Batik-y and zingy quilting

Although I've been 'camping' this month, editing my next novel, I am trying to do other things as well.

If you're a regular reader of the Scribbles, you'll know I also knit and stitch - and in recent years I have taken to quilting. In between editing, I've given myself breaks by working on some quilting. I thought as a change from updates of 'number of words I've edited', I'd post a few pics of 'quilting I have done' instead.

My last quilting update was back at the beginning of February; I'd finished two large quilts for myself and Squidgeling T, and was about to embark on a lap quilt in zingy colours AND a large blue batik-y quilt for Squidgeling J. Here's where they're at...

Blue Batik-y quilt:
The top was pieced together a while ago, but as Squidgeling J was in Bristol, I waited for her to come home so we could go to our local fabric shop to find the backing fabric and all the other bits and pieces I needed to start the hand quilting. (We went last week - also bought fabric to border and back a lap quilt of whirly hexes that Squidgeling J's making for herself). We ended up with a beautiful turquoise and deep pink-red batik fabric which draws out the pinks and purples and brighter blues in the quilt top.

Yes, it's the back of the quilt top and just a little bit of the backing fabric

Next step is to join two pieces of the backing fabric, then pin all the layers together before hand quilting. Not sure what pattern to use yet - we've played around with some ideas, but nothing's fixed. And as the weather gets warmer, it'll be too hot to do. Might have to wait until the autumn to get going on it...

Zingy Lap Quilt:
I managed to piece this together fairly quickly over a few days, and had enough cut-offs of wadding to not need to buy any new.

The backing - well, I admit I skimped on this one. I bought polycotton rather than 100% cotton, but I was so taken with the colours (which match the top) I knew I had to use it.

I found seven coloured cottons that matched some of the fabrics, and proceeded to hand quilt by picking up the patterns on the top.

spirals, wavy lines, flowers, crosses, squares...

I realised quite quickly that I didn't like the plain white in between all the coloured squares, so I made extra work for myself by deciding to stitch just inside the borders of all the white rectangles as well, making sure - as far as was possible - that there weren't any two adjacent rectangles stitched in the same colour of cotton.

Guess who likes sitting on it...

All that's left for me to do on this one is piece together the border strips, machine sew them onto the quilt, then catch down on the back by hand.

Probably ought to put down my needle and get back to camp now, though. Haven't edited anything yet today...and that story won't edit itself. Catch you later!