowing that the very intense quilting wouldn't really be seen produced a quandary.  After having quilted one border the dilemma was:  

do I undo the quilting and start again with a simpler, more expedient pattern?

or

do I just keep going to the bitter end? 

After much hand wringing and just ten years you can see what I decided.  After all that work, I just couldn't undo it, so now I find myself on a deadline.  Which is where you came in.  More later.  Right now,  I'm back to quilting.                                                          

Loose threads

 After finishing another  block from the Beyond the Cherry Trees Album quilt  I did the right thing and soaked my applique.  Little did I expect the purples to run and I was dismayed to discover that the colour catcher didn't seem to work for purple.  I removed the offending "grape" and was rather disgruntledly preparing to cover the stain with 2 over sized grapes.   Meanwhile, the block was left to soak overnight with the colour catcher.  All of the purple stain vanished so now I know to allow things to soak in water for extended periods.  I challenge you to find the colour run.

The week has been packed with non quilty activity, including hosting a dinner for 14 on Wednesday.

However, I did manage to fit in a machine quilting class with Kim Bradley at Quiltsmith.  It was a wonderful, relaxed class with Kim who proved to be a great teacher.  She was extremely encouraging and advised 10 minutes of machine quilting a day to improve skill.  So I did what I was told and here is a picture of my 10 minutes practice the day after the class.

I have been neglecting my traditional quilting in favour of big stitches and now machine quilting.  It was no surprise to discover my fine stitching skills were very rusty.  I pulled out a large semi-quilted, mainly applique quilt started in 2003.  It is a Karen Cunningham design that she published in a magazine. 

 This spring long weekend in Sydney has been like winter -wet and cold.  It was the perfect opportunity to rediscover my hand quilting.