FNWF did not go as planned

I really needed a little Friday night sewing this week......but it was not to be!

First, my plans of starting sometime in the afternoon were thwarted by a visit to the Dentist (forgot to factor that one in), then some shopping for the long weekend. I just got home and was grabbing some lunch when I got the "mum's taxi" call out so off I went to collect my pick-up. While there, the two-who-share-a-house mentioned they were going camping in opposite directions for the weekend but neither of them had thought about what would happen with Clover so I arranged to collect her later when I did the return taxi run.  Of course, I only just got home in time for the daily dog walk with my own girls and then the usual evening routine follows that.

So, eventually, I had got myself settled for a bit of R&R with needle and thread in front of the ABC (my very fav Friday Night viewing) with a yummy BIG cup of hot chocolate.

when Hubby came in to say he had the pick up call from the train station.  I had to go with him because I couldn't leave him to handle Clover in the car on his own. It was not a quick in and out trip......the times were wrong so we had to wait an extra 20 minutes for the train to get in and by the time we got home with little miss Clover, I was over it. She is worth it though......just look at this photo I snapped this morning.........Isn't RED just her colour?

Needless to say, I didn't sew a stitch but as I was sitting idle in the train car park, I thought of you all being very industrious with your own needle and thread. All is not lost, I did make some progress on my Bric-a-Brac this week so I still have something to show.

I will be popping along shortly to Cheryll's blog, Gone Stitchin' to catch up with those who most likely managed a stitch or two more than me.  Why don't you join me?

Click pic to find link

Mid Week Catch-Up - The Mystery

Today was the first Wednesday of the month and that means that I joined my usual posse - Marilyn, Zita, Lorraine and Helen - for a morning of sewing on our mystery quilts.

Miss Pfaff  was a dream machine and behaved herself like a pro .unlike last month, but I was the one not much in the mood for sewing today.  I had a dull headache and so only managed to sew one and a half of my 2 prepared blocks.  I am still not sure if the second block works but I am not really bothered today. Perhaps I will look at it again tomorrow.

 

Even my photographs are a little "off" today!

Only one more block to go and then I will be sashing them and adding a border before I fmq it on my handi quilter.  The other girls are making 3 more blocks for their quilts and they will be doing a quilt as you go method. 

Weekend Roundup

What a great feeling it is to release a quilt from the Handi Quilter frame! I agonise over the quilting for weeks because my confidence is still not up there. I scour Pinterest for ideas which are definitely within my skills range and if you do follow me on Pinterest.....apologies for pinning so much regards FMQ. While I was doing this, I came up with an idea that would help me come up with a fmq plan as well as practise the design.

Here is my tip: I photocopy some parts of my quilt (black & white is more economical) and then I start filling in the designs with a Frixion Pen - this is the lower left corner of the quilt. If I mess it up or am not happy with what I have drawn, I go to the ironing board and.....hey Presto....the heat removes the pen marks in seconds and I am left with the blank paper "quilt" to  re-hash the design again . This quilt had two main areas of quilting.....the borders and the applique blocks.

With my design decided upon, I got to pinning the quilt into the frame. If you are not familiar with the Handi Quilter frame system, the backing and bottom end of the flimsy is pinned on to the leaders and then you baste the wadding and top end of the flimsy to the backing. (gosh, I hope that makes sense) Basting the top to the sandwich is an endless source of frustration for me.  The man who instructed me to do this showed me a method that I just couldn't get right and everytime I have to do it,  I unpick and sew several times only to find it puckering as I quilt. GRRRRRRR!

Well, I am going to get it right if it kills me! Back to the internet where I found an official Handi Quilter tutorial on loading the quilt. The instructor suggests pinning the quilt at regular intervals and then basting it using the Manual function rather than the Regulated......well HE didn't mention THAT!
Guess what.....It Worked! 

Don't you love these pins I used to anchor the fabric. I got them for my birthday.  I'm sorry, I am not sure I can exactly remember who sent them.....but I LOVE them so it's a big Thank You to whoever sent them.

Design planned, quilt loaded and threads chosen. Cream for the blocks and matching blue for the sashing and border. I briefly thought of using the variagated blue but went with the solid in the end.

And so to the quilting.....

I used that planned curly ball design on the first applique block but then decided to try something else

This is apparantly known as McTavishing......not bad for a first try, without practise. But is took so long so maybe something a bit quicker.

so a few blocks have this loop-de-loop and some have McTavishing and some have the curly balls. I stuck to the sashing design but I did mark the quilt so it looked a little more uniform

I also marked the borders to fit the design in but in hindsight, I wish I had not made the marks so far apart. The design looks better closer together as in my plan.

and lastly, the flower to fill in the corner of each border and just so you know I decided not to go with those little pebbles in the narrow pink border.

Far from perfect but that doesn't worry me! I unpicked and redid the bits that worried me. Now it will be put to one side for a couple of weeks as I want to try something with ric-rac for the binding and I need to go shopping for that.

Because this project is technically a BOM that I started way back in 2010, I am linking in to

click pic to find link

and also ,because this is almost the end of an unfinished WIP,  I am linking in to:

click pic to find link