Phew !

Phew! is the sound you make when you get to the top of a hill, also the sound I made about 10 minutes ago when I finished the binding on the quilt destined for my sister. The learning curve for this has been vertical ('steep' - is just too much of an understatement!)

I have however learnt a great many lessons along the way so that when I begin my next quilting adventure I will hopefully end up with something a lot more polished.

So far the summary of the quilt goes thus: 1000m of thread, 3 sewing machines (vintage, broken and new), 188 squares cut, pieced and pressed - two irons (one now relegated, one new) - more ironing than I have ever done in my life....and finally the binding is done (oh to that you can add 2.5m of unpicked seams and a shed load of thready bits that will be forever stuck to my home.

My Toyota sewing machine died on me just as I finished the first round of quilting. So this quilt has a wavy stripe quilting instead of the wavy diamonds in my head. My trusty Singer sewing machine (60 yrs old dontcha know) complete with crank handle enabled me to make a start on the binding whilst I awaited my new upgraded sewing investment. Here it is... sew pretty!

 








Would you like a sneak peak of the quilt? The lining is a green cotton with white polka dots (top right), Bottom right is where some of the top patches meet.

 I think the overall effect of this quilt will be fab. Bright and cheery and hopefully a much loved quilt despite the flaws....

A few lessons to be remembered:

1) I cannot sew straight! cut the selvages off fabric
2) Ironing the seams is well worth it
3) I cannot cut straight...or apparently gauge distance
4) Hand sewing the binding might be time consuming but will achieve a more polished finish - time constraints in this project have made it impossible as Christmas is fast approaching!!