Not a lot of sewing going on

Tomorrow is the first of July. That means 26 days until I submit my thesis so I am spending a lot of time here:

I feel like I want one of those corny tee-shirts that says "I'd rather being sewing". I made Stacey's bee blocks this morning then packed my sewing machine away so its not sitting around taunting me over the next few weeks. I have some hexies to keep me sane in the evenings and of course there's always online fabric shopping if things get really bad ...

Tula Pink's City Sampler blocks

Not so long ago Tula Pink's latest book Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks turned up in my mailbox. I'm not normally drawn to sampler quilts - they tend to look a bit busy for me. However, I liked the look of the blocks enough to buy the book regardless.

I have no real plan as yet - I decided to start by flicking through the book and make the blocks that grab me and see how I go. I have a charm park (Prince Charming) and other odds and ends of TP fabric. I'm going to keep to a fairly limited colour palette at this stage - I really like the 'Sliding Scale' setting at the back of the book so I might aim for something like that.

The book is really pretty. I can see myself spending ages looking at the pictures trying to decide what to make. I have started by staying quite close to blocks in the book, but I know that wont last once I get going. I think Tula has been very clever designing quite simple but effective blocks with lots of scope for fussy cutting and making the most of fabric detail.

A bit of colour

It feels like I have really battled with this little quilt. Goodness only knows why - I have struggled to make decisions the whole way along.

Having finally decided to go with the light border and binding, doubts immediately set in.

I felt like the border was just a bit too wide. It made the whole thing look more yellow than I wanted. It doesn't look as yellow here in the photo, you'll just have to take my word for it.

I left it hanging up like this for a few days, then in a fit of pique chopped my binding off and a little of the border. Ouch. It still seemed wrong somehow. I decided I needed to try a stronger 'frame' using a different coloured binding. The ever helpful Coco was on hand to help with decision making.

This is what I settled upon. 

You may recall that I want to give this to a friend. A non-quilty friend. I suspect this is the cause of all the angst. Crafters love what you make because they know the effort that has gone in to the finished product. Non-crafters...well, you just have to cross your fingers!

Liberty quilting

I took my Liberty quilt to a longarm quilter after I saw Mel's lovely quilt at Monday Modern. I knew straight away that was the quilting pattern I wanted for my Liberty.

Love.

Binding {how I do it}

Occasionally people ask me how I do my binding, so I figured that I would take a few snaps as I was working on binding a mini-quilt that I have been making. This is not a tutorial - there are heaps of good ones around - more just a few details about how I like to do mine.
I cut my binding 2 1/4 inches wide:

And then attach it to the quilt using a generous 1/4 inch seam:

Once it is all attached I give the binding a good press before I start hand-sewing. I put my ruler next to it today for this shot. The seam is 1/4 inch and the binding is half an inch again:

This means that when you fold it over it just clears your stitching line. I like this form of binding because you get a nice full binding that is the same size on both sides. For the neat freak in me that is ridiculously satisfying!

This is what I am working on. It has taken me months to decide on a colour for the border - lots of people gave me feedback when I asked for help but there was no definitive winner between light and dark! Today was the day I bit the bullet and chose light. A bit of hand sewing and it will finally be done.

Peaks {a finished quilt}

I'm so happy to have this quilt finished. I love everything about it. I took it to Taupo with me on my mini-break so that I could sew the binding on, and both my mother and sister tried hard to convince me to part with it.

I think it is the clean lines that I like the most - and the colours which are some of my most favourite. I had to get a bit creative on the back on account of my bad quilty maths, but I think the floral fabric adds an extra pop. 

The other lovely thing about this quilt (which I had completely forgotten) is that I originally started making it to enter in a competition. When I took it to Monday Modern, Helen - who had organised the competition - presented me with a pile of goodies. I felt very spoilt -

- especially when I found this treasure included - handmade by Helen. It's fabulous - thank you so much Helen!