Calendar Bears and a Northern Shop Hop quilt

Today I am sharing two quilts made by Noeline. First is 'Calendar Bears', designed by Michelle Ridgway , put together as a BOM by The Country Yard.

As usual Noeline's stitching is so beautiful, tiny, neat, precise stitches. She asked for minimal quilting. I did have free range on the border though.

    I used Glide thread colour 'Linen' for the straight lines on the blocks and the feather border.
       A snap shot of the back lets you see the feather on the border better than the front view.

Noeline's other beauty is last years Northern Shop Hop quilt from The Country Yard, called "Love in Paris".

Noeline chose to have the extra borders, taking the original ( which I quilted *here*) from 48" x 48" to 61" square. Making this a nice topper for Noeline's bed, she tells me it's a keeper! Noeline liked how I quilted the shop sample, so I went with that, but of course hers being slightly bigger I had to expand on that original design of mine.

I quite like how the cross hatching takes your eye to the outer edges. Most of the quilting is the same as the shop sample except for a few touches here and there to make it an original for Noeline.

Cross hatching and feathers and swirls help keep this quilt have a romantic feel, it is "Love in Paris" after all!

Because I quite like to see the back of the quilts just like you do, here are a couple.

                         Thank you to Noeline for 'letting me loose' on your quilts!

Now I don't want to freak you all out with words like: "Christmas is only ......... days away", but the Christmas clock is ticking and the closer the time comes the more you lovely quiltmakers start to panic about getting your quilts finished. If you are planning on commissioning me as your long arm quilter
 a) - I would be delighted!
 b) please don't leave it until November to get them to me!
 The sooner the better, if you have them to the flimsy stage get them to me, if you only have borders to go, go ahead and put those borders on. P.S here is a great link on how to attach sashings and borders:http://quiltville.blogspot.co.nz/2005/06/border-hints.html

So with that bad word out of the way...........happy patchin'!!

Making quilts for family.....................

Aside from quilting samples for the shops New Years Launch , which I can't share with you for a few more weeks, I have made two quilts for family members. The first was for one of my sisters.

Now I'm not sure how the 'Quilt Police'  & her deputies feel about me gifting a quilt that I made a couple of years ago? But isn't it the thought that counts?
 I was planning on making my sister a quilt, like I did for my other sister ( see here ).But when I found out it was a birthday that was ending with ' 0 ' I thought, perfect timing to give a quilt!!! Then this one came to mind, it hasn't been used, so I washed it, to freshen it up, put a label on it & a hanging sleeve.
The simple pattern was from a magazine ( sorry can't remember which one! ), I do remember the pattern called for fat 1/8's & simple stitcheries.


The next is made with the recipient in mind, one of my nieces.

the back of the quilt

 

hanging out in the apple tree





This one is called ....'Jellycake' by Anne Sommerlad from a Australian Country Craft magazine, VOL 21 NO 9 Fabric is 'Petite Odile' from French General. The quilt uses a jelly roll & a layer cake. 

 

Quilter on holiday......................

I am back from a weeks holiday in Wellington, well Linden/Tawa. Stayed at a great place, a nice alternative to a motel. Ferntops  was a perfect home away from home, hubby was at a conference and I came prepared to sew the days away!

 This suitcase was full of projects to sew. I got three quilt tops made, only one was from scratch, the other two I had already made a start on. I took my box with 2.5" squares to join as a leader & ender project too.

First was the Christmas stitchery, I had all 16 stitcheries finished. This is a Gail Pan design called 'All Things Christmas' I have made this as a shop sample for The Country Yard which will be available as a kit soon.
Here is a close up of one of the blocks..................

Next....'Jellycake' by Anne Sommerlad from a Australian Country Craft magazine, VOL 21 NO 9 Fabric is 'Petite Odile' from French General. The quilt uses a jelly roll & a layer cake. This will be a present for one of my nieces.

 Last but not least...............

 This one is not quite finished as I want to put a sashing (maybe dark brown? ) then a border. This will be for one of my sisters. Now if you have been following my blog for time you might recognise the star blocks. They have been dusted off from my head ache box , or a more trendy way to say....'upcycled! Yup they were from Orca Bay   now they are living a new life.

Of course I see I have now created more work for myself as these will ALL need quilting!!!!!

I wished I had thought to bring my camera as we stayed & saw some great places, like Creel Lodge, Brown Sugar cafe a great little second hand shop in Taihape, where I bought an old ladder, I met a lovely lady that owns the quilt shop in Taihape called "The Quilted Gumboot'. Krazy Cow Quilts in Levin.