Laura & Sam's Wedding (& Quilt)

On Saturday we went to a family wedding...

It was held on The Fruit Mount 

in the very beautiful RHS Wisley Gardens....

A beautiful bride.....

A gorgeous setting...

Stunning roses....

(metal ones on gates too!)

And a few very hot children!

Walking down the fruit mount, 

we saw apples and beautiful greenery....

and glimpsed two of the 'Kalico kids' playing so nicely together....

We even got a decent pose out of madam!

Wearing the fascinator I made to match her dress....

We all enjoyed this very special day...

And we enjoyed wandering around the gardens after the ceremony....

Lots to see...

And the view from above is very relaxing 

I believe ;o)

Flowers to make me homesick....

 I love these lilies...

And lush Bottlebrushes...

*****

At the reception, I was lucky enough to be entrusted with a 5 week old baby

He was a cutie....

I really enjoyed the baby snuggles!

The reception was held in the couple's garden...

One of my boys snapped this of Laura's dog 

(from under the table - great shot!)

A lovely day was had by all!

*****

Here's another pic of Miss-Kalico's hair fascinator...

(she had her bag packed and trundled it around for days 

in anticipation of our trip!)

***** 

And another picture of the quilt I made....

I used 5 inch squares so it came up relatively large

considering it's only 3 blocks by 3 blocks.

It was backed with 'bicycle' fabric

and the song went through my head of 'Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do...'

as I was quilting it :o)

 'We' (Miss Kalico & I) took the photos of the quilt in our garden...

And that is the 'end' of such a long post!!

Oldies, but Goodies?

I know I start a lot of them,

but I also do finish a lot of quilts...

I really do!

I have been quilting since school,

which is sadly a long time ago now!!!

In the 1980's my Mother taught me

to English-Paper-Piece

and I was hooked!

Twenty-*cough*-some years later

and I still love Patchwork.

Now that I am a longarm-owner

I love Quilting too!

For those who read this ol' blog,

but don't know me (or my quilts),

I thought I'd do a little 'show and tell'

of the ones in operation in our house.

These don't include the children's quilts.

each child has at least 2 quilts that get

dragged around, used for dens

and generally snuggled up to.

These also don't include

the picnic blankets,

the wedding gift quilts, the baby gift quilts,

the charity quilts and the finished,

but not used or gifted quilts!

*****

A typical Yorkshire 'sunny' day

for my photo-shoot over the garden fence....

*****

Here are my rose hexagons...
When I was younger

my Mother had made a gorgeous scrappy hexagon quilt

and I used to spend hours(!)

lying on it looking for the rose prints.

I wanted to make mine with only rose prints

(although I do have some leaf prints

and some hand embroidered roses

that I embroidered on some plain cream fabrics,

but that;s just being picky LOL.)

And I added the Foundation-pieced rose

designed by Ula Lenz:

*****

In 2011 I travelled all the way

to Germany to see my friend Birgit

and meet Bonnie Hunter,
one of my favourite quilters

and the inspiration behind many many of my quilts!

She gave a workshop on Cathedral Stars

and this is my version:

*****

Many moons ago (the 1990's!) when I lived in Germany

and was learning to move on from English-Paper-Piecing

 and machine sew my patchwork quilts,

I did a Magda Goldbach course

learning to rotary cut and sew Log Cabins:

A lot of the fabrics in this quilt

are a bit suspect

and my tastes definitely changed after making this,

but I did enjoy learning a faster way to make a quilt!!

I did another Magda Goldbach course

while I lived in Germany: Lone Star

(um, well, that one is a UFO!

Not a WIP (Work in Progress),

no, siree, it's an 'Unfinished Object'

and probably will remain that way... forever?)

*****
Another German inspiration here...

I had moved to London (late 1990'S)

and Birgit sent me a card

which included the sewn centre block of this quilt.

Previous to this, if I recall correctly,

Birgit had sent me another card with a picture

of a quilt similar to this one.

I was inspired.

This is OUR wedding quilt ;)

because I sewed this together while 'dating' my husband....

The hearts are appliqued on cream

and then Birgit taught me how to sew

Half Square Triangles really quickly.

Thanks again Birgit for all your quilty help over the years

*****

On the right of this picture below
is a Bonnie Hunter mystery:

'Orange Crush' it's called,

although, I did mine in red so I called it 'Berry Crush'

as I am not a fan of orange!

*****

On the left of this photo below

is another Bonnie Hunter Mystery called 'Double Delight'.

This quilt spends a lot of time on our bed as it's my

favourite... a certain special furry person

spends a lot of time on this quilt on our bed too!

(She was probably wondering

what her quilt was doing on the fence!!)

*****

A quick photo of my studio:

And the house from the back:

(Our house is not skew, I was lying on the grass LOL)

And in the grass is still a trace of our sheep visitors...

and a LOT of buttercups!

So that's a bit about my quilts,

I guess my life too...

Second Finish for 2012

The last time I was in hospital with this pesky leg of mine

I appliqued these hearts onto the neutral squares...

Then I decided to 'square in a square' them

with contrasting rose fabrics

(I was still deep in my rose fabric stage here LOL)

and then I decided set them on point

with teal setting triangles.

2 years later it's finally finished!

This quilt is a gift for a special girl and won't be given

until it's her birthday, however, I doubt that she

reads my boring ol' quilt blog

so I think I'm ok posting photos.

Plus quilts ALWAYS look better in real life!

I tried to get the cows in the picture above,

but they were awfully far away...

The die-cut hearts used in the quilt

were a gift from Donna

who owns the thespiderswebfabricshop.com

I should have taken a close-up of the panto,

I think it's hearts and loops and was quilted

beautifully by Chris at Fathers-Heart.

I used a lot of leftover rose fabrics to piece the back

so that you sort of get 2 quilts for the price of one...

... and teenagers, being as they are, can have a choice.

I may go visit and find she prefers the back.

And that's ok with me :)

Good friends, Quilt Memories...

It's nice when you find a memory

in a box full of photos and general 'stuff''...

Not only did my dear friend Birgit send me this postcard....

But Birgit also sent me this beautifully pieced

red and cream heart block...

(which became the centre...)

And they both evolved into this quilt:

So although, I have not finished sorting the box of 'stuff'

that I was supposed to sort out,

I did enjoy a trip down Memory Lane!

Thanks Birgit!!