MY FIRST JELLY ROLL......YUM!YUM!

Well it all started when i was invited to join the "UK QUILTERS" on a forum on RAVELRY...and well what a Revelation...i thought it was just me that muddled along through life enjoying what i do without worrying what anybody else thought.....

Christmas my quilts were greatly ans thankfully received by members of my family,so i thought i would make one for myself...and then at my nieces 18th birthday party i was asked if i would like to take part in a craft fair at East Anglian Museum of Life,in stowmarket...i was very flattered.but i had no quilts in stock so i knew it was time to make a start......i started buying and storing material...and now my stash is massive,and i know exactly what i am going to do...i have got 5 in stock so far...and am devoting 3 hours per day to it at the moment.....With my hand crank machine called alfie,i am averaging a quilt a week...i know i could go faster with my electric sewing machine but i also know that it runs away with me,and then i go all wonky and get upset with myself...at least with alfie i don't get upset because i can control her.....

So i was asked to have a go at a "jelly roll" quilt and well i hadn't realised that you got so much for your money...i bought a jelly roll by moda and although it cost me £25.00 i can make two quilts out of it..which means i can double or even triple my profits.......

But this was a right revelation!!!all the material is pre-cut...its 44"long and 2.5" wide which for me is the perfect size for quilting,i usually go skinny on my cuts or massive and make a humongous patch...but the jelly roll keeps me in check and i can manage to make something beautiful without making a total hash of things........

I spent a week making patches and sorting out the backing and followed a pattern for the front from a book i managed to pick up cheap...but i had to finagle it around to make me happy...somehow there wasn't enough going on in the pattern to make my brain work......so i added a chequerboard pattern at the top and bottom,its all blues,greens and white....i like it don't get me wrong but green is one of my cursed colours....i don't know why but i just don't seem to get it right when i use lilac or green......then again maybe its just me.

But anyway i digress.....(stay on topic dammit!!!),it took me a week to make the strips,and then it was time to play around with the patches,it was the first time i had ever made a quilt diagonally...i had to start on the top left patch and work across and down......it was nice to have something that made me think....i managed to find a piece of scrap batting that i could use(i had it floating about in the bottom of my sewing box...)and got on and quilted it very gently.....i started in the middle and worked outwards,i decided to stitch it in the ditch...which means you stitch the batting and the backing fabric through the seam's already created by the patch...

the back actually looks really good and then i realised that i had managed to use a darker cotton on the bottom than i had on the top...but it looked alright...and then after i had finished,i laid it onto my sofa and took photo's of it...and then it happened there was this little voice"mum......can i have that one????"tomas my youngest had got it into his head that he could have this one as another bedspread...but like i said to him"what are you going to do with two???" he explained that he wanted to keep one downstairs on the sofa and one on his bed,then he could cuddle up with one in the evening and have one to sleep with on his bed...he's a bit quilt mad at the moment,everyone i make he wants to have so i guess if he likes them then everybody else will!!!

The funny thing is that this week i put a quilt online on my e-bay page to see if anybody else would like them...and well i got a bid on the day before the auction ended and although i didn't make a lot on it i made a profit on the material and batting,i was just pleased that it sold,and pleased how much somebody wanted it...so i mailed it today,its going to italy of all places,and i hope the buyer likes it,and will use it as much as possible.....

the one i am making right now is a bit odd and looks like an optical illusion quilt at the minute,but i am enjoying it very much and can't wait to show you what it looks like when its finished...so here's the last one i made that my little un wants......

please excuse the addition of daisy in my picture..don't know what happened there.....

This is what I couldn't post in the last one!!!!

this is a placemat i made from scraps of patchwork i experimented with first time.....

this is my new sewing machine bargain of the year...gazes sale yard...ILOVE YOU!!!!!

This one has been made for my nana by me....I hope she likes it!!!!

This is my nana's quilt un binded....

This is all of the pictures i couldn't post in the last blog.....I hope this makes sense.....

First Foray Into patchwork...

Evening,

I know its been a while since i posted anything on here but to be honest i have spent the last month or so making christmas presents....things have been as lairy as a lairy thing here...there has been a mass flurry of material,cotton and batting everywhere and anywhere...i even managed to finds loose cottons in my underwear and all over the floor,and the hoover just doesn't pick up every little thread,does it??

Anyway enough of that side line...here goes...

I have spent the last 8 weeks or so collecting material from charity shops and material shops the odd curtain here and there and anything i think might be a little unusual and pretty...and i ended up with a chest of drawers full of scraps and mass meterage of material all over the place.

Well last week it was time to bite the bullet and enter the place that is my stash....

i started cutting strips about 3" wide and about 18" long and went from there...But i had help...My Darling Daughter decided that she wanted to help me in this endeavour bless her,she drew up the designs for me and i had a go at making them...the first one was a hold the breath moment,it wasn't exactly straight,and it was a bit wonky to say the least...but after much shouting and swearing i managed to get the top part sewed together...it looked like this;-and i was more than happy then i realised that i would have to make it 4 large squares across and add a frill along the bottom to make it wide enough....,you see my mum had asked me to make a cover for her sofa for christmas because her old blankie had just disintegrated on her...then it was time to put the backing and the batting on,well that was a trial and a half...the thing was so big it was like trying to wrestle with a jelly,i couldn't just get into a comfortable enough postion to sew...so my hubs came up with a brilliant idea...why not lay it out on the living room floor and then the kids could help feed it into the machine and take the strain of the weight...well that worked fine for the first anchoring row,and then it was a bit downhill from there,but after much nail and lip biting i managed it!!!!I even managed to put a wide homemade bias binding on the edges to neaten it up(i never realised how many sin's bias binding could cover......)and it looked brilliant,the only problem was that i had a heck of a job getting the dog off it,she spent the rest of the evening sulking when she finally moved......

And then i had the bright idea that i would make a lap quilt for my nana for christmas,and there i saqt today sewing strip after strip after strip or material togther and then cutting it up to make it stripey and like a brick wall,and to be honest i really like it,and because its smaller i didn't have to worry about wrestling this one into submission.....and here it is.....sorry my photoshop isn't working but i was well pleased with it,i just hope my nana isn't going to be too critical of it...my nana is a seamstress and makes wedding dresses for a living...but the funny thing is that i never realised that even the most beautiful prize winning quilts aren't always straight and level but i enjoyed the process and will definitley be doing it again.....