Finished

Ah, these are busy days, to be true. The Munchkin has returned to the seat of learning yet I seem to have less, not more time on my hands? Anyway, let all us parents give ourselves a huge pat on the back for having survived the Summer holidays!

Did I mention the word "Summer"?  Here in the capital, that is how it is feeling this week; better late than never.  The skies are decidedly blue, the mercury is rising and the sun is smiling down.  What better than to put down my rubber gloves (all I seem to do is clean these days, ah the joys of house renovation), and head out with a few pretty goodies to show you what I've managed to finish.  Oh, I do like a finish.

Do you remember the strip roll of fabrics I bought from the NEC from Worn and Washed?  It took me little time to piece together the top.  I added in quite a lot of fabrics of my own and I enjoyed the piecing so much that once I thought the top was complete, I added another four rows, just to make it the size I wanted, you understand.  It was good to rummage deep in the stash and see what was squirreled away.

Now it is completed, this quilt reminds me of laundry times, with its faded blues and washed out pinks. I bound the quilt with a blue polka dot cotton, I am loving "that blue" at the moment.

I settled on the name "The Washday Quilt", it just seemed right. The quilt is backed with a candy striped flannelette sheet, I fortuitously came by a stack of these recently from one of my mum's neighbours.  It is old, soft and bobbly.  Delicious.

I LOVE this quilt.  To me, it looks divine but it was also a dream to make, it just went together perfectly.  As I hadn't used my beast of a quilting machine for a while, I had a look at the manual and fiddled with the foot pressure setting.  Blow me if it didn't quilt perfectly.  It fed the quilt sandwich just right so all my lines stayed true, quite important on a brick path quilt with lots of stripey fabrics.  It was like a revelation and I was, and indeed remain, thrilled and excited by this find!  Just shows, it's always worth re-reading the manual every now and then.  Duh.

I don't know about you, but now we are in September already (how did that happen?), there is a decidedly Autumnal feel in the air.  The windfalls are dropping, the leaves crispening and the light has a pretty glow.  My dahlias, which I grew from some cheap tubers for the first time this year, are flowering splendidly and in honour of The Washday Quilt's moment of glory before the lens, I picked my first bunch for the vase (or marmalade pot, to be precise).  The low light through the old apple tree cast a pretty light on the quilt as it lay on the old bench under the spreading branches.

In truth, out in the sunshine the colours are a little more vibrant.  Oooh, pretty.

I feel so very very pleased to be back in the quilting groove and cannot wait to hopefully find plenty of Autumnal and Wintery hours to while away in the Den.

It's always nice to finish something, isn't it?  Another important project here, somewhat larger than a patchwork quilt, is thankfully nearing completion, too.  It's looking just how I dreamed it would and I am itching to get out all my pretty goodies and put in place all the finishing touches.  But I must be patient (not my strong point) and wait a while longer until the construction side of things is truly over and done.  For now, there's plenty to make me happy...

Hope you are enjoying happy and productive days, too.