New

Christmas is over for another year so it is time for a different quilt in the header. As it's almost the New Year, I thought my new quilt would suit the occasion.

We spent Christmas with my DIL's family and had a lovely meal and great company. Melbourne suffered a tremendous storm in the afternoon with golf ball size hailstones and my car is peppered with dents. Others had windows smashed and homes flooded so I got off lightly.

Wishing all who visit my blog a Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year.

The Day before

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas.

I was lucky enough to win some of Sarah Fielke  St Ives fabric. It is certainly bright and bit out of my comfort zone but I'm thinking of making a quilt she has on her blog called 'made in cherry' with some yellow and green fabrics added. The pattern is available from here as a quilt along. I want to make mine much smaller, so we'll see what happens.

 

Preparation Day

but first I want to show you the quilt I have made for my Grand daughters. The first one is for Abbie.

and the 2nd one is for Grace.

Abbie's has still to be washed but with Grace's quilt having so much red in it I used the Color Catcher sheets when I washed it and they worked wonderfully. They were red when I removed them from the washing but I had no colour bleed on the quilt. I'm going to give a packet of them to her Mum for future washings.

 I am still working on my Antique Sampler. I'm about half way through sewing the middles of the small squares. Today I picked fabrics for the rest of them. They were all over my sewing table, ironing board and floor. Now I just have to prepare them for paper piecing and sewing.

I had the finished ones out to, so that I didn't repeat the same centre with the matching outer fabric. I could really do with a nice big bench to lay everything out.

Binding - A Very Pleasant Job.

Sewing on a binding means a finished quilt. I like to see my quilts all ready to hang or use. This one was so different. I had the pattern from an old AP&Q magazine for the centre rectangle and although I could see a picture of the entire quilt in the Fabrics of Society book by Annette Gero, I had to make up the pattern for the border if I wanted one on my quilt. I don't usually use bright fabrics but Purples just seemed to appear in the fabric shops all at once and when I saw the Colonial ll fabric range I knew I had to use them. I am delighted with how it looks and may go bright more often.

Today was a lunch and Kris Kringle with the Ruby Tuesday sewing ladies. We had decided beforehand what everyone would bring for lunch and had it at the patchwork shop, Needles & Pins, where we sew. We each brought a wrapped present and took a number. This is what I received. I love it.

and under the cosy

Isn't it beautiful and nobody knew I have a collection of teapots. One day I may even show you some.

Once a Year

Once a year the decorations come out and I get a chance to look at things I have made in years past. This little Christmas quilt I made last year just before Christmas and I had forgotten all about it so it was lovely to hang it up. I must try and get a hanging sleeve/tags on it this year before it gets packed away.

This one is a bit older, made when I went through my silk ribbon stage.The reindeer  and the tree are stitched with wool on a silk background.

This one has embroidery for the outlines, beard, ruff and stars and the rest is painted.

Christmas tree door hanger. This is Japanese pattern and is made from the bottom up so no seams show. It was fiddlely to make but worth the effort.

We are having some wonderful weather just now. Today was 31C. Sunny, bright blue skies does that mean Summer has arrived. I hope so.

December

It's time for the Christmas quilt to come out, hence the new header.


I've also been sewing with felted wool for a Swap.