It’s wet and miserable here of late. Lots of rain with a few rare spots of overcast-ness (why yes, I did just type the first word that came to mind, real word or not). The sun is a rare visitor at the moment. So imagine trying to take photos of quilts and WiPs.
I dashed out in a bout of overcast-ness (I like it, I’m going to use it) to nab a quick shot of my current WiP. Oh and it made me forget all about the dreary weather!
Last year there were a gazillion things for girls but boys were a bit left out. So Fiona and I decided to make a snuggly quilt for the boys. Using a mix of eye spy fabrics and some fun dots and stripes, I think this rainbow bit of goodness ought to appeal. At least I hope so!
We are basing it on the Zakka style quilt from the book. Chain piecing makes this a breeze. I had a bit of a production line going on. Only bit I had to remember was to switch directions on the seams when I joined them together. It only took one bowed strip to remind me.
It still needs grey sashing. That’s the next job on the list. Then I’m off the hook. I think I got the easy end of the deal! Fiona is doing the back, quilting and binding (unless she wants to skip binding and go the pillowcase method, I’d be okay with that!). I think I will add a little soft toy to sweeten the deal. An elephant maybe, or a teddy, or an owl. Decisions decisions!
As for other WiP… the big one at the moment is the Red Herring quilt. I got sick of my indecisiveness on the quilting and just sat down and started. Yeah can you imagine? Quilting, with no plan! Perhaps not the wisest but it was rather freeing! I went with basic diagonal lines to echo the paper pieced blocks. I didn’t even measure, I guesstimated the whole way. That’s right, I sew on the wild side.
That worked for me. Until this point. Then I tried to add some chevrons in the white horizontal sashing. Disaster! I hate it. It looks awful and detracts from the happy herrings. I’m not even going to share a photo. So I have quite a bit of unpicking to do – and there’s nothing worse than unpicking quilting is there? That should tell you how much I hate it. So I’ll save it to do while I watch one of my fave tv shows – Offspring. That should make it a bit more interesting.
So fellow quilters, now what do I do about the horizontal sashing? Leave it bare? Plain horizontal lines across? Vertical lines? Other? Help!!
And rather than leave on such a woeful note as discussing unpicking (shudder), here are some chirpy rainbow lorikeets who entertain me from my kitchen window. Aren’t they lovely?
I love the rainbow quilt and especially love the Red Herring quilt... I would like to make one of those!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I'm sure I remember you saying that you were not a fan of grey... have I converted you ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove the bright cheerful colours, a great choice for a wee boy.
I kind of like the look of the clear horizontal space, but spaced out horizontal quilting could add a nice touch, too. Less dense quilting than the diagonals could avoid a cluttered look? Maybe?
ReplyDeleteUrgh, unpicking... I've got a "dress" that I made last year. Two prettily scallopped skirt layers, gathered at the hip, and attached to a jersey tank top. It was a pain to attach to the top and less than ideal but a tie covered what could'Ve looked messy. However, I'm just not feeling it so much as a dress, so I've been telling myself since the end of summer that I want to salvage the skirt. Detach it and add eleastic.
I think you've guessed that it disappeared into the dark corner of my closet until about a month ago. Now it sits on a chair. I've not unpicked one stitch. A line of stitiching to the tanks top. Two skirt layers with two rows of gathering stitches and one row of securing stitches each..urgh..I just can't..
Oh your quilting looks great!! I like the look of the clear horizontal space. And I love your cheery rainbow blocks - what a cool idea to do with your quilting buddy:-)
ReplyDeleteIt looks to me like you can just continue the echo quilting to fill in those empty places.
ReplyDeleteYour rainbow blocks are so pretty! Cool photos with all of the strips hanging, too! And your Red Herring Quilt is really gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI love this quilt. I think that the white sashing with no quilting makes the paper pieced blocks pop out more. I feel your pain about unpicking, I had to do it to a huge section of a quilt and hated it too.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Australian winters are much like German summers, lots of overcast-ness here as well... Your rainbow quilt will be so cheerful, that would make me forget about rain as well!
ReplyDeleteI'm from the U.S. and it always amazes me that are places where parrots fly around in the backyards. I spent some time in Bolivia and I kept running outside to take pictures of macaws. Everyone there thought I was nuts.
ReplyDeleteLove your projects. And I love watching the birds from my breakfast room window as well. We get three different types of woodpeckers on our feeder.
ReplyDeleteI love the gray in the rainbow quilt! Nice switch from the usual white, and, if you think about it, pretty true-to-life for rainbows anyway!
ReplyDeleteI'd vote for some horizontal quilting on the herringbone quilt. Sorry about the unpicking. Ugh, it's the worst!
Those birds are amazing! A robin flew into a window here the other day, and that's so much less exotic than those birds! I might actually like birds if I had those to look at. Maybe.
beautiful projects!! Enjoy the rain, I love it and we haven't had much of it lately where I am. I do hope you get some good sunshine to enjoy soon!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see what your Colloborate quilt ends up like!! I bidded in that auction last year - such a fabulous idea!
ReplyDeleteI like watching what you do. There is only one thing I don't get. Why you don't put the rainbow colors in order? :-) I know it looks good this way too, it's just me being organized.
ReplyDeletethese are great!
ReplyDeleteWow you have been busy! Ha poor Fiona having to do all the hard work!
ReplyDeleteLeave the strips bare I say less work for you =D
You should be a weather girl!
ReplyDeleteUnpicking quilting that's no fun, echo quilting is always my failsafe so that would get my vote.
Your quilts are beautiful! For the herringbone quilt the only thing I could think of would be to one herringbone? So it would be stretched out compared to the others. Not quite horizontal, but close.
ReplyDelete