Loving the Winter

image of OMG Ombre

Winter means nights in, in front of the fire.

Nights in front of the fire means hand-sewing.

BTW, thank you SBS for playing a great movie last night on the telly ~ “Walk the Line” with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon~ I stayed up till the end and got lots o’ stitching done.

image of handpiecing

One 1800s Sunburst block finished and well on the way with another.

This is a finished block from last week

image of 1800s Sunburst Block

Admiring my handywork over breakfast LOL

And here’s how the finished blocks are looking on the design wall this morning,

image of 1800s Sunburst Blocks

I just keep telling myself “I am getting closer”.

OMG Ombre is on the quilting machine and nearly done.

image of OMG Ombre

That Prussian Blue Ombre just pops throughout the quilt.

So with the imminent finish of another quilt, I’ve been pulling things out of drawers in the studio, (there is no shortage of UFOs there) and the winner just might be…

image of WIP quilt

Connecticut Quilt

Looking back through my notes I think I started this in *Gulp* 2008 (possibly earlier) and of late I’ve had some new ideas for it.

Not least because I can’t even find my original Electric Quilt drawings for it.  I suspect they were done way back on EQ5!, on the computer that died with out a backup. (Big Lesson learnt that day).

Because I love the fabrics in this quilt so much, it really would be a shame not to continue, and hey, one has recently been reproduced which is kinda handy LOL.

I’m pondering whether to take the baskets off and begin afresh from the star.

I’ve started drawing it up anew on EQ7 so will see where it takes me.

I’m going to carry on with that for the rest of the day.

Thanks for visiting,

til soon,

Margaret :-)

Two finishes

image of OMG Ombre

I have finally completed the top of Miss Hitchens’ Whimsy, just the quilting to do now.

*Insert Happy Beaming Face*

image of Miss Hitchens' Whimsy

Miss Hitchens’ Whimsy

With MHW’s completion I got stuck into OMG Ombre…cutting the fabric for the remaining flying geese blocks.  Well when I say remaining I mean 22 of the 25 needed…I hadn’t got very far initially.

image of OMG Ombre

Ready to sew.

I spent a lovely (coldish) weekend two weekends ago sewing by the fire, using foundation piecing for speed and accuracy.

image of OMG Ombre

The pile of finished blocks getting bigger.

 By the end of the weekend I had made all the Wild Goose Chase blocks and then started playing with the alternate blocks…I needed to decide if I did or didn’t want them scrappy, did I want to add pink triangles? (cos I had a nice pink Ombre print I was dying to use)

image of Alternate Blocks

Some ombres, some checks, some florals… No pink, didn’t look right.

There was a bit of this going on periodically to make sure I was still happy…

image of Alternate Blocks

Yep, happy with that.

But the weekend was over too soon and I had to pack it away :-(

The very next weekend, out it all came again and I finshed the alternate blocks, assembled them and *even* got the border on.

More decisions to be made there of course, lol I had in my head that it would be quite a subtle pieced border…there was enough going on in the centre I thought.

image of OMG Ombre

I started out subdued but got progressively bolder.

I tried all sorts of combinations and ended up with this… Not what I had in mind at all but, hey sometimes you have to listen to what the quilt has to say.

image of OMG Ombre

More ombre, more prussian blue, more brown.

 So I have two quilts ready to machine quilt .. such a good feeling.

Hoping you are getting some productive sewing time too

til next

Happy stitching

Margaret

Progress x three

image of 1800s sunburst blocks

I’m so close to finishing Miss Hitchens’ Whimsy … I can hardly believe it.

I’ve calculated just four evenings of stitching will complete the remaining two small corner blocks.

(once I have prepared them of course)

image of Miss Hitchens' Whimsy corner

Miss Hitchens’ Whimsy corner block…two down, two to go.

And then I just need a few hours to assemble because all the border strips are sewn…

image of Miss Hitchens' Whimsy borders

Miss Hitchens’ Whimsy outer borders.

…and the centre is done.

image of Miss Hitchens' Whimsy Centre

Centre block…FULL of Broderie Perse.

It is such a *good* feeling.

So that is the first of the three quilts that are in the *Priority Pile*.

The second is the 1800s Sunburst Quilt…maybe progress is too specific a word for this.  Chugging, nay Plodding along might be more apt but I am getting there and I periodically have another finished block to admire.

image of 1800s sunburst blocks

1800s Sunburst blocks, the top left is the most recent finish

I still get a thrill out of finishing one and deciding “which one next?” At the moment I seem to be drawn to these Vermiculate style patterns.

image of 1800s Sunburst blocks

More blocks.

Once MHW is finished I’ll be able to get a bit more gung ho with these blocks.

And I’ve decided to use these Leaf Templates from Made Studio for the elipse corner applique…I’ve used these before and really like the accuracy and speed of these ready made templates.

image of Applique leaves

Made Studio Leaf Templates.

The third is my OMG Ombre (that’s the working title lol)

With the arrival of more of the fabrics I wanted I can get cracking on this (yay)

image of OMG Ombre

Prussian Blue Ombre by Pam Weeks and Eccentric print by Lisa DeBee Schiller.

I’m itching to start sewing again on this… But first I’m going to prepare those last two MHW blocks…today.

I hope you are enjoying your UFO’s too.

thanks for visiting

til next

Margaret :-)