The Wool Palace

Get up on this

I've been doing plenty of sewing in the last week.  Between the sewing and work, there hasn't been much time to blog!

I finished the quilt for my sister.

I dragged Sam out of his pit bedroom to help with the photos as 6ft 2in teenage boys make good quilt holders.  I was given strict instructions not to show his face - a little bit of his hair sneaked into one photo, but I think he can cope with that.

I followed the method for the Beach Glass quilt from Quilts Made Modern.  The background is Essex Linen in Flax and the strips are in a mix of Kona colours and Metro Living Circles.

I used some of my left overs to make a pieced backing.

I quilted it with straight(ish) lines and then threw in a few horizontal ones to add a bit of interest.  It was my first time quilting with Aurifil and I have to say I loved it.  I used 50wt on this one as I wanted to keep the quilting light, but I'm curious to try the 40wt as well.

It's bound with a Kei honeycomb dot in red, which makes it look nice and cheerful I think.

I was really pleased to get this done and I'm happy with how it turned out.  All it needs now is a baby!

Home straight

I've been pinning

and stitching.

If I manage to squeeze in some binding time, then I should be done very soon!

In for a penny

BQS3 was such fun that I went right ahead and signed up for another swap.

It took a bit of speedy work on my phone as I was out and about when sign ups went live.  Apparently the places filled up in about 5 hours so I'm glad I managed to get it, it promises to be a good one.

Here's the inspiration mosaic I've made for my partner.

Click here for full picture credits.

 

You won't find me, till the clock strikes three

First day back at school for the children today.  Happy coincidence that it's Wednesday, which is my day off my school job.  As the children are getting older, they are around less and less in holidays and the evenings, with a combination of part time jobs, sports commitments and socialising, so I do enjoy spending time with them.  However, it's still a nice feeling to wave them off in the morning, close the door, and know that I have total peace and quiet for the next 8 hours or so.

I've resolved that September will be my month to finish up things I've had lying around for a while.

Top of the list is this baby quilt for my sister.

This was stalled due to a lack of Essex Linen in Flax, which I needed for the backing.  Most UK suppliers have been out of stock for quite a while, but I managed to source some before we went away.  Given that the baby is due in mid October, and the quilt has to be posted to Australia, I'd better get my skates on.

Once that's done, I've got Sam's quilt to finish up.

It's looking all sad and crumpled here.  There's a picture on Flickr that shows it off better.  This just needs backing and quilting.  I think I'm going to keep it simple and back it in the same blue Kona that is used in the front blocks.  I've got a Kei Honeycomb dot earmarked for the binding.

Talking of binding,

this set of placemats and napkins, which I made almost a year ago (eek!), have been sitting waiting for some binding for the placemats.  I'm thinking some sort of burnt orange might be nice - what do you think?

Finally there's my Liberty and Oakshott blocks.

These are probably my favourite project right now, although the blocks take some time to construct.  They measure 6.5in each and I've got a sort of plan coming together to combine them with blocks of solid colours of the same size.  I've ordered a few Kona colours and plan to play around with some layouts.

Linking up with WiP Wednesday for this post.  What do you have planned for September?

Best in show?

Goodness, that was a bit of a blog break.  We're back from a lovely couple of weeks in Provence.  We spent our days walking up spectacular river gorges and our evenings drinking dirt cheap rosé under the stars on our campsite.

Now it's back to earth with school uniforms to sort out and work starting again, sigh.

I finished my Brit Quilt Swap 3 mini before we went away.

I had the top finished for a while and was unsure about how I wanted to quilt it.  In the end I kept it simple and just outlined each block with some parallel lines.

I backed it with a Flea Market Fancy print and bound it with some yarn dyed gingham I bought as a bolt end from Eternal Maker a while back.  The binding wasn't a choice I had thought of in advance, in fact I think I grabbed it off the shelf at about 10pm, but I was very happy with it and think it adds a nice pop to the quilt.

I finished this the night before our village Flower Show.  I don't really grow flowers and my vegetables have been a disaster this year, so on a whim I decided to enter the mini in the handicrafts section.

I was actually there while the judging was being done - all anonymously of course - so I got to eavesdrop on the deliberations.  There was some to-ing and fro-ing, but in the end

I won first prize!  Our village is tiny, but people make a big effort to keep things like the Flower Show going.  I collected by 50p prize money with pride and I'll try and make sure I enter something again next year.

Back from the show and back from holiday, I've put a label on the mini and posted it off with a few other goodies to my swap partner.  I hope she likes it - I'll always have good memories of making it.