Love in a cold climate …

The cotton threads have been vacuumed up, the second machine put away and my sewing room is showing very little evidence that me and my girl were ever constructing a quilt in there. But we did, and it’s finished …

You’ll know from my last post that quilting isn’t really my thing, but we muddled through and created a really meaningful, personal and beautiful quilt (if I say so myself!). Once we’d sewn the strips (see last post) together and made one complete sheet, my girl was sent off to pack while I put it all together.

Choosing a backing fabric took a lot of thought as I wanted to use something I already had in my stash. Luckily this lovely stripe from Tinsmiths screamed “quilt me” and any thoughts of the summer skirt it was intended for, vanished into thin air. To make it the right size, I added width and length with a patchwork border of fabrics we’d used in the main quilt.

Once I’d got the batting sandwiched between the top and bottom layers, I trimmed the edges square and started to tack them together. I’m sure there is a ‘proper’ way to do this but I basically sat in the middle and smoothed all the ripples to the outside edges until it was as flat as a pancake, then I rolled the ends tightly (thank you for that top tip Mum), towards the centre and tacked from the middle out until it was secure.

With sore fingers, a bit of eye strain and only two days before departure, I whisked it back to the sewing machine and began to quilt.

My machine has never taken such a beating. I propped the quilt up on a chair and fed through the layers, row after row, clunkety, clunk! Finally when all the rows were complete, I made some bias binding from the off cuts and completed the make. Here it is finished and drying in the autumnal sunshine …

In the panic packing that preceded her departure, I completely forgot to take any photos of it dry, so thank you to My Girl for sending me some pics of it in situ …

It was a brilliant project to do and a pleasure to make it with my gorgeous girl. Apparently, it gets quite cold up north, so snuggle up poppet and thank you for the sewing fun times for sure, I love you! X

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Arrivals and departures …

My girl and I have been united in the sewing room. Dusty cotton fluff flying round us, the calming hum of two working sewing machines, a radio play keeping us gripped and chamomile tea and chocolate for fuel.

We are making a patchwork quilt together …and it’s good.

Now before I go any further, I’d like to confess that I am not really that into quilting. I do love a nice patchwork, but when it comes to making them I’m a bit of a mismatched and haphazard kinda gal. Any form of planning bores me a little bit whilst the thought of clashing colours and the luck of the draw is pretty appealing. I rebel against my graphic design training – corners meeting at a precise points? No siree. Luckily, my girl feels the same way!

Right now we have got as far as raiding the fabric stash and choosing pieces  with meaning and memories (mixed in with a quilting pack found in Oxfam about 5 years ago). We’ve (sort of) worked out the amount we’ll need for a single quilt (told you I was hopeless!) and started to sew the squares together, pressing as each row is finished.

This isn’t the first quilt I’ve made for my girl. When I was pregnant with her and strapped for cash, I ordered a pack of tiny sample swatches from a quilting company and used them along with some of my own scraps for a cot quilt …

I blame the wonky quilting on the enormous bump that sat between myself and the machine! The day she arrived, our hearts melted, our world changed and our love was immeasurable … I’m sure you know what I mean.

Eight more rows and we’ll have enough (I think) …

With the first quilt being for a special arrival, nineteen years on, this one is for a special and exciting (although at the moment she is terrified) departure. We have four weeks to finish this before my girl flies the nest to wing her way up north to study.

It’s not a “departure” departure, I have it on good authority that she’ll be home for Christmas … !