Grandmother's Garden

Started mid 2014 and finished at last!  The fabrics are a mix of homespuns, chambray and peppered cottons, and it measures 84 inches (2.15m) by 71inches (1.8m).

The quilt was sadly ignored for long periods as I hate to admit I got a little b o r e d with it. The lack of variety in shapes and the strictly solid colours can do that. But I love the look of antique quilts made of solids, and this was inspired by those antiques...so was keen to finally get it finished.

It was hand pieced - English Paper Pieced with 1.25 inch hexagon papers.

The quilt was layered with a thick wool batting and Big Stitch hand quilted in a hoop. I used Aurifil 12 wt thread and Foxglove Cottage ''embroidery/redwork" size 10 needle. I did try a few different needles and found this needle and thread combination quilted up the most easily and quickly for me. 

The quilting design is simple - just zigzag rows across the whole quilt.

The Australian Summer is not a great time for hand quilting but I took advantage of a few cooler evenings to rush through the last of the quilting and the binding.

Trimming the quilt ready to bind

There were a few hexagons left over so I made a label patch and appliqued it to the back.

The thick wool batting was chosen with winter in mind - planning on a warm bed cover. But for now it's hanging on the wall - and freshens up the room no end!

Works in progress

It's been a few months - well and truly time to stop lurking and update progress.

And what has prompted a return to posting?

Well....

Have you read Barb's  latest great post, and her plea to all quilters to "put yourself out there" - especially the hand quilters? Susan - more quilting please 😊 

Another inspiration has been Meredithe and her "17 UFO's in 2017" - will be fun to follow her progress ....but am not setting myself any schedule. Good to see Carole will be joining her - such a super beautiful list of sewing there.

Then if you want to see a truly accomplished 2016 review check out Kyle's smilebox - just makes me itch to stitch. I added a page to my blog - my 2016 finishes - a modest list compared with some but I enjoyed making them so much. 

On that note -  a BIG thank you to these and many other inspiring bloggers that I follow - and may we have another super blogging year 📝 

Here are some UFO works in progress:

Grandmother's Garden

I started in mid 2014 and am now hand quilting it with big stitches but there has been a Summer pause in proceedings as it is just too hot to quilt in the hoop, especially with a thick wool batting! 

Chapman Coverlet

Started middle of last year - I had a red central fabric selected but wanted to put it into an octagonal frame. First I stitched on pieces of the black stripe fabric. Then I made a bias strip and appliqued it over the seam to frame the red centre.

There are many, many more 4 inch blocks to be hand appliqued -  then joined by machine in rows around the medallion centre.

Hexagon Star

Started early last year - a portable EPP hand stitching project that is not too large as they are half inch hexagons. I had the centre done in August and am gradually adding borders. 

It's a bit tricky turning corners with hexagons - they have a geometry all of their own!  It will have irregularities but I quite like that - just trying to mirror the corners and sides. I'm finding the free downloads of hexagon graph paper and some colour pencils very helpful.

Here's one that's new to the blog -

Forget Me Not - a cathedral window quilt.

I have quite a few old doilies (not embroidered by me unfortunately) that are treasured but unused, many are damaged or stained with age. I was also kindly given some doilies with Forget-me-not flowers on them - hence the name came to mind as a way to honour the embroiders too. 

Forget-me-nots in my garden in Spring

Forget-me-nots embroidered on doilies

I have been in awe of the huge cathedral window quilts on a few Dutch blogs I follow - often with carefully selected window colours. My cathedral window quilt has 'windows' made of squares cut from my vintage doilies and linen. I needed to research the technique in books and blogs - found that there are quite a few ways to do this, and ended up with a combination of methods that suits me. I machine stitch the invisible part - joining the linen blocks together - and then hand stitch the doily windows. Hopefully the pictures will give you some idea what I'm on about. 

A start - getting addicted

I cut linen squares of 9.5 inches. Then I followed the method in this excellent tutorial and they end up as approx 4.25 inch squares. These are joined together as in pics below.

2 inch doily squares are placed on the linen blocks (see picture below) ready for pinning with applique pins. The loose edges of the linen blocks are rolled over the doily squares and then hand stitched/hemmed (as in top picture).

This is part of my sewing room - quite a few other UFO's in there - but not 17 I'm sure...hehe 

Those borders are on

My red version of Civil War Bride top is finished.

And I'm missing the needle turn applique so much already. I'm sure that sounds crazy to some  but any applique-addicts will know what I mean. There is that withdrawal stage when it is done. It was nice to clear away the prep though - boxes of red fabrics and small mountain of almost shredded scraps!

Most of the blocks are straight from the Threadbear pattern by Corliss Searcey,  but three blocks and the border I drafted myself using elements from the blocks. To quote Corliss from the pattern notes, she says "feel free to alter or substitute shapes from block to block, making this quilt unique to you" - so I had a bit of fun doing just that.

