Not much sewing action

My sewing machine is in getting a much-needed service this week, so there's not much sewing action happening. I should be hand-quilting instead - but it's been so very hot that I can't even tolerate the thought of sitting under several square metres of quilt. The only thing that's working for me is lounging very quietly with a magazine or a book and a cold drink... shall we call it research?

This is another hand-dyed number I made last year - the first one of just putting the fabrics together and seeing what worked out. I love yellow, I love dyeing it and sewing it and just patting it; so my first one was "stuff it, I'm doing the colour that I love, even if it looks a bit garish..." The colours are much brighter in real life than in the photos. I finished it in the middle of last year for a friend's 40th birthday present (she says she loves it, but she probably would no matter what! Friends are great...)

Last year's exhibition quilt

Here's the one I put in the guild exhibition last August. It's more typical of what I tend to do at the moment - fabrics I've dyed myself put together in a not-very-orderly way. To be honest it looked pretty awful at the exhibition next to some very precise and elegant quilts ... and the colours were slightly too dull for indoor lighting.

But I still like it a lot - especially the handquilting which makes it very soft and drapey. I might make something a bit normal this year though!

The very first post

I'm starting a blog to record my quilting - what I do, how I did it, what I was thinking at the time (assuming I was thinking anything at all of course...) and where, if anywhere, I'm going with all of this.

Seeing we have to start somewhere, let's start with the quilt I finished this weekend, also known as the Ugliest Quilt in the World. Why did I think random pieces of ugly fabric would make a nice quilt? It's queen-size, so should at least be useful for keeping warm - hand quilted in large stitch with three strands of homebrand embroidery floss.

And I might work on my quilt photography too...