Wednesday 18th October 2023 - Bits and Pieces

 Or in other words, mostly patchworky stuff.

But before I start on pins and needles and what have you, did you know that thinking burns calories and energy? They did scientific experiments getting mathematicians to were special sensors all over their heads while they were pondering imponderable theorems and stuff, and discovered that thinking made their heads hot.

Well, I've been thinking, I mean Really Thinking, about this hexagon quilt I'm making. Ye back of it looks horrible, because it is all the edges of the seams everywhere, and it will need backing. And preferably a layer of something, call is wadding or batting or padding, they all come to the same thing, to cover the raw edges and give it some kind of substance, even some warmth.

My days of grovelling on the floor pinning and basting large quilt tops are OVER. Been there, done that, and it is jolly hard work. So I was wondering/worrying how to finish the quilt top, and then I watched this video;

  The quilting bit starts at 2' 40" after she's finished promoting the special lamp company that is sponsoring the video.

After I had watched just 5 or 10 minutes I realised that this was the answer.

However.... I already have about 30 hexagons hand sewn together with 10-12 stitches to the inch - unpicking is not a happy thought.

So I am investigating 'Quilt as you've gone' rather than 'quilt as you go' until I have fixed the patches that are already sewn together.

First, find some batting or similar - I've quite a few scraps of fleece lying around. The idea thing, a rather thin and unlovely fleece blanket - has unfortunately already been dispatched to a charity shop quite some time ago. Fleece is NOT ideal because it is quite stretchy... but one goes with what one has got.

I've been saving a 'retired' duvet set for a quilt backing, so fetched down the scraps of felt and one of the pillowcases.

Here we go; green fleece cut to the size of the finished hexagons, and covered with a piece of pillowcase, and pinned together

I made 7, thinking that would be one 'rosette' as a first trial. Then I slipped stitched the padded hexagons to the back of ones on the quilt. Somehow, the idea of a rosette escaped; various hexagons were dropping their paper inserts before I was ready for them to do so, and some of the seam allowances of the patches I was covering were a bit narrow, to I tended to go for expediency rather than pattern. 

I have quilted round a couple of the patches with quilting thread to secure the padding more securely  (perhaps there's a better way of putting that?) and that does seem to make things tidier.

Doing this, including sewing and unsewing a patch that seemed to be attached to my trouser leg, suddenly remembering at half past eleven that I was supposed to be teaching a piano lesson from eleven (she's an old friend and luckily very forgiving - we just ran half an hour late) and various other mishaps along the way has taken most of the day, so apart from essential admin nothing else got done. 

Tomorrow is another day.

Meanwhile, here's what was running through my head watching the rain in the garden;

You tell from the cover that it's a golden oldie; The Move 'Watching the Garden Grow'