WIP Wednesday: Pin-up tea towels

Current work in progress: embroidered tea towels with 50's style pin ups.

Pin-up tea towels: WIP

I love Sublime Stitching's "Most Awesome Tea Towels", which really are the best every for embroidery and for drying your dishes. Excitingly, I recently discovered that Ray Stitch, which is just down the road from me in Islington, carries Sublime Stitching embroidery patterns.

More soon,
Love,
me x

P.S. I'm linking up to WIP Wednesdays over at Freshly Pieced

Finally finished: Hidden Stars

It's finally finished!

I started this quilt as PhD write-up procrastination and now, two years after submission, it's finally done!

Hidden Stars: Done and dusted

Started: June 2013
Finished: October 2015
Size: Originally 135 x 135 cm now 190 x 190 cm (with sashing) 
Quilt top: Oak Leaves and Reel by Moda
Backing: Old duvet cover from my grandmother's house (pieced together as it wasn't quite big enough)
Binding: Dark red lining fabric
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom wool batting
Quilting: Machine quilted in the ditch and diagonals, borders in diamonds and stripes.
Label: Foundation pieced 8-pointed star, hand embroidered

I'm very pleased with how the quilt label turned out and so glad I took the time to make a proper one this time - it turns a rather boring, plain backing into something rather pretty, if I do say so myself.

Hidden Stars: Quilt back and label

I also really like the way the centre star is iridescent in the light. It's difficult to photograph but you can sort of see it on this photo:

Hidden Stars: shiny shiny star!

One last photo just because it was such a pretty day to go for a walk with a quilt:

Hidden Stars: Going for a walk in the park

I will endeavour to find some sunnier spots for photographs next time the sun is out on a weekend (might be a while then...)

Love, me x
P.S. I am linking up to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts because I've finally got something 100% finished to show off :) :)

WIP Wednesday: Hidden Stars - the push for the line

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my hidden stars quilt. After much musing and scheming, I finally decided on a design for the quilt label and decided to try out foundation paper piecing for the first time while I was at it.

I used this great template from the wonderful Anna at Six White Horses. Thank you Anna!

Step 1: Foundation piecing the star

As I wanted to finish the star's edges as opposed to piecing it with a background, I trimmed the edges down to 1 inch, folded and pressed them and then hand-appliqued the finished embroidered star to the back of the quilt.

Step 2: Trimming the edges down

 

Step 3: Trimmed and ready to press

As usual, I forgot to take photos of each step. Here is one of the final product being appliqued to my backing:

Step 6: Applique

Almost done!

Love, me x


P.S. I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced