Countdown begins

With Christmas only moments away, well eight sleeps away, I thought I had better do my finishing touches to two quilts. They both needed to have their bindings sewn on and of course, that all important hand stitching to close the deal. When it comes to hand stitching the binding I am at a lost how people can spend time doing the tiniest of stitches to make them look perfection. I lump along and stitch ever so badly, more or less just wanting for the quilt to be completed. One day I will perfect the art of stitching, but in the meantime I shall plod along as before.

80x80 binding

 

The cat had to move first before I could continue...

Much smaller lap-sized quilt

Sports lap quilt

Back in April was my brother-in-law's birthday and I stayed focussed and managed to get this out in two weeks. I would love to go back and quilt it better, but overall it came out OK and the themed fabrics went together well, some of his favourite pastimes: soccer, golf, fishing and caravanning. The wonderful golf fabric came from my Aunt in Dunedin and the soccer fabric was a wonderful homage to his playing days. The kiwiana caravan fabric was an adorable addition for the borders and the backing.

What not to do whilst quilting!

Quilting complete

Caravan, fish, and fishing rod detail

My first attempt at quilting

Soccer detail surrounded by golf fabrics

Binding sewn on and all complete

Caravan detail

Still Life with Pears

When you patchwork, finding gifts for your friends for birthdays is a fun time to come up with inspirational quilts. This time was the chance to get inspired by pears, one of my friend's favourite things.

Firstly, I had to track down a pear pattern for a wall hanging. After some googling I came across this impressive pattern, 'Still Life with Pears' from a book called 'Modern Quilts Illustrated'. I estimated the block sizes and the sizing of the pear. After some mis-measuring, it came together in the end and my friend ended up with a sizable wall hanging!

Making sure I had all the blocks

Fun part deciding what pear went where

More options of where to place the blocks

One of the pear detail

Another pear detail

Label pocket

Sweet lil donkey inside

Label writing is on the back of the donkey

My chosen backing, pears of course courtesy of Grandmother's Garden

Final block pattern with pussycat on guard

Done!

Pussy cat minding

You know that moment when you need to plan your quilt and start deciding what fabric should go next, only to have your paw friends come along and announce that yes, this is possibly a good place to settle down for awhile and stop you from progressing any further.

This is the backing of a quilt I am working on, but have yet to quilt...

Continuing Farmers Blocks

Patricia. A Recipe for Keeping Young, I chose a blue Peter Rabbit fabric to go with the theme of taking nap time with baby.

Patricia

Patience. Talk about Grit! The green checked fabric is supposed to represent the water pump working hard on the farm.

Patience

Grandma. All Bravery and Brightness. All about farming and taking wings and flying away. The soft green fabric was taken from my Grandma's off cuts from making a blouse.

Grandma

Three more Farmers blocks

Aimee. The Magic Jar. New paisley fabric because I ran out of the last one. My points are pretty bad in this one, may do again, but I really liked Aimee and her angles.

Aimee

Jewel. Listen a Little. It looked good on paper! This was the first one that challenged me and many others I suspect. I liked its 3-D effect.

Jewel

Sara. Life has Loveliness to Sell. Looking through the kitchen window and seeing all the beauty outside. This is another one I might do again and tame down the conflicting fabrics.

Sara

More Farmer's blocks

Susannah. Earn Before Spending. I chose to select some football players, paying attention to the boots. The boy in this letter spent his earning on saving up for a pair of footy boots.

Susannah

Addie. Happier Than Ever Before. I quite liked this block. The family would see deer around the homestead often during their trips around the farm. The brown striped fabric indicates the fencing and the brown floral print are the wildflowers.

Addie

Margaret. Mom's a Whole Menagerie. I really loved how this block came out with its pretty fabrics. I tried to give a "rainbow of love", with a mixture of emerald, ivory, crimson, gold, silver and rose. I chose not to add the paisley fabric for this one.

Margaret

Millie. Blind Flying.  All about having faith. I decided to select soft colours and again chose not to add the paisley fabric.

Milly