Next Noah and Matilda Block

Finally I have the 4th March Noah and Matilda block completed.

I made it a little differently to the pattern.

A fussy cut pansy between




two broderie perse flowers

and a sweet little bird!

Now on to April's blocks.

Have a great weekend everyone. :)

Mountmellic block 1 finished.

This year Quiltmania magazine is publishing a Mystery Quilt, designed by Di Ford, called Mountmellic. 

I have completed the centre medallion using all French General fabrics.

I've made a start on lots more applique

In a previous post I showed a photo of the French General fabrics I selected to use on Mountmellic, Di Ford's mystery quilt in Quiltmania. I finally made a start! All the flowers and leaves for the broderie perse have been chosen and I have started appliquing them down. The fabric I used is a chintz-like print from La Belle Fleur. It has been lightly tea dyed to match the background as closely as possible.

I also chose to receive the BOM fabrics from Threadbear. I will make the quilt up in these fabrics as well, but (at the moment!) I plan to just make the centre block from my French General fabric collection. It has been fun to sort through fabrics, just restricting myself to French General fabrics, and make choices for all the parts of this block.
Part 2 has been released already, so I need to get a wriggle on! Lol

I have also made a start on block 19 of CCCQ

This one won't take too long.

I've also started selecting fabrics for 3 of the next 4 Noah and Matilda blocks.

The 4th block is much more intricate and will require more fabrics. It even has some embroidery!! :)

Photos and news from in interstate holiday in my next post.

There is also quite a bit of secret creating going on here. :)

Learning to rock, and lots more.

Well, its been a couple of weeks since my last post, so there has been some stitching happening here! :)

Each summer Somerset holds a Summer School with various classes held over about 2 weeks. This year I attended the hand quilting class. I have, unsuccessfully, tried to hand quilt by rocking before. This time, just one little change to my technique and it works!!! I know I need to keep practicing, but I am happy with how my stitches are progressing.

I tried both the Thimblelady thimble and the Roxanne thimble. At the moment I am most comfortable using the Thimblelady thimble.

Here in Melbourne the week before last we had a 4 day heatwave that saw temperatures well over 40 C.  I hid inside and distracted myself with some sewing.

The week before I had been in the city and visited my favourite shop and purchased this pattern.

L'ucello collaborated with French General to produce this sewing accessory pattern using a French General line of fabric that will be released later this year.

I made 2 needlebooks for friends having birthdays.

I used French General fabrics I had on hand. The flowers on the covers are appliqued with hand broderie perse.

The inside is finished with mother of pearl buttons. I did a machine buttonhole stitch around each leaf of the book.

Last week was the annual Fabric Frolic here in Melbourne. I was lucky enough to win a voucher from Ringwood Sewing Centre! :)
This is what I came home with.

The Clover pen was one recommended during the hand quilting class. The Swatch Buddies will mean I won't have a purse full of little scraps of fabric! Lol. Now I will be able to use those clips instead of pins when I am stitching down bindings.  The Japanese fabrics just had to come home also...can't resist half price!

A little bit of hand applique has also been happening.

Block 2 of Noah and Matilda is complete.

Block 4 is underway.

I'm still not sure whether to continue with the print fabric for the 8 outer flowers. I am wondering if a plain red might look better. What do you think??

I have started to prepare block 3. All the templates have been cut, fabrics chosen and cut and an overlay made. Its a doozey!!!!

We are experiencing another heatwave here in Melbourne! Luckily we get a reprieve tomorrow, then its a few more hot days with an even hotter weekend!

I rescued these roses from my garden this morning.

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.