Last night, I put the finishing touch on Evelina’s quilt – I attached the binding and wrote the label. It is traditional to write on a new quilt for posterity. Usually, you include a name for the quilt, the maker’s name and location and the date of creation. I also included a birthday message:

When I find a minute, I will write a proper post about how I made it for the sew make believe blog – I’ll let you know when it’s done.

I am home early after tonight’s sew make believe meeting because I am exhausted and feeling a wee bit icky but I am pleased to say that progress on the quilt is good! I have so far:

• completed the patchwork top – all 475 squares
• made the backing out of flannel and rose fabric (after a major panic at 1am last night that I didn’t have enough backing fabric. Luckily, I had some cream flannel I bought for my king-sized sampler quilt which has never got passed the first two squares)
• made the quilt sandwich, trimming the edges and making the last of my batting fit
• cut all the strips for the binding

Still to do:

• machine quilt the quilt!
• attach the binding strips into one long strip
• iron the strip in half long ways
• attach the binding to the front of the quilt using the sewing machine
• fold over the binding and attach it to the back of the quilt by hand
• name, sign and date the quilt

It is totally doable, force majeure events permitting.  Eek! Oh and the title refers to the fact that I am unable to straighten my left arm due to too much crafting! Hard core!

And since I was on a quilting roll, I made a bit more progress with Baby Girl’s quilt:

The process is meant to be totally random but I find it hard not to make choices as I am picking the next square to sew.  I also have to bear in mind that I have 3 fabrics which have a lot more squares than the rest so to ensure that I don’t end up with later strips having too many of these, I calculated how the fabrics should be distributed.

Making quilts involves a lot more maths than you might think!

Whilst I am on the subject of quilting, I thought I would just talk a little bit about using a rotary cutter and mat.  I know quilters that seem to manage just fine without these instruments but I am slightly in awe of how they manage.  For this kind of quilt (ie a patchwork made up of hundreds of 4″ squares), a cutting mat and rotary cutter, for me at least, are essential both for the amount of time that the cutting would take with scissors (I managed to cut all these squares in one evening) and also the uniformity of the squares; matching up these squares is going to be a whole lot easier having cut them using a rotary cutter.

It’s true that the mats particularly aren’t very cheap but if you make patchwork regularly then I highly recommend investing in some kit!  This is what I have in my arsenal:

1. Tailors Quilter’s 11″ Cut ‘n’ Press (cutting mat on one side and mini ironing board on the other!)
2. 12″ Creative Grids square ruler
3. 24.5″ Creative Grids ruler
4. 4.5″ Creative Grids square ruler
5. 12.5″ Creative Grids ruler
6. 45mm Olfa rotary cutter
7. 28mm Olfa rotary cutter
8. 24″ x 17″ cutting mat

I am not suggesting for a moment that you need all of this but I would say that the large mat, the 24.5″ ruler and the 45mm rotary cutter are the essential items.  The 12″ square ruler is fab for mini-quilts or sampler quilts.

On Saturday evening, ricardo’s band mates came over so I took myself upstairs with my Alias season 1 DVDs and started Baby Girl’s quilt.  This was the first time I have made a quilt of this size – I have decided to make a single bed quilt – and the cutting job was immense, even with a rotary cutter. Still, in one evening I managed to cut all 475 squares of fabric.

The pattern calls for 520 squares for a twin bed (20 4″ squares x 26 4″ squares) but I was just short of fabric so I decided that rather than cut into the fabric I have for the backing, I would just do 19 x 25 on the basis that it won’t make that much difference to the size of the overall quilt (just 4″ shorter and 4″ narrower).  If after working out my binding / backing requirements I have the fabric for the extra 45 squares then I can always cut more.

Next job: start sewing!

That’s why I have been able to crack on with buying the fabric for the baby quilt! Having to keep things discreet on this here blog, I posted about the quilt over at sew make believe but now the secret is out, I can share it here too! (If you have read my post over there, this might look a little familiar!). I knew exactly the kind of look I was going for but finding the right fabric proved harder than I thought.  I ended up buying the fabric from Cotton Patch and it is from Tone Finnanger’s Tilda range of fabrics.

I have completely fallen in love with these fabrics.  Initially, I was tempted to go for the Tikki London quilt kit which includes all the Tilda fabric and instructions to make this gorgeous red white and blue quilt.

I wasn’t really sure about the colours though (much as I love them) for the nursery and it also looks awful complicated! I have to try to be a little realistic about what I will be able to achieve between now and November! Instead, I had a much simpler square patches design in mind. I knew I had seen something online which had inspired this.

It took just a quick look at the over the ever-wonderful Posie Gets Cosy and then to Alicia’s  Flickr stream and I found my source.  Her choices of fabric and simple but effective quilts, cushions, seat cushions and bags make me want to cover the entire nursery in patchy goodness!

With this in mind, I have bought the Ollalieberry Ice Cream quilt pattern from Alicia Paulson which she used for her Swedish Summer Quilt. I will keep you posted with my progress!

Sam is the recipient of the baby quilt I have made and so at last I can share some pics of it, since Zoe and Chris (the very proud parents) have now received it!

Here is the quilt top.  It’s a little creased but it was put through the wash and I didn’t want to risk ruining the batting by ironing it.

Then there’s the fun and boyish (and completely right for parents who love motor racing) fabric:

Rather than sign the quilt by hand which always comes about a bit messy, I used printable fabric to produce the label, complete with dedication, date, quilter, place and name of quilt.  I will definitely be doing this in future even if it is a little tough to hand-sew onto the quilt (I think the fabric would do better through a machine but that isn’t an option unless I do it before making the quilt sandwich).

And then the final bundle, ready for wrapping:

They seemed very pleased with it which is relief after all that hard work.  It was a total pleasure to make.

If you are a friend or family member reading this and wondering why I haven’t made one for these for you or your kids, the simple answer is because you didn’t ask!   I would be delighted to make you all the quilts you want but you need to ask for one – they are far too much work for me to make on the off-chance that it is something that you would want and I wouldn’t want to put either of us through the awkwardness of an unwanted / unappreciated quilt which took many hours to make!!!!  So you know where I am if you would like one of these!!!

More on our holiday soon.  Sleep beckons.

I also had an order through my Etsy shop for a (not so) mini quilt.  The buyer asked for it to be bigger than usual so I am grappling with the different dimensions and colour requests.  I have made a start on the appliqué and need to continue this tonight.  Pictures will follow!

This weekend, I spent Saturday night with a couple of girl friends and we watched Juno and Mamma Mia.  I love Juno and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed Mamma Mia when we all saw it at the cinema, it was a bit excruitatingly cheesy in parts.  It seems to be our tradition when us three get together to watch one decent ‘chick’ flick and one truly cheesy offering.

June is our busiest time at work with a deadline for all our claims being the end of the month. While May was busy, it didn’t have the accompanying stress of knowing we only have a couple of weeks to get everything done.

This weekend was awesome because of the surprisingly fantastic weather. We had a BBQ with our friends. We watched Kung Fu Panda and The Happening. I sewed in the garden (hand-quilting my friend’s baby quilt). And we saw this sign which made us both smile (and take a picture).

July is going to be awesome too. It’s our birthday month (and its a biggie for ricardo – he is turning 30!) so there will be much celebration and libation.