This Year's Finishes

I thought I'd look back and see what I had made and finished this year. The first three quilts I started in 2013 but were finished this year. Quilted and bound. 

Lori's Big Top Pattern.

 

Sandra Boyle's Peony Medallion

 

Jan Patek's Coxcomb and Stars

 

This year I started and finished the following.

 

Solomon's Temple Block

I think I'll call it 96 Pieces, still to be quilted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sue Ambrose's Briar Hill

still to be quilted.

 

 

Di Ford's Sutton Grange

quilted and bound.

 

Karen Styles Chintz Hexi's

still to be quilted.

 

Irene Blank's Message in a Bottle

booked in for quilting in Feb.

 

 

Marg Sampson-George - Crib Quilt

quilted and bound and wrapped for Christmas.

 

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you All.

 

 

 

 

I've been doing a little sewing..

...throughout the year and not showing it on my blog, until now. I first saw these blocks
here and just liked them so much I knew I would make them one day. Meredithe drew up the block for me with all the measurements and I never realised until I saw the draft that there are 96, yes 96 pieces in each block.  It's been slow going but I am really happy to have it finally finished.

 

 

I have used a large selection of different blacks, blues, reds and shirtings. Just one question to ask... Do I add a border and if so what colour?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's been a while

My last post had a picture of this bundle of fabric from the range Bella Suede Collection by P&B Textiles, Basics. A collection of bright tone-on-tone colours.

and this is what I have come up with after several days of thinking, several days of cutting and many more days of sewing. I finally finished it last night. It is almost 60" square. The first photo was taken with just the lights in the room on....

 

and this photo is with the camera flash on.

I got a new camera for my birthday which will take a bit of time to work out if I'm ever game enough to switch off the Auto button. The camera informed me the flash was needed but I think the clear colours in the first photo are closer to the actual colours. Here are a couple of close-ups of the fabrics so that you can see the designs.

 

 

 

 

and todays job has been completed. It's that time of the year again.

 

and my Christmas Cactus quilt is up too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All stitched

All stitched and backed. I have enjoyed working with wool again. It is lovely and soft on the hands. I can bring it out in the Autumn and pop it on top of the table.

 

 

 

Last week I received a bundle of fabrics from P&B Textiles to have a play with. Thirty wonderful tone 0n tone Fat Quarters. What to do? Hmm!

 

 

 

Thinking time.

Wool

At sewing on Friday I was sitting next to Sue and she was sewing a Felted Wool pattern and I came home thinking about the wool pattern I had bought recently from the Buggy Barn.
I wanted a table topper and not a wall hanging so over the weekend I popped round to 'Officeworks' and had the pattern reduced in size. Home again, I put the pattern in the printer to make a copy for cutting out, giving me all the pieces of the pattern ready for attaching to my wool.
The next job was a search through my container of felted wools to find the right colours. I then stapled the paper pattern to the wool and cut them out.
Saturday night I removed the pattern and attached the pieces to the background. Now that all the preparation is finished I can sit, sew and enjoy. The watermelon and the pear I cut out of velvet, the rest, including the background, are felted wool.
The pattern is Bowl of Plenty by Maggie Bonanomi.

 

 

 

Binding and Borders

My Sutton Grange came back from the quilter this week with all this beautiful quilting highlighting my applique. Pam does such a great job.

 

Then I set to and got the binding sewn on. Finished!

I had no sooner got my quilt pegged up on the line and the wind blew and the rain came on, such a change from yesterday.

 

 

 

Yesterday was hot and sunny 30C, so my Briar Hill with it's borders on has a few shadows from the trees. I found this perfect fabric, Pomegranate, in my stash. I had bought it to use for another pattern,  but fortunately the other quilt didn't get made, because it is so perfect for this quilt.   

 

 

 

 

Getting it all together

All the hexies and circles are appliqued to the background. The sashing has been added and Briar Hill is now all together.

Time to pick a border fabric.

Time to get a bigger display area!

Around the World Blog Hop.

Blog Hop.
My blog was tagged by Lizzy of gone2thebeach.blogspot.com last week. She sews and creates and has the sun, sea and sand on her doorstep. A great blog to follow.

What am I working on?

Several items. There are always several projects on the go at the same time.
The most recent is Briar Hill.

