Quilted Cushions

I've been making quilts for years, having done a few courses back in the early 90's. Recently I started a City & Guilds in Patchwork & Quilting, although over the years I have picked up much of the basics, I thought that to do a qualification would help me in the future if I decide to teach the subject. With the C & G I have to carry out the work and then post it all on a blog for grading. If you would like to look at the work I've been doing you can see it at www.lindseytomsquilts.wordpress.com

I am also thinking about trying to sell my quilts etc on line. I have had an etsy shop in the past, selling children's clothes,but although I sold some items, I just didnt have the time to promote it and found that others were selling similar items on etsy at much lower prices. 

At the moment I am trying to build up a number of items which I think may sell on a website, when I get around to setting one up.

Here is one of the cushions that I have made, I love the 'flying geese' design for quilts and I also love plains and Liberty fabrics.

I quilted this cushion with a Sashiko style stitching using a very fine crochet thread.

  

Red Oak Quilts

I love making these quilts with linen and handquilting them with sashiko thread, apart from the ease of cutting and sewing the actual making up of this design is so quick!

The quilt photo which is taken outside actually shows the true colours better than my last post, the blue is more of a teal than blue.

I decided to leave a bigger gap between the quilting which added to the speed of finishing the quilt

I have also chosen a new name for my quilts as they don't really fit in with my etsy shop which is mainly for children's items. 

I quite like using names from nature and so chose Red Oak Quilts, I love the leaf shape of the Red Oak tree. As I find it so hard to find the right labels I decided to have a rubber stamp made and then stamp my own labels on to fabric with fabric ink and then sealing them with an iron. I'm not sure how long these labels will last but as quilts are not washed too often I am hoping the ink won't fade too much

                 

                 

Sashiko stitching

I have managed to work on the linen star quilt that I am making for my son, the top and bottom only took a couple of days to put together and when the wadding and sashiko thread arrived on Saturday I was able to baste the layers with a little help from hubby and Molly :)

I am really enjoying working with the Sashiko thread for the hand quilting. My cousin, when she found out I was using it, sent me an paper that she had written about Indigo for her degree in which says 

Sashiko meaning literally little stabs, is a technique traditional to Japan. Old garments were re-cycled, the layers of fabric hand sewn together with a running stitch, in a contrasting colour.This practice harks back to times when cloth was a valuable commodity. both‘ “If you can wrap three beans in a piece of cloth, then it is big enough to keep.” This old saying demonstrates the frugality of ancient Japanese rural society, which held firmly to the notion of richness in poverty’ (Indigo, C. Le Grand, 78)

So sashiko was traditionally used to re-inforce indigo garments, recycle small pieces of indigo fabric to make larger ones, and in some cases the stitches made patterns which told stories of their own. 

I am stitching straight lines, two inches apart, across the entire quilt. I am glad it's winter as the weight of the quilt is keeping me warm and I certainly hope I finish it before the warmer weather arrives!

             

Liberty Quilt

Back in 2012 I wrote this post http://finelinenandpurple.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Liberty

Well two years later I have finally finished my Liberty quilt. I will add, I haven't been making it all that time, I collected fabric and began making it earlier this year :)

I had also been given some pre cut squares, in two different sizes, so I joined those squares then made triangles and rectangles, backing the quilt with a sheet that my mother bought for my bed when I was 16 (obviously good quality to last all these years!) I hand quilted around each square, triangle etc and  then made bias binding from Liberty fabric, using one of those little gadgets which I had never used before but worked pretty well. All in all I am very happy with the outcome, I do love Liberty. 

We have just spent a few days over at our cottage in Wales and I took the quilt over to put on our bed there.

The weather was pretty chilly, the cottage is in Mid Wales and we are told that is the coldest area in Wales but with the heating on and the wood burner going we were pretty snug. 

And as you can see Molly enjoyed the quilt too

                                    

                                     

                                      

                                      

                                       

My daughter is getting into quilting and so we visited a lovely shop here in Durban, www.cottontale.co.za. The lady in the photo's had hand embroidered the squares and then joined them together into the quilt top, she was pinning the layers together as I took her photo.