Autumn ~ gardening and sewing.

May 4, 2013 by
image of Rose
image of Rose

A rose from my garden, for you

I’m feeling a little neglectful, disappearing since February… eeek

It wasn’t intentional, and I wish I could say I’ve been here, there and everywhere.

But in fact I’ve mostly been right here at home, just doing stuff.

Which has been very nice.

All of a sudden, it’s Autumn and I love it, this is my favourite season.

image of rose

Late afternoon and long shadows.

As you can see I have a few roses hanging in there,

this is typical of Central Victoria where the roses will get a second bloom after summer.

But the trees are giving it away

image of autumn

there won't be a second bloom of apricots.

In the Northern Hemisphere, Spring Market is nigh in Portland, Oregon.

I would love to have been there but alas, not this year.

However I have just sent a quilt over for Marianne Elizabeth‘s booth there.

I’ve been busy designing and making the quilt using her newest fabric range

Tatiana by RJR fabrics.

image of Stars and Stripes quilt

Stars and Stripes.

I moved the sewing machine in to the house when the fabric arrived, parked it up on the end of the dining table so I could sew late in to the evenings.

image of making blocks

Strip piecing frenzy.

The stars I made using English Papers, that was a lot of triangles.

image of paper piecing

English Paper piecing

However I had the top complete in four days, but that did include sewing well in to the evenings.

Not bloomin’ bad huh, if I do say so myself.

Below is a little bit of distraction, I fancy making three more for a centre of something.

image of quilt block

Just messing about with fabric.

It uses a Margot Krager Dargate Indigo, I have quite a bit of this and the others from the same range

so will potter about with this over the winter.

 Yesterday I picked up the latest copy of Homespun magazine.

They have a whole new look and I like it a lot.

image of homespun magazine

Homespun magazine #120 on sale now

 Inside there is the pattern for one of my quilts,

Eastleigh

image of Eastleigh Quilt

This is the first time I’ve had a quilt in Homespun so I’m feeling pleased and just a bit chuffed.

They’ve done a really nice job with the styling, I haven’t shown my cat that there’s another cat sitting on her quilt tho ;-)

For the time being she’s making do with this one

image of Maisie

Maisie!!

I’m off to sew, something…anything.

til soon, a lot sooner I hope ;-)

happy stitching

Margaret

6 Comments

Filed Under: Design, Eastleigh, Musings, Reproduction Quilts  

Just catching up

February 18, 2013 by
image of modern quils

What a great January I had!

I take the whole month *off* so I can *work* on my own things, bit of a contradiction I know.

However it’s all very enjoyable for me so doesn’t feel like work, and I often use the term ‘pottering about’ so it’s all very much at a summer pace.

This January my main tasks were to get some patterns written up and get the Maltaville Album Quilt ready as a complete pattern package.  Plus I wanted to get two of my own quilts completed (borders on or blocks joined) and quilted, they are just simple, fun quilts and I planned to try new pantograph quilt patterns on them.

And on the home front there were some special cooking things I wanted to do, fancy myself as a bit of a foodie I do ;-)

So how much did I achieve and how far did I get sidetracked LOL.

image of modern quils

two modern quilts finished off and quilted.

I have sewn the binding on but have yet to hand stitch to the back, that can wait ’til Autumn.

The one on the left is a quilt I started ages ago with a Layer Cake of fun, modern fabrics.  The pattern is Memories of Japan by Suzanne Lyle and is especially for layer cakes.  The quilt on the right is the result of playing with some bold geometric prints that came home with me after a trip to Amitie quilt shop in Melbourne.  Of course both these quilts were intended to be a quick and fun diversion but took about four and two years respectively to complete.  Haha like I say January is the month to potter and finish.

I did get all the Maltaville Block patterns  redone to A3 pages and added new history info to the pattern sheets.

image of MaltavilleAlbum Quilt detail

Maltaville Album Quilt centre block

What can slow me down is getting the photo’s suitable for pattern covers so that’s the hold up with that.  It’s always a two person job for starters.  I have several quilts to do now so a day will be set aside in the very near future. Very near!

I wrote up the patterns for two antique quilts and they are only waiting on their photo’s.

I did this oneimage of stars quilt

and this one

image of Red and white quilt

didn’t get as far as I’d hoped on this one

image of Antique star quilt

or this one

image of antique quilt

I got a little side tracked with this new basket quilt

but haven’t actually done anymore on it since I showed it last

image of Basket quilt

No name except basket quilt

And more than a little side tracked on this

image of Eagle Quilt

Eagle Quilt

The next exciting thing is the Eastleigh Quilt and pattern appearing in the April issue of Homespun magazine (volume 14 #5)

image of Eastleigh Quilt

Eastleigh Quilt

Eastleigh is an English Frame quilt, named after my Grandmother’s home town in Hampshire UK.  Today *would be* her 108th birthday.  I had such fun creating this quilt for Homespun and can’t wait to see it in print.

happy stitching and til soon

Margaret

12 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Antique Quilts, Applique, Design, Eastleigh, Quilt Patterns, Reproduction Quilts  

Being a bit of a slow coach with this one

November 27, 2012 by
image of applique block
image of applique block

Applique block

But I’m pleased to say

“that’s one block down and eight to go”

Today I prepped another block in anticipation of something good on the telly tonight,

I haven’t checked, I’m just hoping there is :-0

image of applique block in progress

In progress

Click on the picture for a better view, you’ll see that I don’t mark my background fabric at all,

but I do press the halfway marks, vertical/horizontal and diagonal.

I have a large light box (but even it isn’t quite large enough to fit these very large blocks)

and I prefer to just lay the background fabric over the pattern sheet.

The applique shapes are marked with the stitch line directly on to the right side of the fabric with whatever will show up.

In this case all the fabrics are marked with a white pen except the lighter blue which has been marked with a frixion pen (heat activated) so I have to remember not to iron that one.

I have finished this quilt below which you have seen snippets of

 here

and it looks like this

image of Applique quilt

Quilt previously known as Vintage

Okay I know, you can’t see that much of it but a girl’s got to keep the odd thing up her sleeve.

It does have a name now, it only had a working title of Vintage which either had to go or be extended somehow.

I have decided to call it Eastleigh after the town in Hampshire where my Grandmother was born.  It rolls off the tongue easily.

I can tell you that this quilt is destined for Homespun magazine next year, about mid way through so don’t hold your breath just yet.

And I thought I’d just share with you that this elderly lady is still hanging in there despite a few scares this year

image of Rollo

" I know I forget lots of things but I don't think I've eaten yet"

Rollo has just had her summer clip and is looking forward to Christmas, just around the corner now.

I’ll be back before then of course,

’til soon

Margaret

16 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Eastleigh, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics