Hand Quilting

A while back I asked advice about how to quilt my Loulouthi quilt and got some really great ideas from some of you (Thankyou!) In the end I decided to hand quilt it, using perle cotton in a random, butterfly garden kind of thing and I thought you might be interested to see how it going

I am so glad I decided to hand quilt this. I am totally head over heels in love with it and snuggling up on the sofa with this on my lap, doing a little bit of stitching in whatever colour takes my fancy is a perfect way to spend a winter's evening :)

I chose to back it with a print from Heather Ross's Mendocino line (that I got on sale) and it is the softest backing I've ever felt!. The kids keeps squirrelling themselves under it while I work on it because it's so soft.

I did make a rather big error of judgement when I basted this though. I decided to give spray basting a go. It was after I'd spay basted that I decided on hand quilting. I have found that spray basting does not make quilting with perle easy. It is hard to get that needle and thread through the quilt!
But I'm getting there slowly. I've zigzagged it all round the edges so it can be snuggled under without too much worry while I'm working on it.

I've also finished my Brit Bee blocks for the lovely Judith she asked for any kind of log cabin with the centre of it to be our own fabric to remind her of us. I hope she doesn't mind a little bit of embroidery :)

And I've finished my blocks for do.Good Stitches. It's my month again this month and I chose a snowball design for a boy's I Spy quilt for Project Linus. I've already received some blocks from the lovely ladies in the Joy Circle and can't wait for the rest to arrive. I think this is going to be such a cute quilt!

It's a big day in our house today because it is my daughter's 6th birthday! I can't believe she's 6 already!!! How did that happen?!? We got her a new bike and she is chuffed to bits with it! It's her favourite colour turquoise, it has a stand, gears, suspension  and a bell and best of all it has a glittery saddle! I want one just like it for myself!

She took it out for a quick spin this morning before school :)

Happy Birthday Baby Big Girl!

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