2 last finishes for 2023

 Happy New Year! Very best wishes for a healthy 2024, full of great sewing projects.

I finished two Maternity Unit quilts last night, hand sewing the binding down. Really pleased with them both. 

The first one used up more of the RSC Wonky stars. I have very few left, mainly red ones, so I think I will start making more as an RSC project this year. Whilst I was cutting binding for this quilt I also cut some 2” squares, ready for three yellow Wonky Stars kits.

It measures 25” square and I machine quilted it with a sort of spiky wave stitch across the block seams. On my machine it’s called G.

A couple of years ago I stocked up on backing when one of the quilt companies I favour had a sale. I decided to cut into it for the backing of this quilt.

I looked through my stash of novelty fabrics for the alternate blocks and managed to cut two squares from the last of my Winnie the Pooh fabric. I bought this fabric to make a Baby quilt for a friend’s newly born grandson Ben. He is now in his 3rd year at university! Time for that fabric to be completely used up I think! 

The second finished quilt was the second String Maternity Unit quilt. When I made the first I used a piece of leftover binding and added to it, using up all that particular blue solid. Enough for this quilt and also I think for another one.

Both quilts, side by side, don’t they look cute?

The trimmings from both of these quilts went into my String Basket along with some smaller chunks of scrap fabrics I cut into strings. I also cut the telephone directory papers for the foundations and also the central 1.5” white strips so I’m ready for another sewing session today.

I love making these small quilts, using up so many small scraps and strings as I make them.

Last year I made 16 quilts, many of them small Maternity Unit or Doll quilts. I gifted some straight away but others I have kept in my stash. I know a former pupil of mine is expecting a baby this month and I would love to gift her one of my quilts- I know baby will be a little girl and I have several to choose from! The rest will go to Project Linus.

Joining up with Angela’s SoScrappy RSC blog.

String Quilt finish!

Back in the summer I started to make the 144 string blocks I needed for another Heartstrings Quilt.

I finished all the blocks quite a while ago but they were set aside so I could finish more urgent projects.  This quilt is a 70th birthday gift for our very good friend, Liz who lives in New Zealand. We will be there to share her birthday on 15th January so I needed to finish the quilt before Christmas.  In a previous post I wrote about the difficulty I had to get the quilt sandwiched, but it has turned out really well.  I am delighted with it and I know Liz will love it and appreciate all the work that has gone into it.

It's a large quilt, measuring 65" square so it will be a useful size for the couch or as a bed topper.
I had decided on a pink striped fabric called Sweet Jane by Deborah Edwards of Northcott fabrics.
I used this fabric to bind the Galaxy of Stars baby quilt I made in October so I thought it would work in the String Quilt too.
I bought this fabric as a remnant a couple of years ago and I thought it would be just right for this busy quilt. I love it! And I have a small piece left for a future project. Bonus!

I made a Heartstrings Quilt back in April when I was in NZ and our friend and neighbour Liz loved it so I decided then I would make another for her Special Birthday.  My original Heartstrings Quilt was completely scrappy but Liz's quilt has solid centre strips in each block which create a coloured diamond pattern once the quilt top is sewn together.  I have used this idea before in my
Rainbow Strip Quilts and I think it is effective.  This time I used any solid coloured strips that I had in my stash and dotted the different coloured diamond blocks throughout the quilt.

Here it is: Heartstring Quilt for Liz:

 

The quilt is actually a lot brighter than it looks in my photograph but taking photos indoors on a dreary December afternoon in the UK doesn't show the colours properly.  I will have to photograph it again in better light in NZ!

 

Perhaps these close ups of some of the blocks show the bright colours a little better:

 

 

Can you spot the appliqued heart hidden among the strings?

 

Like my other String Quilts I have tied it.  Hard work pushing the needle through so many layers of fabric but I like the look tying gives a string quilt.

I had difficulty piecing the large backing but now the quilt is finished I think it's worked out well.

