Patchwork Update #2

Today I had a craft day with my friends, Judith and Tracy. It was fantastic as they are both experienced patchwork/quilters and they helped me decide what to do with the Christmas block patchwork I had put together with a pack of Christmas fabrics I bought before Christmas. I'm going to turn it into a tablecloth/centrepiece but there's still a bit of work to be done before it is finished. I have to say, patchworking is way more involved than I thought it was - I thought you just sewed a few seams and there it was, but there's the ironing, stretching, pinning, matching, attaching backing, sewing bits again and so on... It's a lot more work than I thought and makes me appreciate the fancier patchworks I've seen.

So, after 9 hours of crafting today (time just flew by!), I sewed 3 sections of borders (plain, red and plain again) and attached some thin padding and a backing sheet. Now I just need to sew a few seams to firm up the backing and then I can cut off the excess and sew the red edging on. I'm pretty pleased with the results of today and can't wait to see it all finished off... The red material matches exactly and really pops - the effect isn't the same in the photo unfortunately. The red blocks in the corners came about because I cut the edges too short, but I love the effect they create so I'm claiming they were intentional all along! It will look fantastic on the Christmas table next year. I've got some matching reds with gold, silver and white patterns so I might make some placements out of those to match in nicely.

I'm still working on my third book material patchwork doona cover, and since I forgot to take it with me to my crafting day, I've cut out plenty of strips for the next one as well. Now that I know more about what I'm doing, they are coming together quite quickly.

So many crafting projects to do, so little time to do them... 😉

I've only got 4 more days of holidays left so I'm going to have plenty of stuff leftover to work on after work each night.
Happy Stitching,
Kerrie