Joseph's Coat Update

Well time for a little update on this loooooong term project.

Firstly I have to say I'm enjoying this enormously, I love sewing down all those little petals, it's great fun. The preparation, errr, not so much, but after having traced, cut out, ironed on, cut out again, and again, glued (occasionally with swear words), and glued again.... well let's just say it is at least getting quicker! And I love the satisfaction of getting 12 petals glued down on the background and they look so pretty before being pinned and stitched, and ending up all wrinkly as per the photos you see here. Sorry, but there is just no time for ironing!!


I did have some problems with the first few blocks as far as getting the petals down on the background (and making them fit in the right spot) goes. Often I would get 11 petals down with no problems, but as soon as I tried to get #12 down, no way, it just would not fit! Overhang of several millimetres - so frustrating!! Then I worked out that my stabiliser petals were all just a tiny bit too big. I hadn't bothered checking them against the template (even though Kellie had suggested doing this in her instructions), because I thought pah! I'm tracing so carefully, what could possibly be wrong?? But lo and behold, each time I ran the pencil around the template, yep, it was just a touch too large. So after cutting I'm now checking each petal against the template and giving it a little haircut. And my life is so much the better for it!

As far as gluing down the edges goes, I am still finding it a little bit hit-and-miss. Sometimes I get great pointy points, sometimes they look like they've run into a brick wall at high speed (and have a flat nose). But what works best for me is a tip I adapted from one of the other Josephs Coat participants, Shelly, early in the piece, which is to use a pin at the very point of the stabiliser and fold down the top edge over that, this helps make sure that I fold over exactly the right amount of fabric, not a bit too much or too little. And then when folding over the first side edge, I make sure that edge runs parallel to the opposite side. On the whole it's working pretty well now. (Thanks for the tip Shelly!)


Anyway, as you can see I haven't started stitching the rows together yet (despite best intentions). I had actually intended to have rows 1 and 2 done at the end of February so that I could take them to show Kellie when I did her class in Canberra, but alas, I didn't make it - and three weeks later I still haven't done it (but I have been doing lots of other stuff in the meantime!!)

I think I'm leaning towards making this a 6 x 6 block size, possibly with some borders, so I'm looking forward to seeing what Kellie suggests in that department.

The big mystery remains, who will the quilt be for? I don't really know, to be honest, I just wanted to make it because it's so beautiful, I wanted a handsewing project, and I had already collected these gorgeous pinky-oranges and they were just perfect for this project. Although I have supplemented in the process. Ahem. I think at the end of the day, there will have been so much of me put into this quilt, I just won't be able to part with it. But we'll see!

Thanks to Kellie for a fantastic project. The extra late nights of stitching are so enjoyable!!