Middle of top border 

Middle of bottom border

It is now having time out in the hand quilting queue . 

Speaking of which ... hand quilting Ann Randoll is going well. It is a large quilt but I'm managing fine by working around the outer borders first, leaving the centre for last. Here it is stretched out for some progress pics with one edge done. I might not be able to resist adding some fill in the open areas but they are not large so maybe not needed....

There is a great variety of fabrics as well as techniques in this medallion quilt - which can have its pluses and a minuses.  A plus is it is not boring to quilt, and a minus is that each little border needs thought and a different approach to the quilting.

 Outlining the applique shapes on the cream background is easy going and I have used a cream thread to match the background. 
I decided to outline the outer edge of each clamshell to make them pop out a little, and using a tan thread  as I like the look better than cream on the darker browns/blues. 

The Half Square Triangle (or pinwheel) border had me thinking. The HSTs have edges that are about 1 1/4 inch so there is a lot of seam tucked under there that I really do not want to quilt over.  I decided to quilt inside the seams to form a square of four HST groups, and using a tan thread again.

Perhaps the complexity of this quilt had me itching to do something simpler, something more random and comparatively unstructured ? And I've also been itching to get back to some EPP after seeing the lovely EPP projects that Susan produces so expertly. So I picked up my Grandmothers Garden again. Now these hexagons are l a r g e - an edge of 1 1/4 inch on a hexagon is pretty big as they go!

Here is a reminder picture of the start of this project against the half inch hexagons from the Ann Randoll quilt.

How it looks now - only two garden beds but already 1 metre across (about 40 inches)! 

This picture found on an internet search is what first inspired me to start this project. It is a gorgeous antique quilt shown on Quiltville Quips and Snips in 2012. I just love everything about it, the way it is hand quilted in rows, and the colours are pure Spring don't you think?

The next garden bed round prepped ready to paperclip to papers and stitch together. 

I've a feeling this could get large quite quickly and threaten to get out of hand. I think I'd prefer to stop at a 'cottage garden' rather than a 'country estate'?!

I've got my gardening clothes on but it was just too frosty to start out there early. Now the sun is shining and there is no wind -  should be just right - so off I go. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Overdue for a catchup..

My computer's been on the blink for a couple of weeks but is up and running at last...

I've had a couple of exciting visits to the "big smoke" (Sydney). One was attending the Australian Quilt Study Group's "Uncoverings" day - a great chance to examine antique quilts up close and hear about them from their owners. The other was a visit to the Sydney Quilt Show with a quilting friend. We were very impressed with the new venue and the transport arrangements. 

The Show entry foyer  

Photo sharing was not permitted at either event - sorry. But you can look at the Show link to see all the prizewinners (click through the blue tabs) - amazing talents - in a league of their own. 

It was exciting to see my quilts hung amongst them (many thanks to the Quilt Guild for the chance) and to be listed in the catalogue. I can at least show you pics of these hanging, and their catalogue listings...

Then there was shopping...  We zoomed over to the Quiltmania stand and actually spoke to the lady who owns the original Carolina Lily antique quilt (from which mine is copied) - it hangs in her office in France! Linda from Quilts in the Barn kindly assisted me with these little purchases:

Our heads were spinning with ideas/supplies at various stalls and, keen to make some bag gifts, I came home with these: 

Stitching progress to report - Auntie Green has been relaxing sewing in the evenings: 

How's this for a textural photo in the late afternoon sun? I'm hoping to get that depth of texture with the quilting later on.

Making lots more bias stems:

The Ann Randoll reproduction next border will be hexagon flowers on cream background, with applique flowers too. Here is a photo I printed off from Pinterest - no idea whose photo it is as there was unfortunately no link, but I recognised it instantly as Ann Randoll's quilt - and a great closeup. 

So first I am having fun making lots of hexagon flowers. They are 1/2" hexagons.

preparing EPP 1/2 " hexagons

hexagons sewn into flowers

Wandering around on Pinterest led me to this blogpost in 2012 on Quiltville Quips and their photo of an antique Grandmother's Garden quilt (scroll down their post to see it). I do love a bit of yellow in a quilt and I have always wanted to make a quilt with just solids.  So here goes starting a new quilt - Grandmother's Garden - in citrus solids and with large 1 1/4 " hexagons and a pale yellow "path". The fabrics include various depths of poison green and cheddar. There are homespuns, chambray and a few lovely peppered cottons.

These large hexagons go together pretty fast with English paper piecing - especially as there is no fussy cutting. I had to stitch a sample "garden bed" just to see how they look, and I love it. Perhaps I need a colour overload after all the creams in Auntie Green!

Just so you can see how large these are - compare these monsters next to my little stack of Ann Randoll flowers.

 There are a lot of inspiring hexagon projects in blogs at the moment. I especially love Dawn's little hexagon repro quilt . And if you need to know anything and everything about making hexagon quilts then check out Karen's work - so generous and thorough with the information too.