So, my last quilt finish for 2015.  Nine quilts completed this year, not a bad total especially as two of them were big!

My Sewing Room is in a terrible mess so that needs to be tidied before Christmas - not a job I am looking forward to.  The trimmings from Liz's Quilt need cutting into squares and strips to be stashed away for future projects. This is something I always enjoy doing as it makes the scraps so much more convenient to use and speeds up making new quilts if some of the fabrics are already cut to the right size.

I have some hand quilting to do on our latest Group Quilt Project so that can be done when I am watching television at the weekend.

Happy sewing!

 

 

Like the curate's egg .......... good in parts!

Well, what a mixed bag of a week I have had! I am still recovering from the horrendous cold which hit me almost three weeks ago. I dread catching colds because I know I will be in for weeks of misery.
This one was even worse than usual and I spent a lot of time in bed for the first couple of weeks, fighting off sinusitis, hard barking cough, high temperatures etc etc.  However, I finally feel as though I have turned the corner.  Still coughing and feeling very tired so hope my energy levels pick up soon.

So, part one of the Good parts of the Curate's Egg is feeling a lot better than I have for a while!

I haven't done any sewing whilst I was feeling poorly, so it was good to get back to some on Wednesday, although it was not as straightforward as I had planned!  My head still feels very woolly which perhaps explains the many mistakes I made. 

I was trying to complete a String Quilt which has been weeks in the making (there is a lot of work in these quilts).  I had sewn the blocks together before I went down with the lurgy so on Wednesday I started to prepare the backing and batting. 
The quilt is larger than the sizes I normally make ( approx 68" square when it's finished) so the piece of backing fabric I had wasn't big enough - hunted in my stash to find a complementary piece of fabric so I could create a pieced backing.  The idea was to make a strip of pieces either side of the original large piece.  First mistake - I hadn't done the maths properly so had to piece even more bits to make the sides long enough.  All time consuming and frustrating when you are trying to catch up on time lost being ill.

On to the batting.  Joy of joys, no piece large enough so yet more piecing had to be done.  Again, I made a mistake with the maths ( blame the woolly head and breaking off mid-cutting to check on my pot of home made soup) and I cut the piece 10" short!  Even more piecing by which time I was decidedly fed up!!!

Then wrestling the quilt on our bedroom floor, trying to sandwich it without getting too many wrinkles.  It took me a very long time and I was exhausted at the end of it all.  Lots of scratches from the safety pins too.

Note to self ............. don't make another quilt this large.
And, don't try to make equally matched pieced strips to fit either side of a large piece of fabric. 
I failed to centre the top symmetrically so the back will not be equal. Hope it looks OK once it is finished.

Another Good part of the Curate's Egg:  I have now started tying my quilt, so the end is in sight. This quilt has to be finished by the New Year so it can go to NZ with me for a 70th birthday gift for our lovely neighbour.

Here's a Sneak Peek:

 

And the backing!

 

 

Another great bit of the Curate's Egg was going to my Patchwork Group yesterday - first time for three weeks.

One of the Group gift quilts was almost finished and I spent a happy hour last night doing the finishing touches:

 

Only a Sneak Peek because this won't be handed over for a week or so:

 

 

It's really lovely!!

 

I finally managed to get my three QAYG blocks off to Alison  ( littleislandquilting.blogspot.co.uk)for the Soy Amado project. They've been sitting here waiting for me to go to the Post Office.

 

So, another Good part of the Curate's Egg!

 

But the really Good part was this:  A parcel from Australia from my lovely Blog friend Jo - jobutterfield.blogspot.co.uk

 

Inside a gorgeous card with a pen and a wrapped gift which I will open on Christmas Day.  Thank you, Jo.  I do hope we manage to meet in person one day.

 

 

 

And finally, another great part of the Curate's Egg was having a good report at the hospital on Thursday.  My consultant is very pleased, all well at present so that's a wonderful feeling.

So, all in all, more Good than Bad. Hurrah!

