More Asian Nights and a Stolen Quilt

While I try to dedicate most of this blog to Harriet's QA book(s) - I want to deviate a little to appeal for help in locating a stolen quilt.

Cindy Watkins stolen quilt 'Dragonfly Maiden'

This quilt was stolen from a quilt exhibition in Tasmania, Australia on April 6th.  The devestated maker, Cindy Watkins, has put out an appeal for help in it's recovery and has given permission for the image to be used in email, blogs, newsletters etc. This quilt has been in exhibition all around Australia and New Zealand and is quite well known here, so it wouldn't be unrealistic to consider it may find it's way overseas.  If anyone spots this quilt please let me know at patchnblock@gmail.com and I'll pass on any information to Cindy.  Thank you.

My free motion class was cancelled!  Poor Stephanie has a virus so the class has been put off till next week (get well quickly Stephanie)!  Meanwhile I've continued to work on the Asian Nights quilt.

Using the instructions for Harriet's book 'From Fibre to Fabric'  I was able to splice the batting and make a large enough piece to fit the top.  Harriet has you layer the two ends by a few inches and 'serpentine cut' through them.

The cut ends butt together beautifully.

 The next instructions are to hand sew the battings together using a herringbone stitch.  Herringbone stitch?  I have no idea how to do that, but my sewing machine does!  Adjusting the stitch to 9mm, I tested it out using some scraps and it worked!  Sandwiching the machined scraps between thin muslin, I could neither see nor feel the join.  That was good enough for me and I machine herringbone stitched the battings together.

Neat!

Having given some thought to the quilting design (yes I know I should do this before cutting the borders), I decided to keep the centre motif and the border design, then put 4 of the border design through the centre of the quilt and grid quilt the rest.

I snuck a little heart design in each corner, just for fun.

I haven't left myself any room for error with that border - there's barely enough room for the binding, let alone a tidy up trim once the quilting is done.  Eek!

Tomorrow, all going well, I'll do some stabilizing ditch stitching and start on the grid quilting.  The sooner the better, cause I'm looking forward to some free motion playtime!