Quilt tour part three... and a discovery

A few more quilts around the house just to complete my little tour.

Here is my version of the Sarah Morrell quilt hanging on the wall in the family room - completed in 2012 using Di Ford's wonderful pattern:

Sarah Morrell quilt - version of Di Ford's pattern

There are also more photos of individual blocks here on a previous post.

Hanging in my entrance way is the Folk Art Basket quilt. It is my version of Karen Cunningham's reproduction pattern and was made in 2011/2012.  It was just such a pleasure to make this one and got me well and truly hooked on English Paper piecing and fussy cutting techniques.

Folk Art Basket quilt - Karen Cunningham class

Folded away at the moment  ( spot it on the shelf?) is my red and white Mariner's Compass - made in 2010 in classes with Chris Jurd. It is foundation paper pieced and appliqued, and machine quilted - see this post for a closer view. It was a real eye-opener to discover foundation paper piecing too.

Mariner's compass variation - class with Chris Jurd

The next one is folded on a bed - machine pieced and hand quilted in 2007. It is my design made in my daughter's choice of largely Japanese fabrics. 

Japanese fabric quilt

****   End of tour!   ****

Hope you have all had a lovely Easter - loaded with chocolate and Easter buns like me! 

And the Discovery?

Over Easter I've also been flat out discovering Pinterest. My daughter highly recommended it and showed me the ropes. Wow ...what a marvellous time-waster but such a useful resource for organising quilting ideas ! I have put a link in the margin to my Pinterest collections in case you might like to look - but I think you may have to be a member ... 

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??

Seeing stars...

Have just finished the applique of all the stars on my inner Burnt Quilt border...hence am seeing stars!

 They were  English paper pieced first, pressed, papers removed, and appliqued down. I should have done the applique before adding the other borders - made it awkward to manage with armfuls of fabric to turn, but we live and learn! A few of the stars up close...

They are great fun to make and I enjoyed making dozens of them in the Folk Art Basket quilt (Karen Cunningham class ) shown in an earlier post. Here are some of the stars on it 

Thanks to some lovely, encouraging comments on my Baltimore post (no pressure though LOL) I have started another block and this is progress so far on a basket 

THE FRONT

THE BACK

A bit messy but you can see how it gradually comes together with back basting, and marking only on the back of the fabric. I spend quite a while dithering about deciding on which green to use  - so have used a few different ones in these blocks , and am now trying to ensure there is a balance of the different greens across all the blocks, so they will look OK together. I don't seem to have the same trouble deciding on reds... maybe there are just less red choices?

First Blog

Welcome to my blog!

My daughter created this for me as a surprise - part of my 5#th birthday present.  So - after much trepidation on my part and patient instruction on her part - I am going to give it a go. She knows I am an obsessed quilter and keen follower of many, many quilting blogs ....so thought it was time I joined in the fun and did a bit of sharing too :)

I have been quilting for over 20 years but in recent years my interest has largely been in reproduction quilts (American civil war era and the 1800's) - so be warned there will be a bit of a bias that way.

Here are some photos of my more recent quilts -  you might recognise the patterns of Karen Cunningham and Di Ford among them...