In case you are wondering what the saying "Like a Curate's Egg, good in parts" means:
The origin of the phrase is the George du Maurier cartoon "True Humility", printed in the British satirical magazine 'Punch' in 1895.  A curate is being entertained and his host says "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones!"
The Curate: "Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!"

Well, having listed all my week's events I think I can safely say that MOST of the parts of my egg were good.... in fact some were absolutely marvellous!

Re-visiting a favourite quilt

I read Rachael's blog post ( Blue Mountain Daisy) and she is linking to Amy's Creative Side's
Blogger's Quilt Festival.



 I  popped over to take a look at the categories and it made me think back to some of my favourite quilts.

Back in 2011 I made this Rainbow quilt which I called Rainbow Nation Quilt.  It was a 60th birthday gift for a friend in New Zealand.  I had previously made a similar one for my daughter and thoroughly enjoyed making another similar one.

 

Rainbow Nation Quilt

 

I made 9 large String blocks, using the colours of the rainbow for the centre diamonds of each block.

As there are 7 colours in the rainbow I made 2 red centered blocks( top left and bottom right corners) and 2 yellow centered ones (top right and bottom left corners).

 

I love rainbows, and this quilt is still one of my favourites. 
I would like to enter it in The ROYGBIV Quilts Category in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival and am linking to that post HERE.Blogger's Quilt Festival: Spring 2015

Highs and lows

At the end of last year we learned that a lovely NZ friend was seriously ill and we really did not expect to see her again.  However, much to our joy she was still with us when we arrived in February and we made a visit to see her our priority - first thing we did this time back in NZ.

She looked so much better than we feared and everyone felt there was hope.  So, I came straight home and made this quilt which I imagined she would wrap around her in the winter months ahead.

 

I called it Heartstrings.

 

I literally had about 18" of binding to stitch down and to make a label when we heard the sad news that our dear friend had gone downhill and was fading fast.  I finished the quilt and made a different label to the one I had planned.

 

On Friday we went to her amazing funeral: a large church filled to overflowing with her dear family and friends. I gifted my quilt to her husband and their two children in the hope that the many strings, colours and patterns will remind them of the dear lady who has gone.  She was a rainbow of delight, a personality of many facets.

 

From that low point I came home to read a blog from Jo in Australia.  I feel we are "blog friends" as part of her journey through life echoes mine.  She recently very kindly sent me a crochet pattern and a sample of how it looked. As thanks I sent her a little gift too and I was so pleased to see the post where she mentions this gift. I was very touched. Thank you, Jo.

 

Take a look at Jo's blog, always something new to see as she is a prolific crafter:

 

jobutterfield.blogspot.com

 

So, highs and lows with the common thread of friendship and sewing.

Making gifts - such fun

I have been a follower of Rachael's Blue Mountain Daisy's blog for a long time. ( bluemountaindaisy.blogspot.co.uk)
Last month my husband and I visited Sydney to see friends and do some sightseeing and I had hoped to meet Rachael in person. We made arrangements to meet - all very exciting - but unfortunately they didn't work out as unexpectedly Rachael had some work offered her.  I had made a little gift for her but as I couldn't hand it over at the coffee shop I posted it instead.  I had a lovely "Thank you" email from Rachael which I very much appreciated but then then a few days ago I discovered that she had included my little present in her blog post.  I was thrilled!  Even more pleased as Rachael's photo of my drawstring bag and needle case was much better than the ones I had taken for my Flickr page!

Here's my gifts:

 

Check out Rachael's super blog if you haven't had the good fortune to read it yet.  You will love her quilts, photos, flower arrangements and quirky posts and stories.

I have been looking at binding clips for a while as they kept popping up in lots of blog posts.  The ones I saw all seemed rather expensive but then whilst I've been in NZ I found a real bargain at Spotlight.  I bought the last two packets in the shop - one for me and one for a quilting friend's birthday gift.  I have just used the clips for the first time, binding this String quilt:

 

 

What a fantastic idea they are.  Simple to use, no scratches and blood spots on the quilt from using straight pins. Definitely the way to go!

