Cushions and Polar Bear quilt

First of all; THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU - to all of you who commented on my previous post! I'm overwhelmed! I do appreciate your lovely comments!

I've been quiet since my previous post...

You may believe I needed a rest after the marathon work on the PSQ? No, I didn't! I've been busy! My aim now is to finish the three quilt tops I've done recently. I started with the biggest one; the Polar Bear quilt - it measures approx 76 x 110 inch - I think that is a twin size quilt? It is meant to be a bedspread... We had quite nasty weather some days back, so I decided to sandwich, pin and thread baste that huge 'monster' of a quilt! :) Some of you may say I'm fussy and that thread basting is not needed - right? :) I have tried several times to quilt/FMQ without thread basting, pins only, but every time it has ended up puckers (?), which has meant unnecessary time unpicking! Grrrr! After all that annoying unpicking I have decided to take my time thread basting before quilting! The chances of puckers are less when thread basting, at least that is my experience. Usually I don't count hours when I work on a quilt, but for fun I decided to see how many hours I spent thread basting. Over two days I spent 8 hours! Now it is ready to be quilted!

I almost forgot to say I spent two days putting together the backing too. I've used leftover fabrics and blocks from the quilt top and had to add some solids and a piece of dark blue polar bear fabric I bought here - in the tropics, of all places - some years ago!

I haven't decided on thread color for the quilting, but I am going to use Superior's King Tut.... Perhaps I'll have to purchase blue for the backing....
Here's a sneakpeak of the backing...

While waiting for my decission on thread color, I've been busy making two more cushion tops. I wasn't happy with the center piece on the first one I made; the upper part of the church - the tiny light pine border - didn't fit. I've redone it so that the pine border is at the down part (how do you say it?) of the church. It looks better now, doesn't it?

Using more of the same fabrics and to use up the church border, I decided to fussy cut the churches and make them into two more cushions. I don't have more of the church border - it was printed to be used as borders or fussy cut - I believe - but I still have more of the green and red. For cushion #3 I had to use another light fabric around the center piece - birds - from the same designer.
Here's #2...

...#3...  (Ooops! Out of focus!)

How do you make a cushion top? For the top, I have added very thin polyester batting and a piece of fabric; three layers together. I thought that is the best for quilting, but I now believe the top has become a bit 'thick'...? I've thought of using cotton fabric for the backing, but perhaps.... since the top is a bit 'thick', should I use a thicker backing as well?

Now they are quilted and ready to be made into cushions, as soon as I decide on backing and buy zippers! :)

We took a trip to Port Louis the other day, take a look here.

Postage stamp quilt top finished

It has been some busy days sewing the postage stamp quilt top.

Totally obsessed by the 2,5 inch / 6 cm squares, I managed to finish the quilt top last night. I wanted to put a little twist to it by adding the brown and very dark green borders and the 6 inch strips between the two borders with 9-patch blocks in each corner. For the outer border I have used 10 inch strips from the leftover different brown fabrics.

Brown isn't exactly 'my' color, not many in my stash, so I don't think I have enough brown fabrics for the binding.... I have enough of green though... I shall see....... 

I have to follow my SSD! If you don't know what that means?? Strict Stash Diet! :)

I still haven't found suitable fabric for the backing, I'll have to check my stash.

My aim is to finish all the three quilt tops I have finished recently, but I don't think I have enough batting for the polar bear quilt...........



Gnome in my postage stamp blocks

I need a break! :)

I'm totally obsessed by those small 2.5 inch / 6cm squares and have been cutting, sewing, cutting, sewing for hours today. It's fun, fun, fun - and I'm sure it is addictive! :0

How did this happen?! Where is the gnome who did it?! It can't be me - huh?!

Well, this should not happen; two of the same fabric next to each other! I think I'm a bit dizzy with all those strips sewn together and I don't always see how it is going to look like... I discovered it when I was going to piece the blocks together.

I said to hubby; 'I'll have to change those squares!'

Hubby; 'No, it's not needed, nobody will see it when the quilt is done'.

I said; 'Yes, but it will haunt me forever!'

And I know I was right; it will annoy me to death if I hadn't changed it! :) I did change it!

The two greens are not good either, too near each other, but those I didn't bother to change since they are not next to each other as the two light yellow fabrics.

This is what I've been doing since my previous post. This is the center piece. I'm not going to make the entire quilt of 2.5 inch squares - I have another plan in mind, which is a secret - until my next post! :)

Off to cut more fabric! :) I've pulled out the few browns I have and amazingly I did find the perfect one! :)