Catch up time!

Hello and welcome to the month of October. Someone said Christmas is only "X" amount of weeks away! What is that all about? I'm sure I have only just put my Christmas stuff away from last year! Anyhow with zipping over to Brisbane to meet my shiny new grandson I have a few quilts to share that I finished before I left.
First on the podium is Sue's "Lanterns" quilt made for her teenage granddaughter.

Sue asked for an all over quilting design - AKA: Edge to edge , E2E, panto. She left the quilting design choice up to me. I chose "Modern Squares" and used Fantastico thread in the colour "Unicorn" over the polyester batting Sue provided.

The quilt measures 67" x 85" the perfect size for a teenage bed! It doesn't show in the next photo but the backing Sue provided was a pretty mauve.

Next is Janet's bargello quilt made for her adult son, the design is called "X factor" by Chris Timms. Again I was requested to do E2E quilting. Janet chose "Gossamer" and also the thread "Pheasant" over her own batting.

                        This is a large quilt, measuring 96" x 103". Fantastic design isn't it?

No photo of the back this time, only a photo of the quilt on the machine along with the quilting pattern.

Last but certainly NOT least! Rachel's "Vintage Christmas" design by Kaaren Johnston and was published in the Primitive Quilts Magazine. Rachel wanted light custom quilting and only ditch stitching for the stitchery blocks as she wants to add some hand quilting.

 Rachel loves stipple and was also keen to try a swagged border for this quilt. I used Glide thread one called "Brownie" (guess what colour that is?? :-) and also the colour "Linen"......................

Measuring 69" x 75" Rachel supplied the batting and backing. I look forward to seeing this rustic charming quilt with it's binding and of course the hand quilting.

Thank you so much Sue, Janet and Rachel for letting me loose on your lovely creations!
Next blog post I will be sharing something very exciting that I have had to keep top secret for what seems like FOREVER!! I shall have to post over several 'episodes' as there's much to share! Stay tuned! Until then here's a photo of the new little man that has my heart all a fluttering!

After Twenty years!

Jacki started this quilt about twenty years ago & here it is finished!!

Done as a BOM through Grandmothers Garden, a pattern by Jan Patek , which I see from Jan's blog she is running as a collectors series, apparently this was Jan's first BOM.

Some of the blocks........................

Jacki wanted no heavy quilting & I had to agree that was the best road to take. She thought the best would be to hand quilt using a large running stitch, but then thought it might take another twenty years to finish!!
I thought loose stipple was in keeping with the style with a few other bits n' bobs thrown in.
And last but certainly not least the back..............

Jacki makes the most wonderful pieced backs, they add an extra punch of interest.

Click to enlarge the photo's. You will see three orphaned blocks, one is this wonderful cat................

Cotton/ bamboo batting, plaids, brushed cottons, flannels. Black flannel was used for the sashing & binding.

Take a bow Jacki.....you did a great job!

primitive finish & a gift

Finishing a project is a great feeling..................................

This pattern is from the American magazine : Primitive Quilts. I enjoyed making this scrappy hanging. This now hangs in my studio as I stitched my quilting business name on it, the best place for it would be in there.

I changed a couple of things from the original.

Last week I got a lovely surprise in the mail from a phone/bloggy friend in the deep south, Jenny.

Beautifully wrapped in lovely tissue with pretty antique lace.

Inside the most lovely linen type fabric, more lace & a beautiful button. Please check out Jenny's lovely blog, where you will discover she has a wonderful B&B as well as a sweet little shop with wonderful treats for all!
There is also a link on my side bar.
I will leave you with July's page on my calender. ( sideways!!!)

Books........

Hi all!
I hope life is interesting for you all, no doubt some of you are having a few challenges as life seems to throw us all from time to time.
No quilt photo's today but thought I'd share a couple of new books I have.................

Primitive Quilts

I got this wee beauty from my favourite quilt shop this is a new magazine from America.If you love country quilts, this is for you....there are one or two (or three!) things I would like to make.

A novel I bought off Fishpond (like Amazon for those of you outside New Zealand) So far I am really enjoying this book.It is about the Amish community and hopefully about quilting ...just a guess from the title.
It would be great if it was a talking book, then I could 'read' a book AND quilt!

Speaking of talking books, the last two I got from the library were terrible!Boring, boring, and BORING!!!