Coincidentally, Rachael said that she was going to use the drawstring bag for storing her clips and lo and behold, they are the same ones that I bought - Rachael's were from Spotlight too. So, if you live in NZ or Australia, check out your nearest Spotlight store.

If you haven't tried clips yet to hold your binding, I definitely recommend them.

Off to embroider the label for my quilt.

Using up stash

 

I was thrilled to get my sewing machine back, fully repaired, on Thursday afternoon which meant that I was able to go to my Quilting Group this morning. I had a very productive few hours, sewing together the String quilt blocks I had all ready to go.  I am still a way from finishing the quilt top but I made a good start today. 

 

This made me think back to the String Quilts I have made in the past and how much stash went into their making. Reminiscing on all the different fabrics I had used over the years and how many quilts some of the same fabrics appeared in.

 

This is the first one I made, back in July 2010 which I called Rainbow Quilt:

Then came Rainbow Nation String Quilt, a 60th birthday gift to a New Zealand friend.

Handed over in Christchurch just four days before the big 22nd February 2011earthquake.

Then Cat from Auckland ( catalinaz.blogspot.co.uk), had a quilt drive for quilters to send comfort quilts which were handed out to earthquake victims. By then I was back in the UK and made this quilt which was sent over to Cat:

Christchurch Earthquake String Quilt:

Then came a quilt I made for a three year old boy, back in July 2013.

This time, an I Spy String Quilt:

 

Since then I have made several String Quilt blocks as contributions to charity projects, blocks which were included in this Group quilt, a gift for one of our members to celebrate her 70th birthday:

  

And several String blocks turned into cushions like this one:

 

So, I think you could say I am addicted to String blocks!
I have enjoyed looking back over some of my older quilts, remembering the different fabrics which I included - and finished up - in the process.

We all have pieces of fabric which seem to hang about in our stash and appear in quilt after quilt.  However, I have been pleased to notice that as the years have passed, some fabrics no longer appear so are DEFINITELY used up!

Perhaps the message of this post is: Make String quilts to "use it up"!

Favourite Quilts - Linking with Mary at Molly Flanders

A few days ago I read Mary's post on her blog Molly Flanders where she had been considering which of her own quilts were her personal favourites.  She asked readers to decide on their own favourite quilts ( ones they had made themselves, not other people's that they admired).

That made me think back over the many, many quilts I have made myself over the past 16 years. 
Five immediately came to mind as absolute favourites and several more as ones I really loved.

So, here are my Top Five Favourites and reasons why I love them so much.

1.  RAINBOW STRING QUILT

 

This was the first String quilt I had made although I had wanted to make one for a while.

I had a very personal reason for wanting to make a Rainbow Quilt, in memory of my dear son, but had struggled to think of how I could interpret the "Rainbow Theme".  Suddenly the idea for this quilt came to me.  It combined my love of colour, scraps and strings into one quilt which I felt spoke Christopher's name.

 

If you look closely you will see that I incorporated the ROYGBIV colours into the solid strips creating the diamond pattern within the String Quilt.  As there are 9 blocks I had to repeat the Red and Yellow solids in the corners which I felt balanced the quilt nicely.

 

The coloured strings are all made from scraps that I had in my stash and I restricted my colours choices to ROYGBIV colours.

 

I gave it to our daughter in memory of her brother and she hung it on the wall of her new baby's room along with some family photos including some of Christopher. Our little granddaughter loved this quilt from when she was just months old and loved looking at its brightness.  Later on she was able to look for colours and play I Spy too.

 

Since then I have made several String Quilts, one very similar to this original one but several scrappy ones including a couple made in the QAYG style. 

