Something to post about, at last!!

It's been toooo long.  I've still kept up with all my favorite quilty blogs , just haven't had much to blog about myself :((

I have a couple of works in progress, the first is much further ahead than the second but I'm pretty excited about the second one!

I bought this great pattern for a Jelly Roll quilt by the clever Pam and Nicky Lintott to make a quilt for my 12 year old son, Jorden.  The blocks went together very quickly and so simply!  I have used Independence Trail by Minick and Simpson, 1 Jelly Roll and some yardage plus some background yardage from French General.

I am going to use the gorgeous red fabric below for a border, not included in the pattern but I want the quilt to be a little larger.

The colour is a little wacky because I didn't use a flash, just the lightbulb in the room but you see how lovely it is, Minick and Simpson, Independence Trail again.

Here are the blocks so far.

I am really looking forward to getting this finished and ready to quilt, I think my gorgeous boy will like it.  It's been pretty cold and miserable lately so he will certainly appreciate its warmth.  I think I'll use a 60% wool 40% polyester batting, I've used it many times and love the way it quilts.  It's cozy , warm and not too heavy as well as machine washable.

The other project I have started this week is a Rose Wreath. I Googled "Rose Wreath quilts" on Images and drew up my own pattern, a little imperfect!  I rushed out and bought the fabric for the background, a white quilter's muslin.  I also bought the green and the yellow then stumbled with the red because the pattern has a double pink against the red so I had to be very careful.  I brought home a couple of samples and was horrified at how awful they looked with the double pink I planned to use.  I was feeling a little frustrated when I remembered I had some wonderful red fabric from a project I have been working on in fits and starts for a while.  Long story short it was perfect, a very raspberry red, so I rushed out to my LQS and asked if they had any left, "no sorry", they only had a small piece in the remnant basket, shock horror!  Oh, wait a minute!  They had another print but the same colour run!!! It's even more appropriate, printwise, than my original red so I went home a very happy camper!  Fabric sorted I couldn't wait to get started on the first block, of which there will be nine!  I hope I can keep up the momentum.  I never was crazy about applique but really fell in love with it a few years ago, I love that it's portable and very soothing to do in the evening.  This may take a while to complete but It should be lovely with plenty of space to fill with feather quilting!!

Here is my pattern, it's in pencil (so not terribly clear) and on 6 sheets of A4 printer paper stuck together with masking tape, I'm no expert pattern drafter!  However, it does the job!

I am using freezer paper templates ironed onto the right side of the fabric then I trace around the freezer paper with the white Clover marker and do needle turn applique.  I have traced the pattern onto the white background fabric with a wash out blue marker, using dots where I can. I may try something different with the next block as I'm not 100% comfortable using these markers after all the horror stories I've read of the marks returning months after the project has been completed and the marker washed out! I am removing the marker as I go!!

I will post a picture of the fabrics and my applique progress in a day or so, should have taken some before I started this post, sorry!

Feels good to be posting again.

Happy quilting,

Rowena