A gold medal… in binding

I've done it! The Wedding Quilt is sitting in a posh bag, all ready for Emma and Matthew's wedding today. Having taken the day off yesterday to a) get my hair done all glam and b) bind the quilt, I can say by 4pm I was DONE! Phew (the Olympics provided the TV entertainment - go Team GB!).

I'm glad I decided to sash with white, as it's made the fab colours of Kate Spain's Good fortune fabrics really pop. I stippled all over, and after one disasterous night of sewing machine hate (mainly due to a massive ball of fluff that had been builidng up under the bobin for quite some time now!), my stitches improved, and I think the quilting is fine.

The binding is a sky-blue from Moda with Kate Spain's Tranquil Butterfly in orange/blue for the backing, although in spite of finding some at New Threads and The Cotton Patch I had to do a strip of the leftover layer cake squares and one area made up of the trimmings used from cutting the original layer cake pieces to 9inch squares.

I made a label using a fine-point Sharpie pen and Bondaweb, having stitched a label patch into the back as as I made up the backing shortfall! I think it looks cute with the butterflies. 

Anyway, off to put on my posh frock and head to The Cotswolds - here's to a great wedding day!

Must try harder

I've noticed a theme to my posts recently, that of buying fabric and not actually using it. Take our monthly meeting of the London Modern Quilt Guild two Sundays ago. Held at Tricolette just off Abbey Road, I managed to spend £38.40 before we even got started (thanks Michael for letting us meet there). Now, I missed last month's meeting due to essential DIY-ing in preparation for our living room shelves, so I didn't swap my bag of scraps, let alone make the wonky log cabin block (see what I mean about not actually sewing, just dreaming and spending!).

Oops, here's one of the purchases – a Kate Spain layer cake – just for a fabric hit in this post…

Anyway, with my fabric tucked away under my seat, the meeting started. Then lovely Pennie arrived with surprise guest Aneela Hoey, fabric designer and book author extraordinaire. Aneela was so generous with her advice as she told us how teamed up with Moda and how she transfers her designs from paper to screen. 

I left all geered up for next month's challenge, and as I'm off this week, I might just make it. We have to design a 12inch block that sums up modern quilting, with the best displayed at John Lewis on Oxford Street. Will keep you posted… although I am feeling the need to buy some plain grey fabric to sash my design!