First 2013 Finish: Rose Hexagon Quilt

I finished this quilt quite a few days ago,

but the weather wasn't playing ball

to get a good photo.

As I was impatient to finally get it into use

 I decided I'd just take a snow photo!

 So at last, my rose hexagon quilt

with an Ula Lenz Foundation-pieced Rose...

... and a scalloped border is finished!!

I will definitely scallop some edges again -

a lot of work and a jiggle to get it cut out,

but so so worth it I think!

 The backing was pieced from leftover rose fabrics

and a larger piece of fabric cut into strips...

 The strips actually run horizontally,

but as it's such a large quilt it was difficult

to get it to hang nicely over the fence...

There was quite a lot of powdery snow on the quilt

after the photos so I gave it a quick wash and tumble dry

and it came out all soft and snuggly and warm!

So it's on our bed and I love it!!

*****

The sheep ran off when I came to take my photos!

Funny how fluffy white sheep turn brown when there's snow ;)

On the back of The Lily Quilt

Not what you need when you're trying to do

teeny tiny stitches to secure your applique vines down...

 

But she is very sweet

and I guess she's showing her appreciation

for the art of quilting...
and she is lovely company!
 

She's sitting on the back of a white quilt

(thankfully, it's the back!!!)

But it shows all the papers that are still in the quilt

from my English-Paper-Piecing method

of Marti Mitchell's Carolina Lily quilt.
 

 

As I've said before, Marti's pattern is for machine sewing,

but I like to hand-sew.

I also like to leave the papers in until I'm done.
(Luckily I have left the papers in as they act as a cat hair barrier LOL)

I Paper-pieced the borders on as well. 

That required sellotaping large pieces of paper together

to make my border templates.

All good quilty fun ;o)

Ice Beans

I managed to get into my studio

(after my DH put the wood-burning fire on for me!!)

and sew up the 8 'Corn & Bean' blocks that I needed

to make a sensible layout

for a baby quilt.

I laid them out on the floor,

took a photo,

but when I came back to pin the blocks together

I made a few changes

so the layout that will be sewn together will be different

from this photo:

I blatantly copied Sio's 'Candy Corn' (or Carnival Corn) Blocks!

She's one of my quilt hero's and is a constant source of inspiration!

What do they say? Copying is the purest form of flattery -

or something like that! :o) Thanks Sio!

I have another idea for the borders of mine though...

*****

The icy weather that we've been having

yielded a giant popsicle

(an old bin that housed some bits of garden equipment!)

and DS1 absolutely loved smashing it to bits!

Boys, eh!!??!

Long Lost Lilies

I still haven't done a blog post

listing my quilting goals for 2013,

but they do include this project

which I started in 2010...

 The pattern is 'Carolina Lily'

by Marti Mitchell.

I decided to English Paper-piece the entire quilt

even thought the pattern gives machine-sewing instructions!!

(I'm an English-Paper-Piecing-kind-of-girl!)

 I am presently trying to get the applique border on...

 This involves pinning the vines and leaves.

I made a mistake and now need 24 extra leaves

- when the error was discovered I took a break from the project,

but I have now decided to turn that 'difference'

in to my own variation of the pattern ;o)

During pinning, I had help!:

 Well probably 'company'

would be a better word than 'help'!

 So the game went something like:

'You pin, I pull!':

You tell me off, I pull again...

I chew...

Hold on a minute!! No chewing!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Onion Bhaji

To my absolute delight the other day,

I discovered Gram Flour.

(How can you not like a flour with a cute elephant logo LOL)

I was perusing the Asian food section 

of one of the larger supermarkets

and found Natco's Gram Flour...

 It's GLUTEN FREE!!!!

 And it had a really easy recipe for Onion Bhaji!:

 I have now made 3 batches.

So so easy!!!

 And according to the household food critic

"Very Authentic!"

No small praise!!!

Although, I thought as they were so delicious,

I wasn't too worried about authenticity myself!

