A Quilting Update

After a very quiet period on the quilting front, the last few weeks have seen me find my way back to it again.  Initially, it was the Christmas lap quilt that drew me back in.  It sits in a basket beside the chair that I sit in to watch TV, so I have been picking it up and doing a bit here and there recently.  I hadn't touched it for at least a month, maybe two, since we finished watching Breaking Bad.  It's coming along nicely once again though.  It is hand stitched using paper pieces and small scraps of Christmas fabric, of which I had a carrier bag full, so it is especially satisfying using these up to make something practical and useful.  Here's a few pictures of it's progress. 

 

 

 

 

It's a bit random, with regards to the piecing together and possibly a bit old fashioned, but I don't mind that and besides, it's only for my own personal use.  There's still quite a lot more diamonds to make and attach before the front is completed, but I'm getting there slowly.  It's a good job that there's plenty of time left before next Christmas. 

The second quilting project I am working on is a double eiderdown/quilt for our bed.  I managed to piece it together very quickly and easily, but the actual quilting of it has been a completely different matter.  Due to my using an old quilt instead of wadding, it is very thick and I am unable to quilt it using my machine, so I am having to quilt it by hand along the seams where the different fabrics have been machine sown together. It can take a good few hours to complete each seam, believe it or not.  I've almost completed a couple of seams, but there are still another 18 to go.  Yes, I actually counted them last night, to work out how long it might take me to complete it.  I figured that if I manage to hand quilt at least one seam per week, I just about should get it finished by next autumn/winter.  Fortunately, we don't need it before then, now the weather is warming up.

Here's a couple of pictures of my painfully slow progress.

 

 

Both of these projects are on my Project 52 list.  They are on-going long term tasks that need completing.  I'm looking forward to posting final reveals when they are eventually completed.