Swooning complete!

Yeah! I've finished my quilt, with plenty of time to spare! And I love this swoon block more than ever! So once I'd pieced the nine blocks, I decided to go back to quilt-as-you-go to make it easier to quilt each block quite intensively - this meant I could use a large square for the backing of each block, making this a reversible quilt!

 

  

 

                     

To join each of the blocks I used a very dark navy to bring out the navy in Denyse's fabrics. I have to say, sewing dark fabric with dark thread is a bit of a strain on the eyes! The hand-sewing on the back was slightly easier.

I did ponder about doing a large border, but didn't think I had the time or the patience, so decided on a wider binding. I'm not completely happy with it, as there's no wadding inside the larger fold, its a bit baggy and doesn't hang as straight as a narrower binding would. But never mind, it still borders the quilt nicely.

This quilt will hopefully be hanging on the end of Doughty's stand at this year's Quilt's UK at Malvern - 16th-19th May at the Three Counties Showground - come and say hello!

Swooning over Denyse

Having fallen in love with the Swoon block, I've decided to make a quilt from Denyse Schmidt's lovely Shelburne Falls, in the blue and green colourway.

I've used the Sizzix bigshot die-cutting machine to cut lots of squares and triangles for my hsts.

As the blocks are quite large at 16inches, you really don't need many to make a good-sized quilt. I've made nine, and have decided to quilt-as-you-go so I can do some intense machine quilting. As you can see, I'm quilting in half-inch parallel lines. I'm planning on sewing the blocks together with a slim strip of plain navy which I think will frame the blocks nicely.

I am aiming to get it finished for Quilts UK at Malvern in a couple of weeks, so I best get on with it, good job its a bank holiday weekend!

Going round in circles

I know it seems I'm getting a little addicted to Denyse Schimdt's Shelburne Falls fabrics, but recently I've seen quite a few quilt and cushion designs based on the simple circle and thought this shape could show off these fabrics really well.  I have tried various methods of appliqueing circles, and wanted something a bit more pronounced. So when I came across Purl Bee's method, I thought 'that's the one' and had a go. Using iron-on vilene means the circles stick to the base fabric a lot better than freezer paper, you still need a couple of pins to hold them in place as you sew, but the circles are definitely a lot more secure.

 

I have used a lovely soft cotton as a base, to be honest this did start as a cushion cover, but having cut such a large piece for the base, it may be turning into a quilt... maybe add a couple of pieced borders... who knows!