Benjamin Biggs completed

It's been a great journey - thanks to Sentimental Stitches Just Takes 2 free block of the month for a lovely pattern generously shared. I reduced my quilt blocks by 75% from the 16 inch ones in the pattern down to 12 inches. I just wanted a smaller quilt finish and have been thankful of that when it came to hand quilting! 

I started the quilt in January 2014 and it measures approx 70 inches square, hand applique and hand quilted. The quilting design was not part of the pattern but I enjoyed throwing in a few scattered motifs amongst the  grid and echo quilting. 

I decided not to add trapunto to the motifs - preferring the softer, more natural look as it is. Thanks for the helpful comments and encouragement last post :) 

It's found a place on a hallway wall where the lighting shows up the myriad of quilting stitches! Despite there being so many stitches it really drapes beautifully thanks to the thin cotton batting (Quilters Dream).

I'm not leaping into hand quilting another just yet...giving the fingers a wee rest . 

The Biggs

"The Biggs" is being laboriously hand quilted. It might well be the last quilt I ever stitch so intensely but at about 80% done the end is almost in sight!

I have shared Benjamin Biggs quilting pics on Instagram but nothing on the blog since this post in Feb 2016 when I finished the quilt top. It waited awhile in the quilting queue - with some Quilters Dream cotton batting and reels of YLI natural hand quilting thread on hand. Meanwhile some quilting design research...

A lot of the blocks in this quilt are quite irregular/quirky so I want to keep that feel in the quilting approach - nothing too symmetrical across the top.  

I planned to scatter a variety of antique-inspired motifs in among the blocks where there was a little open space. 

The motifs were drawn on to the top, before sandwiching, with a wash out pencil (General's Sketch and Wash graphite). The design is almost rubbed out by the time it is quilted so not much is left for washing anyway!

Winter weather, lots of 'Tour de France' recordings to stitch by, and a quilt in the hoop ...sigh.

Once all the motifs and applique pieces were outline stitched, it was time to commit to an intense background fill...and no going back once started! The outer ring of 16 blocks are echo quilted, and the centre block will be too. I love the look of echo quilting but it is hard going at times - all the turning and turning of the hoop. Nice not to have to mark but there's a lot of focus needed to get relatively even stitches and relatively even row spacing. 

The inner ring of 8 blocks are grid quilted (3/8"grid) - marked with the Hera marker, block by block - I love this process.

Just an aside : I've been thinking about adding trapunto - stuffing the quilted motifs with yarn from the back. It would give them more definition but am not sure it would be right for this quilt. The antique original on Sentimental Stitches blog photos does not seem to have stuffing, and I love the soft, wrinkly textured look. I'd really like to do this lovely pattern justice. Might the trapunto make it stiffer ? look too formal ? or maybe just look downright bizarre seeing as the motifs are all different and unevenly scattered on the quilt?! Sounds like I've made up my mind...but will see when the whole is quilted and bound. The fun thing about hand trapunto is I'm guessing you can add it any time... even years down the track! 

The border quilting is parallel lines 3/8" apart - Hera marked again, about a yard at a time, and the easiest quilting on this quilt!

When I started this post it was to be titled "The Biggs and some baskets" but have scrubbed "the baskets"  as the post has got too long! 

Back soon to share something else I've been working on 😊

The finishing line...

My Benjamin Biggs journey started in January 2014. Thanks to the monthly free blocks from Sentimental Stitches (25 blocks plus border) it has kept many of us plugging along ever since. Thinking of the border kept me going -  my favourite part of this quilt. Mind you...I think I've had enough of applique buds for a wee while! 

I hung the just-completed top in my Golden Ash tree for an early morning photo. 

The back looked interesting in the  morning light.

Mr and Mrs King Parrot  were twittering at me from higher branches. I was in the way of their breakfast feeder. Excuse me, and a few minutes later ..

Mrs King Parrot

Mr is politely waiting his turn

And a little finish to report: I spied a lovely  kit on Instagram and very soon this arrived in the mail from Cutting Cloth. Intriguing?

A sewing box ! "Yummy" I thought, "How hard can it be?"

Well, it took me two solid days of work - super addictive but challenging!  Luckily the instructions were very clear and thorough. Imagine a bit of fun giant's EPP combined with a great deal of invisible stitching at tricky angles (with the facial expressions to match).

Decided not to make the pattern pincushions (have plenty already) but I just love the sewing box and it plays nicely with my other accessories.

