Finish It Up Friday

The finish for Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts this week is also a finish from my 2016FAL.  It was started in June as a QAL over at Modern Quilters Ireland and was the first QAL I have taken part in.  The progress posts can be found here, here and here.

It was at this stage for many weeks months because I didn't really like the grey background fabric I had used and I didn't really know what to do with it ..... is it bad to admit that?!!

I then thought that I would enter it into a Quilt Show as a cot quilt so the parameters of size were set to maximum 36" on either side, which meant the border was easy to add.

Then I got it into my head that I wanted to match the thread with the colours ...... why did I do that?!  At the end I do not think it was worth all the colour changes for this quilt and wish I had just gone for the grey all over (although it is nice to have some more colours in my stash!).

Time was running out by now and I just had to come up with a plan ....... nothing came so I thought that I had better load it onto my frame and just get started!

Straight lines in the coloured sections first.  I did actually try feathers aswell but I really didn't like them so I unpicked (after doing two sections just to make sure I didn't like it!)

My favourite quilting motif was used in the background, paisley AKA swirly pearls.  I love this and I can now do it quite quickly which is a bonus. 

I thought I may do something different in the middle of the quilt but, after the unpicking of the feathers, I decided to just stick with more straight lines.  My ruler work has certainly improved and I quite enjoyed the dexterity of using the rulers and for them feeling more comfortable for me.

I love this stage when it's all trimmed and ready to bind.

I am not sure what the backing is - it was picked up at a show earlier in the year.

And the final result hanging at the West Country Quilt Show.  Do I like it?  No not really!!  I like the pattern and really like other people's interpretation from the QAL but I have to say this isn't a favourite of mine.  But it is done and it's a tick off my list.  I also learnt that I do not like marbled fabric and so will never be tempted to buy any again!

Whilst I am not enamoured with this quilt I am still very much in love with Should I Stay or Should I Go?  I decided, at the last minute, to enter it into the same show and was delighted when I arrived at the show on Sunday morning to see it had a rosette by it - Best Piecing.

I have enjoyed entering quilts into shows this year and have quite a few in my head for next year! x

Should I Stay or Should I Go? - A Finish ....

EDITED:  I can now happily say that this quilt is going to stay home after attending a few shows!  I was very happy to receive Best Piecing in Show at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show in November 2016 and 1st Place in the Wall Hanging Category at the British Quilt & Stitch Village in April 2017.

One of the quilts I finished during my recent quilting marathon was my flag quilt, named Should I Stay or Should I Go?  With the time deadline I was under I was not able to take many photos or do a finish blog post before it was delivered to Malvern to be hung in Quilts UK.

It is now safely home and hanging in my studio and here are all the stats ....

Progress posts can be found here, here, here and here!

Started:  21 March 2016

I began playing with the paper pieced stars for the NZ flag on this date - hoping that the referendum on the flag in New Zealand would result in the current flag remaining

Finished: 16 May 2016

Last stitch was put in the hanging sleeve at 1.30pm - with the quilt needing to be delivered to Malvern between 2pm and 4pm!

Originally I thought each flag was going to be A4 in size and there were going to be two maps, one of UK and one of New Zealand, to make a wall hanging.  Then I made a paper pieced star ..... they were as small as I wanted to go as a novice to paper piecing and so the size was determined by them!

I designed the Union Jack block to have correct dimensions on a 3:5 ratio, which are the dimensions for the flag that is flown on land (the flag flown at sea is a 1:2 ratio).

Each flag block measured 50" by 30" unfinished ....

The blue and red fabric for the flags were nearly all to be found in my stash and range from new quilting fabric to vintage dress fabric and everything in between.  I had to buy a couple of blue fat 1/4s to have enough different fabric.  The white fabric for the stripes is Kona White.

Once the two flags were finished I had to decide how to join them together.  I knew there would have to be a border of some type otherwise the demarcation between the flags would be lost.  I chose a navy blue solid and then played with some designs of coloured stripes until I settled on this ....

I love how this made up and actually see a whole quilt in this design ....

When I loaded it onto my frame I still wasn't quite sure how I was going to quilt it.  I thought I would start with straight lines on the white to stabilise it.  The vertical and horizontal ones were easily done using the channel locks but the diagonal lines took rulerwork.  Let's just say that I am now quite proficient with rulers but it takes far more time than I imagined!  I had a problem with the thread shredding aswell which I haven't experienced before.  I also learnt to speed unpick whilst the quilt was on the frame ....

By the time I had quilted the white stripes and the blue triangles, again with straight lines, I realised how little time I had left.  The red cross was straight lines again but this time they were freehand and organic - a much quicker process.  The red diagonal stripes were quilted with freehand matchstick quilting.

I knew I wanted words in the quilting somewhere and the navy border stripes provided the perfect place.  I really enjoyed using the words and can definitely see them appearing in my quilts again.  Below the Union Jack flag are the words:

United Kingdom  Great Britain  home  wedding  Place of Birth  British  Rowington  wedding  love

On top of the New Zealand flag are the words:

New Zealand  Aotearoa  home  motherhood  Wellington  kiwi  Tauranga  love

I loved writing the words with the quilting - I can see more of this on future quilts!

I mulled over the quilting design of the NZ flag over dinner and realised it had to be something I could do relatively quickly - it had to be off the frame that night!  I went swirly and ended up with koru and fish hook designs.  Initially I thought it might look funny with the straight lines of the Union Jack but actually it works and in a way represents the differences between the two countries!!

The wadding used was Warm and White by the Warm Company and the backing was a blue polka dot I picked up at a show - no name I'm afraid.

I used Glide threads top and bottom in White, 10000, Cobalt, 30647, Tomato, 70179 and Navy, 32965.  I love the way they pick out the design so well on the back ....

The arrows you can see were quilted on the red and blue middle border and represent our many trips back and forth between the two countries both on holidays and for setting up home!!

Linking up to Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts and this is also a finish of my 2016FAL Q2 list.

Work in Progress .....

is currently my Should I Stay or Should I Go? quilt.  It has certainly moved on from last week, thank goodness because the days just keep slipping by - I have just over 3 weeks to get this finished, quilted and bound.

So there was a 111 red squares to cut out and arrange ....

and rearrange ....

and sew together.  I get so much pleasure from such a simple piece of patchwork - I love it!

Resulting in this ....

Then there were the quadrants to trim and border in white, followed by putting it all together.  Ta-da!!

The sun even came out that day so I could get outside to take some photos!

I am so happy with how this has turned out - could you tell be the number of pictures I've taken?  I also had some amazing feedback from a FB group I am a member of and the upshot is that I am going to write a pattern for this.  Who knew the Union Jack would be quite so popular?!! 

I am so excited, a little nervous and a little apprehensive but I have to do this all over again in a smaller scale for the New Zealand flag.  This gives me the perfect opportunity to refine the techniques and get some cutting and piecing instructions written down.  Then off to pattern testers!!!  If you were here, you would have just heard me squeak because I am that excited - what's hard is that with my husband away I can't just fully dive into it - there's still children to look after and home educate!!!

It is just so cute in the smaller version - each square finishes at just 1".  And yes, those are my pyjama trousers - you've got to strike whilst the iron's hot don't you?!!  If you fancy being a pattern tester then please do leave a comment below and I can get in touch. 

I am linking up to Let's Bee Social over at Lorna's blog today.