Bride's Bouquet

Remember When You Were Scared of 'Y' Seams?

This block has been the most fun yet. It is one I've wanted to make for simply ages. In fact since I bought the 'kite' ruler when I went to Duxford with Susan - how long ago was that ?! 

The ruler is by Marti Michell  ™ and comes with a booklet full of instructions and variations, which is almost more confusing than it is useful, as it refers to lots of other templates, rather than just giving sizes to cut.

But I worked it all out and it just went together beautifully. Those 'Y' seams don't faze me any more.

Now I have got 5 large blocks for my Laura Ashley project and a head full of ideas, which change from one day to the next.







No wonder I don't sleep!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Partial Seam Puzzle

Hungry Hungry Caterpillar and Ganesh

Two interesting quilts this week -  both headed for long distance destinations. 






One printed panel with the ever popular Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, by Val for her daughter in Japan - The other appliquéd with a Ganesh inspired elephant (and a mouse) for Jenny's new niece in India.  

Both great fun to do. 









I like how the quilting showed up on the sateen backing fabric on Jenny's quilt.

Then I returned to my on-going Laura Ashley project. I found the ideal block to use up those spare little half square triangles - my first feathered star. I found this diagram as a guide and thought I could scale it to make a 12 inch block. But the maths didn't quite work - not my strong point!! Clearly the diamond point makes it wider than you think. (Or maybe I just can't add up!)



No foundation piecing for me though - you know how I dislike it! I was quite able to piece it accurately without and I would still have had to use partial seams. It was quite a puzzle to work out the piecing. 

It came out a bit bigger than I wanted - but that won't matter.

It is pink and pretty!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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On Commission

Vintage Laura Ashley Pinks!

No - not this gorgeous teddy! This truly beautiful motif was painstakingly appliquéd to a calico bag, with hand embroidery and ribbon, lace and bead embellishments by our other Janet, to be sold (for next to nothing) at the NSPCC Christmas Fair in November.  I hope whoever buys it appreciates the skill and effort she put in to it! It rather puts my own simple contributions to shame - just some printed fabric cut out and machine stitched on - but Christmassy nonetheless.

But YES! Laura Ashley - I finally plucked up the resolve to cut some of it up! That said, I followed my natural compulsion to use the small bits first. Ann Kelner had given me the leftovers of this pink Sycamore print from her 'clover needle case' project that she prepared for us at Connecting Threads a while back. She could tell how much I coveted them - bless her heart!

  


So I started off by trimming these odd shapes, which were mostly on the bias, into usable pieces.

I whittled them down to this neat pile, wasting as little as possible.







So far I have made three different 12 inch blocks. 

This one, featuring the classic 'Kate' fabric, had several flying geese units in it and I salvaged all the little corners to make 30 one and a half inch half square triangles units to use later on. (The quilt design is a work in progress). 

Now I know I preach about the importance of sufficient contrast in blocks so that the patchwork design shows up. But with these fabrics, I just throw the rule book out of the window - it is all about the pastels!!
I have one strip of the Mary Ann fabric; Pink stripes with pink and sky blue flowers on it. I pondered over it for ages to see how I could use it without wasting any. In the end I simply couldn't bring myself to slice it up and decided to use it as a feature block just as it is.

 So what was the commission? 

Well, for the third time, I have gone to the Knitting & Stitching Show and encouraged a companion to buy a Brother machine like mine. Today I phoned 'Bob' from the exhibitors' stand and persuaded him to send me a replacement for a foot I've mislaid, as commission for helping them sell their machines!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Totally Tilda!

Circles in My Mind

This beautiful Tilda designed top has been speaking to me ever since I picked it up from Meryl last week. Needless to say, she had pieced it perfectly and everything laid flat and square.

The sample in the book had a fairly basic all over stipple quilting, but I knew it deserved more than that. I spent quite a while stabilizing the whole piece with some ruler work around the blocks, and put some curls and curves into the 16 patches.

The stems and leaves were asking for formal feathers to climb all the way up.





Then I started to fill in the rest of the background.





 I have been studying the work of some quilters I admire and felt I needed to work on my freehand circles. So I covered the open spaces with a loose loopy meander, but slowed my pace right down so I had more control. It definitely worked better.











I left the birds until last because I wasn't sure what they needed. In the end I gave them very simple features.

Sweet!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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