Monthly Archives: February 2021

Fabulous fabrics, Free MotionQuilting, Patchwork, Quilting

Tumbling Blocks Quilt

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The last few days have been bitterly cold with a fierce icy east wind, the ground has been frozen solid and although I had gardening plans they’ve been on hold.

So we followed the necessary parts of our lockdown routines and then the rest of the day loomed ahead.

Thank goodness for sewing is all!
An ideal time to get up to date with writing the blog and to finish the Tumbling Blocks quilt.

Just yesterday I finished writing up the story of ‘Football Fan’ and in it I wrote that Nova had asked for two quilts for her girls. So this is the story of the second quilt ‘Tumbling Blocks’ so far.

Once again I was given the freedom to choose the design with purple and green being the colour choices for this one. I knew that there would be plenty of choice and after showing Nova an inspiration piece I had an idea of the tones and began the search. I was collating the fabrics for both quilts because it was inevitable that another lockdown was coming.

Here is the eventual fabric pull. I was rather surprised to find nothing suitable in my stash but then really pleased to find all but one of these fabrics in Aberdashery the wonderful shop right here in town. Something vital was missing though and when I found the green with white leaves online I knew that was it. It balances the other greens and lifts the whole pull. It’s sometimes a bit of a risk buying on line but I have to say that now I have a range of reliable quality suppliers I buy from I never worry about it.

Aberdashery, Market Street, Aberystwyth

I’ve wanted to try the ‘Tumbling blocks’ pattern for a while, I love that ‘box’ illusion. I looked around for a pattern and found one in a back copy of ‘Love Patchwork and Quilting’ magazine.

Their patterns clear and comprehensive. Even so ‘Tumbling Blocks’ did need concentration when it came to the piecing and there were some moments!

I did eventually get the hang of the sequencing and the blocks were put together in rows and the the rows joined. The back was to be plain purple so I put together a row of blocks to add interest to the back.

Time to make the sandwich.

The ‘sandwich’ is when you layer the quilt top, the wadding and the backing together. All three layers need to be lined up and perfectly smooth and flat. Sounds simple really – not always. This one was quite well behaved. Having layered them I began pinning from the middle, moving outward an smoothing the quilt as I went.

Now it’s time to quilt. I’d been planning this all the way through and had decided on free motion quilting with a sort of daisy chain . The daisy chain would begin in one corner and move down the quilt, branching as it went. Free motion is when the machine’s grip of the fabric is turned off and the operator moves the fabric to ‘draw’ with the needle and thread.

What hadn’t decided though was about that thread. I had a multicoloured, mainly green and purple thread that could work well but I just couldn’t make up my mind so eventually I did an Instagram poll and went with the result, a very decisive ‘YES’ for the variegated thread. Get me using an Instagram poll!

This was clearly going to be far more visible on the back of the quilt which was good, it would leave the blocks speak for themselves on the top and give interest on the back.

There was only the binding left to do now having measured, cut, pressed it in half along it’s length I sewed it to the front by machine then as always hand finished the back.

Just before Christmas a friend asked me to make a little drawstring pouch big enough to hold her car and house keys. Of course I said yes but not until the quilts were done. So as hand sewing tends to happen in front of the TV in the evening there was time on a rainy day for a little pouch.


So ‘Tumbling Blocks’ is off to it’s new forever home to continue it’s story and I’m taking a break from sewing to re-decorate the sewing room. Now there’s an undertaking.

Bento box, Fabric, Fabulous fabrics, Gifts, Patchwork, Quilting, Sewing

Football Fan

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When Nova asked me to make two quilts for her daughters I was more than happy to take on a winter project, but I have to admit that when reality bit I realised that planning and making two quilts at the same time was a big undertaking.

A big job in normal circumstances but at the time it was evident that another COVID lockdown was looming and I really ought to sort out my fabric choices pretty quickly. Once that was done I could relax get on with the task in hand.

The brief gave me lots of leeway, the designs would be up to me but I was given specific colours to work with. One quilt was to be purple and green (simple request, lots of fabrics to choose from).

But this is a little different, and a first for me, a football shirt in a quilting blog! Mmm!

The other quit was to be for Nova’s football fan daughter in her team colours .

I thought this might be a little more challenging and started with a little bit of research. I posted the colours on Instagram and it seems it could be one of two well known teams. Who knew .

I turned to Moda Bella solids to use for background colours to start with and was very happy when these two perfect matches appeared in the fabric list. These were my starting point for my fabric pull.

I do love a fabric pull.

It’s so exciting, all those lovely fabrics to choose from. It all quite makes my mouth water.

It is also intensely nerve racking! Are the tones right; the values; is there enough contrast; is there something that just makes all the colours pop? And that’s just the colour. Do the fabric designs suit the project; the intended recipient; do those designs work together? That can be made easier by choosing from a designer range but I also like to shop local so although that option is fairly simple when shopping online, small local retailers can’t begin to stock whole designer lines so its up to the maker to get creative with choices.

I always begin with my stash, let’s face it, it’s fairly extensive so there is usually something to start with . And it j ustifies my self awarded status as ‘fabric curator’.


I found two suitable fabrics in my stash, the really pretty and perfect match bue and burgundy floral print and the cream with a burgundy flower that would be a good low volume addition. I didnt have much of either of these but a design was beginning to form in my mind and I would be able to incorporate both. The rest of the fabrics were sourced locally.

Making the blocks

My design plan changed a couple of times from ny early first musings. Then the Bento Box block came to mind one, it was one I’d used before and I decided to base these blocks on that design.

Here’s one I made before.

bento box block

The block begins with a square then it’s pieced around with strips, every block is made up differently and quaerterd then the quarters get mixed up. Easy.

I made up the large 12inch blocks in the same way in different colourways and then quartered them but rather than mixing the different quarters up and piecing them together this time I pieced them into the blue background ‘off kilter’ then pieced the quarters back together.

The blocks came together quickly. Nice …..

The reverse shows the sashing strips which were trimmed randomly after piecing.

…. and then of course the quilt top was done. I love seeing a quilt top here, hanging over the banister with the light behind and looking like stain glass windows. Or is that just me!

Do you think it looks like stained glass windows?

There were two tricky points in making the quilt. One was when I realised I didn’t have enough of the 30’s blue I’d chosen for the back. A quick mooch about online soon made me realise that it must have been a lockdown favourite. It was a relief when I found some but having ordered it a phone call from the supplier meant a quick re-measure and a re -think and a plan B was needed.

Plan B was to use remaining fabrics to add some blocks to the backing. It slowed things down considerably but I liked the result.

The second tricky moment turned out to be slightly more serious. I put together the quilt sandwich. Quilt top, backing and batting in between and began the planned quilting which was to be ‘stitching the ditch’ (sewing along the joins in the piecing to join the layers together) part way through this my machine suddenly began sewing tiny stitches and then just refused to sew at all. I systematically went through all the things that I knew that could go wrong but eventually had to admit there was a real problem. Fortunately, in spite of lockdown, our local servicing workshop in town was open. Unfortunately it was beyond her knowledge too.

So a phone call, a description of the problem , packing up my machine and organising a DPD pick-up and my machine was off on a trip to Swansea and my old machine was brought out of retirement to finish the job.


So here is the finished ‘Football Fan’ and I’m pleased to say it’s gone off safely to it’s forever home. It was a fun quilt that I really did enjoy working on it.

And my lovely Pfaff? Still in pieces on a workbench in Swansea I’m afraid. It’s turned out to be quite an unexpected and complex problem and requiring a replacement part and …… it’s lockdown!