Birthday quilt

My first born turned 40 in April.  You know that time is slipping away when your children start having BIG birthdays.  

I have wanted to make her a quilt for some time but, knowing how fussy she is about patterns and colours, I kept putting it off.  When I found a pattern and fabric which I loved and just had to use, I decided to make her a quilt and hope for the best.

During the making of this quilt, which I call 'Stairways' I fell in love with it as did several others who saw it so that I knew if M didn't like it, I would be able to find it a good home.

As it turned out, that wasn't necessary because she loves it (I think she is being truthful).

It is always welcome to come home again, as I think it looks rather nice in my house.  Don't they say that the best presents are those that you don't want to give away.

Playtime

I love nothing better than arranging flowers in a vase.  Well, that might be a slight overstatement, but it certainly does give me a lot of pleasure.  So when the time came to make the final block of my China Shop quilt, I knew it was going to be just like playtime.  After fussy-cutting the largest fabric flowers I could find in my stash I played for ages placing  them in their vase until I was happy with the arrangement.  

When I was satisfied (although I could have kept playing for hours) I dabbed a little bit of glue behind each flower to keep it in place and then started to free motion stitch them down.  I have never done raw edge appliqué before, mainly because being the neat freak I am, I can never get my head around all those frayed edges and loose threads.

The latest issue of Homespun magazine has all the instructions for putting this huge quilt together. After almost 12 months work,  I am really hoping it all comes together without any problems.

 

There is one thing I will say for this quilt, it has forced me to try many new techniques which I might otherwise not have attempted.

Christmas challenge

It's been a while since my quilting group has had a challenge and so this year we decided to each make a Christmas table runner.  I find it very hard to feel very Christmassy until much closer to the big day but thought I had better make a start on something.  I searched Pinterest for ideas and found this Christmas tree which I liked because of its simplicity.  Then I found some fabrics which were also simple and not too bright and made three little trees.

I finished it with some straight line quilting and it was done.

I can't say I am delighted with it because I am not and I think that maybe I haven't put enough effort into it.  I know that the other members of  the group will produce table runners which are lot more interesting and look more Christmassy than mine.  However, I am not really into table runners of any season and I even wonder if I will use this one.  Ho Ho Ho, or should that be Ho Hum.

Getting fancy

We are getting fancy now as we have parfait glasses in our china shop - ooh la la!

The parfait glass bowls are made from little wedges similar to those in a Dresden plate block.

Never having made one of these before, the instructions had me scratching my head for the best part of a day.

However, perseverance paid off, the penny finally dropped and I was able to make two parfait glasses.

I am loving the Liberty fabric, but have my fingers crossed that it all the blocks will look good together when it is finished.

Filling the shelves

My china shop shelves are beginning to fill up.

I think the Liberty fabrics are working well and are making very pretty pots and vases.  However, in typical fashion, whereas I thought I had enough of them in my stash, I have had to buy a few more just to give me a good variety.  Not a hardship really as I love an excuse to visit the fabric shop.

English paper piecing

This little forest of pins is holding down all my hexagon flowers which have now been basted on to their papers and are awaiting whip stitching together.

It didn't take too long to do and was not as tedious as I thought it would be.  In fact, I can (almost) see how the process could become addictive.

I think the next stage, the joining together of each little hexagon, might take a little longer to do because my stitching will have to be much more precise.  In the meantime, the latest Homespun magazine has arrived and, while I originally thought that it would not matter if I did not finish each block every month, I now feel strangely compelled to keep up with each issue.

China shop progress

I have started cutting out my hexagon flowers for the China Shop quilt.  I love the effect of fussy cutting but do not like the process.

I always feel like a vandal when I see all the holes in my precious fabrics.

Here are a few of them all cut and ready for English paper piecing.

A lot of work to be done to finish this process and I had hoped to more or less keep up with each monthly issue of Homespun.  When I look at all these flowers I think I might have been overly optimistic.

Now for some applique

I thought I would complete the United Stitches quilt before starting any new projects but that was before I saw the latest issue of Homespun magazine and fell in love with the quilt designed by Kaffe Fassett called China Shop.  Fortunately this is a block of the month project so I can take my time with it and still work on my little embroideries.  Being designed by Kaffe the intention is that his fabrics are used but, (shoot me down in flames)  I am going to include some Liberty fabrics which have been in the cupboard for ages just waiting for the perfect project to come along and I think it has.

Some progress has been made and two vases are ready to be appliqued.

They are scarily large.  This is going to be a big quilt.

Now I have to make some hexagon flowers which will be a challenge as these are not my favourite things to make.  However, I do think I am ready for a new challenge after months of inactivity. Maybe if I say English paper piecing instead of hexagons I will enjoy the process more.

Playtime

It has been a long time between posts but the main reason for this is because I have been computerless for a couple of months.  John and I tried to share for a while, but it was not very successful.  Yesterday we decided to bite the bullet and buy a second laptop.  To celebrate that and the end of chemo  here is the third of the quilts completed while I have been undergoing my treatment.  I am so excited to have finished this and hope that my strength returns very soon.

I bought most of the fabric in this quilt on a trip to Melbourne some years ago and have been wanting to do something with it ever since.

Simple squares and large stitch quilting made it an easy and relatively fast project.

I called it Playtime for obvious reasons.

Now it has gone to live with the little girls where, no doubt, it will be used to make cubbies and other fun things.

I really like striped binding and seem to have used it on most of my recent quilts.  Did I mention how pleased I am to have finished my treatment.

Making a point

I am calling this quilt 'Making a point'.  What point I, or it, is trying to make I am not sure, but perhaps it is that even when you aren't feeling as well as you would like, you can still make quilts.  I have only two more chemotherapy sessions left and it is wonderful to be counting down instead of looking at the mountain I had to get over at the beginning of this year.

As you can see I quilted it with lots of straight lines and I really love the texture this gives the quilt.
The backing is a piece of fabric I picked up at Ikea which I thought was fun and suited the modern look of the quilt.

But I really love how the blue and white baubles on my tiny Christmas tree match the quilt so well.