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

Happy New Year and Mini Pinwheels

Christmas was really special for me, I had all my children at home, which is a very rare occurence.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and 2012 is a year of health and happiness for you and your loved ones.

Kathie from Inspired By Antique Quilts has been making a quilt from pinwheel blocks.  She has kindly written the instructions for making mini pinwheels on her January 1st,  2012 post.  I've had a lovely afternoon playing with these little pinwheels.

I used a Moda Charm Pack, Grace by 3 Sisters that I bought a while ago.  Kathie's instructions made it very simple.  I have a pad of 1/4 inch graph paper especially made for drafting quilt blocks.  I cut out a paper template using the graph paper then glued it to the piece of cardboard on the bottom of the Charm Pack and trimmed the cardboard to size, it was simple and fun.

I don't think I have anything suitable for the border so I'll have to visit my LQS tomorrow.  I was given a very generous gift voucher by some of my family for that very shop!

Go check out Kathie's quilt and her other little quilts , they're gorgeous!

Lori from Humble Quilts is starting another of her quilt-alongs, reproducing one of her small antique quilts.  I'm very tempted.

The blogging quilt community are off to a great start for 2012....I can't wait to see what else these talented and extremely generous people come up with next!

Happy New Year!!
Rowena

60 Degree Diamonds Quilt Top

Years ago a friend gave me some French Souleiado fabric offcuts that were left over from curtains she had made.  I collected other fabrics over the years that I thought would play nicely with the offcuts.  I've finally done something with them...

I'm now in the process of stitching all the rows together, carefully pinning, then machine basting to make sure all the points line up, then finally sewing them together.  I hope to have this finished in the next day or so.

Meanwhile, my youngest son (11 yrs) has finished school for the year which was a mixture of sadness and joy.   He is starting at a new school next year and leaving the most wonderful teacher and great friends.  He will still see his best friends, just not every day.

Back to pinning and sewing.

Happy stitching,

Rowena

My First Quilt

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville had a post recently asking quilters to post a link to her blog of their first quilt.  Well I missed that event but I thought I'd still post a picture of my first quilt here anyway.  It was from a pattern in a patchwork quilt book put out by a craft magazine.  I cut it out with scissors after marking the fabric using cardboard templates, the first couple of applique hearts were sewn on using whip stitch until the owner of my local fabric shop showed me how to do a proper invisible applique stitch.  I wasn't too careful with the seam allowance and ended up having to cut the blocks down so they were all the same size so it went from a single bed quilt to a large cot quilt, lol.  I made it 18 years ago.  My daughter still loves it, bless her.

I did hand quilt this but never quilted the border.  I finally put a label on it a few years ago.

Thankfully I've learnt a lot since then.

Happy stitching,

Rowena 

Civil War Blocks Catch Up

I spent some time over the weekend catching up my Civil War blocks.  My momentum stumbled on Block 40 Order Number 11 where I had to applique.  I have learnt to really enjoy applique over the past few years but I ended up fudging and fiddling with the size of the pieces of this block and I wasn't really happy with it so I kept putting it off.  I finally bit the bullet, got on with it and so thankfully broke the stalemate.  So here are the blocks I have recently completed.

Block 40 Order Number 11 (the beastly block that finished up satisfactorily)

Block 42 H Is For Hospital

Block 44 Union  

Block 45 Port and Starboard front of block 

Block 45 back of block with seams pressed open.  I've been doing this quite a bit lately with blocks that contain a larger number of pieces hoping to avoid lumpy seam intersections causing problems when machine quilting.

Block 46 Apple Tree

Block 47 Dixie Tea

Block 49 Yankee Puzzle.... totally messed up here.  

I think it was when I realised I was going to have to unpick this for the fourth time I thought I'd better put it away for the night!  I will sort this out but I'm posting it as is, to say it's done....sort of. 

I'm really not half witted!!  Let me say in my defence (this is a really simple block after all) I only had my computer for a few minutes to get the measurements of the block pieces because my 11 yr old, who has recently discovered the joys of online chatting to his friends, was using it and was making it nearly impossible to take uber quick peeks at the instructions.  He did ask what all the cursing was in aid of and did apologize for hogging the computer later on. 

So, now I have only one block to do to be completely caught up.

I have also made a couple more of the Rosette blocks in the gorgeous Luna Notte range, love that fabric, mmmm.

As the Civil War quilt along is coming to a close in the near future I am considering a couple of projects that have been occupying quilters in blogland (Wild Geese from earlier on this year).

  

Farmer's Wife Sampler

Wild Geese quilt along bloominworkshop.wordpress.com

Like all quilters I have a collection of patterns and projects I plan to make "one day" and of course I'll continue to be tempted by all the eye-candy on quilter's blogs, in magazines and quilting books.  What joy!!

Happy stitching,

Rowena