Finished - Old Fashioned Charm

After 15 years, Old Fashioned Charm is now complete!!! And has been in a show!!! Everything gets exclamation marks!! Because IT IS FINLLY DONE and I still LOVE IT!! To see the various stages of productions view these posts.

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My Guilds 30th Anniversary Exhibition

Recently my Guild held its 30th Anniversary Exhibition. I put two quilts in, one pictured below. Click here to see all of the 150 odd quilts in the Exhibition. The link gives you the option to either watch the automatic slideshow or follow a link and view the images individually. There is some amazing work on display, check it out.

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Blocking Quilts - Old Fashioned Charm

I've slowly (over 15 YEARS) been working on this quilt. It is now nearly done. I plan on putting it into my Guild exhibition. However, it had a few issues. Firstly, it was only about the third quilt I made. Secondly, it is completely hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted. As a result, it wasn't the most square quilt I've made. Also, as it's been made over such a long period of time, it was a bit smelly (mainly from sitting in my spare room which could get a bit musty over winter).

So before I could put it out in public, it needed a wash. I figured that since I was doing that, I'd take the opportunity to block the quilt. This had two benefits, it would let me square up the quilt and also reduce wrinkling. I know that some people like that look, but I don't. So this whole process solved a whole lot of problems.

So first off, I gave the quilt a good soak in the bath. First round in plain water. I'd used water soluble pen for marking the quilting. It's important to remove this with plain water before washing as some people have had the markings made permanent if washed with detergent before removing the pen lines. Then second round using liquid Napisan. Then a rinse in clean water. I then ran it through the spin cycle on gentle.

Then it's onto the blocking. I used two 6 foot tables with camping mats on top. This saves lots of bending or kneeling. The mats allow you something to pin the quilt to. I also put a layer of plastic drop sheets on top of the mats, to make sure no colour transferred to the quilt.

 

Then it's just a matter of laying the quilt down and pinning to the mats. The tables were just a little bit too small, so I pinned to the inner border, inside the HST border. I didn't go to the extent of measuring diagonals etc for perfect squaring but did it by eye. Remember to not over stretch the quilt at because it will shrink as it drys. You want it taught but not stretched.

 

You can see in the close up below how the wrinkling is reduced. It's not eliminated but it is alot less. This is after it was dried. I forgot to take a close up when it was wet. But it was pretty wrinkly but all the fabrics in this quilt had been pre-washed, so it wasn't too bad. 

So now all I need to do it trim and bind. Nearly there!!!

 

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Cold, Wet Day for Quilting

It's been raining here on and off for a week now. It is getting colder and wetter. The perfect weather for a pit of hand quilting.

I had a couple of days off during the week.I was just really under the weather. I didn't do anything but the occasional bit of hand quilting in between naps.

I am feeling a bit better now, but I have holes in my fingers from the quilting. I am happy with this, however, because I really want to get this quilt done. It's been sitting in the spare room for years while I took a break from quilting and did scrapbooking. But I love this quilt and I'm in the home stretch now. I think I should be able to get this finished in the next couple of months. I've almost finished the middle section and the borders will be basic cross hatching, so it shouldn't take too long.

Miss Cleo here will only sit on my lap about once or twice a year and I HAVE to have a quilt on my lap for that to happen. She loves a cuddle, but against your side, not your lap.

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Old Fashioned Charm Hand Quilting

More work on UFO's today. It was a bit cooler and I wasn't feeling real crash hot, so I thought I'd pull out my Old Fashioned Charm quilt and work on the handquilting. I had hoped to have it finished by now but still working on it. I was trying to get the quilting done during winter but I never seemed to get into the swing of it. But I  got quite a bit done today, 6 squares.

 

I've done 3/4's of the pieced inner section. That leaves 4 pieced rows to go. Then the border. The border will be done as basic cross hatch, although I will probably outline the vines, leaves and birds as well.

It looks a bit rough, but I've been working on this quilt on and off for 5 years including quilting on a hoop. It gets roughly wrapped between quilting sessions, so it looks alot better than in the photo!!

Below is the quilt on a double bed. Just hanging off the left side is the other vined border.

 

And just for giggles, a close up of one of the corners.

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