Quilts in the garden

Quilts in the garden , well one quilt , I have finished my latest quilt project, which I made in a fabric 9 by Sanae from Moda- very appropriate as it is a nine patch block cut up and rotated into a disappearing nine patch which gives it a very scrappy effect.
I like the reverse of the quilt just as much.
And I am very pleased with my first attempt at following a stencil in free motion quilting. I hope you like it too. A good thing to make with a pile of coordinating fat quarters and no particular pattern in mind.
My DH celebrated his birthday this week (21 again!) Yes he did have two birthday cakes - they were on a 2 for £3 offer in M&S and I never could resist a bargain.
His birthday present was 2 tickets to see Mark Knopfler at the arena in Newcastle. A fabulous night - what a talented guy - and way better than the last show we saw, that terrible performance by Whitney Houston.

Hope the good weather hasn't kept you too far away from your sewing machine.

Happy Quilting xx

Bluebells and lots of quilts

Bluebells are really beautiful in the woods at the moment and in my garden too.
This lovely wood is right by the main road near to my home, but well protected with a barbed wire fence.
And the bluebell colours are in keeping with this lovely quilt I saw when I visited a friend last week. The Dresden Plate block is quite dramatic in blues and purples and the plain blocks are quilted in a Dresden plate shape pattern too.
More blues with the geometric card trick pattern - all done by hand - Inspiration for me to keep going with my sampler quilt
The third quilt in Margaret's collection is a beautifully hand quilted pattern with beads and colonial knots.
Here is a close up of one of the blocks. The quilt took her 18 months to complete - a treasured heirloom but she sleeps under it every night.


Margaret T has been busy too. On Friday afternoon she showed us her latest work in progress, a fantastic applique of an African village. This has taken her just 3 weeks to do.


In between times she has pieced this Star strip quilt with her machine but quilted it by hand - it reminds me of harvest time and ploughed fields.
Irene is having a run on doll making at the moment - her latest project is this lovely Japanese doll.

I have been finishing off my machine quilting - just the binding to sew on. It is good to be able to admire other people's quilts and take inspiration from them. I'm inspired - hope you are too!

Happy Quilting xx

Lynne Edwards Sampler quilt Challenge

All started well with the Tumbling blocks block from the Lynne Edwards Sampler quilt book. No problems - a few evenings of hand sewing and all was well ( although I am not brave enough to cut out the white background fabric from behind the blocks - what happens if it all falls to pieces?)

Up for more of a challenge I moved onto book 2 and the Tangled Star block. This very nearly became the strangled star block. I just could not get the pieces to join together.
I thought I'll have a break - do another block - this time the Playing cards block and come back to it ....
I came back to it but no... it would not cooperate so I thought I would go back to knitting and bought this lovely book.. Usbourne's How to Knit.
It must be possible - I have done it before. This tangled star cushion was my very first attempt at patchwork nearly 4 years ago - although I had step by step instruction from Kim.
Eventually it has started to come together - it has taken 5 days and lots of wasted fabric to get to this small start of one corner of the block - I think this is going to be a slow quilt.

Happy quilting xx

Cherry blossom and beaches

Hasn't it been a fantastic year for cherry blossom? The tree in my garden has been thick with clusters of frothy white blossom.

Further down the street there are a couple of pink flowering cherry trees - also heavy with blossom this year.In fact spring is definitely here and there are tulips in my garden too.Today we went for some fresh air at the seaside. Beautiful Druridge bay was bathed in sunshine and quite deserted. We had a lovely walk.But don't think that because it is sunny - it is warm. Oh No! It was very very cold and luckily I had taken my snow coat with me.And it was very very windy too. Ideal conditions for kite surfers , this guy was actually flying rather than surfing.
On a much more sedate note I must show you Janet's quilt which she has just put together the blocks for. This is the most wonderful piece of appliqué. The pattern is Playtime Quilt from American Jane patterns designed by Sandy Klop. The stars and windmills are pieced and everything else is appliqué- a real labour of love has created this family heirloom.
My efforts this week are small by comparison, I have started to do a sampler quilt (from Lynne Edwards Sampler quilt book). The machine quilting is not quite finished yet on my last quilt but I have run out of thread so I started this in front of the TV last night while watching Lewis. Hope you like it - It is certainly going to be colourful.

Happy Quilting xx