Quilt tour part two....

In my last post I showed how I store and display some of my excessively (never!) rather large number of quilts that lurk all over the house.
From some of  your comments and questions I thought you might like better photos of some of these quilts - so here goes.

This one is hanging in a hallway. Lots of different techniques for hand and machine in the top,  and lots of opportunity for much-needed machine quilting practice too!

Hannahs Baskets 2009- a kit from Red Paisley Patchwork

Mixture of different fabrics like silk and velvet 

Below is an oldie - just folded on display. I made it in 1930's repro fabrics and hand quilted - finished around 1990:

Next is a quilt hanging in the hallway - a pattern called Jester by Karen Cunningham

My version of Jester - hand appliqued, machine quilted, 2010

Showing the backing fabric

Here is another Karen Cunningham pattern - called Bum'bel-bee. Hand and machine pieced, and machine quilted. It is hanging on the wall in the study - behind me right now!

My version of Bum'bel-bee - finished in 2012

Some more of Bum'bel-bee

The quilt below lives folded on my bed and is all EPP hexagons, apart from the outer floral border. It was my version of another Karen Cunningham pattern - Cream Tea. As you may have guessed, for a couple of years I went to regular classes held locally by the very talented Karen.

My version of Cream Tea - completed 2011

Showing the backing fabric

Blogger is starting to behave very strangely - bored with quilt photos I think! I should take the hint. Maybe more quilt tour photos next post??

Quilt storage and progress report

My home is full of quilts I have made (bursting at the seams my daughter thinks!). Have a look...

And there are more quilts but not a lot more wall space ! So a couple are on beds (novel idea I know)  but what to do with the rest? Hoping for a decorative effect without being overwhelming here - haha. So they are piling onto dressers and creeping on to shelves...

Ah well...room for one more smallish one on the wall I think. The "In the Time of Toile" kit is just the thing. And I have it pinned ready to machine quilt now. There will be a deep red binding to finish it off:

I saved the lovely chintz in the line for the backing - so pretty:

I've finished another Baltimore Album block  

Baltimore Album block 19

And still going strong on the stars for Mary Leggett's Star Bouquet - maybe a third of the quilt done now. It is a "no brainer" while watching TV in the evenings:

I hear (in Quilt Blogland) that yellow is making a "come back" in quilting. That is great news because it has never been "out" with me - love a bit of yellow in a quilt, especially the limey/greenish shades. 

Talking of yellow ... what do you think of this? -  a new quilt in the planning. It's a pattern (Carolina Lily) from Quiltmania 72 and has wiggled its way to the top of my To Make quilt list.

Baltimore Album update

Just a quick update: Eighteen and a half blocks done so I thought it was time to see them all together and decide the layout.

Pinned to a sheet for viewing

This might do....just got to fill the holes!

Here's the latest block up closer:

Block 18

I know the petals are uneven and the vase is a bit wonky - but that is how it was on the pattern (and the original). So I resisted "perfecting" ( though I was tempted to meddle) and left the wonkiness there. It is part of the charm of these old quilts and why I am attracted to them. 

"In the Time of Toile" quilt

Progress so far on my "In the time of Toile" kit/pattern

This is progress so far on my quilt kit win.  You might notice that I have made a couple of fabric substitutions/swaps. Hope that is OK with Sue who sent me this lovely giveaway :)  We all do this don't we - to suit our taste or decor ideas? I've introduced more red.

In my stash I had a piece of the same great floral column border  - but in the tan colourway. The kit included the blue for this border but I prefer to use the tan - so an easy substitution there.

This is the picture on the kit - the blue is lovely too but in this instance I want less blue:

The picture of the quilt on the  kit  - more blues used

Below is a photo of the planning stages  - where I decided on the fabrics :

The part I loved the most was doing the broderie perse - such a good fabric line for this. Just look at these two - with the holes where I chopped out flowers and leaves:

Flowers cut out of the large scale floral

Flowers cut out of the red floral column

My initial basket layout :

Initial layout of fabric for broderie perse - 12 fabrics tacked down

I stitched it all down but wasn't quite happy with it so added a few pieces more. Below are pictures of the basket as I added more bit by little bit!

Version One

Version Two - moved a flower, added leaves..

Version Three - added a flower and more little leaves - happy now!

Only small changes ...bit like flower arranging really.

Here are a couple of closeups of the broderie perse. Lucky for me the background fabric blended pretty well with the background of the large scale floral (thanks Froncie Quinn fabric designer!):

I  have just a couple of borders to go to finish the top - not a large quilt. It should make a good wall hanging I'm thinking.. 

A new start

A new project -  "In the time of Toile" quilt kit (by Froncie Quinn). I was very lucky winning this from Sue . Thanks so much to Sue for her generosity!
Just look at the lovely fabrics here...

I particularly like the red toile and the florals.  A couple of  small pieces of this line are already in my stash - which might come in handy for the quilt. But no more of the red toile. 

And this is the pattern:

To make a start I decided to fussy cut the toile to make the four  corner blocks around the centre . It is a large scale print with few repeats so was going to be tricky to select pieces to use. I wanted to have a bird in each corner. 

These "tools" were invaluable: a homemade template of the corner block and a packet of kebab sticks...

got you guessing?

I only had one template so the kebab sticks just marked possible placements before drawing/cutting - bit crude but it worked a treat: 

Only two large birds on the piece of fabric, and a few littlies

Next - the Applique basket :

I have substituted a different yellow for the base as the one in the pack is a little "muddy" for me. 

The red top of the basket (and flowers) is all one piece of fabric cut from the border print - very clever use of the fabric I thought - well done Froncie!

Basket cut from border fabric - ready to needle turn applique

Applique done

Next - Broderie Perse flowers and leaves:

I cut pieces out of the floral fabric and some of the individual flowers from the border print and dithered around with placement - fun to do but took a while. Then I tacked them down very roughly with large stitches :

Tacking stitch placement ready to applique

Bit of a tentative placement - might change a bit as I sew. There are 12 seperate pieces of fabric tacked on there so this could be fiddly with the needleturn applique! Wish me luck...