Picadilly to the Nines quilt top is complete.....or is it?

I spent the day putting sewing the nine patch hourglass blocks together for the border of Picadilly to the Nines. The hourglass blocks are sewn into nine patches and the 2" hourglasses are supposed to be alternated so that that the nine patch looks like this.

The first hourglass is on it's side and then in the next standing up and so on. I was making the nine patches and I was in the zone. I got them all done! I started sewing the blocks together I ran into problems The weren't all fitting together so that the alternating pattern in the nine patch wasn't correct.

The bottom row in the picture above is wrong so I had to do quite a bit of "reverse" sewing. Actually I had messed up on quite a few blocks so there was actually a lot of reverse sewing! Darn!!!! But I did get it all done and the borders were made and I've now attached them to the quilt.

I took the quilt out to the garden to take pictures. I spread it on the bench and look who showed up! What is it with cats and quilts? He was keen to jump up on it but he is just going to have to wait until it is quilted!

And here is the finished quilt top!

I was thinking that the hourglass border would be the final border but am having second thoughts! I still have more green striped fabric left so I placed it next to the outside edge to get an idea about how it would look and I think perhaps I will repeat the inner striped border on the outside. Now that would be a fine finish!

And as I look at this picture I realize there is still a problem with the direction of the hourglass blocks and I just figured it out! In order for the blocks to be able to alternate all around the quilt I needed an odd number of hourglass blocks and my quilt was based on an even number!!! Darn! Oh well - I think I can live with it!

I didn't use my sneaky mitred corner method for mitring the stripes. I stitch the borders to the quilt as usual. As you can see ends are loose.

I turn the top so that the wrong side of the border is down and the quilt is facing up.

I pull the edges together so the corner comes to a point and I pin.

I line up the ends of the borders and pin them as well.

I stitch from the stitching at the top edge out to the corner. It is only two inches so I just eyeball it but if you are more comfortable you could make a line from the stitch at the upper left to the corner and the lower right.

And this is what it looks like when opened up!

Once it is pressed it will be perfect!

I overheard Jack and Bunny in the garden this afternoon. She was talking about a huge carrot that a friend dug up in the neighbour's garden. It was huge! "It was this big - I've never seen anything like it before!" said Bunny. Jack found it difficult to believe. He knew that Bunny was prone to exaggeration! And he also knew that her eyesight wasn't that great either! He just nodded and smiled!

Having recently been chased up a tree by Teetoo the Grey Panther the rabbits are skittish! They heard movement in the garden froze! "Whose there?" said Jack. There was no reply. "I've got sharp pointy teeth and I'm not afraid to use them!" he shouted!

You won't believe who was snooping in the garden! Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Got my mojo back!

I'm feeling much better about the quilting now that I've moved on to the border. This quilt is far from perfect but it will be used, well used and it won't be going in any quilt shows so I can live with the problems! I went back to the four diamonds in the corners; I wrote yesterday that they would get a little more quilting to make one of the frames pop and I've done just that. I stippled the area between the two frames and it makes the inner frame stand out. I am much happier with these blocks now.

So it is on to the borders. I've stitched in the ditch using the straight lines in the fabric as my guide. I sometimes find that the outside edge of the quilt can be a little tricky to quilt because the layers shift. What I do to combat this is baste the outside edge of the quilt somewhere between 1/4" and 1/8" away from the edge. I've got about 2" of quilting to go on the outside edge of the border so this is the perfect time to baste. I use an inexpensive serger thread and a large needle to baste through all layers. I do not trim the extra fabric or batting because it gives me something to hold on to when I quilt the border.

I've been dithering about how to quit the border. I love the fabric and didn't want the quilting to compete with it so I decided to just use the print as my quilting plan. I stitched in the ditch on either side of the brown bands with dots and then quilted around the ribbons and leaves. The background will just be back and forth quilting to flatten it and make the ribbons and leaves stand out.

 

 

 

Here you can see the difference. On the left it is quilted and the right is unquilted.

 



I like the look of this and it is surprisingly fast and easy but I'm going to have to fill LOTS of bobbins because it will require a great deal of thread.

I received my newsletter from Cotton Mill Threadworks and Anita mentioned a Canadian quilter, Judi Madsen and her blog.  Judi's work very much reminds me of Angela Walters. Both use long arm machines whereas I use a domestic machine. I greatly admire their work and there are lots of quilting inspiration on their blogs. There are also lots of great tutorials and information.

I was out in the garden this morning and there isn't much new in bloom. It gets that way at this time of the year. However, much to my surprise you'll never guess who was up in the juniper tree!  Just take a look!

What the neck are rabbits doing up a tree? Only way to find out is ask and what they said is "Look down there - that's why we're up a tree!"

And what do I see Teetoo, the dreaded Grey Panther from two doors down had treed the rabbits. Scat cat!

And scat he did! We've been catching glimpses of these rabbits in the garden so I asked them their names are and if they would pose for some pictures for my blog. Given that I had saved them from a terrible fate they were more than happy to oblige!

Meet Bunny Rabbit and Jack Rabbit

We sat on the patio and had a little chat. I told them they both have very cute toes and they were very pleased that I noticed. Apparently rabbits are quite vain about their toes!

 

 

I think they are much less nervous now and that in future I'll be seeing more of them! 

 

There'll be no post tomorrow. I want to quilt and work on the hexagon instructions so I can share them with you. Tune in the next day for more fun and an interesting solution to a problem!

 

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Butterscotch Ripple today and another hexagon

The border adjustment is corrected and the stitch in the ditch is done! Woo hoo! Now the fun begins. I started working in the border but quickly lost interest so I've been sketching and pondering how to quilt the diamonds.

Feathers are getting easier and easier and once you have then nailed they are a great way to fill spaces quickly and elegantly! I pulled out my pad of paper and this is what I have come up with thus far. Curly queues in the corners and feathers in the spaces in between. I don't know how I will fill the smaller diamond in the centre but it will come to me!

The first step was to draw some guide lines on the diamond with my blue water soluble fabric marker.

And here is a close-up of the marking for the curly queue.

 

From there it was time to just dive in and quilt. Once again I am using Superior Monopoly on top and Superior The Bottom Line in the bobbin. I want the texture to show, not the thread. Here is the first diamond quilted.

 
And the second is also done! I may go back and echo around the feathers to give a little more dimension.

I'm thinking of sewing another diamond border and filling it with little circles and then for the very centre some feathery curly queues. I'll give it some thought while I work on the other diamonds.

How about another foundation pieced hexagon? For those of you who are new to my blog you can read about how I make these hexagons in my posts dated  May 30, June 3, June 13 and June 28.

This is a fun easy variation of the star that I shared in an earlier post. Depending on your colour choices it could be very effective!

 

And this is the template I used to make this block!

 

I did a quick tour of the garden this morning with Forest Gumby. We were downwind from a couple of critters and we wanted to get a closer look so we snuck up behind them! I managed to get this picture before they caught wind of us and took off into the undergrowth!

 

Lucky for me one of them stopped and turned and just as he did I snapped this picture!

I then went through my old pictures of the garden and low and behold, there they were again! Remember this one? I'll have to keep my eyes open for these two cuties!

 

 

Well that's it for today. Until I post again, keep your eyes open for rabbits and happy sewing!