Little Grace finished, a meeting and more

I finished quilting Little Grace late last week. The quilt is only 34cm by 42 cm (about 13 inches by 16.5 inches), but it is hand pieced and hand quilted. The pattern is by Jeanneke. Thank you Jeanneke for choosing me as the winner of this pattern and the printed fabric to make this doll quilt.

Recently I had the pleasure of spending a morning with Cathy of Cabbage Quilts. We visited a plant nursery and cafe and took a look around before we had coffee together.

We found some quilt inspiration....

...a wonderful pergola made from metal. There are some more photos on Cathy's blog.

I still catching up with my Barbara Brackman Civil War blocks. I finished two more this weekend.

 Block 23 Illinois Roads in the most recent block, and below is block 12 Louisiana.

I have also been cutting out triangles for the border of my Morrell Quilt.

I still have a few more background fabric triangles to cut out....then lots of stitching. :)


I hope for my next post I will have photos of some progress on my first Friends of Baltimore block.

Happy Sewing.

Catching up.

During the last couple of weeks I have been working on several projects and trying to catch up.

I have finished 2 more of  Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilt blocks.

I have finished one more Tailfeathers Block.

I have been working steadily on hand quilting Little Grace.
 Here are some progress photos from this afternoon..

I finally finished the quilting tonight. :)  I will take a photo in the morning, when the light is better.

I started my first Friends of Baltimore block. There is lots of preparation work before any sewing starts. The first pieces I prepared were the stems. I have never made stems as small as 1/8" wide before!!
I tried a technique I read about recently where, as the fabric is passed under a pin both sides fold towards the centre. You iron the stem as you pull it through the gap under the pin. It worked well.

The pattern has lots of tiny (for me) pieces to be appliqued. I got out my copy of Applique 12 Easy Ways by Elly Sienkiewicz and prepared a small block with practice pieces. I have started with trying applique with freezer paper on top....another new to me technique.

Those leaves and stems are going to be a challenge!

I have all the freezer paper templates prepared and ironed on to my chosen fabrics. The next step will be to make some circles. Hopefully, nest week I will have something stitched on my first block.

I found a relatively new blog during the week. This blog is dedicated to a challenge to make a quilt to commemorate 200 years since the 1812 war in USA. I don't plan to take part in the challenge, but there are some wonderful old quilts shown on the blog.

I will be back soon with more photos.

Enjoy the rest of your week. Happy sewing! :)

I'm Back!!!!!

Life is almost back to normal now after the wedding, lots of traveling and visitors.

The only sewing I have done for the last couple of months is this EPP doll quilt top.

I finished the piecing last night, so now to baste and quilt it. The fabric I will be using for the backing is in the background.

I recently entered a giveaway on Lissa Alexander's blog ( http://modalissa.blogspot.com/ )
I was very pleased to win!!!

Below is the prize..

The book, which has been autographed by Jan Vaine, is full of designs and instructions for various embroidery stitches and applique inspiration. There is also a CD as well as a set of patterns.
Thank you Lissa and Jan! :)

I can't wait to use this book on my next new project...........

Friends of Baltimore by Sue Garman.

Each package includes the patterns and very detailed instructions for 2 of the blocks or a border. I really love the borders, especially that each vase in the border is different. This quilt will be a huge undertaking, but I have always wanted to make a Baltimore Album style quilt.
If anyone has made a BA quilt before I would be very pleased if you could pass on any hints! :)

In the photo above you can see the fabric I have selected for my background (Kona bone) and the red for the sashing (Moda Bella Christmas Red)
Below are my greens....

It will be a loooong project...........especially since I plan to work on Roseville Album at the same time (Call me crazy, but I love a challenge!!!)
I will be using mostly quite traditional fabrics for Friends of Baltimore, but very contemporary Kaffe Fassett style fabrics for the Roseville Album.

In between I will continue to work on Several WIPs. Currently I am sewing block 8 of Tailfeathers, so there is not much left before I can join all those blocks together.
I also plan to catch up with Barbara Brackman's civil war blocks.

(I think I am suffering from stitching withdrawal! lol, after not doing much sewing for a few weeks!)



I am leaving you with a couple of photos of fauna this post, instead of my usual flora....

I hope you like my new blog header.



Happy sewing!!

Starting a new small quilt

Little Grace.

This is the pattern I won from Jeanneke at the end of last year. I like to have a hand piecing project to work on and because this one is so small it won't take too long to finish. It is sewn together using English paper piecing and I have all the papers covered ready to start sewing.

Included with my pattern were all the pre cut squares of  printed fabric. There are lots of tiny, cute prints in the Aunt Grace fabrics.

If you visit Jeanneke's blog and scroll down to her December 6th 2010 post she has the complete instructions (with lots of photographs) to make the quilt yourself.

This is block 7 of the Tailfeathers BOM. Only 2 more embroidered blocks to go now.

These 2 blocks are my most recent finishes of the Civil War Quilt blocks.  Block 8, Cotton Boll is on the right and block 9, Birds in the Air on the left.  I have one more to make to be up to date.


My quilting is going to slow down considerably in the next few weeks. Our DD is getting married soon, so there are lots of wedding preparations to complete....including helping to make her wedding dress.  It is an exciting ..... and stressful time!

Something old, something new, "Catch Me If You Can" and a win.

This year I am going to try to concentrate on finishing a few WIPs. There will be a new start or 2, but I have quite a few projects that are partly done that deserve to be finished. I finally got all my klosjes sewn together! There will be a couple of borders added to this little quilt. You will see it again soon!

The small quilt below I started last year, but left it at the point of quilting. Up until now any quilt I have finished has only had in-the-ditch, straight line quilting or meandering on it. This quilt was my first try at more "challenging for me" free motion quilting.


I outlined some doves and did pebbling around them.



I still like the look of meandering.


A view of the back.



I will keep practising my machine quilting. I have another quilt that has lots of curved lines and straight line patterns in the quilting design. If our weather stays cool enough I will be working on it next.



This WIP is from the pattern I won from Barb late last year. I love hand applique and Folk Art Fantasy is different from anything I have made before.



Still a few more pieces to applique. I have used all Dargate fabrics on this panel.



The new year has brought lots of new projects in blogland. This one is one I have decided to join in. Barbara Brackman has started a new blog to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Each week there will be a true story from people of the time and a pattern for a quilt block. I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to learn some American history, and to make 52 blocks which will make a commemorative quilt.

The first block is named Catch Me If You Can, and here is mine.


The fabric I used is designed by Barbara Brackman, but it is from The Morris Workshop collection. Certainly not Civil War repro fabric, but I had this fabric on hand and I love it!


Since finding Kathleen Tracy's group specialising in small quilts I have discovered several blogs written by people who make mostly small quilts. One blog I read regularly belongs to Jeanneke. Jeanneke makes doll quilts and has made patterns for several of them. Late last year Jeanneke had a giveaway and I was lucky enough to win!!! Below is what arrived in the mail yesterday! :) Thank you for your generosity, Jeanneke!



The card has a photograph of another of Jeanneke's quilts. There is a pack of Aunt Grace fabric already cut into squares. The pattern also includes all the papers required to use English Paper Piecing to make the quilt.


I plan to have some more Josephs Coat blocks finished before my next post.

I hope 2011 brings everyone happiness, good health and lots of sewing time!