A find and a finish

I've finally finished my Across The Sea quilt!

The other day when my friend came round to pick up the wall hanging and pillow I made her, I showed her some of the things I was working on. When I showed her this quilt, which was full of basting pins, she fell in love and begged me to make a quilt for her. I said she could have this one, and it was just the motivation I needed to finish it up.

I really love the backing pattern that Sarah designed for the quilt along but I just couldn't face making it. I know that lots of people just love grey in quilts but I've discovered I really don't like cutting and sewing grey fabric. It makes me feel grey and gloomy. Especially when it's raining outside and the sky is grey. A few times I got the fabric out to make the backing but always put it away again. On a whim I pulled out one of my favourite prints, the Dandelion Print by Patty Young in Raspberry. I grabbed the leftovers from the Fat Quarters I'd used in the front and just sewed them all together.
I am so pleased with the way it turned out and I think I prefer the back of the quilt to the front!

I quilted it with random wavy lines using variegated thread and I love how on the back it looks like wind blowing the dandelion seeds :)

Fabric used is Heirloom by Joel Dewberry, Klona grey, and Patty Young's Dandelion in Raspberry.
Pattern is Across The Sea by Jennifer and Sarah

I'll be quite sad to hand this over to my friend!

Happy Thursday!

Across The Sea

My weekday mornings always follow the same pattern, chaotic hullabaloo as I get myself and 3 children ready for school, then we walk to nursery and on to school, with me hustling and chiding them along. Once they are all safely deposited at school/nursery, I hurry home, put the kettle on, make some porridge while I tidy the kitchen, get the laundry on, then I settle down at the computer and enjoy my cuppa and porridge whilst I read blogs and stuff. Very often the whole morning disappears before I know it, and it's time to pick up my youngest from nursery again.

Not this morning! Thanks to Hadley's post about her bumper-bonanza-super-sewing-day yesterday I gulped my coffee, scoffed my porridge, switched off the computer, and got out my sewing machine :)

I pulled out my Across The Sea quilt blocks and I managed to get all the blocks sewn together, and both borders on before I went to nursery! I even managed to get a couple of pictures of it before I dashed out the door :)

TaDa!!!

Edited to add:
Fabric is Heirloom by Joel Dewberry, the Ruby Palette bought from the lovely Brenda at Pink Castle Fabric
And Klona Grey bought from the lovely Alice at Backstitch


Thanks Hadley!
Fiona x

As Requested, and some more advice needed...

So some of you requested that I show more of my Across The Sea QAL blocks. Yesterday I only posted a picture of one block because it was so rainy and gloomy here my blocks looked rubbish laid out on my living room floor with the flash from my iphone. I quickly taped one of the blocks to my window and got a picture with the gloomy light shining through.



This morning the sun popped out between the showers so I quickly herded my youngest son and dog out of the kitchen, spread the blocks out on the floor, and climbed on a chair to take a snap. To say that my kitchen is small, is an understatement, when I laid the blocks out there was about an inch or 2 between the edge of all the blocks and the cupboards, fridge, washing machine etc. I've cropped the picture a lot so you can't see the crumbs on the kitchen floor!!! (I'll sweep it up soon...promise!) The picture above is the best I can do for now :)

I've asked for quilting advice before and really appreciated all your suggestions, so I'm going to ask again....



I've finally basted my Loulouthi quilt top, using the last of my basting spray because my new basting pins haven't arrived yet. I've used a lovely soft gold coloured Mendocino print I got on sale as backing (it is so soft I can't wait to get this finished and snuggle under it now!) You can see it in the picture below.
Anyway, I was planning to quilt in the ditch and then do a bit of hand-quilting in bright perle cottons, to emphasise some of those lovely big prints and add a bit of pizazz to the solid and linen areas but now I'm not sure.



What do you think? How should I quilt it? I'm itching to start, but don't know what to do......

Thankyou
Fiona x