Quilting Catch Up 2

It's been a few months since I posted about my two current quilting projects.  These projects are long term ones, that I don't expect to finish quickly, as they require quite a lot of (wo)man hours to complete.  I started both of them at the beginning of the year and have given myself  a full year for the Christmas lap quilt and until this autumn, when the weather turns colder, for the double eiderdown/quilt for our bed.

For anyone who hasn't seen my previous quilting posts, the hand sewn Christmas lap quilt, is being made with lots of small scraps of Christmas fabric I had, which have subsequently been cut paper pieced into small diamond shapes and then sewn together to make into bigger diamonds.  I've been completing this project slowly whilst watching TV on an evening.  I've had months where I've hardly picked it up and weeks where I've almost done some every night.  Fortunately, it's that kind of project and in addition the pieces can easily be taken away with us on holiday and paper pieced and sewn into the bigger diamonds, ready to be attached to the whole when we get back.  I've just recently picked it up again after a spell of doing nothing on it for a while and it is really starting to come together now.  The last photo I posted of this quilt was this one back in April.

This is the quilt now.

 

And here's a close up so you can see how the pieces are pieced together.

I'm quite pleased with progress.  It's almost double the size now and I'm getting close to finishing the front.  As it's a lap quilt, it doesn't need to be huge.  I'm going to put a plain border around it and bind it by hand.  I need to decide on binding/backing fabrics and buy some wadding, but it is coming along nicely.  The stash of small fabric pieces has truly been busted and I will hopefully be able to snuggle under this whilst watching Christmas movies in the run up to next Christmas.

The second project I'm working on, is a double eiderdown/quilt for our bed.  It is also coming along well.  In my last post it looked like this, with just two hand quilted sections completed.



 I am now just over half way through hand quilting it.  By way of explanation, it is made using an old quilt as wadding, which is incredibly thick and made it impossible to machine quilt, so I have been hand quilting along the joins of the strips of fabric on the front.  It has been taking over an hour to do each line of hand quilting and there are 20 to do, so it is quite a time consuming process.  I'm trying to do at least one per week, but some weeks I've done none and some I've managed more than one, if I'm in the mood to get on with it. 

Here's a picture of it at the halfway stage. 

 

 

 

Plus a slightly closer look as the previous photo wasn't the best.

 

 

It really feels like it is coming together and it is quite exciting.  I even slept under it the other night, as I was unable to get to sleep in our bed, so moved into the spare room to sleep, where it is currently on the bed as I work on it there.  It felt so lovely and heavy and substantial and I just know that it is going to keep us very warm next winter.
 
Another interim progress report.  I may do one more before the final reveal.  Are you working on any long term projects?