 They are seriously yummy - try them!!

There's Snow Business...

It's been quite chilly here

the last few days...

Last night I found Abby keeping herself

warm with my eldest son's old soft toy

that he called 'Mau'.

That toy went everywhere when he was a toddler

(Thailand, Germany, South Africa...),

now of course, it's abandoned,

but at least it has a new friend :o)

 Perhaps it's time for a kitten??? 

- Perhaps not!!

*****

It's been great working on the scalloped border

because it has kept me nice and warm

while watching telly in the evenings.

 It's all done now, but no chance of a photo outside

just at the moment as we have a little snow:

It's still snowing now

so hopefully it will be enough for the boys

to play in with their friends... 

Me? I'll be staying inside!

Thoughts for Tuesday

My work table absolutely groaned under the weight

of this monster quilt.....

Probably not a good idea with a mainly cream quilt...

 A new project...

 Bang, bang, bang....

All photos taken on my phone (hence the quality!)

In Another Bind!

2013 was/is to be the year of finishes!

I have survived a bad case of Noro-virus

(I can only assume that nasty bug was that!)

and I am patiently sewing the scalloped-edge binding down,

but it is SLOW going!!

So onto the next project!!

My oldest quilt, started in the 1980's

using some rather old-fashioned Laura Ashley style fabrics

and my Mother's scraps....

I was desperate to find a dark/forest green fabric

with very small white dots to bind the quilt in.

I thought that would tie the quilt together,

but my search was fruitless, SO.... 

I tried out 3 other completely off the wall options

and I think I'm going to go with option number three:

A mid green with a white vine-like leaf design....

The 4 different star patterns all have the same 

green fabric in them, which has a white flower pattern.

So although not the same colour, (or pattern)

somehow I think this fabric

sort of works :)

I held it against all the blocks...

And it looked ok....

so I talked myself out of a dark green...

And I hope to get it bound soon!!

Then it can sit and wait it's turn after the scallops.

Yes, 2013 will yield at least 2 finishes - or else LOL

*****

A parting shot of my gorgeous Abyssinian cat.

She's not lazy, her eyelids just can't stay open long :)

Scallops!

I had pretty much talked myself out of scalloping the edges

of my rose hexagon quilt. I thought I'd lose some of the gorgeous quilting

that Chris had done... and I was thinking just to round the corners off,

but then last night I took a few plates from the kitchen and a pencil

and just decided to go for it....

It was trickier than I thought and I'm not sure 

it's been done 'correctly', but hopefully it will look ok

when the binding is on....

It was nice to find this embroidered block right next to the first side I cut -

it sort of spurred me on to finish this quilt

with as much effort as I have already put into it:

There was one hairy moment when I, in an attempt, to be brave,

told myself to 'just go for it!'.

Luckily I didn't at that point as the edges were folded over

and I would have had a big gap between scallops!!!

Of course I cut too much binding

and I was reminded how much I detest making bias binding!!

Both the cutting of it and the joining of it is the worst part!

I started to feel a bit ill as I was ironing the binding.

So I sat down and just pushed through because the studio

fire was on, the children were in bed and I didn't think 

I'd get a chance again to get this done.

I 'quickly' sewed the binding on
a king size scallop-edged quilt :)

Then I came into the house and was rather ill.

Yes, a tummy bug had hit our house!

Myself and the two boys were up ALL night

with sickness :(

But this will pass, the binding is on

and I can almost knock a quilt off my UFO list!

Rose Stars: It Is (nearly) Finished

Just the borders...

 

 

... to think about.

 

Then the quilting...,

but this quilt for Little Miss Kalico 

is sort of a 'top'.

I think I'd like white borders

(or possibly pieced borders??),

so I'll have to paper-piece them on,

but for now I need to get some binding

bought, made and sewn on

those other 2 (nearly) finished quilts of mine!

 

Happy New Year Everyone.

Let's hope it's filled with quilty finishes!!!