Time

The end of another month is almost here and half of this year has flown. Time to put a new header up. I saw this pattern in a magazine and really liked it. Such a simple block to make and I love the Baptiste Fan design for the quilting.

Preparation!

I have spent some time on preparing the side borders for my Aunty Green quilt. I have started sewing a little of the applique on one of them and with the handling all of the freezer paper pieces have fallen off. On the other side the paper remains so the colours aren't on view yet. I spend quite a bit of time deciding on the fabric and then 'fussy' cutting the larger flowers. I always enjoy this part of making a quilt.

 Meanwhile I still have blocks ready to sew for the Mary Brown quilt. This is the latest to be finished. The reverse of the previous one.

The weather has been wet and cold, just miserable. It's nicer to stay home and sew with the added bonus of watching Wimbledon at the same time.

Mary Brown

I have finished appliquing another block for my Mary Brown quilt. This one seemed to have quite a lot more pieces in it and there is also another with this pattern reversed. I have changed the fabrics for it and have it ready to sew.

Maltaville Album Quilt

Still keeping up to date with the blocks for the Maltaville quilt. You can get the patterns from here if you would like to make the quilt. Each month I receive 4 by email and I believe the large centre block is next. 

This Weeks Stitching

This week I stitched another block for the Mary Brown quilt and made metres of bias for the stems on my Auntie Green's quilt.

I still have some tendrils to sew on this block but will do them later.

                                           

 I made the bias for both side borders at the same time and thought I had made plenty but I soon ran out and had to make more.

A New Arrival

Looks like I'll be changing to pink with the arrival of a Grand daughter yesterday, 19 days early and caught us all on the hop.
Grace Amelia  6lbs 8ozs.
to my youngest son and wife.

End of the month

As usual, when it gets to the end of the month I change my header. This month it is the Scrapbook quilt made with a black cotton background and wool applique and cotton blocks.
Most of the wool I felted and dyed myself. I like working with wool, it is soft on the hands and easy to whipstitch. I use the Aurifil 'Lana' which is a wool 'thread' on spools which is also good for the buttonhole stitch on the sewing machine when a large piece needs sewn.

I have made another block for the Mary Brown quilt. I'm really enjoying sewing these blocks. They are all different and once prepared can be easily sewn while watching a bit of the French Open tennis. Such a good way to spend one's time when the weather is cold and miserable.

Stitching

I got this block finished for the Mary Brown quilt this week and have prepare the next one for sewing. I did the bird in the very centre of my quilt with black fabric and I'm happy to continue to make the birds in the border with a variety of black fabrics.

I hope to get some more done while I watch the tennis at the French Open.Nothing better when the weather is miserable.

Bits and Pieces

This is a mixture of bits and pieces.  From my visit out into the garden. Broccoli, a cabbage, spring onions [more like mini leeks] they have grown so well,a capsicum and 2 figs.Yum. There are plenty of green figs on the tree and  I have been told that it is now too cold for them to ripen, but I'll wait and see if they do.

An email from Margaret telling me the next 4 blocks will be out next week had me finishing this month's blocks.The top left one has a bit of a 'zing' to it with the fabrics I used.

Meanwhile I have started the border blocks for the Homage to Mary Brown quilt. There are 19 blocks that surround what I have already sewn [April 12th blog post]. Looking at the photo I think the top one needs a few more leaves.

and I did get the rabbit made with the felted wool.

On Monday at the guild we had The Biggest Morning Tea to raise funds for Breast Cancer Research and one of the requests was that we bring along a pin cushion that related to a morning tea. This is the tableful we got. My pincushion is the large slice of chocolat cake with pink icing [ No 9 ] It had been given to me as a present last year and it won 4th place.

and this was another one that won a prize.The entry that won 1st I don't have a photo of, it was a box of fabric chocolates and they were beautifully made.

*A friend has just sent me a photo of the winning box of chocolate 'pincushions'. If you look at the size of the eggcup next to them you'll gauge how small they were.

Today

Today I was listed on Dawn 's blog as a Versatile Blogger. Thank you Dawn.

Please take the time to look at Dawn's great new blog.

Now I have to list 7 things not generally known about me.

1. I emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1966.

2.I still have a Scottish accent.

3. Don't expect me out of bed before 9am unless I'm going quilting.

4. My best subjects at school were Needlework and Maths.

5.I started making quilts in 2000.

6.My Grandmother taught me to knit when I was 5 years old.

7. I can't sing in tune.

Now here's my list of  blogs I'm passing the award on to. Please link it back to this blog and pass the award on with 7 of your own.

1. http://www.susisquilts.blogspot.com/                                           

   2. http://addictedtoquilts.blogspot.com/.                                              

3. http://countryfragrance.blogspot.com/                                            

    4.  http://broderie.typepad.com                                                         

5. http://hexabee.blogspot.com/                                                     

   

I hope you enjoy having a look at them.

