how was your vacation in nyc?

We were lucky to get corporate housing in Midtown NYC for the last few weeks.  v was asked to run a program in the NYC office for nearly 4 weeks.  Not a bad trip to be on.  After a bit of back and forth with date my tickets to join her were all sorted.  While there I decided to bring a new project along which was a good thing because a few days after we landed I got sick.  Sick enough that I had to actually go to the dr. After a few days of hiding under the covers I managed to set up and get moving on my quilt op.

Last month I was helping out Rachel and Michelle from Ray Stitch with the Knitting and Stitching show here in London.  On my day working the stand I was able to see a ton of nice fabric that I couldn’t resist.  As I headed home I stopped by a big both and had to get some Tula Pink Salt Water fabric.

I was lucky to enough to spend some time with Tula when she was here in London for the Festival of Quilts last August. The LMQG invited her to do a bit of a show and tell and chat about her work and how she designs it all. We met at the Star Tavern in Belgravia on night and was amazed at her work.

The Star Tavern in Belgravia

Tula show us her process step by step.

With my fabric pre cut I started the long process of piecing 864, 2.5″ squares and half square triangles.

2.5″ squares and 3.25″ triangles ready for the piecing.

Mom gave me her spare machine to use and off I went still recovering from “man flu” as v calls it.

only a few blocks in but you can make out the shoulder.

I only have a few blocks left but thought I would share it anyway. Can you see it?

The face coming through.

James Dean

THE NEW BIT!!!

I have been hard at work for the last few weeks getting JD ready for the Festival of Quilts Show up in Birmingham. It was a bit of a challenge but I made it to the Twisted Thread offices in Islington with 2 days to spare.

Piecing 864 squares together is not as fun as it sounds!

Endless seams to line up.

I kind of like the stained glass effect. Pinned to the curtains in the bedroom with the daylight shinning through.

Same pic but at night.

Originally I was to be using my friend Lucy’s Long Arm that she shares with her Mum but something happened and I was unable to get to use it.  That left me scrambling for a bit as I really didn’t want to have to do it on my personal machine.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Janome Horizon 7700 but I am not at that stage just yet to freestyle my show entry on it. My friend Jane from Moda put me in touch with Sally from Threads and Patches in Milton Keynes. Sally was nice enough to offer up her new HQ Avante 18 for me to use.

Sally’s amazing shop in Milton Keynes.. Threads and Patches.

Freshly out of the box for a few weeks. The HandiQuilter Avante 18.

So I pinned up my backing. Inserted my Batting and carefully centered my top to the new machine.  Then we were off. I arrived up at around 10:30am and didn’t stop until I was done, or until Sally and her friendly staff kindly said it was time to go. 6pm.  No breaks and no lunch.

I used some variegated Blue/Purple?Green threads for the darks and some Yellow/Green for the Lights and went to town.

I thought these threads went well.

After sorting out a few spots that needed some tweaking I attached my what felt like never ending binding and started the 3 day journey of sitting in front of the TV hand stitching away.  Not only did the binding get sewn on but I had to add the “professional hanging sleeve” which also took a bit more time than I anticipated.

Binding time.James Dean

Hollywood Icon James Dean made with Tula Pink’s Saltwater. 864, 2 1/2″ squares and half square triangle with a double border and hand stitched QR Barcode attached to the right side.  (and Yes it does scan!)

All Done!! Barcoded and Binding on.

See you in Birmingham!