London Tea Towel Under the Needle

And the next project that i'm working on during my vacation is to quilt this longtime UFO.

This quilt started with a challenge to use a tea towel in a quilt.  I found one with various landmarks from around London and then filled in with other London themed blocks.  A couple of the focus prints came from an online reader of my block who lives in London.

The print fabrics were bought when I was in London back in 1997.   they are by Rose & Hubble and were bought at Mark's and Spencer dept store. Blocks have been pieced and machine appliqued.  Lots of buttons have also been used in the blocks.  There are several custom designed blocks in the quilt.

All of the blocks bring back memories of something (or someone) that I was fortunate enough to see during my trip there. I'm stitching in the ditch on this one.   Am thinking I may use a scrappy binding made from some of the fabric leftovers from the prints.

Gratitudes:

1. Lunch or other meetings with various friends this week.

2. For the beautiful weather here in the southwest while I've been out here.   Hope for the same clear weather when I head back home.

UFOs and Tea Towels

I was looking for something this week in the stash when I ran across these three linen tea towels that I don't even remember buying......oops.   I'm sure that I would have bought them to use in quilt projects.   I've got one more stashed away in a different tote that I do remember buying for use in a quilt.....but nope, I haven't gotten to that project yet....LOL....

I love this one, and will eventually use the top part for something.

I like the Siamese cats on this one, and the border at the bottom would be fun to include as well in a project.  Most likely wouldn't use the calendar part tho.

I do remember looking for an arizona one to use in a project with the AZ bicentennial fabric that I have stashed somewhere (now where did I see it again?)  I'll have to decide whether to cut it up or use as is and then add around it with my fabric.

And here is a shot of my London tea towel quilt almost all together.   The top is together now but I couldn't find a pic of it.  I cut apart the London scenes from a tea towel and appliqued them onto squares.  Then designed and made blocks to remind me of my trip to London back in 1997.  The fabrics used in the blocks were ones that I bought at Lloyd's & Spencers while there and were all Rose & Hubble fabrics. 

This one got set aside and hasn't been finished because I've never been able to figure out what I wanted to do for a border on it.  Any one have suggestions for me?  lol

I'll finish it one of these days!

What about you - have you used tea towels or other "non-traditional" fabrics for quilt projects?

Gratitudes:

1. Fall weather and cool temps

2. Better eating habits are helping to heal the inflammation I've been fighting for the last few years.

Making Progress.....

In spite of a weekend where I spent half of my time in the hospital, I was able to make progress on several projects.

The London tea towel quilt top is now together and waiting for it to tell me what it wants for a border.

I also put together two quilt tops for Sunshine that started with orphan blocks.   All of fabric and/or blocks came from stash.  =)


Gratitudes:
1. Being able to sleep in my bed again without coughing like a mad woman.

2. Knowing that my sleep patterns will eventually get back to normal after all the hoopla.

UFO Weekend - Tea Towel Quilt and Swap Block Progress

This weekend was the UFO weekend for one of my online groups and I chose to work on my London Tea Towel quilt.    It has been waiting patiently for me to finish the final few blocks needed to fill the holes in it and put it together.    Didn't quite get it all together, but only have the top row of blocks to go and the top will be together.

Made two blocks to fill in holes - top one uses more of the fabric that I bought in London when I was there in 1997.   The flying geese uses pieces of the fabric that I was sent by a blog reader who lives in London.

After adding a few strips here and there of either a print fabric or one of the cream fabrics to fill-in gaps, I started sewing blocks together.    At this point all but the top row is together and everything attached together.

I still have one hole to fill.   Am debating between more flying geese, a checkerboard of squares,  Both of which would be on a cream tonal background.   Or perhaps playing around with either pinwheels or the London Roads quilt block to see what works.   Depending on the size of the pieces in whatever I do, I may try to use more of the scraps that were given to me.   What I don't use on the front will end up framing the lable on the back of the quilt when I make it.

Also still to be decided on is whether or not to put border on the quilt.   I'm leaning towards adding one as a 'frame' for the quilt but haven't decided anything yet.   Any ideas?

And the final project that I worked on this weekend was making three blocks for the Quilter's Garden swap that I've been  in.   The pair of blocks on the right side will be swapped.   Still need to hand-sew beads onto the top of the pins, but haven't dug out the beads I need yet.  The other two I will be keeping.   Still need to make the one block (quilt shop) that I did not get made to swap so i can have it in my wallhanging.

Gratitudes:
1. Feeling much better after 10 days on the antibiotic.
2. Heat in the house works well in the current frigid weather.

Snow day doings.....

Had a snow day for school today.   Yup, lots of time to make up coming up.  

But the day was a good one for my sewing.  =)   Got the binding onto the wallhanging and the tablerunner.   Will sew them down over the next week.

I also made two more blocks for my London quilt.   The block on the left is the symbol for the Tube, which I rode a lot while I was in London.  The block on the left is a London phone booth.  =)

I've been playing around with the layout, and here is what it looks like at the moment.    I'm sure I'll still be making changes to it as I work up fill-in blocks to complete it.

Gratitudes:

1. Have a plan to work with for treatment of the sinus infection

2. 14 more weeks of school left this year!

Tea Towel Quilt Progress

Am finally making some progress on the London Tea Towel quilt.   Have made three more blocks and sewed one section of the quilt together so i can see how it is going to go together.

The first two blocks were made with pieces of fabric given to me by a gal in the London area.  She had seen my posts about this quilt and offered to send me some little scraps that she had.   Among them were these two guardsmen.  

Next up to be completed was a double decker bus.  The bus has a sign on it saying "I love London" and that fabric was also part of the scraps that I was give.   And just perfect for the bus.  =)

I've also sewn the first 4 blocks of the quilt together.   These will be in the bottom right hand corner of the quilt.    There are still areas of the quilt that i need to decide how I want to fill in, but I'm glad that it is finally taking shape.

Gratitudes;

1. I didn't have to go into work at the store today - a blessing with the snow storm here today.

2. I've been able to shovel snow w/o having a coughing attack while doing it.

London Tea Towel Quilt Progress....

And the quilt has finally decided to start cooperating again with me.  

I've cut the scenes in the towel apart and fused them to a cream tone-on-tone fabric.  Squares are based on a 3" finished grid to help make things easier to put together in the end.   I then satin-stitched around the edges of the scenes with a matching thread.

Now to figure out what to use to fill in the empty spaces.  I know I'll be adding some fabrics that I received from a reader of my blog in England.   Just not sure how I'm going to feature them.

Gratitudes:

1. 2-hr delay today and a 'snow' day yesterday meant that I could get some quilting done.

2. Yet another med has been prescribed to try to lick the sinus infection.   Thankful it is one that hasn't caused side effects so far.