 Canberra Quilters Quilt Exhibition opened today, I had a roster to do and had a lovely day, the show always looks wonderful and quilters come from many miles around so there are always lots of people to catch up with.
I am not sure that I really enjoy doing Cast On Stitch But I do like the look of it.
I started with a row of overlapping Cast On Stitches along a short seam.
I then did a row of Twisted Chain Stitch (which done with the fine thread, doesn’t look very different to Feather Stitch)
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For TAST Week 30 I elongated one side of the Buttonhole wheels and twisted them from one side of the seam to the other…It sort of works but some of the stitches are a Bit long and I had trouble keeping the tension (would probably be easier in a hoop but I don’t use a hoop)
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 With the finishing of mum’s quilt I also came to the end of a Visual Journal so today I have started a new one with a list of the things I most want to do next.
Once written I thought catching up on the TAST Stitches would be a good place to start so I found some unfinsihed blocks and have done this weeks stitch, the Crested Chain Stitch.
On the first seam I did alternating long and short arms on the stitch.
On the next seam I flip flopped the arm of the stitch from side to side.
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 Firstly tonight I would like to thank Coral_seas for supplying a drum roll, fan fare and champagne for a toast to my finishing mum’s quilt, I think I announced its finish without flourish because I was tired (only 3 hours sleep the night before), I still had to deliver it and I think that I was somewhat stunned the the frame had come together so well…I am excited to have finished it and would like to thank every one for their comments and all my readers for shareing my journey with mum’s quilt.
and as you can see the chair is clear…I went through it box by box sorting the bits into groups, I have taken it all back to the studio and put away everything but the charms.
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What does one do next when they finish a major project? well today I slept in, spent a bit of time in the garden and a lot of time curled up in bed with the new Harry Potter book.
When I was speculating what next with Sharon a few weeks ago before I could finish the question she answered it with The Diamond Quilt, A Quilt that we both planned on making after seeing a Diamond Quilt made by Martha Bingley in 1889, at an exhibition of Old Australian quilts a few years ago…Readers of Sharon’s blog will have seen her Diamond Blocks and she has been pestering me to get mine started too…
But before I start that One I think I should finish my Box Top …and to do that I have got to find all the bits for it…to do that I have to get a bit organized…which I think starts with putting away the leftovers from mum’s quilt…Most of the time that I have been making mum’s quilt I have been reasonably good at keeping the things for it relatively tidy but in the last couple of weeks the house has taken on the distinctive look of a looming deadline, that is an untidy look but characterized by the piles of bits that have not been put away…I have been stitching in the loung because the heating is better than in my studio so everything I have carried up there in the last couple of weeks is still there, below is the chair beside where I sit and sew…guess what I am doing tomorrow…and then there is emails etc that I have to catch up with
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 I didn’t do detailed photos of how I did the frame because besides being pressed for time it is not something that many people would ever want to do…I was delighted with how neatly it went together.
To keep with the frame theme I chose a brown paper coloured fabric for the back and my sister said that it needed to have a framers scribble on the back so we used a lead pencil to write 1994 – 2007 the years that I started and finished the quilt.
I will do a full label with everybodies names and details but in the meantime I have written the details on the fabric with a permenant ink pen.
To give the frame shape I made a seperate shape for each corner that I put on top like the moulding on some frames…the heart in the design just seemed to be appropriate for this quilt…And whilst I am in the corner I will introduce you to the newest little princess born about 6 weeks ago.
To hang it I made the flap of the frame, that folded to the back at the top, into a rod pocket into which I have put a stick to hold the top straight and to the stick I have attached a chain, which came in handy for hanging the quilt out of the wind to take the photos…big image on flicka
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5 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time…Mum’s Quilt is finished with an hour to spare….image on flicka
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Tomorrow is quilt hand in day for the Canberra Quilters Exhibition, deadline for delivery 6pm..Ummm I think that I might be up all night finishing it but so far so good…I have been a bit apprehensive as to wether I would be able to make the frame seperate like I want to, over the last couple of weeks I have made it in my head a dozen different ways and it wasn’t till I cut the fabric this afternoon that I decided just how I should go about doing it and it has gone together better than I had even hoped.
I have marked the width of the frame on the back and the next thing to do is to lay the quilt face down with the edges matching the marked line and then fold the frame to the back and stitch it down…I will then quilt straight lines on the frame to make it look moulded…and then if time allows I will make fancy shaped moulded corners, if I do run out of time I can add the moulded corners after the exhibition.
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I have found places for the last few charms that I really did want to add…The camera I put down on the book fabric…The computer is near mum’s diploma…The Aeroplane is right up the top of the quilt…the football button is halfway down on the right (where it is holding the green fabric, which was pulling a bit, in place)…and in the seam of the middle block on the bottom row I hid a tiny silver dragon charm, every crazy quilt, at least my crazy quilts need a little fantasy lol.
  
 This is the tying on the false/inner back…The real back is on the table ready to be tied with hidden stitches at the block corners.
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Today I got half mum’s quilt tied…It has taken longer because I decided that where the blocks join the border really did need embroidery, not much, just a thin black line, Stem Stitch done with a single strand of thread…It really is a thin line but I love what it does to the finish.
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