On the frame....

Yesterday the weather was awful.

I couldn't see through the kitchen windows and it was very soggy when I stepped out to drain the water out of the coconut bird feeder and pop another fat bomb in to it for them.

The view out of my quilting room was also wet, wet, wet.

Thank goodness I didn't need to go outside, once I had fed the birdies!

I decided I was going to have a day off from my studies and play all day. 

I spent some time deciding what I was going to prepare for quilting, then after making up a pieced batting from a large off cut and an end of bolt, I dug through my pile of backing pieces, finding a very cosy flannelette sheet that is just the right size.

I pulled out the quilting design books that were gifted too me.

I settled on a design from this book.

And after I had measured the size of the top, twice, I copied and printed enough pages to work one row of my chosen design. 

Yes, I can produce a rather good freehand meander of my own, but I thought it would be good practice at following the line with my little red light. 

I stuck them all together then after aligning them correctly I stuck them down to the table with some tacky stuff.

I had pressed the back and the top and managed to get the back partially pinned to the frame before Tony came home for his lunch.

After I had fed him I continued pinning and got all the layers pinned and ready to go.

I selected thread colours and wound bobbins then set about preparing everything ready to begin quilting today.

As I threw the dust cover back over the top of the machine, my eye caught sight of the label and I remembered a brief exchange I had with Anorina after seeing her beautiful labels.

So here you go Anorina, my Loulee labels.

Cheating I know compared to some of the beautiful hand made labels that appear on some quilts, but I'm happy with them.

I opted to stop there and sit down for a while before making a start on dinner. Being a dark and wet day it was also pretty cold, so a great day for sitting under my crochet. I was able to get the final round of granny clusters completed and even made a start on the edge before it was time to cook. I completed the edging before bedtime. 

I have added 17 rounds and a border all the way around the original blanket, which adds up to an extra 8 inches per side, so it is 16 inches wider and longer than it was.

Here is another look at the shell edge I added.

The original had no such edge, I just stopped and called it done. Which as it turns out was a good thing.

This morning the weather is dry, but overcast and cold.  I decided that I could have another day off my studies but that I should spend some time doing some chores before I could play.

Once playtime began, I went straight to my frame and spent the remainder of the morning there. I have emptied three bobbins and begun a fourth. Frustratingly I get almost two rows of quilting completed before a bobbin runs out. I have been very good though picking back to a seam in the top then burying my threads into the seam I picked back to. I'm so glad I taught myself how to do that, it's a habit I want to get in to as I really do not like the task of burying threads so doing them as I go takes the pain out of that part for me. 

I did get a few pictures of the quilting design, but I'll save those for another day.

I'm off to work in an hour, so just enough time for a cuppa and read a chapter of my book. 

I hope you're having better weather than me and that you're having fun.