A Quilt was Born!

I had enough of that country time fabric to make a really, really big lap quilt. Big enough for me and my big doggie at the time. Of course, nothing else in our house was navy, beige, and red, but what's the fun in matching the furniture? I lined this with soft red flannel and many, many years later. I still love having this on my bed even in the summer. I cherish so much more anything I've made.

Honestly though, I must admit that I am disappointed when I have put so much time into something and given it to a friend for it to be tossed aside. I've learned my lesson and now only make things for certain craft friendly friends. Have you found the same or are you only friends with other craft people?

It's a Lavendar Christmas

Another easy peasy lemon cheesey, nice and squeezey quilt. My mother by this time was sick of me making wall hangings and told me to make something useful like a quilt for the bed. I was on a roll, but scared to try the bed quilt. It was just so daunting. I protested. I procrastinated. I watched a lot of TV. I bit my nails until finally. . .

Stay tuned till tomorrow - Did I make the quilt or did I make another wall hanging? What's your vote?

Can there be enough Christmas prep in September?

Gingerbread men applique on gingerbread men fabric. Don't you love when the fabric combination works perfectly. Please note - some of the men are ginger girls. Note the pink.

Does anyone have a good recipe for gingerbread ice cream?

More Angels

Okay this is it for angel quilts. I've run out of pictures. This was the third one I ever made. It's been stuck in a box, but not forgotten. By this time, I was completely bored by country colors and had moved on to jewel tones. A heart again, but slightly different shape.

Obviously I am never going to have a house for Christmas that matches. All of my decorations are completely different. I have another set of light blue wall hangings with Santa and a bunch of Christmas pink and lavender fabric to make into something special. Well, one day when I grow up (I refuse to believe I'm grown up) and have a big house, I'm going to need enough rooms to have a theme in each one.

Angels, angels everywhere

Do you believe in angels? Another easy wall hanging with appliques pieces. As for chattering angels, that's not so easy. I haven't actually hear one, but perhaps I'm not listening closely enough. Have you ever heard them? What did they say?

p.s. - my grandfather saw one once cross his room when his baby was in hospital. He ran to the window and no one was there. A few hours later, two policeman came to the door and told him that his child had died at the exact time he had woken and seen the shadow. I think it was an angel. The baby's name was Catherine and we still talk about her.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

This Santa wall hanging is my most favorite quilted wall hanging I've ever made. Out of the Debbie Mumm book, this was the one I really wanted to make, the reason why I bought this book. When I sat down and made it in a few nights, I was so pleased. I had taken extra care to use all different green, red, and beige fabrics, as well as the buttons on the ends of his hats. Again, this was a really easy piece. Again I worked in the country color scheme. What are your favourite color schemes? Normally I like bright splashy colors, so this was a real change for me. I have a confession though, in my flat, my living room is beige. Before I had a flat, I swore I would never decorate in the dreaded plain beige, but after visiting so many other flats I had seen with bright walls and being told I could probably negotiate a couple thousand off the price because of the color scheme, I decided when I had my own flat to stick with beige. I actually like to think of mine as creamy oatmeal that shows off the white wood doors, fireplace, ceiling rose, and plaster work around the edge of the ceiling.

So are you a beige type of person or is your house an array of mismatched colors?

Quilting Memories

I've been going down memory lane and dusting off the old quilt box. This was the first quilt I ever made from a Debbie Mumm book. I practically made every quilted wall hanging in the book. For the first time in my life, I used a muted color scheme without any garish bright accents and the pieces turned out lovely. Very country, home town America.

I had bought the book at our local Plymouth quilt shop near the railway station. When a train zoomed past, hang onto your fabric as everything would start to shake. Actually, I think my mom bought the book for me and rather than be intimidated by the scary quilting, I started with this easy heart quilt and I think finished it in the night. I think it was Christmas when I made this Valentines quilt. I soon moved on to the other Christmas themes, my absolute favourite I will show you tomorrow.

What was the first piece you ever learned to quilt? Does anyone out there not know how to quilt? Would you like to learn?

Beaded Flower Quilt

Been crazy busy with work, so just wanted to share one of the quilt projects my mother and I made together a while back. All of the leaves and petals were cut out separately and then stuck to a later of fabric with fine fuse. We used pre-made black binding and ironed it down over the raw edges of the fabric and quilted by sewing around the black lines. To finish it off, we added yellow beads in the petal centers. Easy Peasy Lemon Cheesey!

Does anyone else out there quilt or am I the only one?

Heart Quilt

This is a quilt that I have been working on with my mother. When we bought this fabric together from a mail order catalogue we were so excited until we actually opened the package and decided at once that we had made a wrong decision and hated the plaids. They were so garish and we had ordered a pack of 40 different fat quarter prints. We didn't know what we were actually going to do with all of them and they sat in our basement for years until we finally decided to just chop them into squares. Yes, we chopped and chopped. We took out out hatred for those little pieces of brightly colored fabrics and then left them in a pile because we didn't know what to make next.

It was my mum's idea to make a bunch of patchwork hearts and once we made these, we added different shades of light and dark beige background fabrics. Some had a dash of gold. Others had the outline of white daisies. Suddenly, the quilt started to take shape and we started to fall into like with it.

After a long day of work, (I was working at 5:30 this morning!) I love to unwind by just sewing patchwork squares together. First two, then four, then a strip, then another strip and another until it transforms itself from the ugly caterpillar into the beautiful butterfly. What makes it better is that my mother and I made it together (and she did all the hard bits).

Posted Stitches

Inspired by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood’s posted stitches, I’ve begun a posted stitches project of my own with my mother. She sewed this wedding ring quilted wall hanging with loads of different pink pastel fabrics in Michigan and I’m going to finish the top stitching by hand in London. What a wonderful idea Jennifer – Overseas Quilt Pals instead of Pen Pals! Do you have a special Quilt Pal?