Work on Wed 5th June

Firstly a huge thankyou to everyone who voted for my Forget Me Not at the quilting gallery the other week.
Some wonderful wonderful quilts and I was very happy how many people liked my version of Esther's design.
A very busy couple of weeks work wise so quilting has been in the background but some progress has been made.
Here is where what I have been doing.

Slowly, or it should be very slowly, hand stitching my binding on my Blue FMN. An hour or so at a time is all I can manage to hold  a needle for. The doctor say's I have arthritis in both thumbs, not sure if I believe him as have no symptoms anywhere else but all he wants to offer are pain killers which I only take if I really have to.
I was a hairdresser for 20 years so maybe winding all those perm rods did help wear out my thumb joints!!
Am pleased I had enough of my frame fabric for the binding as I think it is the perfect choice for the binding.
I  purchased this fabric on Ebay from Canada, only place I could find it, it is the same as Esther's block background fabric so very pleased I had enough

Steve came home the other week with a surprise.for me, a new Planetary Mixer. My old mixer which I had had for 30 plus years and took to Rarotonga with us, died on it's first use back in NZ, salt air is not good for appliances, especially after weeks in a container.

It's a display model that was being cleared at a very good price, not sure if I really needed it as have not missed having one, it is going to sit on the bench, so - it needed a cover.

My prize from the Quilting Gallery for Mum's Peaceful Pathways lap quilt was 2 charm packs of Riley Blake Fabric's. I received them from the Fat Quarter Shop within 10 days, brilliant mail service!!
Bake Sale and Madhuri, no photo as Steve unpacked them before I had a chance to take a photo.
He pulled some out and said perfect for the mixer cover!!
I'm thinking, okay, that's 3 squares, what are you thinking I am going to make with those?
He went to my sewing room and went through my synthetic fabric bin, a lot he had bought, just because he likes them and thinks they might be useful one day.
Have I said that Steve can sew, he started out as a saddler and then spent time as a car upholsterer before going into building,  he draws his own patterns for tops and works mainly with his overlocker..

This is the fabric he found, bought for a Human / Zebra wall hanging that I have never made, and now don't have the fabric for. Our kitchen is white tiles and black cupboards, with a metallic squares on a marbled grey/white wallpaper with stainless appliances so it was the perfect choice. I had forgotten all about it.
I stabilized the synthetic fabric onto iron on pellon batting, too light weight for what I wanted but my local quilt shop was closed for our Queen's birthday Holiday weekend and Spotlight only carried the lighter weight - and I couldn't wait!!!!
Recipe Charm squares for 3 sides and an additional patch for the back - to hide where I had too hot an iron and had to add extra fabric, the problem with synthetics- they burn,   Lol

Before joining the pieces together I quilted the top by following the curved lines at intervals, too much work to sew  every segment but I think it works.

Lost my side points  when I had to recut the center panel, had made it too wide and it looked awful first time round, now tapered and fits over the bowl much better.

Enough background fabric and more charm squares to make a cover for our coffee machine.
these charm squares are not the style that I normally work with but Hey a new adventure.

Have also been slowly working away at the in the ditch quilting of my retro FMN

Am very pleased with how it is coming together.

Now have the top eight blocks ditch stitched and like the first quilt they have popped beautifully.
Have had a little unpicking to make the frames and sashings stay square, the shirt fabric I used for my frames does have a mind of it's own, but it does add a wow  to the quilt, not sure about my next stitching though.

Have until the 20th July to finish both quilts and add hanging sleeves as when I showed them to my quilting group last week they want both to exhibit at our biannual exhibition  in July, saying just finish the ditch stitching and bind it if you run out of time to finish the quilting..
They also want my Pomegranate and Cherry Thieves so I think I will be giving Esther a mini exhibition.
Will be sending her an email shortly for permission..

Ran out of time to finish and link this yesterday, so glad Esther gives us extra time to link up.
Cheers Everyone Jenny






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