Summers by the Sea

mom is 2nd from the right - she has great legs!

I love this photo of my mom! This was a shot of mom and her friends when they were at the University of Maryland back in the early 50's. The other special person in the photo is my Auntie, my mom's best friend and my namesake. Auntie is 2nd from the left. My mom and Auntie have stayed friends all these years. When we were little we used to visit my Auntie's houseboat in Ocean City, Maryland for our summer vacations. All those summers by the sea inspired a series of art quilts and I sent one to my mom for her birthday. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

sewing the binding with OMNI thread

JUKI HZL Exceed 600 the box feed makes binding a breeze

stripy binding for the Summers by the Sea art quilt

machine quilting detail

following the fabric lines

all rolled for the tube - no creases : )

Summers by the Sea - overview

Summers by the Sea

machine quilted by Martha and Emily Milne

on a 6 foot New English Quilter frame

with a JUKI TL98P straight stitch sewing machine

and Nifty Grip speed control handles.

All together giving the movement of a long arm

for a fraction of the cost.

Rosie's Uni Quilt

Rosie is off to the University of Edinburgh to study architecture. So of course she needed a quilt. We decided on a limited palette of pinks and reds with ivory, black and grey and used themed fabrics that had memories of home and recent travels; cats, pianos, Eiffel towers and roses, of course.

some of Rosie's favourite things

Sinking the squares into a grey background made the pink seem all grown up and just perfect for a Uni quilt.

adding the final borders with my JUKI HZL Exceed 600

piecing with a silver OMNI on top

joining the fleece backing with a zig-zag stitch

Auditioning the quilting thread

We chose the steel grey So Fine in the end. Rosie wanted a thread that would disappear into the borders. The #408 Silver So Fine has a subtle matt finish and worked perfectly. It went through the whole quilt without any trouble. We used Bottom Line pre-wounds in the bobbin in an ivory colour that would disappear into the fleece backing.

we used Emily's swirly feather pattern

The So Fine thread ended up creating great texture without drawing too much attention to itself which fit in well with the fresh modern feel of the quilt.

Rosie's quilt loaded on the 8 foot New English Quilter frame & JUKI TL98P

Since we only started the quilt the week before Rosie had to go, we needed to keep the piecing simple. We were inspired by this quilt made by Kelly Finster for her friend Laura. Rosie had a look through my pinterest boards and chose this quilt. Kelly and Laura became friends at the start of University. So it seemed a very fitting choice!

Kelley Finster's quilt for her Uni friend Laura

Rosie's quilt was a 6 day wonder! I finished the piecing on Wednesday and loaded it on the 8 foot New English Quilter frame, Emily and I completed the quilting on Thursday evening and I stitched the binding Friday, just in time for our trip up to Edinburgh on Saturday. It's wonderful how the right kind of tools enable us to complete a quilt beautifully and quickly.

I love how the thread played out

Rosie chose a stripy fabric for the binding

New Curtains

Grey Beach Hut curtain fabric from Terrys online shop

Once the tiles and fittings were in place it was time for the curtains.  Terrys Fabric online shop had a great nautical collection on sale for £7.99 per metre. It was amazing to find curtain fabric cheaper than quilting fabric!

The curtains came together in no time with my Juki Exceed 600.  I used OMNI thread on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. The trickiest bit of curtains for me is the hemming. But I was able to figure out the blind hem stitch using an online tutorial and the special blind hem foot that came with my Juki Exceed sewing machine.

  It's all about the folding. And the results are truly invisible!

Not bad for my very first blind hem! It looks so professional.

And here are the curtains all finished and up in the new bathroom. I've been saving ideas on my bathrooms and seaside pinterest boards. So wonderful to be able to enjoy the finished product!

We re-painted this boat-shelf to match the curtains