Under the Cherry Tree quilt

 

Several X- stitches                                                                                          

 

and I made this little bag recently. I love bags and I'm always finding different patterns

 

 

How does my work differ from other quilters?

I think that finishing my projects and not having a cupboard of WIP's.
I like to make new and old quilts/patterns.
I make a LOT of bags.

 

 

Why do I create/ write my blog.                                                                                      

I like the different stages of making a quilt and being able to show [hopefully] the enjoyment I get from each stage and finally finishing an article. Large or small.

How does my creating process work?

By writing a blog and having photos of the journey. Not so much creating ,more a journey of decisions. Patterns - Size - Colours - Fabrics - Shapes - Techniques. Choices  -  so many choices.

I'd like to recommend a couple of blogs  www.bemused.typepad.com.au
                                                  and    www.nicolamoss.blogspot.com.au
I think you'll enjoy their work.


   

October

I have finished Block 2 of Beyond the Cherry Tree. If I can just keep making one a month I will eventually have this lovely quilt made and I will also have time to continue with my other projects and finish some 'things' .

 

One of the 'things' is my Briar Hill. I have 2 rows appliqued to the background strips and there are 4 full length and 6 half size ones still to do. It is a great project for taking with me to sewing group and the Guild and will be finished over time.

 

 

Since coming back from holidays the weather has been warmer and sunnier and DH has planted out the veggie garden. The green in the middle are the Chives that have survived from last year. The rhubarb always does well and there is a lot of garlic planted. I went through last years very quickly. Unfortunately it takes 9 months before they are ready to be dug up and then I have to hang them up to dry, a slow process but they are so fresh and tasty. YUM! 

There are a wide variety of other seedlings and the tomatoes plants are still to go in.

The rest of the garden is doing well and there is a lot out in flower like the Gum Rose.

 

 

 

and these

 

 

and the Rose hedge has flowered. It is only early Spring so I hope they continue through the Summer as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the winners are

I put all the names in a baggie and DH picked three.

 

The  winner of pattern No1 is Lyn.

The winner of pattern No2 is Chantal.

and the winner for pattern No3 is Audrey.

Can you all please send me your address and I put them in the post to you.
Thank you for taking part.

Before the month ends.

I've been meaning to offer some of my used patterns to you who follow or read my blog. So now that I'm back from holidays here are pictures of the three I'm offering this month. There is a photo of each and of my quilts made using the pattern. They all have embroidery on the quilt.

No 1

 

    

 

I used Osnaberg behind the embroidery but linen would work too. One of the few quilts I quilted myself.

 

No 2 

The next pattern has 8 parts, again with embroidery.

 

The finished quilt.

 

No 3

This one has embroidery on several different pale cream cotton fabrics.

                                                and a close  up of my quilt.

 

If you would like one of the above patterns please leave a comment on which one you prefer and I'll get DH to pick three for the winners on the 1st October. 

 

 

While on holiday I started a new quilt. Under the Cherry Tree from Sentimental Stitches. I downloaded the pattern when it was on offer. This is Block 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hexi's are made.

 I started Briar Hill quite a while ago and made the centre and then I made other things, you know how it happens. I've been sitting in the evenings making hexi's, hexi's and more hexi's and now that they are made I've 'just' to stitch them to the background. Here is the first strip ready for sewing. The white circles are freezer paper, marking the edge for turning under.

 

 

I hung each background strip up on my craft wall and then I pinned on the hexi's flowers and the rounds, mixing and matching the fabrics and colours as I went. The rounds have one, two or three layers. It will hang there while I sew each strip.

 

 

This has now become a great 'pick up and go' project.

 

 

 

 

 

Working on a project

I received an email from P & B Textiles in July, asking me if I would like to work with some of their fabric. I replied that I normally used Reproduction fabrics but other ranges could be interesting.
This lovely bundle of FQ's arrived in the mail shortly after.

 

I then had to think of a project using 12 FQ's and remembering the Swoon pattern I had bought last year used FQ's, this worked perfectly with some white fabric from my stash. I tend to buy the same white so I used up all the strips and pieces,  leftovers, from previous quilts.

 

Here is a photo of my finished top.

 

and a photo of each block.

 

I think they all work well together with the variety of colours. The solid colours were a stripe which caused a bit of extra thinking when it came to cutting and sewing the 1/2square triangles but it was all good in the end.