Creative Chaos

My sewing room is in a mess, you can’t see the floor,  the iron has been hard at work all day, as has my sewing machine.  Luckily no one came visiting today as I’ve been busy stitching.  I’ve felt a bit guilty as I haven’t had much spare time to be working on the Memory quilt I’m making for a friend – too many trips away in the caravan and other social activities have been cutting into  my sewing time.  So today I made a big effort, left the housework for another day, and just got on with it.

I’m pleased to say that with the addition of the borders, the top is now finished.  And I pieced the backing as well. You can tell I’m a bit pedantic with my backings – I don’t usually piece them at all.  But Memory quilts use fabrics which are very special to the recipient, and I wanted to incorporate what I could.  Not for me the way some people do it their backings - a bit of this fabric here, and some other there.  No, I’m a Libra so that means everything must be balanced.  There is a piece of dark green tee shirting with printed words in the centre, surrounded by a strip of white shirting, then another strip of train fabric.  Our friend Geoff loved trains, model railways and full sized trains too.  Home spun was added to the centre pieced panel to bring it to the right size.

Pieced backing for Memory quilt

There was a bit of a problem when I added the borders to the quilt top, because I had used some of Geoff's checked shirt for the sashings.  Not cotton, as it turned out, and it started to fray quite badly.  Oh dear – I quickly changed the foot on my sewing machine and zig-zagged the offending fraying edges – that should stop the fraying.

Adding a row of zig-zag stitching to the seams

I’ve been stitching squares together at the start and completion of each seam and they certainly mount up.  It’s a great idea to have  “Leaders and Enders” project cut out ready while you stitch away at something else.  As I’m sure most of you know, Bonnie Hunter came up with this idea.  Mine is a long term project, and a great way to use up all those left over bits we seem to have lying around.

Leaders and Enders project

There will be another busy day tomorrow, I’m sure.  I’ll need a trip down to the quilt shop to buy some wadding for the Memory quilt, then I can get it all pinned together.  Need to do a bit of baking so I have something nice to share on my birthday during our four day weekend away in the caravan.  And I really must clean these floors, there is cotton thread and snips of fabric everywhere!