Scrappy Hexagon Quilt and a Nine Patch

I've neglected my blog over the past few + months but finally I have something worth posting, quilting has taken a bit of a back seat for a while.

This hexagon quilt is a customer quilt with a story.  The lady who brought this quilt top to me had rescued this and another hexagon top the same from a trip to the garbage tip!!  It really is a true scrap quilt, it has bits of dress fabrics , curtain fabrics, shirts and cottons and some lady spent a huge amount of time hand stitching the scraps over papers then hand stitching them altogether with the tiniest stitches into this quilt top...it horrifies me to think it could have ended up as land fill!

I have quilted it with all over meandering feathers in white cotton King Tut thread with a cotton batting so once it's washed it will get that lovely crinkly, old quilt look.

I really love the quirky scappiness of this quilt and look forward to seeing and quilting the next one.

This next quilt is for a lovely lady who made this for her brother, a retired butcher, who has recently recovered from a serious illness.  I love the backing fabric, butchers apron anyone?!  I also really like the simplicity of this nine patch.

I quilted this very simply with a meander and piano key border. This was another scrap basket quilt.

I am finally stitching my Jacob's Ladder blocks together and am still working on an applique center block for a quilt I have in mind.

If you look closely you'll see some of the blocks have been put together in a rather "unusual " way....I was tired and should have been in bed!  I paid for my silliness with all the unpicking and re-stitching of the offending blocks!! I have ended up with 42 x 12" blocks which should make a reasonable size quilt.  The finished top should be my next blog post, lol.

I imagine everyone is getting organised for Christmas,  no matter how good my intentions are I always seem to have a few presents I need to buy at the last minute, old habits die hard!

Merry Christmas to you all,

Rowena 

Applique Quilt Center and Binding done!

I have this pretty applique block I've been picking up now and then over the past few weeks in between quilting the repro nine patch.  As you can see I've made a bit of progress.  I think I mentioned it's a Blackbird Designs block from their book When the Cold Wind Blows.  I'm loving how it's looking so far.

For the binding on my repro nine patch I used a Blackbird Designs fabric that matches the setting square fabric.  I love how this quilt has turned out.  Just needs a label now,yay.  Sometimes the simplest designs are the most pleasing.

I've been loving the little houses being made into quilts, check out this blog Jeanneke's Blog and scroll down the posts and you will see the gorgeous little house blocks and somewhere she has a link to a blog she set up specifically for the little houses quilts.  Whether or not you find the little houses blog or not, her blog has lots of beautiful eye candy, she loves to make quilts from lots of small, traditional blocks, so perfectly lovely!!  I am slowly becoming tempted to make a quilt from small blocks.  Also check out  Supergoof's Blog she makes such wonderful quilts, enjoy!

That's all for now.

Happy stitching,

Rowena

Finished Nine Patch with Feather Wreaths

I've finished quilting my repro nine patch that I had the problem with running out of backing.  I sorted that out and quickly finished the quilting.  Now I just have to make the binding and put it on, I hope to do that next week.

I thought I'd show you the stencil I used to mark the feather wreaths in the setting blocks.  I used the medium wreath on the stencil and a pounce pad.  They really went quite quickly once I got into a rhythm.

I really love the end result with all those feathered wreaths across the quilt.

I used a lovely red backing which is something I wouldn't usually do, choose a strongly contrasting backing.  I used a dark red thread in the bobbin and a goldy thread ( King Tut by Superior Threads )in the top.  I fiddled with the tension for ages but still had some "pokies" on the back.  As this is going to be a snuggle quilt the family will use while watching TV I'm not terribly worried.  I used  Matilda's Own batting 60% wool and 40% poly.  Possibly the pokies may become less visible after washing and drying.

I'm watching Midsomer Murders tonight and doing some more applique on the centre block I posted about recently.  Pictures of that next time.

Happy stitching,

Rowena

Jacobs Ladder and Some Shopping

I have been having a lovely time playing with my repros making these Jacobs Ladder blocks.  They go together so easily and fairly quickly, but oops!  I have put some together with the four patch blocks turned the wrong way!  Looks like there will be some un-sewing tomorrow, poop, can't say it's my favourite thing to do.  It's my own fault, sewing too late at night when I really should have been in bed asleep.  Anyway
here's what I've made so far, mistake blocks 'an all, lol.

I also don't like the block second from the left on the bottom row, I think that one will have to go.  

Yesterday I went and picked up a book from my LQS that I'd had put aside and a few FQ and some shirting fabric came home with me.

Scrap Quilt ( Mania) by Linda Koenig is such a wonderful book filled with gorgeous scrappy quilts to make.  

Here are a few that caught my eye when I had a quick flip through it.  

I love the larger red centres in these log cabin blocks.

This is one of a few examples of antique scrappy quilts in the book, I love the bold chrome yellow background fabric and nine patch quilts have always been a favourite of mine.

There are so many other wonderful quilts in this book published by Quilt Mania.  I'm sure if you went to their website you could order it and they often have it set up so you can look through the books .

I had a problem with the nine patch I've had on my quilting frame that I've never had happen before which made me crazy.  I reached the end of ther quilt and had just a few inches to finish and ran out of backing !!!

I had to take it off the frame, cut a strip from the side of the backing ,stitch it along the bottom then put the quilt back on the frame, argh!  Never want to do that again!  Hope to get it finished today.

Happy quilting ,

Rowena

Feathered Nine Patch and Applique

I've started quilting my repro nine patch and I'm very happy with my choice of a feathered wreath in the setting squares and CC in the nine patch blocks .

I used a stencil and pounce pad to mark the wreaths and a CC ruler by constantinequilts.com which is so easy to use.

