WIP Wednesday

I've had a busy old week sewing wise. We had a quiet weekend, which means lovely husband is happy to entertain the girls while I sew - he's a good 'un. Also the baby has been more settled on an evening so I've been getting some uninterrupted time then too. All very pleasing. But I've had a bit of sewing project ADHD too. I think the extra time has made me lose my focus! Lots of WIPs this week so I thought it was worth linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Saturday was apparently National Quilting Day, so I thought I should get into the spirit of things. I've enjoyed my small makes lately but they have left me with 2 unfinished quilts which I would really like to see completed pretty soon. So I chopped into my big roll of batting, taped it out on the floor and set out to baste my Playground Quilt.

And then I picked up my can of basting spray. My only a third full can of basting spray. I bulk bought these at the Festival of Quilts last year and I always find when you do that with something it is rather a surprise when it run out, isn't it? I was sure I had another can. But no.

So I basted the top then - rather grumpily - folded it up and put it away. And got to ordering two more cans on Amazon. And pondered what to do instead. It takes a lot of psyching myself up to get me to baste a quilt so it was disappointing indeed to be thwarted. I could use pins, yes I know, I could use pins. But meh, I don't want to. I have always spray basted, since my very first quilt, always using this handy tutorial (though I tape the wadding to the floor with clear packaging tape rather than using dumbbells ... because I don't have anyway! I have used heavy cookbooks in the past and that works too). It works great for me, I rarely, if ever, get any wrinkles or puckers while quilting. I hate pinning, and that includes safety pins. My safety pins all seem dis-pleasingly blunt, anyway. And I hate removing them too, nevermind having to do so while quilting. Quilting is not my favourite part of the process and I don't like to make it any harder than it needs to be. So, no pins. Just patience.

Instead I pieced together the stack of voile blocks which have been sat waiting for a while.

Into this.

This beauty is the Sparkling Cider quilt pattern from All Washed Up. I saw this on Jeni's blog a couple of years back, she has made two awesome versions. the pattern proved a little tricky to get hold of as there is no facility to buy online but after a few exchanged emails I had it in my hands. It also uses a specialist ruler - the Quilt in a Day large flying geese ruler. Geese are my nemesis block and this ruler makes them a breeze. Perfect points and no bowed in edges! This top is the lap size at 64" by 80".

I also pulled out my voile stash and pieced together a quick back, all ready for when that basting spray arrives!

I had in that stash one yard of a beautiful Anna Maria Horner Field Study print that I had put to one side in case I needed it for the backing, but didn't. Baby girl has been sleeping in her cot of an evening lately and using her very own little car quilt, which means I've been trailing it in and out of the car.

So I popped the voile together with a piece of spotty fanfare flannel and whipped up a sweet little self binding baby blanket.

yep, another dreadful picture, sorry

There are lots of tutorials for these blankets out there and I read several of them. They all seem to call for 2 square pieces of fabric, one 10" bigger than the other - so say 40" square by 30". Although the voile is wide - 54" - I only had a yard of it, and the same of the narrower flannel. So I decided to try to make the most of what I had by using rectangular pieces, and also go for a smaller 6" overlap to create a slightly smaller border and maximise the size of the finished blanket. This is easy to do, you just have to make sure that the difference between the pieces is the same in each direction.

So the voile was cut to 34" by 44" and the flannel to 28" by 38". Tutorials here, here and here but there are loads more! This finished up quickly so is no longer a WIP, but it is being used and loved.

Then on Monday I got an email notification from Amazon saying my spray baste would be delivered on Friday at the earliest. FRIDAY! I was going to whip up another pair of knickers but was waiting on some black thread to match the elastic. Seriously, what kind of sewer doesn't own black thread?

So .... time for a new project. I cut into a long hoarded piece of fabric, eeked out the last of that spray baste and ended up with this.

Which will eventually become a StudioCherie Travel Duffle. This has been on the WNQIP (works not quite in progress) list for ages, the fabric was bought specially, I have the jute for the handles and so forth. Zips ordered and on their way. I was just steeling myself to cut rather a lot of bias strips ....

And then when I arrived home this afternoon I found this parcel awaiting me.

Best get basting then, hadn't I?