Finally!

Finally, nearly a year after I actually finished the quilt, I have got round to photographing it with a good camera instead of the BlackBerry which is not much of a camera. So here are the final pictures of the finished quilt.

Corner showing name and date (June 2010) and some of the labels from the ties I used

More labels from ties or shirts

Border continued

I finished the 2nd edge yesterday and decided on the colours for the 3rd side -not easy as Icould do with a couple more dark blues but I think I have got it sorted. I may need a few more new plain colours for the final side though wich wil be blues merging to greeen/grey for the plain half-stars. I think I will have just about enough black silk (having thought I had bought too much) but still need to do quite a few more plain black diamonds and half diamonds -tedious but fairly quick. I MAY just finish it by Easter if I cary on doing some most evenings at the expense of reading or doing anything else. Another 'snow day' off work would help! Half term is approaching but I will spend most of the days decorating the former bathroom - the last room of the house to do - it has not been done since we moved here! THen no more decorating for ages - have done Beth's room 4 times now!

The Border

After months of inactivity I have finally started on the border. It took ages to decide how to do this; in the end I think I changed my mind several times but eventually I workedout the size it needed to finish up and as it needed to be a little biger all round I decided to finish it by adding a border of plain half-stars then a border of plain black to finish. I have now nearly finished one side so I MAY even get it finished by this Easter! It does mean I have to keen the whole quilt out though! Will post a photo as soon as one side is finished

The Final Corner

A very slow few months but I have finally completed the 'Blue Corner' and have just started to stitch it in place, so shortly I will be able to think about the border.

The Green Corner

This is the penultimate section - the top left hand corner which is various shades of green. This should be stiched into place by Friday 4th April. Then all that will be left to do is the bottom 'Blue' corner and then the border. I have had several ideas aboutt his and may change my mind about it agian. I will see when all the rest is completed and I can see how big it is and how much border will be needed to make it the right size. The Blue corner should take another month or less but the border could take a while as I possibly will have to do some more diamonds. And Easter 2008 has come and gone (but it was early) but I am at least in the final stages even if I haven't finished as I had hoped.

Top right corner

This is the top right corner - pinks moving up to dark red in the top corner, sewn in place 3rd February. Next task will be to do some more blacks and the extra blue and green stars I need.

Top edge

This is the top edge, mainly black, greys and whites with a bit of yellow

Slow going

Not much progress since October. The Top Section (blacks and whites) has been stitched in place but I still have no digital camera. I have started the top right section and am getting back into the habit of doing patchwork in the evening again. I also worked out that I need a few more green and blue stars so had to do a bit of re-arranging and will need to do a few more stars when I get to these sections. And I will need quite a few more black diamonds as well.

Not a very good picture but this is the Right Lower Corner - purples and reds - which has now been stiched into place but the camaera phone will not cope with the whole quilt so a photo will have to wait

The Purple End

This bit goes at the bottom end to square it off. Still no digital camera so having to make do with the mobile! Next I will be moving on to the bottom right hand corner which is the purple-red one, blending into pinkish at the top. I have found it easier to join ieach section separately, then join it to the main quilt as it is getting quite big now

Progress again

I've not done much over the summer; I got sidetracked reading Harry Potter from begining to end and seemed to find other things to do in the evening. And it was slightly tedious doing nothing but black diamonds! I still need to do more but I have just started stitching some coloured stars together. I have started with the purple ones which will go at the bottom of the quilt. And I have no digital camera atm so will have to make do with the camera phone. The photo shows all 250-odd black diamonds I have done

Continuation

Finally managed to get some black silk which is similar to the material I have already used. John Lewis in Peterborough had some but (as expected) it was not cheap -£14 per metre. I got one metre but will need about 2 more I think so I am still scouring the charity shops for blouses. No new pictures as I am just doing loads of black diamonds

The basics

Following my big spend in Stamford I had over 20 ties to cut up, wash and iron. A few days at the coast at my mother's caravan gave me a bit of spare time to do this. It takes me about 10 minutes to cut up a tie. This morning I gently washed them and have just finished ironing them. Here they are drying - a new meaning to the phrase 'Tie-Rack!'

And here is the finished Norwich City Scarf. Very soft and fluffy. I will have to wait until next season before I can wear it to a match though. Perhaps next season they may hit some consistent form!

More ties!

A trip to Stamford on Good Friday proved very productive: Lots of Charity shops and because of the Market they were open. In the first few shops ties were quite expensive - £2.50 was the cheapest for a silk tie, but I did buy a couple as they were colours I really needed. In the last shop however I was allowed to rummage through a box by the shops manager - and they were all £1! I ended up with 17 - more than I think I need but they will come in for the next one. ANd here they are, ready to be cut up, washed and ironed which will keep me busy for a while.

And this is what I have been doing when I ran short of ties. As a Norwich City supporter the colours are very significant - it was quite difficult to find this sort of wool in the right colour - usually they are only available in pastel shade, so thanks to my mother for finding this - and the wool was very cheap too! It's not very easy to knit with though -not for novices- but I am coping ok. It's not quite finished yet - I need to do another few stripes but it grows very quickly so it shouldn't take long. Unfortunately i don't think I am going to be able to wear it at a Norwich match this season - they aonly have a few home matches left and none of the dates are convenient. Next season!

Temporary halt.........

After the final round and Radials was completed I laid it all out on the kitchen floor to square it off and to see if I had enough stars. After I had decided the size and juggled a few stars - deciding which colour some of the multcoloured one were was tricky I worked out that I needed 11 more stars. So that was 11 more ties to buy, not counting the 8 I had bought that morning! Actually I had bought 9 but discovered one was not pure silk - it was labelled Myung Ju silk but it melted when burnt, as did another one which I am sure did say was silk. That meant I needed 12 more. Plus a lot more black diamonds - nearly 400! I shall probably have to buy some new silk. So the stitching has come to a halt while I complete the remaining stars, then I shall do the black ones before finally deciding which star goes where for the remaining corners, and sides

Round 4

4th round finished - another round of patterned stars, containing some yellow with other colours introduced, and plain stars forming 'spokes'

Round 3

Round 3 added - darker shades of yellows with additional colours in the patterned stars

Distractions

One reason this quilt has taken so long is that I kept getting distracted by other projects. 2 are shown on the photos here. They both use mainly upholstery fabrics. The big one is a totally 'random' one using various fabrics from upholstery sample books and curtain samples. The smaller one is from one sample book so all the pieces are the same size and similar shades of brown, tan and cream so I kept them together as one rather than use them for the Random patchwork as originally intended. I made myself finish them a few moths ago before carrying on with the silk quilt. I don't really know what I am going to do with either - sell them on Ebay

perhaps?

Round 2

Completed by the middle of last week. Alternate Pattern and plain in various yellows