New Wave

The quilt group that my mum and I belong to meet every month to sew. Sometimes these days offer the opportunity to work on something that is already in progress - a time away from the distractions of home to put your pedal to the metal and get on with some serious sewing. But often they are workshops led by a group member when everyone starts a new project at the same time. In the past I have led a number of sessions - mostly teaching free machine quilting, or small quilt projects that I have designed. But on Saturday, everyone will be starting New Wave quilts, using the pattern designed by Elizabeth Hartman at Oh, Fransson!

The group members had seen this quilt that I made last year, and wanted to have a go at making their own.

When I run classes, I like to have a finished object on hand plus samples at various stages of completion, but as I have already given this quilt away I decided that I'd better make another. I picked out fabrics, arranged them in a pleasing order and got ready to cut, only to be thwarted by Mr George.

At one point I was considering cutting cat shaped pieces, but I decided to bide my time and he eventually moved on to a comfy bed somewhere else.

I diverged from the original instructions a couple of times. First of all, I picked an odd number of fabrics because I liked the balance it brought to the design. Second, I attached the plastic template I created to my rotary cutting ruler with masking tape, so that I could use a solid edge to cut against but still benefit from having an accurate template.

And third, since I hate wasting fabric, I cut the end wedges from 9" by 6" rectangles doing away with the need to square up the quilt top later on.

And then I started to sew. Until the feline inspector stopped by again.

Finally, after the promise of some tuna had been fulfilled, I was able to finish sewing the quilt top together. As with my first New Wave quilt, this one came together quickly and easily. I'm looking forward to quilting this in the very near future - it'll make the perfect gift for my friend's new baby girl - but only after the workshop this Saturday.

Perhaps you're wondering why Bonnie wasn't involved in the making of this quilt. She'd found her own colour coordinated sleeping bag, and was all tucked up inside...