My great nephew

This sweet little man was born two weeks ago at only 25weeks gestation. He was sooooo tiny, weighing only 850gms! My niece was very emotional when I went visit her, in shock & understandably worried.
I had a real urge to make this little fighter a small, soft warm quilt....................I looked through my fabric finding some warm flannels. I figured a raggy quilt would be the quickest & survive a thrashing in the washing machine.

Washed with lavender wool wash, then put in the dryer to soften up ready for use. This quilt is approximately 24" square.
My sister ( baby's nana ) said she held his little hand & from that moment he had captured her heart.

Love & best wishes to my new great nephew & my niece.

Retreat was a real treat !!!

I am home from a lovely weekend with friends sewing, what more could a gal ask for on Mothers day?

Friday afternoon, set up, that can take a bit of sorting to fit 16 keen patchworkers into a hall, but we did it. So many SewEzi tables & Bernina sewing machines, extension cords, ironing boards ..............................and soooooo much fabric!!!!!

There seemed to be a theme of scrap quilts in the making.................................

The quilt on the left is what I pieced. Called Urban Birthday pattern by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful. Using Jenny's unique Quick Curve Ruler.

This was my little nook of scrappiness! Another project I managed to work on as well.
 1.5" squares, some 'borrowing' went on, all for the purposes of scrappy variety.

We had a suitcase sale, not selling suitcases, but unwanted, pre loved patterns, kits, books & fabrics.

                                                        Look at our inspirational view!!!!

I received lovely Mothers Day texts from 3 of my kids, then when I got home look what my son made for me!!!!!

What a lovely end to a fabulous weekend!

 

 

Jelly roll quilt, hussif & Miss Alice!

104" x 87" one big quilt!

 Elizabeth is fast becoming a regular customer of mine. Although this is Elizabeth's first quilt, I have quilted two other quilts for her. Using 2 jelly rolls & some soft buttery cream fabric for borders & sashing this is a soft pretty quilt. Bamboo batting, Madeira Poly Neon threads. The inner part of the quilt was quilted with an all over looping design.
 I was very keen to quilt swooping feathers on the lovely 9" borders but I came up against a wee problem..................

This was unpicked!

Wavy borders!....................................
Usually I notice if any borders are going to cause problems at the point of tacking the quilts up. Unfortunately I didn't realize how wavy the borders were until I was on them! I phoned Elizabeth to make a time to meet up so I could show her the problem. The best thing to do is remove the borders, measure, cut & reattach. But Elizabeth wasn't keen to do that. So we came up with plan B............... Only do the swooping feathers on the corners & quilt a loose open stipple on the remaining parts of the borders. This seems to have solved the problem, but no nice swooping feathers on those lovely wide borders.
The moral of the story is.........ALWAYS measure your border fabric.

I have finished this months Sewing Essentials Project an arm chair hussif.

Nice little pockets to hold scissors, threads, a pincushion.

 

Some weeks back I went on a road trip with some friends to visit Julie at Threadbear Cottage, there Julie had for sale some lovely dolls. I asked Julie if she could custom make a doll in the fabric leftover from my Buggy Barn quilt. Julie did just that & Miss Alice came home today!!!!

 

 

Maybe I should have waited until it was daylight to get a better photo, but I was so happy with her & wanted to share her with you!

Julie is so amazing at making dolls, well making just about anything! She did just as I requested. I think she is perfect.

Did you notice the lovely vintage buttons & a Parisian dyed doily??

Here's Miss Alice sitting on my bed waiting for her quilt to come home!

 

 

Tomorrow brings work in my most favourite quilt shop, then off for an annual retreat!!! Yippie, sew, sew & more sew!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, have a fabulous weekend!

 

Mettler Metallic threads............... :-)

Difficult to show the quilting with these darker quilts, but I did use Mettlers Metallic gold thread as well as an aqua poly neon & black threads. The first gold I tried was an old one I had, that in the past I had always had problems with, but I thought I would try it again.......but I had problems again (AKA.....get grumpy & throw the thread in the bin!), so I went to my local & bought Mettler Metallic, popped in a metallic needle, & off I went, no problems!!!
 I quilted Feathers, curling ribbon, straight lines & Celtic bubbles.
Lois has made this quilt for her daughter.........lets hope she likes it!

A view of the back...................................

I have finished another book, the first in the series called "A Someday Quilts Mystery" The Lovers Knot, by Clare O'Donohue

Nell Fitzgerald is looking forward to her wedding, and her grandmother’s gift of a wedding quilt, but things don’t go as planned, especially when Nell’s fiance calls off the wedding and Nell finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation – with her former fiance the chief suspect

I borrowed from my local Library, but unfortunately the second book is missing from the Library, they have book 3 & 4. So I have ordered it from the Book Depository, when I have read it I will donate it to the Library.......nothing worse in a series that needs to be read in order, one missing.

Enjoy the funny video!

Merry Christmas!

Sharing a Christmas quilt sent to me by Maree who lives in Christchurch. Last week this was already to send it back to Maree, lucky I didn't, as I got an email to say she was on her way to South Africa! So how sad for me I have to hold onto to it for a couple of months! I will enjoy Christmas early in the 'Quiltme' studio.

This quilt is called 'Scandinavian Christmas' - designed by Lynette Anderson. Maree gave me free range to as I pleased. I felt the quilt had a traditional feel to it, so I wanted my quilting to be in keeping with that, but with a few whimsical touches. (click on the photo's for close ups )

my fav block!

With the four main applique blocks ( are needle turned) I crossed hatched the middle, ditch stitched then on edge of the cross stitched 'sashing' I did a whimsical feather. Several different linens were used in this quilt.

Cross hatching, echos & pebbles...........................................................

1 xmas item, log cabins & Anzac day.

April's 1 xmas item a "C" for the start of my Christmas bunting. From now until December if I do one letter from CHRISTMAS, I will have my bunting ready for this Christmas. Thanks again to Narelle from Pins & Whiskers for hosting this groovie idea!

Barbara made this quilt at a class at The Country Yard. This is the second time running this popular class, back in 2010 was the first class, remember I quilted the class sample? Also another one from the class can be seen here, all the same but different!

The centre block was a stencil I had that seemed to look nice to me. This quilt, measuring 68" square has heaps of ditch stitching!!!!

Tiny 'scribbling' & echo stitching to define the stencil design. This quilt is now proudly displayed on the bed at Barbara's house that is especially for her grandson.......lucky fellow!

It's hard to tell from these photo's but I quilted a feather on the checker board border. The cream logs have feathers, the red logs only have ditch stitching.
Here's the pieced backing Barbara made......................

Here in little New Zealand it was a special day called ANZAC day.