Tuesday, November 27, 2012

five years



That's how long it took me to from start to finish........................

Heirloom Romance by Crab Apple Hill. Handbags & crazy patch blocks embroidered by hand. Trapunto behind each handbag & many beads.


 I quilted each background heavily to make each bag 'pop' with free form quilting, also known as doodling!
Each horizontal & vertical row is quilted using a embroidery stitch from my Bernina 440.






The last block which is in the centre of the quilt is a fan.
"Memories of by gone days & evenings of elegance & grace"
 I had the top sitting finished for a year, before I decided I should start quilting it!
 I did work on it in the evenings after customers quilts.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Do you love EPP????



EPP?????

 What the hang is that, some might ask? English Paper Piecing.
Vivian is a customer of mine that I am looking forward to meeting one day, as we have two things in common.............
a love of EPP & we both think there is not enough hours in the day!! We agreed that sleep is over rated & if we didn't need to sleep, just think of how much we could get accomplished!
Vivian happily ( over the phone, we haven't met face to face yet, but I really like this woman ) told me she was .....quote : 'an oldie, but a goodie' ....'I am 74 love'. This women lives & breathes patchwork & loves her garden, she tells me she often wakes up at some unearthly hour & does her patchwork!
Anyhow, here is the second of three of Vivian's quilts I have to work on. You can see the first here 


I LOVE this quilt, the scrappiness, the vibrant colours & of course the wonderful EPP!

You can see I quilted a petal shape on the "Jewels" ( I found this name for this shape on the Sue Daley website ) I used a Gunold variegated thread for the petals, then a swirl in the centre hexie.
Pebbles in the cream hexagon I also used a variegated Gunold. Which I thought might look like gravel stepping stones.




The green side borders have a rolling swirl & the top & bottom has a loop/flower, using a green Madeira poly neon. The next border has a curling ribbon & the last border, straight lines, both a red Madeira poly neon.

Also finished was another wall hanging for Ngaire. I have quilted one the same  a few weeks ago.


On a non quilty note, a book finished....................
This is a New Zealand written novel. "Where Lions roar at Night" By Rosie Boom 

'Ten year old Milly had always dreamed of living in the country & owning all sorts of animals. So when her parents buy a piece of land & move their six children into a ninety-year- old barn, Milly can't believe her luck.
But she never imagined that living the simple life would include mucking out a filthy water tank, gathering endless supplies of firewood, clearing the land, & rescuing animals in a 'hundred year ' storm.......Nor did she expect to hear deep groanings in the night! "


Now for the next quilt!!!


Thursday, November 15, 2012

Underground Railroad Sampler


Eleanor Burns & Sue Bouchard wrote " Underground Railroad Sampler" book to which Barbara decided to make the quilt. Barbara chose a range of fabrics by Stoff.

I did a photo of each block.................................(as named in the book)
underground railroad

monkey wrench
wagon wheel
carpenter's wheel
bears paw
basket
crossroads
log cabin
shoo fly
bow tie
flying geese
birds in the air
drunkard's path
sail boat
north star
underground railroad
Notice underground railroad is featured twice? Barbara needed an extra, block she made another block, in slightly different colourways & I quilted the two blocks each with a different design.
My main threads used throughout were, Madeira & Gunold.
For the sashing & first border I did free hand feathers.

For the outer border I quilted an triangular design, a feather wreath in the four outer corners & filled the background to give a look of prairie points, I also used a touch of black thread, which my assistant ( AKA ~ hubby ) thought I needed to do!
Please click on the following photo to see what I mean.
Batting is a Bamboo/cotton mix.





Then finally I draped the quilt in our apple tree.....just because!



Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Presents, customer quilt & a rose


What do these three things have in common?? They are all at my house...........but not for long!

First the presents.........................
Cat , over at Catalina's Cottage organised a Advent Swap & I took part. So for the past month I have been sorting, making, buying & wrapping presents for my swap buddy Dawn. 
Here are all 25 of the gifts for Dawn............( one for each advent day )
  And I did manage to put them all neatly into to a box, which is now on it's way to Dawn in the USA.
There will be no public mention of how much this was to post!!!
Enjoy your 25 days of December Dawn!!


Secondly, the customer quilt
. A little cot panel quilted up for a sample at The Country Yard . Cotton batting & minky backing. My quilting inspiration came from Leah, over at the free motion quilting project, only I used my walking foot.
You really need to click on these photo's.


 I wish you could feel how soft the backing is.....................


And last, but not least, a rose.

 This will be gone soon, as roses do, but then lucky for me another will follow!

The last photo is what I have been working on for the last few days & will be finished soon.