Starting the quilting

Today was a work day but as I was teaching on line, from home, I was able to get my machine set up as soon as I finished work.  My plan was to make the quilt sandwich for the hexi quilt and do some more cutting for the blocks on the dinosaur quilt as well as getting some sewing done. However once the machine was set up I pulled Missy's quilt and made a start on the quilting. I had decided to keep the quilting simple and do diagonal lines across the patchwork and to outline the stars.  I managed to get all the stitching done on the main patchwork and outline two of the four stars. I have the border to do and I want to do some more quilting inside the stars as well as going round the outling.

You can just about make out the diagonals in the photo. I do have to deal with all the ends I've created so far. I would have got further but at one point missy decided to sit on my lap and push the buttons on my machine with her nose. I had to stop sewing and play tug with her before she'd let me continue. I think I need a sewing cat as Missy is not very helpful when in a playful mood.

Having finished quilting for the day I pulled out my hand stitching . I made a start on this piece a little while back but haven't spent much time on it so far. 

I still have one of the trees to finish off. I'm hoping to complete the distant fields over the weekend. Whilst watching TV this evening I put in a few stitches. 

I have several hand stitching projects I need to move forward. The big hand stitching project I want to get finished is my grandmothers garden hexi quilt that I'm making for Lucy. This has been in progress for years so it needs to be completed. There has been no fixed plan for this quilt, it is very organic and grows as the mood takes me. This is how Lucy wanted it to develop. Now it is quite big and the time has come to formalise the plans to complete it. To date it has been stitched by adding rings of hexi flowers but we want the quilt to end up square or rectangular. I need to finalise the size and work out how many 'flowers' I need to make and in what colours. This is the last photo I took of it and I have added a few flowers for the next round since then. Because it's made in rounds the quilt currently is hexagonal in shape.

Tomorrow John and I are heading to Swanage in Dorset. We want to do some walking and bird watching. We are also hoping to visit The Vyne, a house in Hampshire that belongs to the National Trust, on our journey there. I hope the weather is going to be dry but unfortunately I think there may be rain. When we are away at the coast we like to have a fish and chips supper on the beach on one of the evenings, not great in the rain. 

It's getting rather late now and I need to finish the chapter in my current book, so I'm heading to bed. Hopefully I will fit some hand sewing in tomorrow.

Take Care

Lyndsey