Merry Christmas xxxxx

The dark sky is gone.

Is it obvious that I scattered some chicken treats just so?

Not their best side.

It measures 56 by 44 or there abouts.

The flower design of the quilting creates circle shapes which you can see on the back of the quilt.

I am really pleased with this pattern and will definitely use it again.

So now the quilt is in the washing machine on a delicate 30 degree cycle.

It just needs a label and then it can be wrapped up.

Now for some housework unfortunately. You have no idea how messy the sewing room is.

Merry Christmas xxxxx Angela.

Nearly done on a dark day.

It's so dark this week.

I have finally pieced the pinwheels cot quilt. The week before Christmas is not a good time for this sort of thing. What should be a fairly relaxed process becomes a bit frantic and not particularly enjoyable. 

However the end is in sight.

I have quilted the blocks with a large 4 petal flower motif that i discovered on Pinterest. If you go to my Pinterest you will see it in the quilt board.

You can see the design in the image above. 

This is a great motif if you don't want to free machine as it can be done with a normal foot and the feed dogs up.

The binding is all sewn down ready to be hand stitched on the sofa tonight. I will post an image of the finished quilt tomorrow which i think might be the shortest day of the year, and also the darkest. 

The sun did shine on a couple of occasions last week and here is the proof.

This is Honey loitering/sun bathing in a small patch of winter sun in the garden.

Perfectly Pinwheels

I have been sick for the past week and a bit. I got the flu for the first time ever. Not recommended. Still feel rotten and haven't been up to sewing. But have been doing plenty of thinking about sewing. Nothing new there. OSD. Obsessive Sewing Disorder. (nicer than flu).

My brother in law and his wife had a baby girl on Wednesday, so she shares a birthday with my daughter Beth. She turned 17!

Happy Birthday Beth.

So I have been thinking about a cot quilt as a baby gift/ Christmas pressie.

I have all these gorgeous fabrics that I bought over the summer, and they are perfect for a baby quilt, especially for a girl. 

So I have been thinking about what kind of pattern to do.

This is a lap size quilt I hand pieced about 5 years ago, before I knew how to machine piece. It was made by english paper piecing! And it took ages, but it was enjoyable to make as it was mobile, and I could sit and hand stitch wherever I wanted. I actually finished it when I was on holiday in Brittany.

So I was looking at it this morning and it occurred to me that the pin wheels would make a great cot quilt.

But machine pieced this time around.

I cut 6 inch squares from each fabric.

Placed two contrasting squares right sides together.

Sewed a quarter inch seam around the four sides.

Then cut diagonally like so.

This makes 4 half triangles.

Which make a pinwheel.

I added a one and three quarter inch strip around two sides of the pinwheel block, so that the sashing is made as you go along rather than sewing long strips of it later when all the blocks are made.

Each pinwheel block finishes at 7 inch square and 8.5 inch square with the sashing.

And thats as far as I've got today. Plan: A little bit every day.

Perfect.

Below is a You tube link from Missouri Star Quilt Company demonstrating this technique.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekYpJzHoW6E