BUSY BEE that'll be me. ...

GREETINGS . Yes another week is over. This has had to be a bumper week of work for me as I have looming deadlines and quite frankly I thought I had overdone it .

I hate stress . But anyway here it part 1.

The wedding quilt for my dear friend John and his partner Peter who make their life promises on the 9th August in glamorous Cheshire.

They chose their colours and style basedo n their trip to SOuth AMerica . Trips to Brazil Patagonia, Argentina all encompassed in this quilt which has fabric that depicts water, ice, insect wings, flora and fauna. It;s a very trad rail fence design with some variation in size of bands and how I put them together . It gives movement and individuality . Each square contains a significant date. My embroidery skills got a run through .

I then added the border an 8 inch batik. The binding is a Hoffman Brazilia print ( how apt)

 A slightly clearer picture of it . This holds over 400 lines of quilting ( a right sod)

Now this red and white has been in development a while as you know ands here it is with it's border and now lying on my lounge floor being prepped for quilting. This took over 3 yards  of 90inch wadding so it gives you an idea of the size. I pinned it and then rolled it on a fabric inner tube.

That lasted ohhhhhh 15 mins of quilting under my trusty Bernina 350PE  and was quilted in stipple at close level. I;ve had to unpick a couple of bits as there is a small ripple but it looks pretty  good so here are the rest of the shots.

Above is before and below is after quilting.

You cna see the ripple on the left hand side lower quadrant. This has since been resolved.



Sexy close up shot ... yes all done in monofilament which is a challenge sometimes. Tension can be a devil as it is so fine to work with . Some days I love it some days I hate it but it does a great job when it works . 

Now for the back .

Ok a couple of ripples in the backsheet but given over 4 square yards of qwuilting thats pretty good as I don;t have a frame nor a long arm this is shoved through the regular arm space of a domestic.

Nice eh??



~Now I;ve rarely tend to do handquilting because it makes my hands really hurt but this I saw at the Pied Piper Shop in Holt last Monday and so I bought a FQ with the thought of doing a doll quilt... but what a waste .... so I took a section of it and have handquilted with a bamboo and cotton mix wadding  and got THIS .... ohhh posh



Work in progress. 

The nice thing was being able ot pick this up during breaks and spaces and do a couple of lines. I always think my quilting is uneven but this is bang on .





So I added a lighter colour cotton and then appliqued some pretty ribbon and am currently undecided as t make it a cushion/pillow or make a cute bag my only concern is that as a bag it won;t wear well .

The jury is still out . 

Go on ... help me .... bag or cushion ???

Have a great week.
Love RAVen