My Artsy week!

As someone who sees The Arts as somewhat of a guilty pleasure, I feel like I've been snaffling cookies all this week!

Saturday 
Creative Producing Masterclass with Alex McCorkindale & IdeasTap

Sunday
Budgeting my new craft workshops
Marketing/designing flyers for my craft workshops

Monday
Babysitting (AKA climbing up + downstairs together, giggling A LOT, feeding the chickens - she's a pro, watching Peppa Pig and attempting to draw quilt patterns whilst showing my niece how to scribble)

Tuesday
Met up with Tiger Skins of Sunlight to chat about their Summer plans at Martineau Gardens. Promoted my craft workshops by putting up flyers around Moseley
Popped into Transition Arts Gallery by The Dark Horse in Moseley (follow this link!)

Wednesday
After tutoring French (my first lesson and it went really well!) I went to an immense workshop run by Chris Cooper and put on by The Gap Arts project - Who knew enacting reading a newspaper could be that tricky? The stuff discussed developed rich content and more interesting discussions!

So, yes, I had a very exciting week. Tudor sewing club on Friday and I'm really looking forward to meeting and planning my friend's birthday with her soon, too - It's going to be funky and exotic! Feeling a little bit sleepy but very content. It'll definitely be well-earnt sleep!

Baby quilt - Part Three

I'm back. I have finished my quilt! Yay! I'm really impressed with the results as I haven't done a quilt before but thought I'd give it a shot.

This is what the quilt should look like on the back once you've "sewn the ditches" (as seen in: http://monstereyesevents.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/baby-quilt-part-two.html) 
I made sure I sewed all around the edge of the quilt, too, just to keep it nice & tidy.

USING BIAS BINDING

I knew I wanted to put on some lovely periwinkle blue bias binding (from House of Fraser's haberdashery section) which just hides all those loose ends. I pinned the binding to the edge of the quilt like this (with the pattern-side facing up) and sewed down the crease in the binding, making sure that the binding would cover the line of sewing around the edge. I then folded it over to check it would cover the other side too.

When I got to the end of my vertical strip of bias binding I cut the end and simply hid it with the next strip that was going horizontally. Make sure the back looks as straight as the front. It can be a bit finnickety. Look at the left-hand image below. You will need to whip stitch all around the back of the quilt to attach the binding. This means threading a needle and picking up a bit of the fleece fabric then a bit of the binding fabric and repeating. This will mean you should hardly be able to see the thread at all.  

 

Here is my blanket below. Binding is done and it's almost finished!

All that's left to do is to pop it in the cot and do the baby test. My niece seemed to have a very cosy night's sleep in it! 

N.B. You might like to add labels to say how to wash it. Mine is colour fast and all the elements of it can be washed at 30 degrees in a machine, but I'm not sure I want to test it after all that work! Handwash should do the trick. 

Happy quilting!