 

Old Welsh Quilts

 I went to the Applique Society at Castlemaine on Saturday with a couple of friends and the speaker for the day was a lady who had brought along her Great Aunt's Welsh Quilts. They were very old and some were well worn. I could see the wool batting showing through and it was rough and grey. It looked as if it was off the sheep's back. The first quilt was one she had made recently in a Welsh design. The other photos show the 'old' quilts which were each made with a single fabric. The quilting was outstanding and could be clearly seen on the plain fabric. I hope it shows up enough for you all to see. The edges had been turned in and stitched with a quilting stitch so there was no bindings. 





The quilting isn't showing very well on this one. It may be clearer if you use your  zoom
on your computer.



The Last Stitch

Auntie Green's Quilt

The centre panel is finished!

A New Book

I have been very lucky to win a new book from Rosalie Quinlan's Blog she had it as a Giveaway. As you can see it is Sarah Fielke's new quilt book. Each design can be made as a doll's quilt or a full size one with the idea that you can make the little one first to make sure it is what you want. I have been looking through it since it arrived this morning. Thank you Rosalie, I love it.I am going to have a new Grand daughter in August and I can see her having the best doll's quilts.

 

The next little fellow is one of Rosalie's patterns. I am going to call him Sean the Sheep and when it is shearing time, you pull down the zip and take his jumpsuit off.  Isn't he great!

Happy Easter.

Happy Easter, everyone.

I was away yesterday and today to the seaside town of Queenscliff for the opening of my daughter's Art exhibition. If you would like to see her work, here is a link to her blog and website.Nicola 

I have also been sewing my applique and I have almost finished the top half,

and have the second half prepared and ready to go. I leave apaper trail around the house as the freezer paper falls off everytime I work on it. If I really need it to show me the curve required I just iron it back on. The next question will be whither I continue or be happy with a new wallhanging.

From the Show

Some more items from the Quilt Show. The next two quilts I photographed because of the work involved making them.

 I'm not a great fan of hexagons but the border was magnificent .

This quilt with the blue looked so different from a basket quilt I had seen with cream as the setting squares. To me the border and the blue seems to drown all the beautiful little baskets.

The next two Art quilts.   Quite appealing I thought.

Now for my buys.

I stopped at Threadbear and bought some 'blues' for the Judie Rothermel quilt in this month's Quilter's Companion magazine.

I just had to buy this book by Natalie Bird to get the pink rabbit pattern. This is for the Grand daughter due in August and then I had to shop at the Quilted Crow from Tasmania to get pink felted wool to make her. Isn't she adorable.

and while I was there I couldn't resist these beauties.

A visit to the Thread Studio got me another skein of silk to finish off my 2nd knitted bag which is a larger size than the the one below that I made last year.

These should keep me busy for a while.

The Australian Quilt Show

On Friday I went to the Quilt Show with my friend. Here are a few photos of what we saw.

The Challenge this year was..Lucy Locket has lost her pocket and Kitty Fisher found it....and here are my favourite ones. They were knittted, felted, made with every fabric, silk and denin, just wonderful.

There were many quilts on show but here are four that topped my list.

This next quilt was a minature. approx. 18" square. Absolutely beautiful.

I'll put what I bought and some more photos in my next blog.

Ta -Da!

This is what I have decided on for the inner border. The corner feathers are a slightly different fabric from the ones in the centre but all mostly black. I am going to have the area between them quilted with a feather design and do the trupunto like Janet showed us on her blog.

The Next 4 Blocks

I have finished sewing the next 4 blocks of the Maltaville quilt and here is a photo of them.

I have also finished sewing the vine onto the Auntie Green quilt centre so the next item is preparing the freezer paper shapes for all the flowers that sit between it and the leaves. This will take a bit of time so meanwhile I have been thinking about my Mary Brown quilt which had to come to a halt because I wasn't happy with the next border. After looking at Patricia Cox's website and the photo of hers, I have decided what I'm going to do.
I have sewn on the 4 borders with my black feathers and will do applique coming from the corners. That, you'll get a look at when I've done it but meantime here is the work in progress. 

Finished

This week I got my Ann Daggs quilt back from the quilter. I have now bound it, so it is totally finished. Pam has done quilting for me for quite a while

now, I leave it to her to choose what she wants to do on my quilts. She       knows what I don't want, which is a stiff board of cloth. I like my quilts to remain soft, and the quilting not to dominate on the quilt. I am as usual delighted with what she has done.

Here is a close up of the corner and the quilting.

Maltaville Album quilt

Here is block 5 of the Maltaville Album quilt. This one was fun to do and while I'm here I've found a photo of a quilt I made a number of years ago and I've always loved it so I'm using it for the heading this month. It is a pattern by Blackbird designs and is called Alma's Friendship Garden.