... a Finish!

This is Blanket Bay by Frankie and Ray. I first discovered Frankie and Ray quilts through Linda at KokaQuilts and made two Aunt Bet's quilts about 18 months ago that are still waiting to be quilted. I like Frankie and Ray's 'uncontrived', scrappy, country look. 

This quilt used only fabric from the shelf, and I was keen to use fabrics that people don't recognise. The back is no work of art. It's pieced from the shelf too. 

I quilted this one with a combination of maize gold perle thread, two variegated Eleganza threads and my favourite variegated thread from Romania. Unfortunately, the Romanian thread ran out and there was none left in the shop. I prefer its weight to the Eleganza thread. I used a combination of masking tape and ruled lines for the quilting. It's interesting to see how crooked my straightlines are! 

I have used a wool batting so the quilt is super soft. 

Here it is hanging on the neighbour's wall up the driveway on a typical grey-ish winter's day in Auckland. I shouldn't say typical, because typical would be rain. Rain is the worst thing about an Auckland winter. 

Sunday Afternoon Quilting

While watching creepy TV - The Replacement. I am all out of blue thread and waiting on some to arrive.

... more quilting

Totally making this up as I go. Straight-ish lines on the blues and my old favourite crosshatching on the golds.

... quilting update

I have chosen to hand quilt 'Blanket Bay' with perle thread. It's taken a while to get back into the quilting rhythm. I struggle with perle thread to get my stitches and gaps between them even. With regular hand quilting the smaller the stitch the better. I need to get comfortable with bigger perle thread stitches. So far I have been using a mustardy-gold thread. I may use leftover variegated blue for the blue borders. It's feeling nice and soft with the wool batting.

... to the quilting stage

I decided today that I would actually pay someone to do the basting. All that crawling around on the floor. Once it was about half done, I dragged it to the dining table and continued there!

It's done now and the quilting has started. I am not going to start anything new until I finish this one. I might then move on to quilting one of the other 10 finished tops.

Pattern - Blanket Bay by Frankie and Ray with fabric off the shelf - some of it as old as 2011.