So now July

June has gone and so has half the year. We are in the depths of winter and at least two quilts are being used at night.The granny's garden which I completed in June is glorious to sleep under. The silk batting is amazing. It was lovely to quilt and even more fun to sleep under.
I thought the wool batting would be the best, but the little worms seem to have beaten the sheep. I have now used cotton, bamboo, wool and silk as battings and each of them feel great and have suited the quilts that I have used them in. I love the way all of them drape once they are quilted into a quilt. I ready do like the lightness of the wool and the silk and the amazing thinness of the cotton batting.

The next thing that I have been experimenting with is the thread I use. I absolutely love YLI, but, it seems to be impossible to get my hands on any. Nobody imports it here and all the companies I have tried, refuse to send it to me.

It is severely trying living in the further reaches of civilization. So for the Starry quilt I got out my old threads and have tried them again. I have used the Gutterman and I find it a bit stiff and over polished.I have been using it for 3 weeks now and it ok to use. I know that is feint praise, but at least I am not saying it is horrid to use. I also had one spool of Metzler. I do so love the brightness of the thread. It also stitches so nicely. The other thread I wanted to try was Aurifil, but once again I can't seem to source hand quilting weighted thread. Maybe Aurifil will bring in a heavier weight of thread so that I can try it, otherwise I will just have to grow as a person and use whatever I can get my hands on. I have one spool of YLI left and this I will crack open when I finish my next large quilt.

My next large quilt is the next item on my anxiety causing list. I am in search of the perfect vehicle for my entertainment for the next year or two. I try to only do one quilt at a time so I need to be committed to the creation of the quilt I choose. Whilst deciding what I am going to do , I have bought some fabric to make mug rugs. I need to practice applique and I thought that doing mug rugs would be a perfect way for me to practice. I am even going to try and used the required muted colours that make so many applique item look beautiful. I went on the prowl for plaid fabrics. This too was not available. I found some nice fabric, but only one plaid. My dear husband has many beautiful plaid shirts....ok I will behave and not take snippets of fabric out of his shirts.

Hope you all have an amazing July and find projects that bring your fingers joy.
Have a good one! 

And now to Quilt...

This is where the quilt is now. It has a backing and batting all nicely sandwiched together and ready to quilt. We started at 9:00 this morning and I finished at about 13:00. 1 hour of my husband and daughter helping with the pinning and then another 3 hours of me tacking the borders to keep every thing nice and tidy. 

I have been click happy this morning. Here is how the morning went. Firstly a nice cup of tea and a little play on the computer. The old girl cat sitting on her seat looking all fluffy. I think she is ready for winter. She seems twice as fluffy as she was in summer. She is having a moments peace. This kittens are chasing each other around the house.

This was not likely to last. The little girl bounced all around and came to say hi to the bigger browner cat. The kittens are now six months old. Happy half a year birthday to them. I like the fact that no hissing happens any more.

Tea finished and I thought that I would mug rug today. As I passed my sewing room I thought I would just take a peak at my batting and make sure that it looked ok. This time I am using silk batting. 

The backing goes down first

This is the 12th quilt that I have made and I have tried 5 different battings. I suppose that I should settle for one, but it is too much fun trying a different batting each time.

 Well after staring at the batting for a while, i decided it was time to prepare for quilting. T

Then the batting

his is always an ominous time in our house hold. This is a make or break for the next three month activity. Ok it is really not that dramatic. Firstly down goes the backing and then the batting. 

The top is the top of the sandwich

Lastly the top goes on and then it is pinning time. I  previously used straight pins and then tacked the whole quilt. This was not as much fun as using quilting pins.

The pinning is slow and laborious.  The kitten could not help himself, he had to help with the proceedings. First he had to bite the batting to see if it squeaked on his teeth. This went on for a while until he was satisfied with the quality.

Next he took it upon himself to supervise my husband. I think he was unhappy about something. It looks as though clear instructions are being given. 

Oh goodness has he spotted an error in pinning, This is why he need to be so vigilant whilst supervising. He may need to have another chat. A kitties work is never done. All of this and being cute as well. *SIGH*

The pinning is now done. Time to roll it into a long tube and take it for the next steps in preparation.  I hope he has not spotted a mess. I think he wants to know, why all the pins weren't used.

Here I am tidying up all of the edges. I find this is necessary as this help with keeping the quilt tidy whilst stitching. I cut off the excess batting and the curled the back overt to form the hem. 

All feels well. The backing is soft to the touch. I have found the quilting circle and all of the tiny needles. I am actually writing this blog so that I put off starting the gargantuan task of quilting this quilt. I may only start tomorrow, Maybe there is still time to play with Mug Rugs.

Hope all have an amazing Saturday on this Easter weekend.
Have a good one.