An awesome finish!

Fair warning, this is a photo heavy post!

Today the postman delivered the most awesome package from Trudi! I had handed over my precious Not-so Lonestar quilt to Trudi at the last meeting of the East Midlands Modern Quild Guild. My vague instructions to Trudi for quilting were "all-over feathers, just do your thing." I've seen Trudi's work in person before, it is fabulous but nothing really prepared me for how awesome my quilt would look once she had worked her magic! When I opened the parcel this was my first peek at what was in store for me.

There was much squealing and petting of fabric. There were almost, but not quite, tears and lots of crack your cheekbone grinning! Take a look at these next few photos of the corner stars...

 ...I mean WOW!

There were all kinds of bias issues in the centre of those stars but you'd never know it now! Here's the centre of the Lonestar... again no sign of my dodgy bias issues. Those feathers are perfect!!

Here's a close-up...

...the texture is amazing!! I asked for a grey thread as I wanted it to blend in with the riot of colour in the fabrics. Aurifil to the rescue of course ;) 

I had cleared my afternoon to make sure I could get on with the binding, all 10 and a bit metres of it! I was lazy in the end and applied the binding by machine. I justified that to myself by wanting it to stand up to the many washes that it will undergo in its lifetime. I fully intend for this to be a well loved and well used quilt! I took my time to make sure it was as neat as it could be. Front..

 and back.

Then it was time to dress the bed :) I think we need a bigger bed. It's very difficult to get the whole quilt in the shot!

Here's a final shot of it from another angle :)

It's safe to say that this is my most favourite quilt to date! Trudi's quilting has pushed this quilt into the stratosphere! I am so proud of our combined efforts :) Enough of my gushing for now. Thank you Trudi, you rock! Catch you soon x

Cracking the whip

I've declared 2014 the year that I empty my WIP box. I know I'm not alone in that so I'll be hoping that you hold me to it in the same way I'm going to be nagging/ encouraging those of you that are on the same path. It's a big box and I've already taken out my second largest WIP to date so it doesn't look as bad as it did a week or so ago. In the spirit of honesty I also have 3 or 4 WIPs lying around the sewing room ;)

I've been plugging away at my biggest challenge to date the Not-so Lonestar Quilt! I started this quilt in 2011 when I was very definitely a novice patch-worker. I soon got fed up of it so dumped it in the WIP box and revisited it again in 2012. Obviously I got fed up of the diamonds again so back into the WIP box it went. This time round I've dug it out with the express intention of finishing it. This was firmly reinforced when I discovered that the quarter that I made this time round was considerably smaller than the original. I have since set about unpicking the original quarter and restitching it in line with the one I've just completed. If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen lots of photos of my progress so I'm not going to overload the blog with all of them. This is one of the giant diamonds that I've made this time round.

Now that I've got the technique for piecing the rows sussed (more-or-less) I'm chain piecing the remaining 36 rows. This photo gives a much better idea of the beautiful colours in the fabrics I'm using :)

I'd love to think that I'll finish this top by the end of January...watch this space!
Today I took another long term WIP out of the box and turned it into a snuggly blanket following Hadley's lead. One WIP plus an Ikea fleece blanket and I no longer have a WIP :)

I'll be sending this little blanket off in response to Alison's appeal.

So there you have it. The start to what I hope will be many WIPs leaving the box as finished articles :) Catch you soon x

A change from diamonds

After cutting diamonds for the Not-so-lonestar quilt for what seems like an eternity (I'm not known as drama queen for nothing!) I fancied a change. So today I've been cutting triangles :) I started this quilt ages ago and for one reason or another it got shelved. When I blew the dust off it, I can't tell you how happy I was to see this fabric again. I'd forgotten how beautiful Lark is. I've managed to add 4 rows of triangles today :)

 Here's a close-up of one half of the rows so far. Don't pay too much attention to the squiffy third row, not sure what happened there and I don't care as it's for me  ;)

 Here's the other half. What did I tell you? These fabrics are gorgeous! I'm not sure how big I will make this quilt. I had originally intended to do 5 rows of hexagons but I love this fabric so much I might just have to add more rows. We'll see...

Catch you soon x

Eye candy

Two posts in one day, will wonders never cease! I'm just so excited with my progress on my Not-so Lonestar quilt that I had to show you!! This project is a slow burner as it's so labour intensive but over the last few days I've managed to complete the first quarter. I will most definitely be sending it out to a long-arm quilter when it is finished as it's going to be a monster.

The colours aren't great in the photos but in real life they are beautiful! Here's a close-up of the corner star.

Here's the point of the large star. Not bad even if I do say so myself ;) 

This photo gives you a better idea of the scale of the quilt, it makes this double sofa bed look fairly tiny.

So, only another 3 quarters to go....It's still going to be a while in the making but I'm so pleased to finally see some real progress :) Catch you soon x