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.

Sarah Morrell is finished!

Its over 4 years since I started the quilt, but it "only" took about a year and a half to complete the top.
I purchased Sarah Morrell as a BOM from Threadbear.  At the time I had no repro fabric stash and no idea how to put together fabrics to create a quilt like this!
I was lucky enough to take some classes with Di Ford at Needles and Pins while I was making the quilt. Di's help and inspiration was invaluable!

Now for some close ups of a few of the blocks. (Lots of photos!)

Katrina did a wonderful job with her quilting.

I love the feathers...

And on my favourite block

Love his extra feathering.

All of the blocks were hand pieced or hand appliqued, except for this triple Irish chain. I chickened out and machine pieced this one! Lol Those pieces are 1/2 inch squares!

 Some blocks were appliqued using needleturn.

Many others were stitched down with hand buttonhole stitch using a single thread of Gutterman cotton.

I love broderie perse!

Lots of fun with fussy cutting many of the pieced blocks.

My very first experience with hexies!

My first flying geese!

On the back I used a strip made with some of the left over fabric.

I am very glad I stuck with this quilt, made every block and finished the whole quilt! It was a wonderful learning experience which has led to a renewed love of hand work, a new way of looking at fabrics for fussy cutting and lots more quilts (well, the start of many quilts! Lol)



The roses are in full bloom in my garden.

A visit to Laos - Part 2 Architecture

...and a little stitching. :)

I have taken so many photos its difficult to choose just a few. So here are lots of photos and not many words!

The first few are from That Luang, a buddhist stupa near the centre of Vientiane.

In the grounds of the stupa are many other buildings.

Another huge building is Patuxay, or Victory Gate of Vientiane. It resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris....

..not a particularly beautiful building from the outside, but look what is inside!!!

Following are a few more photos from several other temples. I found the colours, the sights, the designs all over whelming!!

There will be more about nagas, below, in another post.

 That Dam (black stupa) is another very old stupa near where we stayed.

If you have read this far, just a couple of stitching photos.

Stitching on the plane!

I took the centre block of the Chester Criswell quilt to applique while we were away. I did manage to do a little and finished after we got home. Photos coming soon!

I have been busy stitching down the binding on Sarah Morrell. The last stitch was made last night!!! Woohoo!!!

Hopefully I can get photos of the whole quilt taken today.

Today its a beautiful, Spring day here in Melbourne. I'm off to enjoy the sunshine. I hope the sun is shining for you today too!