"simple" Simon border and a new project

After not posting for many weeks this is my second post in one week.
Well it's that time of year - no work, Christmas rush is over and a few days to relax and catch up on quilting... The house that was cleared of quilting clutter to make room for entertaining is now littered with piles of auditioning fabric.

My Simon quilt top is almost finished. I just have to decide on the fabric to use for the outer first and third borders -"should be simple" she thought?
Here is 'Simon' in the Dutch book - the antique original and the authors' reproduction - showing these borders:

The antique quilt in "Promenade in a Dutch Garden"

Outer three borders on the original antique quilt - a lovely diamond print. Photo from the book.

Outer borders on Petra and An's reproduction - a beautifully coordinated stripe. Photo from the book.

Here is a collage of some fabrics I trialed with my quilt top and strips of pieced border - just auditioning, not stitched yet. I think I would like to keep the colours close to those in the original quilt - cooler/lighter colours - so these are rejects for this project.

The bottom right is my favourite of this lot but still not right...

Then I tried a Dutch chintz floral and a paisley print - I love them both and can't decide. I'm edging towards the paisley print because I love it's simplicity.  But it seems to make sense to use the Dutch chintz on a Dutch chintz repro quilt! Ho hum... not such a simple Simon border after all.

Dutch chintz print

Paisley print

Meanwhile - new project...

In a couple of weeks I am going to Summer School in the NSW Blue Mountains with Rhonda Pearce to make her version of the Ann Randoll quilt/coverlet - so terribly exciting as it is just my cup of tea. What's not to love in an antique British quilt with applique, clamshells and loads of fabric choices! And I have had such fun learning to make clamshells in my Chintz medallion quilt (still in progress). 

Unfortunately I didn't get to see the original quilt when it was on show at the Queensland Art Gallery but at least I have the wonderful book/catalogue they produced ("Quilts 1700-1945").  There are also great pictures in this book below:

Photo from book above

Centre of the quilt - photo from book

Photo from book - wonderful fabrics!

Some possible fabric selections I've made for the centre using the requirements list:

  Lots Some more set aside for scrappy piecing and clamshells - loads of small prints needed.

I've not seen anything but a small colour photo of Rhonda's work on this so am keeping my options open a little regarding fabrics and colours. You can read that to mean I'll be taking half my stash along to class! 

Thought I might review my quilting year - 2013.

A collage of projects that were started and finished this year:

All started and completed in 2013

Then there are the projects part-done this year: 

Baltimore - blocks 14 to 23 made this year, the rest were previous years

Burnt quilt - top finished 2013, still needs to be quilted - some time!

Lucy Boston - Started 2012, finished 2013

Medallion quilt - started 2013, working on it now

Simon - started 2013, working on it now

Double X - just started

Pretty happy with that lot.

But I'm a bit shocked to find there are 5 quilts still in progress ...and I am starting a new one! Such is the quilting life. All the best to you all for much inspiration and fun quilting in 2014!

"In the Time of Toile" quilt finished

Found a spot for it on the wall...

I have been quite heavy with the machine quilting as this quilt is for hanging. My thinking is that it does not need to be soft and puffy (like my Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses ) . I also wanted to add interest and another dimension with some geometric quilting.

Here are some photos taken in a different light to show up the quilting:

None of the quilting lines were marked on the quilt - just followed seam lines or free-motion stippled. But I wanted to make especially sure the lines on the Toile triangles (above ) were evenly spaced. I am not a fan of markers because I have made a mess of them before. So I thought I'd try a method I'd read about - using lines drawn on thin foundation piecing (or greaseproof) paper and sewing over it - seemed ingenious!?

                        Here goes...

Freezer paper cut to shape, lines drawn on, and pinned to quilt 

Machine stitched through quilt along lines using walking foot

Tearing off the paper to reveal lovely lines

All in all it went really well and I'd do it again. The tearing off is not too fiddly with straight lines. I'd be a little wary using it on a large area as the walking foot does not grab the top layer of fabric so there could be some movement (ie, puckering alert).

Thanks so much to Sue 's generosity with this kit. It was a great little challenge and lots of fun!

Here's a touch of autumn in the garden - the weather here has been just perfect recently.

Leaves on my Dogwood tree

And now ... I hear a new project calling... Carolina Lily (see end of the post in this link) starting soon ...so exciting!

Inspirational quilts!

Photo from the book  Mosaic Quilts by the Charleston Museum

If you're anything like me your pulse will be going a wee bit faster now! And here are some more pictures to help it along...

Photo from 55 Famous Quilts from the Shelburne Museum

Photo from 55 Famous Quilts from the Shelburne Museum

The photos are from two old  books that I just bought on ebay - and they are completely adorable. 

I started to mark them with sticky tabs but gave up as every picture needs a tab :  

They will find a special place among the rest of the 'family' - two groaning shelves of quilt history books. Most of these books have sticky tabs marking inspirational works. That kind of links to the end of my last post when I raved about my discovery of Pinterest - where "sticky tabs" are so nicely organised and accessible online. 

I now realise I must be about the last person on the planet to have discovered Pinterest - very slow on the uptake I know! So...that was me a week ago. 

Since then I have read various comments on different blogs about Pinterest and see that not everyone is happy with willy-nilly public pinning. Being a cautious type, I am taking that on board and am now being...well... cautious, in my pinning. Just by the way, I am only a hobby-quilter - no teaching, selling, publishing (apart from the blog) and have never entered quilts to win prizes in competition/shows etc - just obsessively driven to make and share quilts. It is wonderful to find that someone else is remotely interested - makes you me feel a little less mad doesn't it??

I know - Enough yabber!!     Here are more pics: 

From Mosaic Quilts the Charleston Museum

And to show I haven't just been looking at Pinterest ....some progress pictures: 

Next Baltimore Album block nearly finished

Quilting progress on my In the Time of Toile quilt

Autumn has arrived - needed gloves on the morning walk today - brrr. And, in the garden, the Golden Ash is dropping leaves fast :

Talk soon :)

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.

"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..