Sunday 6 March 2011

Peach Melba

I think it's about time that visitors to my blog were greeted with something more inviting than a bruised and swollen ankle, so here's a peek at my DQS10 quilt. I'll be photographing it properly tomorrow, so more photos then...


As I edit photos, I'm eating some delicious Peach Melba icecream we brought home from Wendy's after swimmign yesterday. It's fantastic; the peach tastes seriously like fresh peaches - yum! I might have to get some peaches tomorrow and enjoy some more stone-fruit while it's still efffectively summer.


I ended up using black Bottomline thread and a very small button-hole stitch to machine applique the birds to the circles, and it worked pretty well.  It would have been better if I'd remembered prior to sandwiching the quilt; that way the black stitches on the back would have been hidden, and the birds would have sat further forward on the trapunto circles, but they are still very effective.


Thanks to a few comments on my blog, I added a narrow black piping to my binding, and used the diagonal stripe I'd originally intended. I'm really happy with the result. I cut 2 sets of narrow strips for the binding; the print 1 3/8in wide and the black 1 5/8in wide. I joined the sets end to end, then joined the 2 long strips side-by-side with a 1/4in seam, which resulted in a 2.5in binding strip. I pinned and pressed it in half really carefully to achieve an even 1/8in of black over the fold all along, then machined it to the quilt as normal, except starting on the bakc instead of the front, so that when it was folded over to the front for hand-stitching, the 'piping' showed. It was fiddly, but it's neat and mitred well. If you're using this method, it is really important to use bias seams to initially join the strips, to make sure that the seams on the two different fabrics are off-set, and make sure none of these seams fall at a corner - the added bulk of the seam joining the two fabrics leaves little margin for even more. Any guess how I know these things?!

13 comments:

Mom said...

Fiddly I guess! I spent nearly 4 hours yesterday stitching a piped binding (with cording inside, which does help alligning the binding over top of it) onto a 75" square quilt! The effect of the piping is tremendous. It was a good call-

flisa said...

Love this quilt! Beautiful colours, beautiful quilting, and the piped binding looks great! Great work!

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

It's so beautiful! Well done!

Leah said...

Once again Emma - it's beautiful!

BitnByAQuiltingBug said...

I've been following along on your blog since you started posting pics of this quilt and I just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed seeing your beautiful quilt come to life. Just amazing! Thanks for sharing it!

FlourishingPalms said...

Well done, Emma! The black piping adds just the right amount of zip to the perfect choice of diagonal stripe binding (my personal favorite). However rough the finish was for you, it turned out beautifully!

Rachaeldaisy said...

OMGolly!!!! This is just breath takingly amazing. I'm really in awe of your quilting. The little birds are so beautiful.The binding is perfect!! This is absolutely stunning. Peach Melba ice cream sounds yummy!!

Joan said...

Beauuuutiful quilt Emma - Love the way you have put it together.. Wouldnt mind some of that icecream either ..

Cynthia said...

This is a very cool quilt! I love your McTavishing --it is so cool looking! Great design, cute birds too...there is just so much fun stuff to look at in this quilt!

Kelly said...

Beautiful!! I love the birds, the colors, the quilting, just stunning!

2ne said...

Beautiful - I love your quilting :-) It is so great. Love your blog.

Chris said...

love this quilt. Love the colours that stand out with the white background.
PS. Hope the ankle is getting better.

Rebecca Kessler said...

What a great quilt. I'd love to see the entire quilt. Hope you post it soon.