Two finishes.

It has been a long time coming, but I have finally finished Joseph's Coat quilt top!

I began this quilt during an online quilt-along with Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now blog. I was lucky enough to take some classes with Kellie when I first started the quilt. After making lots of the circles the quilt was put on the back burner while I made (started!!!) a few more quilts.
When I finally got the circles back out again I had to figure out how to put them all together! I decided to applique them to a background. Luckily I still had plenty of the background fabric.

The quilt is all hand appliqued. Each melon was prepared using a wash away backing, cut in the melon shape, which was ironed onto the fabric. I then used a glue stick to glue the edges of the fabric around the melon.The melons where then hand appliqued down with matching thread onto a background square to form the circle shape. A photo of a single circle can be found at the top of this post. I cut away the excess fabric before appliqueing each circle down. Half circles where made to fill the gaps. There was lots of preparation time before I put the top together!

All the fabrics in this quilt are designed by either Kaffe Fassett, Brandon Mably or Philip Jacobs.

This quilt will be for my DD and her DH.

I will back it with one of the more blue fabrics.

While trying to decide how to finish the quilt, we did think about making a scalloped edge following the shape of the blocks, but decided to keep the quilt a rectangle and maintain a border of white around the blocks.

I did also consider hand quilting it, but I want to finish it before the decade ends (Lol!!!), so I willl be machine quilting it!


Just a sneak peek of my other finish. I will have lots more photos after I given the quilt to its recipient.

Swooning Southern Belles quilt is finished!


Happy New Year to everyone!!

A big thank you to everyone who visits my blog, reads any of my posts or leaves a comment!!

May 2014 bring you all that you wish for.

Miriam.

Edited to add.... Katrina, who quilted my Sarah Morrell quilt, has just posted  about how she quilted my quilt, see here.
To see more photos on my blog of my finished Sarah Morrell go here.
Lots of progress photos in several posts here.

Chester Criswell Quilt Block 16

I got this block finished earlier in the week, before the rush of Christmas festivities really start.

Luckily Sharon chose and easier block for this month.



Confession time....

...remember that little foundation piecing project I mentioned in my last post???

Well, I chickened out! Lol  Foundation piecing just does my head in with all the flipping of fabric and making sure you have all the pieces and seams covered! I did make a practice piece with scrap fabric. It turned out veeerrry wonky, and the fabric I wasted!!! Oh my!! Must be the (very watered down) Scot in me! Lol

So, I hand pieced it!!

My flamingo is still missing an eye and I did have to do some unsewing because I made him late at night! He is around 3 inches by 4 inches.

A little gift stitching too.

Pattern and instructions for the tea cosy on the Liberty Craft blog here.

Countdown to Christmas top finished and more

I had a late night sewing session last night and managed to get my Countdown to Christmas top all sewn together! I love how it looks and I just had to keep stitching till it was done.  Hopefully there are no bloppers there because I was stitching way past my bedtime! Lol

The quilt will finish at roughly 32 by 40 inches, depending if I add a narrow border before the binding.

In my last post I mentioned L'ucello was having a shopping event. Well, I went and I was lucky enough to win one of their prizes. I chose this book...

The book is aimed primarily at a beginner, but it has a variety of projects. I have been crocheting since I was a slip of a girl and there is plenty in there to inspire me.

I also purchased the fabrics under the book. They are from Mas d'ouvan and had just arrived in the shop. I also found this one, also from Mas d'ouvan.

All these fabrics have a polished finish, similar to the Dutch Chintz fabrics, but are they are finer. I haven't tried hand stitching with any of them yet, but I will let you know how I go.

Late last week I had another trip to support the local economy and headed down to Amitie.  There I met Cathy (Cabbage Quilts) and Andi (Patch Andi). Cathy and I had a lovely stroll around the shop and I came home with a selection of red fabrics.

 In my last post I had a little sneak peek of a small project I was making. This little purse was a birthday gift for a friend.

I found the pattern in an old issue of Quiltmania. Several of these fabrics were recent purchases from here.

Our Friday sewing group has been issued with a challenge. We were each gven a little stack of fabrics and a pattern (all the way from Houston, USA!) to make a rug mug.

Mine is a flamingo, hence the colours! Wish me luck because it is foundation pieced and I am waaay out of my depth with that technique! I am looking forward to learning something new!

It is supposed to be summer here in Melbourne. Three days ago it was close to 38 C (100 F), today it is closer to 11 C (52 F) with heavy rain, thunder and hail! The perfect weather to stay at home and stitch!