Progress with Sawtooth Diamond top

You may remember that I bought this antique marked top, and decided to recreate the quilt. Finally, the top is underway as I have located some suitable fabric. (Many thanks to Susan B who offered some from her stash!)

Here is the little sample piece that I made - I bought 1/2 metres before making a big spend on large amounts of fabric.

The fabric that I have finally chosen is from the French General range of Rouenneries - it is a bit darker than the original, but a good approximation, and is dress weight so it quilts nicely. It is a printed solid, not a woven plain, so I'll have to be a bit careful not to erase or scrape the colour off the surface...

Here is "Faded red" another fabric from the Rouenneries series - it was a better match in colour, but proved just too coarse as it is a linen/cotton mix. The other fabric will be easier to quilt.

Here is the centre of the top. I have made half square triangles to finish 2 7/8" because the maths indicated that -the originals did vary a lot! I started with 4" squares, cut these in half and sewed together - this made a larger unit which I could trim down exactly to 3 3/8". I find it easier and more precise to trim the units down, lining the bias square ruler on the centre seam. I bet the old timers didn't take this care! however, can't shake the way I work...lots more half square triangle units to make; the plain borders will be easy to run up I think. I am just wondering whether I should trace the designs directly from the top, or use the tracing which is only 1/4 of the whole - it may be possible to trace directly from the light sections but I don't think it will be possible to trace from the dark sections - I will have to experiment on the light table to find out.

The pink Kona cotton will make a nice backing, which will show off the quilting nicely.

A New Year - 2011

Happy New Year! I hope that the coming year will be a good one. I know that for many, this past year has been a struggle. So I hope that 2011 will be a happy and prosperous yearfor everyone.

I had a good holiday period, apart from the four days I spent in bed as part of the UK swine flu epidemic! All recovered, with no after effects.....Sophie and Tom came back to Suffolk for Christmas and I enjoyed hearing all their news.

Tom has been working in an architects' office at Tower Bridge and uses powerful vector drawing programmes - part of his job is turning plans into 3D images. He is going to install an external hard drive for my computer, and also will show me how to use the drawing programme. Not only will I be able to draw patterns, but I will be able to scan in and redraw tracings. I will also be able to scan in photos taken at an angle, and then reorient the plane to horizontal - it sounds good and Tom will teach me to do this - now we just have to arrange a weekend.

I also have plans to look at the Hake papers this spring at the V & A archive in Kensington and I will be able to stay at Sophie's flat while I do this.

I finished the Pilani applique top- here is the centre cut out and ready to applique. I have ironed the top and resewn a few bits that didn't look right...

And here is the wadding that I bought at Quilters Haven yesterday - I will get the backing sewn together and baste the three layers in the next few days - then this quilt can go into the frame.

Also over the holidays I realised that I missed not having some applique on the go so here is the next Hawaiian project - it is called Molokama (a different pattern to the red and white quilt which was Molokama O Na Kaui).

Here is the paper pattern pinned to the extra wide cotton, ready to cut. I could not find my good Gingher scissors! - I obviously put them away in a safe place - so safe that I could not find them - luckily I had a pair of light weight Gingher scissors (given to me long ago by my friend Kay Michalak) and those made a good job of cutting the pattern out.

I have made a start on this quilt top. You can see that although I like the red and white colour combination, here I have used navy and cream fabrics, which I hope will be a good pair. I have been extra careful this time and have also pin basted each "lobe" with a safety pin.

These are the books that I have enjoyed reading over Christmas - the American Museum book has lovely photos, although of course I have the two smaller books that had been published previously.

Today, I ordered some fabric - pink and white Kona cotton - to start work on my Northumberland sawtooth centre diamond quilt. I traced the patterns from the antique top onto polythene over Christmas and can use those to mark the quilt once the top is complete. One of the twist borders is very wonky (it looks as if a cardboard template was used to trace the outline, then the interior lines were added none too carefully) so I may have to redraft this. The free hand scroll and flowers are very attractive.

And finally, here is Monkey enjoying the winter sun. The piano he is sitting on is going to a new home soon, where it will be retuned and played once again (it was the one Sophie used) and I will be able to replace it with bookcases and cupboards for my fabric. December and January are good for making plans!