I've only started one new quilt this year ( Sarah Fielke BOM) - and the self restraint has nearly killed me! There has been so much temptation out there as you all know. But you see, I'd done a little count and frightened myself by finding that I am working on 8 different large quilts - quite enough to be getting on with for now. Ben Biggs can now rest in the quilting queue while I give more time to the others. 

Am looking forward to posting a big finish next time. Can you guess which it might be? 

(PS the other quilts in my progress list are Shenandoah Valley /SVBAQ, Indigo Circles/Quilty 365, Civil War Bride, Wheat and Woods, Harrison Rose, Grandmother's Garden and Sarah Fielke's BOM)

Star in the East

Just because I'm trying to be a better quilting-person (at least at the beginning of the year haha!) and avoid the last minute rush for my BOM deadlines ...here is this month's Shenandoah Valley Botanical Album block - Star in the East.

I found the applique less fiddly than the last block but I'm not sure that my making the yellow centre in two strips was a great idea. It has given it a bit of a 'bumpy bottom' in the middle there -  with all the layers over the background join. Ho hum - I wanted to fussy cut that yellow fabric and it fitted best as two strips to make the cross.

Benjamin Biggs : first border completed

The size adjustments I made to the border (last post) seem to have worked - so far so good.

By the way I am now on Instagram (everystitchpics) and you may see more process photos there (see top of Blog side bar). Instagram is so, so quick to update! My IG posts reveals a bad case of 'Quilters ADD' - working on a different project almost every day! Hmm, how many will I finish this year at this rate?

A new feature on my blog - nifty page tabs:

I quite often need to refer back to previous quilts and photos and find it quite cumbersome to find the saved folders or posts. So I have made some pages on the Blog with a summary of quilts completed each year. The tabs to click on are just below my blog header.  It only took half a day to sort that lot - gasp.

My quilting Finish Rate has slowed down since I got back to hand quilting last year! I'm still so glad I did but there could be a traffic jam in the quilting queue in the not too distant future :)

After a storm comes a calm ...

Looking around at blogging Christmas posts it seems we all entered the 'storm' that was Christmas......you know the one - where the shopping and rushing around never seems to end and the kitchen bench looks permanently like this for several days ? 

It's nice to get the kitchen in order once the house guests have left. But it was a wonderful few days catching up with family, and I'm missing them and the bustle of it all. 

Now there is the 'calm' -  and a great opportunity to get into some trickier sewing.

Here are my last Benjamin Biggs blocks - completed bit by bit since September.

Block 22

Block 23

Block 24

Block 25

This morning I finally stitched them all together - determined to take advantage of the 'calm' to get started on the border

I knew the border was going to take some focus because I have made my blocks all 12 inch instead of the 16 inch size on the pattern. So everything has been 75% smaller. But would the border work at 75% smaller too?  I had put off exploring that question till a quieter time ...knowing how easily I can make a mess of the maths!

Gathering all the border pattern pieces (printed at 75% smaller), I calculate that my side border piece should be 60 inches long (if the pattern is 80 inches long), and 7.5 inches deep (if the pattern is 10 inches deep).

This is how the border layout should look (from the pattern )

So I cut some transparent bake paper to suit my dimensions, ready to draw on the pattern . 

The first thing to position on my paper border was the triple petal in the corner, and then to add the swag pieces either side - getting them to fit by elongating or shortening if needed. It all fitted surprisingly well and surprisingly quickly I had a pattern piece ready! It is just a quarter pattern of the border to be repositioned  around the quilt. 

Now I can cut the background fabric border strips and draw the pattern onto the back of the fabric. Then it will be time for some relaxed needle turn applique (with my usual back basting prep) - one border at a time - using a solid poison green for the swag and a red print for the petals and buds. Can't wait to start !

Because we enjoyed a few days of lovely (blissfully lovely) cool Christmas weather I was able to do some more hand quilting of my Civil War Bride during time out from all the preparations. I have been listening to a great audiobook - Watership Down by Richard Adams ( have always loved the novel) - about a colony of rabbits. Perfectly suited to this quilt - if you see what I mean?

I have now finished outline quilting all the outer border and am moving on to the blocks. This block is in the hoop right now:

I must show you a recent acquisition. Several blogs have shown off pretty trolleys on castors - perfect for moving quilty bits and pieces and projects from room to room. So when I spotted them in Aldi last week I couldn't resist - and I love the red. Of course it had to be a kit - but not a difficult build..

from this

to this

And here is some wildly uncoordinated Summer colour for you - from the garden, in petunias and roses:

Hope you can enjoy some calm sewing time too :)