Stitching Stones

 

You may or may not be familiar with Jude Hill's Magic Feather project ....... all the info can be found here.

While there do have a look at the feathers contributed from stitchers all over the world, they are  so beautiful & the variety submitted is astounding.......creativity at it's best!

 

 Unfortunately I was too late to send in some feathers but Jude has now put out a call for appliqued stones, so I've picked out bits & pieces of cotton & silk from my scraps to make a few pebbles to add to the project.

silk pebble on old linen

I'm enjoying making these as their shape is not meant to be uniform so any rough circle/oval that evolves is what ends up being stitched.

If you fancy sending Jude some stones, the details can be found in this blog post

Basket making

 

Whenever I finish a quilt I allow myself to start another on my wish list & this time it's the lovely baskets from the Blackbird designs book Where the Cold Wind Blows. I 've always wanted to make this & once I read about Jeanneke's method for prepping the baskets I was on my way........

I'm also going to make this one using the Quilt as you Go method & am hand quilting around each basket before I add the sashing to make up the rows.

Thinking of sticking to mainly blues, reds & pinks from my stash for this one, here's the progress so far.......

Finished this....

A few weeks ago my son contacted me from Wales where he is currently at university asking "Got any spare quilts kicking around Mum?" On further questioning he was wanting to gift a quilt to a kind couple who run Old Chapel Farm where he does volunteer conservation work on weekends.

 

Having many projects 'on the go', nothing was really suitable or completed yet to send in such a short time frame so I decided to make a large 4 patch in repros using the Quilt as you Go method following this blog tutorial by Welsh Quilter, Andrea (how uncanny is that with this quilt going to Wales!)

1st 3 rows back view with long sashing still to be slip stitched

 It was so simple and quick to do, the quilt grew row by row in no time at all and just took 3 weekends to complete the sashed blocks with just the binding to add.......voila, quilt complete!

 I love this technique as I really struggle with a large quilt on a domestic machine.......no more aching shoulder, arm and neck using this method.

Edit: just noticed looking at these photos I have made a boob & placed 2 purples together, bugger! Too late now :(

and finished this too......My 1st Mini Quilt!

 

On catching up with my blog reading I came across this post by Kathie of Inspired by Antique Quilts and just had to have a go at this little pinwheel quilt. Not being an expert piecer on the machine, I decided to make the blocks by EPP and it wasn't until I had cut and prepped all the pieces I realised the error of my ways......... I should have made my card templates smaller and not the size Kathie had given which included the seam allowance!

Hence my white pinwheels are not the same size as the red and to be honest it doesn't bother me at all, I'm not striving for perfection and like it just as it is :)  Have you seen this super flying geese mini Kathie has recently posted about? I think another mini red & white may be in the making, could be the start of a collection........lol. Do go and check out Kathie's blog, she makes the most amazing quilts and all her minis are gorgeous!

More catch up

In my last post I forgot to include this quilt from the KF workshop which was also finished October last. Even had my first go at a little hand quilting.......... the hexagons in the centre of each tumbling block, but don't look too closely!The colours for this one were chosen with my son in mind using more graphic than floral prints, which was easy with the great choice in the Westminster range by Kaffe Fassett & Brandon Mably.

I enjoyed working with these warmer colours so much that this inspired the start of the red 'Hot Wheel' quilt shown in the previous post ( I was so tempted to keep this one for me!)

This Goes with That/Variahex

Remember seeing these pop up in blogland? Ages ago (late 2010 or early 2011) I read some of Sue Daley's This Goes with That posts, showing how to make up hexagons with various shapes. This link is a recent post as I'm struggling to find the original tutorials she posted. Anyway, cut a long story short, I got stuck into this EEP during the Christmas break as a treat for finishing 'Hot Wheel'

Struggled a bit with the initial layout due to 'you know who' above joining in, so resorted to the wall where she couldn't lay on them.

Once I had a few made I started joining them together and they have gradually grown into a fair size quilt but I still need to do quite a few more.......

It's been great fun trying to come up with different variations....knew my geometry lessons at school would come in handy one day!

Helen's Quilt

& finally for today here is the top that was strip pieced out of Civil war repros very quickly for my friends 50th birthday. (It's ok to post here as she doesn't read my blog) The last time she poped round for a visit she was eye balling my thimble quilt, so that gave me the idea for this one using the same fabrics in 3" squares making it quicker to put together.....it has since been quilted & bound but I didn't get round to taking a picture.

So, that all for today folks, next post will update you with more 2012 projects. See you soon, enjoy your week :)

Where do I begin?

Well, Happy Easter to one & all, hope you were spoilt with lots of chocolate goodies :)

2011 was not a great year to start with. Early January a large shadow appeared on a chest xray which was eventually, after numerous scans & biopsies diagnosed as lung cancer which led to major surgery in Southampton removing 2 lobes of my right lung. I am very fortunate in that they were able to remove all the tumour & have not had to follow up surgery with radiotherapy or chemotherapy & am pleased to say that all has gone well. May I also take this opportunity to thank you all for your best wishes & prayers of support which were very much appreciated during this difficult time :) Now back to quilting!

Knowing how boring hospital stays can be, I prepped a whole load of patches to take with me should I feel the need to stitch, and thus began the start of a thimble quilt, inspired by this amazing red one by Ingrid at Supergoof and this beauty created by Katrien of Scrappatch . For this one I have taken all the repros I have collected over the last few years & added them with shirtings & lights to make up this scrappy top.

This was a great little hand piecing project to work on whilst convalescing post op & I decided to make 12 & 12 blocks to join together in rows.

Of course Lucy kept me company whilst stitching & had to try out the patchwork for comfort!

Progress so far

Imperial Blooms

Another project which was great to work on whilst on the road to recovery was the Imperial Blooms BOM by Sue Spargo. I had decided to join this one as I loved the design & had for while wanted to have a go at wool applique..........another technique now ticked off the list!



I am really enjoying working on this. As well as the wool applique I'm also brushing up on my rusty embroidery skills. Currently working on block no 7 which is nearly done, then just 2 more to go before attacking the borders.

Kaffee Fassett

Remember this? It had been on my design wall since July 2010!

Well last Sept/Oct I decided it was time to tackle this quilt designed in the Kaffe workshops I was lucky enough to attend. So here we have a tada moment with a top quilted, bound & studied by my 4 legged quilt inspector!

Boy, does she manage to get into every shot somehow!

This blue diamond quilt was intended for my bed but isn't quite wide enough & with winter on it's way the colours felt too cold, so inspired by a quilt on the cover of Kaffe's book Caravan of Quilts & one that Cathy of Cabbage Quilts was making, I decided to also use the EPP (English paper piecing) method to make my own in warm reds, purple and gold using Kaffe Fassett & Philip Jacob fabrics.


As each round was completed I laid it out on the floor to choose the next round of fabrics to use & once again, it had to be checked for comfort by Lucy!
Finally, by Christmas Eve, this top was completed, not bad going for EPP started mid October! Unfortunately it is still just a top which I hope to have quilted & bound ready for my bed next winter.

So, all in all, being absent from blogger has given me more sewing time & as you can see I have not been completely idle during my time off :)
More to follow.........