 

2.  SUGAR AND SPICE COT QUILT

A very special one as it was made for my Granddaughter. Our daughter didn't know whether she was expecting a boy or a girl but she wanted a quilt starring Sunbonnet Sues and Overall Bills as she had always loved these motifs on other quilts I had made.
So I made the Sugar and Spice Cot Quilt, very pink and girly with lots of Sunbonnet Sues and also another "Boy Quilt" which had Overall Bills.  As baby Annalise came along, Sugar and Spice Quilt was the quilt gifted to her.  It was used so much, washed over and over again and now lives on Annalise's bed at our house.

Two close ups of this quilt:

 

 

3.  WATERMELON STARS COT QUILT


This quilt was inspired by Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quilts. 
I loved Gwen's work and was lucky enough to attend a one day workshop that she gave at our Quilt Group in New Zealand.  It was a marvellous day, everyone had a wonderful time, free from the idea of being perfect and just enjoying colours and putting scraps together. 

The Quilt we made that day was a Liberated String Quilt and I have done several of these since as it remains a favourite pattern. But then of course I went on to try out lots of Gwen's Liberated blocks and made this Star quilt.
I called it Watermelon Stars because it featured a watermelon fabric which had languished in my stash for some time.  The quilt eventually was gifted to a baby born in New Zealand so it was apt that it went to the country where I first made a Gwen Marston inspired quilt.

4.  BRIGHT STARS COT QUILT

Again Gwen Marston Stars, this time in girly pinks and lilacs and gifted to my very good friend's granddaughter who was born a few months after our granddaughter.

5.  WHERE'S ELMER?

 

I originally made this Cot Quilt for another baby but loved it so much I couldn't part with it!  Another quilt was made for that particular baby!
So this quilt lives at our house and covers the doll's house when it is not in use. Annalise plays with it and when she was first learning to count she regularly counted the elephants and found the pairs with matching blankets on their backs.

It's still one of my favourite quilts for all sorts of reasons. 
It was the first quilt where I had set blocks on point.  Thinking about it I haven't made another quilt since using blocks set on point.  I shall have to rectify that!  I love elephants and these little elephants with their embroidered tails and 3D tassels appealed to me. AND it was a lot of work! Sometimes when you gift quilts the recipients aren't always aware of how much time and effort has gone into the gift and I felt this particular quilt should live here, where it was truly appreciated!

I have loved thinking back over the quilts I have made and have had great fun looking through my Flickr Photostream, deciding which ones to write about in this blog.

Like everyone else who quilts, each quilt is loved and each one has a story to tell. It has been great wandering down memory Lane.

Looking at my quilts and deciding on my favourites has pinpointed once again how much I love colour, scraps, strings, applique, and Gwen Marston -style Wonky, Liberated Quilts.

Thank you Mary ( Molly Flanders blog) for suggesting this exercise!

My first String Quilt

Due to the sudden changes in Flickr I found my original Buddy Icon was too small for the new-style Flickr.  I wanted to keep the String Quilt idea as I feel it is "me".  I love scrap quilts and I love making string blocks, cushions and quilts.

So I tried to find my original photo only to realise that I never put this quilt up onto my Flickr photostream.  It was the first String Quilt I made. 
My idea was to create a rainbow so I used the colours of the rainbow as centre strips to the blocks which, when they came together, created the 7 colours of the rainbow.  I added an extra red and yellow as the corner blocks as I wanted 9 blocks for the quilt.

Rainbow Quilt

 

When my granddaughter Annalise was born in February 2010 I gave my Rainbow Quilt to my daughter to hang on the wall in the baby's room.  From very early days Annalise loved looking at it and eventually could pick out the colours and various "I Spy" details.

A precious memory.

 

A close-up of the "Orange Block".

 

I tied this quilt using red embroidery floss as I didn't want to detract from the vibrant Rainbow blocks by doing lots of quilting.

 

I subsequently made another of these quilts for our New Zealand friend Cushla for her 60th birthday.  It was a great hit, Cushla loved her gift.  This quilt was uploaded onto my Flickr photostream.

 

 

Rainbow Nation Quilt