May's task

May's task was to finish this quilt.  Kind of exhausted myself working out *how* to make it, and how much fabric I needed in order to make it, as you can see from the scribbles above...

At the start of May it looked like the picture above, lots of piles of different size strips ready to be sewn together seminole style and cross cut.  No walking across the sewing room carpet, for fear of disturbing the fabric.

And here we are, 28th already and only the top and bottom thirds are done!  The carpet in the sewing room got c-o-v-e-r-e-d in little red and white threads...

In my defence, I have also quilted one teeny and two huge customer quilts (well, the second one will definitely be finished before I eat my lunch today), made most of a banner for a local Church, and run a workshop.  And am running another this Saturday.  And worked three days a week.  And took my Mum to a quilt show (where she bought me a 10º wedge ruler and gave me her cold.  The ruler's ace though, so I'm letting her off the cold.)  So, you know, May's productivity's not too bad really.

Lesley's Quilt

Last week I finished quilting Lesley’s lovely linen and cotton quilt top which she’d entrusted to me.

She’d decided on all-over feather meander, which I love quilting – you need to keep your wits about you though, so you don’t end up quilting yourself into a corner!

Lesley chose a thread to match the plain linen fabric.  I haven’t quilted any linen before, and I did really like the effect.  Maybe I’ll be making a linen quilt in the future?
 

Just after I’d taken the quilt off the frame I dropped a bobbin on the floor behind the quilt frame, and as I was scrabbling around trying to find it, I noticed the effect of the light from the window coming through the needle holes on the quilt.  You can see the seam allowances of the quilt top too, if you look carefully - hold a quilt top up to the light and the seam allowances are like the leading in a stained glass window.  (Don’t be alarmed – the holes disappear!  Longarm machines use fairly sturdy needles, so they withstand the hammering they get in an industrial machine.  Immediately after you’ve quilted a top you can see the holes when you hold a quilt up to the light, but they close up soon afterwards!) 

See – no holes to be seen!