Finished Table Mats and American Fabrics!

I'm pleased to say that I have now finished three of the mats.  The binding has been sewn on using blind stitch by hand (a big achievement for me, as I'd never done the stitch before).  

They were used for the first time at last night's dinner up north at my family's house.  It seemed ideal that the three of them were used then, as my Mum gave me the quilting class as a Christmas present.  Fortunately for me she loved them and has asked me to make her a wall hanging!  Another project in the pipeline for once I've finished my quilt... I'm going to try to do one thing at a time, at least in quilting terms. 

Now I wanted to visit home, as my family had just been on holiday to Florida, where they happened upon a quilting shop [Rainbow's End] (typical that they would find the largest one in the state when it's not their interest!). However Mum being loverly as she is, chose four fabrics for me, which are:

1 fat quarter of this, as I adore pandas!

1/2 yard of the Alexander Henry owls.  Hoot Hoot.

1 fat quarter of this.  Not sure what it is.  Mum said that it reminded her of Audrey Hepburn...

1/2 yard of 'bird on a ball' designed by Etsuko Furuya.  Beautiful!!

I think my Mum chose pretty well considering she wasn't sure what to choose or what it'd be best used for but I now have fabric joy fun times to look forward to.  I feel quite excited about using it though I think I'll have to think quite carefully for the best way to show-case the fabric.  Yay!

Now I'm off to make miniature felted animals with my Mum from the book 'Felties' by Nelly Pailloux.  Mum is battling with a 'vivid squirrel' and I'm going to try making a sleepy fox!

My Introduction to Binding

I'm afraid that this will not be a post offering a tutorial with tips of how to improve one's binding but rather my experiences at making my own binding from fabric.  Tonight I had the third and final installment of my beginner's class in machine quilting (offered at Sally Bourne Interiors and I'd highly recommend it).  This is where I've been making my table mats (the pink 9-patch squares)

We were encouraged to choose a binding fabric that would co-ordinate with our projects.  It could either be taken from a bolt of fabric, giving a third colour option or be made from scraps. I chose to use a third fabric because then I have the scraps as I'm sure they'll come in useful at some point or other.  Cutting out the binding was fine.  Piecing the strips together went alright.  I did learn that if a join was slightly uneven that if you trim it along the edge it is more sympathetic to the mistake. Hurrah for me.

The ironing is where things started to go wrong.  How you might wonder.  Well I managed to burn myself with the tip of the iron just under my cuticle on my index finger.  Boo.

Burnt finger aside.  Here's a few photos from the process:

The bottom of my table mat with the binding pinned into place, plus the role of binding that I made.

The binding is now attached to the top of one of my table mats, is pinned into place and is waiting for me to hand sew it to the bottom.

Here's how the table mat looks on the top.  

Just another three to go.  I keep thinking won't they look great when they're all finished.  I think a dinner with a few friends must be had to show them off in style!

My First Attempt at Quilting

As I mentioned in my first post on this blog, I'm taking a 3 week course in machine quilting for beginners at Sally Bourne Interiors.  I've now completed the first two weeks of the course and have pieced together, basted and started to quilt 4 table mats.  The quilting is clearly a beginners try and on each mat I am testing out a different technique:  squares (outlining), a lined approach, stitch in the ditch (still to do) and free-motion quilting (still to do).

Here's my first attempt:

Next week will see the trimming, neatening up and learning how to make our own binding.  I'm quite excited, as I'm hoping to use those skills to apply to my animal quilt, which is still in progress but has had to slow down a little this week due to visitors.

Works in Progress: table mats, animal quilt, knitted tea cosy
To do: knit a tie

How about the rest of you?  What are you working on?