Unfinished Patchwork Projects Update - Part 1

For the past 2-3 years, I've been working on two very different quilt projects; one a Christmas themed lap quilt made with leftover small pieces of Christmas fabric, which I made as a way of using up fabric scraps, of which I had many, and the other a big thick king sized quilt for our bed.

I haven't done much work on either quilt for over a year, but in the last couple of weeks I have started to pick up the Christmas lap quilt again and make progress.  I'd virtually done all of the small hand patchwork piecing, and needed to do some work on making and attaching a border, backing it, filling it, quilting it and binding it, so there was still a lot of work to do.

I have finally got around to making a start on the border, which is pinned in place and now just needs sewing on the machine.  It feels good to be finally moving it on.  I also found some fabric for the backing and cut it to size (more or less), so that once I have added the border, I can attach the filling and backing and then start on some actual quilting.  I'm not sure if I'll be doing this by hand or machine.

Here's a picture of this quilt with the border loosely pinned in place, along with the backing fabric I've chosen to use.  The border fabric was a piece that I had in my stash, left over from making a Christmas stocking for LB and the backing fabric was some I bought for my business, but won't be selling.

I'm really looking forward to getting this quilt finished, and it will be a lot easier to finish than the larger one. It might be a bit late for this Christmas, but at least I might have it finished for next Christmas!

With regard to the big quilt for our bedroom, it has been folded up and sat on the ottoman at the end of our bed for nearly two years now, as I still have 8 rows of hand quilting to do on it.  This might not sound like much, but it is quite a lot of work, as each row tends to take a couple of hours to do, due to the sheer size and weight of the quilt.  I then need to finish it off with some binding, which I will also do by hand, again due to the thickness of the quilt. I am having to use a very thick waxed cotton, to make it strong enough, one that will not fit through my sewing machine.

This is definitely going to be a very roasty quilt, as it was made using an old duvet as filling. If the weather turns very cold in the next week or so, I might finally be inspired to get it finished and use it.
Below is a picture of it as it is at present.  It is a seriously heavyweight quilt and if we get cold, it could be used as it is, but I would prefer to finish it.  There is no way we will remain cold with this on the bed.

Hopefully, now I'm getting back to working on these unfinished projects, I will be able to report on progress over the next few months and will keep you posted.