A mini vintage style quilt....

I do love old 'vintage' linens, and I do love quilting and when I feel I really need some 'me' time I put the two together for a play....

This is a linen napkin and I used a cotton background and some French General charm squares (because FG goes with anything classic doesn't it?)

I do whatever markings that I want before I set it up to quilt.... and the linen is well starched.  Here I used a frixion pen (I know, I know there are lots of warnings but I have found no problems on whites/creams and its a lovely thin line)

I first added a layer of wadding under only the linen - so that it would have a little bit extra puff.  This is sewn roughly around the edge of the linen using water soluble thread.  It's amazing stuff just don't lick it when you want to thread the needle ....

 The thead was changed and I quilted carefully around the edge of the linen onto the background - which now is pinned onto it's own wadding.  Here you can see the line of water soluble thread holding the linen down - that will completely disappear.

little daisy feathers around the circles....

this gives a perspective of size ... they are pretty cute...

... after all the daisies were done I used a ruler to form a swag around the edge....

.. a lot of filling in of the swag and those lines seem to take ages - they are only 1/4" apart ...

.. here you can see how the centres have puffed out.. the lines I drew on are still there waiting for a bit of  'heat' to remove them...

  

It's at this stage I give the whole quilt a really good spray, to dissolve the water soluble thread and also to let the quilt just rest into a good shape.  Then it is gone over with a steam iron to remove the frixion markings.

I think making these little puffs took longer than anything else - at least that's what it felt like.  they are fiddly little things and I now have a new found admiration of people who make quilts using heaps of them!

I just attached them with a couple of stitches in the middle. 

... now for some trimming up and tidying....

.. and spending a lovely evening hand sewing down the binding... I love that part though part of me is always a bit sad to be finishing...

.. and here is my new textured, vintage piece

Not sure how useful these little things are - but sometimes we just need something that is pretty and has no use at all - just for fun!!

Righto, Gotto Go... proper size quilts waiting now - the holiday is over and so is 'me' time!!

Framed for FNSI

Thank you Wendy for our special Easter sew in.... Friday night is always fun to cyberly get together ... the footy is on, the dinner simple and the tea hot ....

Wendy sent those of us who linked in to the evening a very sweet Easter design... thank you so much xx

The first bit of framing done was my picture from Michelle that I received last month .... I found a frame I thought would show it off and put this together quite easily.  Michelle has only recently taken up doing art and her work is already amazing....

I just love my wild dog and happy to have him up on the wall now... the white frame brings out the markings though that isn't too clear from the picture....

Next was fixing up this frame... when we moved into the house we inherited a few prints, some. like this one, which were not to my taste but the frame is pretty

 I found a fat quarter of a pretty pale blue and now I have a custom made 'white board' to keep a list of things to do on....

On Friday morning I did some quilting and framed the edge of this vintage doily... I did a lot more quilting on it aswell...

.. and by evening the final frame was ready to be hand sewn down in front of the TV....

I also managed to finish off the final Tea Time Teddies in the series.... (they only had the green bits to do)

... meet Blue Bird Teddy ....

.. and Sitting Pretty Teddie....

... they are all cut into their hexagon shapes and make a nice little frame....

(these teddies are a series from Michelle)

My final 'frame' is adding my special Easter mini to the metal frame.... Maria sent me this one in a mini swap we did a couple of years ago....

Wishing you all a Happy Easter

I love having a long break... Hubz and I have been doing odd jobs around the house and in the garden ... it's almost tea time and I baked a cake since the Widget is coming round....

I hope he likes it!!

Righto, Gotto Go... time to put the kettle on....

It's a bit Slippery .....

On Tuesday we didn't sew our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks as per usual, but another friend joined us and together we sewed some slippers....

They were finished comfortably within the day - even with chatter and giggles....

... of course we had to have a little bit of a play with the finished product....

.. they are all lovely and look so different ....

.. this angle of standing was quite a challenge for me - I had to hold on to people to maintain my balance...

Mine are the ones under the LIP letters - and I used William Morris scraps from my Tuffet ...

The pattern for these is called Snappy Slippers by Gerri Richards.  I bought special non slip fabric for the base which I'm glad about as we have tiled floors and I really don't want to slip around on them.

I'm still stitching madly in the evenings and another Tea Time Teddy is completed -  shhhhh don't wake up Sleepy Ted...

Righto, Gotto Go..... I have sampler blocks to catch up on so I better get a start on them....  I'm going to prepare the handwork to do this weekend when I join Wendy and other bloggers for our special Easter sew in ...

Sign ups are HERE

Tea Party .....

It's been a social week....

Monday night was Tilda Tea Party night at my LQS 'The Quilters Angel" 

Isn't this a lovely spread?  And that's our wonderful Kris pouring us cuppa's in the background... she was kept very busy!  And all served on pretty plates and cups and saucers... we were made to feel very special...

I was in awe of these lovely roses they had on the table.....  

I was lucky enough to win this lanyard and scissor clip as a door prize... they were donated by Sue in Tilda fabrics.  A perfect prize for me as I am always leaving my scissors on my lap and drop them on the floor when I get up - I have spoilt the ends of a number of pairs like that....

...  Tilda fabrics were 25% off - these ones happened to come home with me....

(I find it VERY hard to pass up a good deal on fabric)

Meantime I have continued with my Tea Time Teddy's and beginning to think they might be Terrific in Tilda fabrics???

I needed to visit a newsagent this week and noticed this......  clearly not a quilt lover does their labelling - they probably think they are just the same as blankets!!  But it did give me a giggle..

I do hope your week has been good -- and your up and coming Easter weekend is going to be full of fun, relaxation and laughter...

Righto, Gotto Go..... those new fabrics need a bit of petting!

UFO for March

I finished the binding on this quilt a while ago but forgot to blog about it...

Googy Girl co-ordinated a 9 patch swap a few years ago and I was lucky enough to be part  of it... We all made a number of the same 9 patches in our choice of reproduction prints.  Then these were all sent to Googy Girl who split them up and sent them back all packaged up so nicely

 This meant we all ended up with a lovely wide range of 9 patches... such fun and made it easy to do.  Making a bunch in the same colour way can be done in strips as opposed to little 2 1/2" squares..

This is the quilt I made with my blocks - I took out the pinky ones as I specifically wanted this to be for my almost teenager eldest grandson....  

I custom quilted the blocks, with these twisted orange peels in the darker blocks

... and a curved ribbon in the lighter blocks

(hard to see but this second picture is a little better)

.. an a twisted ribbon look in the sashing - miles of sashing!!

the binding was made and I finally sewed it all on earlier this month ...

It's a lovely warm masculine quilt ....

Susan made her quilt up some time ago and had some spare blocks which she sent to me and I have made up a second quilt using them.... the same but different!!

The squares have all been sashed and then recut on a very slight angle to give it a bit of a wonky look...

.. so here is the flimsy top of my second 9 patch... it's going to have to wait a while to be finished off 

A lovely swap idea Googy Girl, thanks to all the ladies who contributed and to Susan for the extra blocks.

I'm pleased to say I have one of my UFO's finished this month - but I also managed to make another one too!! 

Righto, Gotto Go.... I'm going to have a dig in my drawer to find a SMALLER UFO to finish....