Hmmmmm.

Am quilting the Arrows Quilt. It is going------ well, it's going. I tried a loop stitch, and that was silly. 3 hours of unpicking ensued. I started outlining the arrows on the white, which went well except for my tension issues, which meant another hour of unpicking. So third time lucky - have outlined all the arrows in white.

Now I'm wondering what to do next.

1) Should I quilt inside the arrows with colour?

2) Should I do another smaller design in the white areas?

3) Should I fill in the gaps with stippling or other patterns?

4) Should I just leave well alone and bind it?

All help appreciated! Linking to Crazy Mom's Finish it Friday for some help!


PS My hubby has a vomiting bug. Oh yay. We're all treating him like a leper. Yay for another bathroom. Not yay for him feeling even more ill than he has been already :(

My quilts

Hallo blog,
Am spending some time organising the quilts I have made into a separate page, so if you look to the right you can see the start of this - my own My Quilts page! Not very full at the mo, am finally crawling out from under the duvet and reacquainting myself with everyday life like housework (yawn) food shopping (yawn) and sewing (yay!).
I am almost finished the backing of the Arrows quilt, and am going to sew the last backing seam imminently :)
ie when I get my sorry ass off the floor and thrust the interweb to one side....
(I sit on the floor).

And I have finally cut out the templates for my Game of Thrones quilt, which is going to be awesome, assuming I can get what's in my head onto paper and then fabric.

So it's all picking up again! Hurray!

Have some picture joy :

Courtesy of the The Chive

Awesome, eh?

Small but perfectly formed

Updated to join with Crazy Mom Quilts linky Finish it Friday party!  (I think that it counts that I've finished my quilt top, even though its not the whole thing yet )

Even though I have been a bit under the weather, some things are ideal makes when sitting cosily by the fire, in front of some excellent telly (or in this case, Supernatural on dvd).

Check these out - what do you think?

Cushions were bought, and decorated, little brooch motifs are detachable for washing. Each one I finished was my new favourite :)

PS Borders on Arrows quilt, just needs basting and quilting and binding. Well that will keep me busy for about 10 minutes. ha.

Deja Vu again

Have not got rid of this cold. It had been lurking in wicked glee in a dim corner of my being waiting for the moment to strike out again, and boy has it ever. Today I have been mostly lying asleep on the sofa leaving the parenting to my ill husband. Luckily the shopping got delivered so we have food in the house yay.
Crafting has been minimal. I have managed a cushion decoration but the sewing machine defeated me today - I was pinning my borders onto the Arrows top when I was hit with a wave of nausea. Clearly this bug has issues with handmade items.  Luckily it seems to have no problems with me watching Mrs Brown on iplayer.
I am now on my way to bed to see if I snore this virus into submission.

Time Warp

I have a deadline looming; the Ayr Town Hall Craft Show is on 7th October, 1-4 pm and I have a table. All of a sudden it's next week! I don't know where this month has gone.

People say it's a side effect of ageing, this accelerated time passing, but I reckon it may be a craft thing. Something about working with your hands and making stuff is a huge time suck. You can lose yourself in the sheer colour and creativity of it all and suddenly its teatime, and the cat's battering the door trying to get in, and you were supposed to pick up the wee one from school (no, its ok, haven't done that. Yet)

Like anything to do with computers is a time suck, but at least you have something to show for it when you finish crafting. Words with Friends, Not so much...

Anyway. Aside from straightening the edges of the Arrows Quilt, I have been designing cushions and making decorations. Really good fun, and partly out of necessity. My tennis elbow is playing up, so no knitting for me just now, so have been crocheting and sewing, and draping ribbons artfully hither and thither, excellent stuff. All I have to do now is unpick side seams on cushions, sew the ribbons and brooches on, and sew the seams all up again. That won't take hours at all, will it? Eh?

Will have some photos tomorrow. Every one I do is my new favourite. Hope other folk like them too!

Pointing the way

Yay! Work is going well on the Arrows quilt, after a zillion hours of sewing squares together (possible slight exaggeration) and half a gabillion hours at the ironing board (hyperbole merely for effect), I have an almost finished quilt top!

Arrows Quilt top

 I love that it looks like there are slight furrows in the bed, even though it is absolutely flat - that's the design kicking in. Cool!

Detail of patchwork

Detail of the patchwork -  the piecing is pretty accurate for me, which is essential on this project, as the HST have to align to get the effect. I haven't decided on quilting yet, but have picked out a scrappy binding, unless I see something amazing instead. It looks like it'll be a double bed size too, which is handy. I'll be adding a small border round the edges, which might include arrow points too depending on what I can manage.

I will work out a pattern for this if anyone is interested, and will be selling the completed item at one of the Craft Fairs this autumn, or in my Etsy shop. Keep an eye out!

Bluech.

Have a sore throat. And achy bones. Am still managing to get a bit of sewing done, though, have half the top of the arrows quilt done, and the rest all lined up ready to go. At least its a school holiday, and hubby has taken the day off, so no early morning to worry about, and he can entertain the Blighter for a while.
Bleuch, though,

It doesn't help my mood that I have hellish tennis elbow in my left arm, or that I walked into the metal frame of a chair the other day and have a possible broken toe. I don't think its entirely broken, because I have broken a toe walking into a bath before and that pain  made me almost vomit, and the toe has been hunchbacked ever since, whereas this one was just really feckin sore. At least the purple colour is fading and it looks ok really.

So not feeling 100% right now.

Ach it will pass. Will feel better soon. Just going to wallow in firelight and chocolate cake for a wee while first...

So far, so good

I have started laying out the fabric on my (design) floor, and it's going to have to be done in two halves, as I just don't have the room to do it in a oner. I started with one idea, and have decided on a slight tweak which makes it a bit more dynamic, I think, and my hubby does too bless.

First layout was with the arrow ends squared:-

And then I wondered about making them pointed, like below:- 

(the gaps are because I hasn't made enough HST for the new layout, so am currently cutting some more. Thought I'd finished. Rats)

I prefer the second layout, much less static, so the extra work will be worth it in the end. Finished size, not sure yet, as this design is completely off the top of my head, but I reckon it looks like a large single/small double size to finish.

Off to rest before another cutting sesh tomorrow :)