I've also started the centre for a quilt I've had in mind for a while.  I'm using a pattern from the Blackbird Designs girls book When the Cold Wind Blows.

I have it all prepped and most of the pieces stuck on with a dot or two of Roxanne's glue but my camera batteries went flat and I can't for the life of me find the new ones I bought, argh!

I have also been playing around with some repros for a Jacob's Ladder quilt...like I need another quilt started!  I saw a couple in magazines and couldn't help myself.  This is in the Autumn 2011 Special Quiltmania, it's made by Quilting With the Past Lucy Kramer Van Der Sluis. gorgeous!

Here's my humble beginning.

Hope everyone is happy quilting their way through another year.

Cheers,

Rowena

Quilts Blocks and Quilt Tops

Life has been busy and I haven't been posting very often but I have managed to get a little sewing done.  I've made a couple more of these blocks.

                                                     









I'm loving the fabrics in the Luna Notte range by 3 Sisters for Moda.

I also have some quilt tops waiting to be quilted.  I have had a really painful elbow from a quilt I did some weeks ago.  It had hours of stitch in the ditch and I've given myself a type of tennis elbow from pressing a ruler against the presser foot while keeping the needle in the ditch.  So I have been resting it instead of quilting my quilts.  These are some quilt tops I'd love to get quilted in the near future.

I was inspired to make this quilt top by a gorgeous book, Quilts of  Provence by Kathryn Berenson.  I bought the fabric quite a few (or more) years ago.  I can't wait to quilt it.

This nine patch I've posted a picture of previously but now I have this rich red fabric to use for the backing.  It makes me think of a red wholecloth quilt a longarm quilter made that had a name something to the effect of "Are red quilts warmer".  I love red in winter so I'm very pleased with my backing fabric.

The small quilt on the right is from the book, Remembering Adelia by Kathleen Tracy.  You can visit her blog A Sentimental Quilter .  Here's a better photo even though I've posted a photo of this one before too.

So, as you can see I have a few quilts to finish.

Happy stitching,

Rowena

                                                                              

Eight Pointed Stars

Around 12 years ago I bought some pretty soft coloured fabrics with great intentions...mmm, I'm sure you know what I mean.  Fast forward 8 years... I started sewing these 8 pointed stars by hand from said fabrics while I watched my son have his Karate classes.  I made 20 or so 8 1/2 inch blocks, now another 4 years have passed and I have been finishing off the last 6 or 7 blocks by machine.  I laid them out on point over the back of an old quilt yesterday and I think it will make quite a nice quilt once it's finished.  The quilting will have to be a "star" too with so much quilters muslin.  Not much of anything else going on as life has been getting in the way of quilting!

The colours look a bit washed out in this picture so I took some of individual blocks.

The colours are more accurate in these pictures .

I'm looking forward to quiet Easter school holidays and some time to devote to finishing off my French Bouquet quilt top.  I'm about to tackle a scalloped border for the first time and I bought

Darlene Zimmerman's Easy Scallop tool on the recommendation of Lyn from Sew n' Wild Oaks, I hope it's as easy as Lyn makes it look!

Happy Easter to you all,

Rowena

Mini /Doll Quilt and Quilt Top

Earlier in the year Kathie from Inspired by Antique Quilts gave the size for the template to make this little block so other quilty bloggers could make a little quilt if they would like to.   I made a Christmas coloured small quilt top and then yesterday I made this one, using some repro charm squares I've had sitting near my machine for ages.  I've made this one smaller than the Christmas quilt top and I really like the size.  I think this one will live on the wall above my sewing table once it's completed.  I have a collection of small and mini quilts ready to be quilted, I need to find a backing fabric that will suit all of them so I can quilt them on my longarm machine.

I have finally put this top together and all it needs now is the border.  I'm so pleased with how this has turned out.  It's a pattern called French Bouquet by Kookaburra Cottage and I've mostly used Rural Jardin by French General which I love.  So I'll get cracking and put the border on so I can get it quilted ready to put on my bed when the cooler weather sets in, not too far off.

I am really happy with the applique centre, I was a little unsure if the fabric I chose for the leaves and stems would look OK.

Happy stitching,

Rowena

Missing In Action and Longarm Quilting

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted!  My youngest son moved to a new school at the beginning of this term and I seem to be running back and forth to the school constantly as his bus pass hasn't come through yet.  He is really loving his new school and has made new friends easily.

On the quilting front I haven't done anything much for myself however, I have had a customer quilt which has been keeping me busy!  A lovely customer,Lynn, brought me this quilt which she has made as a gift for some friend's wedding.  It has been a long and fiddly job as the back ground fabric has a very loose weave and as a result the quilt was very unstable.  I have spent hours doing stitch in the ditch in every seam join!  When I finally got all that done I was able to get on with the fun creative work!

I used Matilda's Own Wool  60% Poly 40% batting and Superior's King Tut threads.  These are the best I could do with photos the other day.  The first photo is the quilt top before it was quilted.

Happy stitching,

Rowena

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Civil War Blocks 50 & 51

January just seems to have flown by without too much sewing going on.  I did get these Civil War blocks done for Barbara Brackman's quilt-along, which is now finished, however the instructions will remain for a few months if you're interested.  The link is the Civil War Quilts button on my sidebar.

This is block 50, Grapes of Wrath.

This next one is block 51, New York.

I have two more blocks to make and then I can put them together, it should make an interesting quilt.

I have a large quilt to do for a customer this week.  I'll post some photos when I have finished.

Hope everyone is enjoying 2012 so far.

Happy stitching,

Rowena