Today I have finished the top of my afternoon tea quilt that I started many moons ago, and has been gathering dust wrapped up in a map roll on top of the wardrobe ever since. As the quilt was intended to make use of an embroidered panel there was no pattern for the top, so I had drafted out the cutting and sewing measurements myself. Although I knew maths was never a strong point of mine, until today I hadn't realised quite how bad I was! According to my calculations I needed 28 6.5" blocks for the second border on the quilt, so I duly cut and pieced 24 Friendship Star blocks with the intention of making 4 different blocks for the corners. When I laid out the quilt centre and pieced Star blocks I discovered that my calculations had been way out, instead of needing 28 blocks in fact I only needed 20! So out with the seam ripper to take off the extra 2 blocks on 2 strips.
I would love to be a bit more adventurous with the quilting on this lap quilt and ideally, quilt some form of teacup in the striped border and on the linen centre, but that may just be a bit over-ambitious as I have never even tried free-motion quilting! All tips will be much appreciated.
Last weekend there was a large pan-Baltic Folklore festival in Riga, part of which was a Craft Fair and open-air concerts in one of the City parks. I was delighted to see these girls with their flower headdresses working on their looms and thought you might like to see them too.
Have a great weekend.
Linking here and here
I suppose it's better to have too many blocks, than not enough. The quilt top is gorgeous, Fiona. I love everything about it!!! I'm sure however you quilt it, the end result will be awesome.
ReplyDeletevery cute photo of the girl at the loom. It is nice to do want to projects - I don't do any "have to" projects - I am for relaxing not stress :)
ReplyDeleteKaren
Your quilt looks lovely. For fmq I haven't much experience but I'd definitely recommend http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.co.uk/p/start-here.html The little girl at her loom is adorable!
ReplyDeleteThe friendship star blocks are very pretty! Your maths is like mine - nice when the error is in your favour though:-)
ReplyDeleteLovely quilt top and so nice that the maths error was in your favour!!
ReplyDeleteLovely quilt top, give the teacups a go!
ReplyDeleteRiga looks to be a fascinating place.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fun fair to attend (although I'm giggling at the flowery lion) Good job the quilty maths meant at least you could still use whole blocks, I've had much worse screw ups (oh, and did I mention I have a degree in maths and computer science? Oy!)
ReplyDeleteLOL, all those stars and you didn't need them, I did giggle! The fair looks fun, I'd love to have a go at large scale weaving!
ReplyDeleteThose little girls are charming! I made a teacups wallhanging, which I quilted with a cups design in the outside border. I just drew some cups like the small one you embroidered in the center block, and joined them with a curved line... it worked for me.
ReplyDeleteI love your tea time quilt - the colors are so happy and your embroidery is wonderful! Lucky you, your left over blocks will make a sweet cushion!
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