Apologies for the late arrival of this post, it’s been one of those weeks! I was on annual leave this week and had a nice week of sewing and gardening planned, as the weather wasn’t inclement for gardening I thought ‘Ooh, I’ll paint the conservatory instead, I can paint for the morning and sew in the afternoon!’ Needless to say the ‘quick job’ turned into three full days so now I’m sewing under pressure to get three Easter outfits finished for my grandchildren!! Anyway…..

I have my dancing shoes on!!!

Over the last three weeks I’ve finished the last bit of quilting, trimmed it and bound the edges, I just need to check for loose threads now, never my strong point!

I started this quilt back in 2020, it was one of the wonderful free stitch-a-long patterns the craft community came up with to keep us sane during the long lock-downs. The embroidery patterns were designed by different quilt designers(mainly Australian I think) and the whole project was organised by Natalie Bird of the Birdhouse. I made it from the fabric left over from a quilt called Coming Home, due to the conditions this quilt was started under it was soon called the Staying Home quilt.

There were twenty embroidered and appliqued blocks altogether, all finished to 6″ square. To make it into a useable bed quilt I made twenty simple house blocks, double bordered each block and used most of my last fabric scraps to make the scrappy sashing. I love the way the colours have worked out.

I still haven’t mastered taking photos of quilts, I blame my balance, this is the best of about 10 shots!

I just checked back and I started quilting this back in July last year, so about 9 months at a gentle pace! I’ve done minimal quilting on the embroidered blocks, just enough to hold everything in place, houses are quilted on the ditch with windows added. I whip-stitched the quilting round the windows to make them stand out a bit more. The sashings quilted with hearts. It’s probably easier to see on the back…

The backing as you can see was pieced from leftover fabric, trying to get a landscape appearance, the light fabric at the bottom actually has reflective dots on it so it glows in the dark!!

I tried a couple of fabrics for binding, but eventually decided on this grey/blue design which I had used for some of the sashings. I did my usual double fold method with 2.5″ strips. I always hand stitch my binding down, it may take a few evenings in front of the TV but I much prefer the finish.

I’m well chuffed with this quilt, I love the colours and how its balanced out. With hindsight the only ting I might have done differently is to add another light 1″ border round the whole quilt, it would have just meant I could have done whole hearts round the outer edge instead of part ones. As the saying goes in quilting though, only God’s work is perfect 🙂

I’m just waiting for the instructions for my next project to arrive, hopefully by the time of my next post I’ll have started it. It give you a clue, it’s actually by the same designer!

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and  Cathie

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday