I’ve never been a quilter for several reasons – use of a sewing machine, length of the project, lack of small fiddly hand embroidery etc. But I do love looking at other people’s quilts and I adore beautiful fabric.
It was while visiting my son in London two years ago that I discovered an amazing quilting shop in East Molesley, just across the road from Hampton Court Palace, and I fell in love with a little charm pack of oriental themed squares in black, white and grey with touches of red. I experimented using them for a few potential layouts but they finally disappeared into the cupboard, appearing occasionally to be admired. That is until I came back from holiday at the end of August and decided that I was going to make them into a lap quilt for my middle one who is going away very shortly to Bangor University to study Archaeology.
My 90yr old Frister and Rossman was pressed into service and using black silk dupion for the alternating squares, I began to piece my first ever quilt top.
Strips first.
And then I sewed them into a rectangle for the quilt top.
I was determined to use fabric I already had for the backing and the binding, which for the back meant that I had to insert a strip of kimono fabric scraps into the black silk skirt gore I was using to make it large enough.
Then I sandwiched the front, back and the batting together and the Frister and Rossman rose happily to the occasion, stitching through thick layers of cotton, batting and silk to quilt the top. I went for a very simple option – just following the line of the fabric pieces to create a grid effect on the back.
Next was binding the quilt and as this is something I’ve never done before I went to YouTube and thanks to a very clear tutorial managed to add some cotton kimono fabric for the binding. The Frister and Rossman whirred gently and made short work of four layers of cotton/silk and the batting. I love that machine so much!
The tutorial actually showed how to do the binding with a continuous piece but I wasn’t sure if I was going to have enough fabric to join all the pieces so I did each edge separately and then cobbled some sort of hand stitched mitre at the front…
…and something neat but not a mitre on the back when I hand stitched the binding to the reverse.
So pleased with the lovely neat finish.
Finally a label embroidered in floss silk to add to the back.
Unfortunately I forgot to photograph it once I’d appliqued it onto the back though! And the time taken for this project? Five days. Now to be fair, apart from cooking, washing and shopping I didn’t do much else for five days but it’s been lovely to see this project work up so quickly and turn out so well. I have a feeling it won’t be my last quilt.
beautifully done. i love the fabric choices and looks like a perfect binding.
Wonderful indeed. Fancy sewing-machines not needed. I’m sure it will be treasured. Very useful for curling up with while revising!
Oh its fabulous!!! I’ve never heard of a Frister and Rossmann but it sounds a lot like our OLD Singer Sewing Machines which would only stitch forward and backwards in straight lines! At first they were treadle machines and one was left in a rental house we had so I used it the whole time we were there. Your quilt was a perfect use for this most lovely fabric. Can’t wait to see your next one…
I think it’s fantastic….good choice of fabrics too, I can see why you were tempted. Good luck to the Bangor bound youngster….they will have the time of their lives!!
Oh, congratulations, a great job., it looks fab! You can’t beat those wonderful old machines!
Well done! You were very brave using silk!
Beautiful. I have not yet dared to try quilting (in fact, I have not yet unpacked my new sewing machine!) but this post might inspire to try!
Absolutely gorgeous. I love that quilt shop too, would love to do some classes there. I like how where some would have seen insufficient fabric you saw opportunity!