Hopscotch by Camille Roskelley, made with Terrain by Kate Spain with iris and white solids, stipple quilted in white and bound in iris.

I started quilting Hopscotch last night – using white thread and just stippling. I decided that this is a quilt that has more than enough going on without any Miss Fancypants quilting.

I was tootling along, with a nice book on tape, completely in my own little world….and was surprised on deciding that I could do with a cup of tea to find that it was the middle of the night. The evening had gone by in a delightful flash of meditative stippling!

I love stippling – there’s enough going on that I have to concentrate, but at the same time it’s soothing and repetitive – all those lovely curves and swirls. It soothes my soul. I’m always very mellow when I’ve been stippling, just as long as the sewing machine hasn’t been playing contrary fairy.

I really like how this quilt turned out. I spent way longer dithering over the colour scheme than I normally would on a quilt, but it was worth every minute. The iris solid is just absolutely right – even if it is very unforgiving and the purple/white contrast shows up every tiny error.

Never mind, it’s done. I sat happily on the sofa and sewed the binding on this afternoon – one of my fave parts – love that clean, crisp, tidy edge….and hey presto….

On to the next project I guess!

Have a great weekend!

Helen

Thank you so much for all your tips and hints on the subject of spray basting. I can see I’m going to have to give it a whirl. Most people seem to swear by the spray for smallish items at least, but several have warned off trying to tackle large ones. I suppose at the end of the day that it’s going to be one of those things that comes down to a bit of practice.

Thanks also to Nicole, who raised the issue on her blog too – you can read her comments here and here.

So there’s nothing for it but to go on a mission to track down some basting spray. I can’t say I’ve ever seen any here, but then as I’ve never been looking for it, it could have been staring me in the face in the local quilt shops…..otherwise I’m sure I can get some in London when I’m over for the Fat Quarterly Retreat in June (yippeeeeee!)

In the meantime, there’s work to be done, so I’m back on my knees using the old tried and trusted method (needle and thread) to baste Hopscotch.  I have some very pretty Terrain yardage to back it with and I’m looking forward to getting quilting on this – it’s small enough that it should be done in the twinking of an eye….

….once I manage to decide how to quilt it, what colour thread to use …..blah…blah….

No seriously, do you think white thread would be too boring? I feel like I have too much white in the quilt to use anything else – colours would distract too much from everything else that’s going on.

So here I am, bottom in the air and a with project to keep me out of mischief this weekend!

Have a good one!

Helen

I love it when my husband goes to the UK on business trips – especially ones like the one this week where he seems to have spent inordinate amounts of time in airports. (You don’t want to know how long it takes to get from Guernsey to Zürich – it would be quicker to fly to New York!). Look what the lovely man brought home to soothe my soul yesterday. Well trained, or what? It nearly breaks his good Swiss heart to buy English chocolate, but he still does it. I’m not even sure how I’m going to hide it from the kids, or whether I should just think of my waistline and share 🙂

And to prove that the needles are still clickety clicking away…

Here are my SIL socks – pattern of my own bumbling (and having not written it down I’m winging it a bit to make both match!), the yarn is Smooshy from Dream in Color in the Blue Lagoon colourway. It’s a nice sensible no nonsense yarn and the colour is just lovely!

Have a good Thursday. I shall be looking after my poorly son, who seems to have Donor Kebab poisoning… that’ll teach him to eat such rubbish…..

Helen

That’s life, isn’t it? Ups and downs. Highs and lows. Today is extreme for me and I hope you don’t mind if I share. I can’t write about sewing. There’s too much big stuff going on.

Well, where to start?

The good is that my daughter earned her gymnasium (high school) place for next year – so in August she’ll start a bilingual programme with a focus on economics and law (neither of which she has the faintest clue about). If she works her butt off and get’s straight through she’ll graduate in 4 years, shortly before she turns 20! She just finished up a really tough 6 month assessment period and as one of only 8 kids in a class of 24, made the grade. We are hugely grateful and proud of her. Plan B was sketchy to say the least and getting to Gymi is a big deal here. She also combined it with full-on puberty and her first boyfriend. You can imagine how the last 6 months has been for the whole family. We all feel wiped out, happy but wiped out.

At the same time as all this has been happening, one of my very dearest friends – a truly inspirational friend – has been coming towards the end of a hard fought eight year battle with cancer. Our kids grew up together, we’ve cried and laughed together for the best part of two decades, she has been a rock and a playmate for me for a very long time. Through my friend I have learned the value of life. I’ve watched someone suffering hugely, but never complaining, always, always taking the positive from every situation, always ready to help anyone and everyone. A really good person with a strong, strong faith. I just came back from the hospital and it looks like there is probably very little time left.

I can’t bear to think how much I’m going to miss my friend, or about her kids and her very, very dear husband, who is struggling to deal with this.

So I guess you understand that today I have a laughing eye and a crying eye and I just can’t write about sewing.

Helen

xx

I have a couple of big quilts to baste and because this is a job I REALLY hate, it just isn’t happening. I’ve read in a few places about spray basting – which seems like it could potentially be a dream of a solution. Have any of you tried it? If so, which product did you use?

My biggest worry about going down this path would be that there might be a fair bit of puckering on the quilt back – is that a problem? And if so, what’s the solution?

I’d love to hear from any of you experienced quilting ladies out there!

Otherwise it’s back to the needle and thread and sore knees and back for me!!

Helen