Frustrations and some progress with quilting

Struggling with blogging!  

I hope no-one saw the above sentence which I published by mistake this morning. Still trying to add the Bloglovin button properly but other issues resolved blogwise.

I spent an hour this morning folding the edges of my Sampler quilt in and tacking down. Then I tried multiple distraction techniques in order to put off the dreaded start of hand quilting.

Quilting techniques had been covered in the last lesson of the course I attended at Busy Bee Patchwork in Newport. I had practised for an hour in class on an orphan block with very little success. I could not seem to catch the backing, the thimble kept coming off my middle finger and I felt like I had no hope of ever conquering my demons.

I am determined to make this quilt totally by hand even if it is the last time I do this. I tried a few different marking techniques and decided to use 1/4 in. tape for most of the blocks. I will do some echo quilting around the appliqué shapes with outline quilting of the geometric shapes.

It was as well there was no-one else around for the first hour as I got increasingly annoyed with my attempts. The stitches were now catching the backing but were uneven and too large. I kept referring to my books for tips and eventually I got into a rhythm and my stitching improved. I managed to quilt just about half of one of the 12in. blocks and once the quilting is finished I may return and re-do the first bit.

Quilt top at last session of beginners course

Quilt top after basting

The colours look quite different in the two photos The basted top is nearer to the actual quilt as the photo was taken in the conservatory. I used a daylight lamp as the weather has been so awful today.

I chose Kaffe Fassett fabrics with some Moda Crackle in green for the background. The Kaffe Fassett fabrics are Guinea flower in yellow and Lotus Leaf in antique. On reflection it was not the easiest colour palette to work with for a beginner. In fact it was challenging! Bright colours seem to appeal to me. These fabrics just leapt off the shelf and I could not put them down. I chose a Kaffe Fassett broad stripe for the backing. Fortunately this goes surprisingly well with the top.

Enough for now, time for dinner…...