Patchworking - the world's best kept keep-fit secret

I have the most incredible muscle ache in the back of my thighs. I can only suppose that it's from all the crouching yesterday to lay out the quilt blocks and then pick them all up again to sew. Ow. Ow. Ow.

My very first quilt!

I just spent the weekend at a quilting workshop - no specific theme, just a chance for people to work on projects together.

And this is what I have to show for it:



My very first quilt! It's for my un-godson, who will be two in a week. I have to tie it, and put on the binding, and it's done. I'm thinking of quilting his name into the plain blocks. I'm going to call it Whizzy B - "Whizzy" is the name his Mum gave him while she was still carrying him, because he spent most of his time in the womb whizzing about all over the place. And B is his last initial. I'm really pleased with the bright colours - I wasn't completely sure about them when I bought the fabrics, but it's turned out just how I wanted it. It's funny - there are combinations of colours in it (bright green, orange, dark pink), that I wouldn't normally dream of putting together, but here they work.

My North Carolina Lily project

This North Carolina Lily is my third project since starting the course in October. I'm quite pleased with it. The corners are a tad squiffy, but not tooooooo obviously so... and I really like the braided border - which Hobbes helped me to attach:



It's now basted together, ready for quilting. I'm going to try quilting in a hoop this time. I quilted my Square in A Square cat cushion cover without a frame or hoop, and didn't baste enough, so it slipped quite a bit during quilting:



That just needs a back, and binding, and it's done. And even if the quilting's uneven, I like the colours :-)

So I went shopping today...

And I was pretty restrained... well, reasonably so.

This patchworking business is going to be addictive, I can tell. It's just too easy to stand in the fabric store and say, hmm, well, I could do something with that, and that, and ooooh, isn't that pretty, I can use that...

But I was good... I only got fabrics for two definite projects. A quilt for my un-godchild, Ciaran, which is going to be bright and colourful... There's a weekend course 19th and 20th February, which is when I'm going to make that. The pattern I'm going to use is a pretty basic nine-patch variation, and it's tied instead of quilted, so I should get in done in time.

Then I also got this small selection:


in preparation for the sampler course which starts next month.

What got me started

Cactus Blaze

My Mum started patchworking when she was around the age I am now. She'd always been great at needlework, mostly embroidery and dressmaking, but she did knit and crochet some as well. She made all my dresses when I was small, and a lot of her own clothes as well. I never actually asked her what got her started on patchworking, but she started in around 1987, and made quilts for a friend's twin daughters. And she went on making quilts and cushions and wallhangings and... until she finally had to stop because her cancer prevented her from sitting at her sewing table.

She died in July 2003. She left a number of projects unfinished, including a series of appliqué blocks from a pattern called "Thru Grandmother's Window". It was a block-a-month series by Piece o' Cake Designs. She finished 10 of the blocks. Rather than having the blocks made up into a quilt, which was her original plan, we decided to share them between us, so my stepdad, my 2 brothers and I each have two blocks, and my aunt and uncle, Mum's sister and brother, have one each. Aaaaanyway, in a fit of I don't know what, I boldly, rashly, declared that I would make the blocks up into wall hangings or cushions - whatever was required...

And then Mum's good friend, to whom she'd actually left all her quilting stuff, and I sorted through Mum's stash. And Mandy kept thrusting things at me, saying "oh, this is easy, you can finish this..."

I'd vaguely sort of toyed with the idea of taking up patchworking, but never really seriously. And suddenly, I had this rash promise, and a small stash of fabrics and a couple of unfinished projects...

So when I saw a Beginner's Patchwork and Quilting course advertised in the local evening class association, I figured it was about time I started doing something.

And now I'm hooked. ;)