Saying Goodbye to December

Tomorrow will be the last day of 2011 so this will the final post for the year!  To say it has sped by is an undertatement, it has been very full indeed, especially with the beautiful weekly Civil War blocks by Barbara Brackman!!! 

Because of the time of year I would have expected the last block of December to be a bit Christmassy and so we have #52 Christmas Star!

I decided to Foundation Paper Piece this block because trying to get 5 even measurements out of an 8"x 8" block was really playing with my head, so I reverted to my trusty method LOL!!!!

I was very fortunate to have been the receipient of some lovely gifties too this Christmas!! Santa certainly didn't bypass my house LOL!!!

I did a swap with a few quilty friends,  as you can see I nearly ripped off all the wrapping paper before I took a pic!!!

From Elyte http://teafabricandotherthings.blogspot.com/ I received this delightful little embroidered pouch and pin!  Elyte's stitching in red on white is a real treasure!!!   Thankyou Elyte!

I sent her a Mugrug with matching mug and a pincushion!

From Barbara http://sanguinestitcher.blogspot.com/ I was lucky enough to get a gorgeous cross-stitch pincushion and delightful FQ with a wonderful little tatted tag - I will definitely save that and use it on something special!   Tatting was something I always wanted to learned to do, but haven't done so yet!!!!  Barbara does exquisite cross-stitch, just love her work!!!  Thankyou Barbara!

Because Barbara lives outside Australia I thought I would send her a little something that was Aussie!

I included a pair of Scissaroo scissors, they feature a kangaroo pattern on the scissors instead of the traditional stork!

From Lyn I received a two gorgeous embroidered placemats!!!  I just love the embroidery stitching design, they are perfect and will definitely be used and treasured!!!   Thankyou Lyn!

I sent Lyn some items using 30's prints!

From a couple of my Quiltbee friends I received  some beautiful sewing threads and quilt labels and a homemade Christmas cake!!!!    Thankyou to Sharon and Margaret!!!!

Thankyou girls for making this Christmas quilty swap such a lovely experience, it is so nice to receive treasures from others, we all have our special talents and specialities, so all your gifties are very much appreciated!!!!!

I wish you and all my followers/ readers a very safe New Year holiday, and all the best in needle and thread for 2012!!!

See you next year.........

Take it easy,
Merilyn

Happy Christmas Season to Everyone!!

Can't believe that Christmas is just around the corner, this year has just flown by and here we all are!!!!

As I drive to work each day past farms in the rural area where I live, there is a very old tractor that has been sitting in the same spot for years.   Around 3-4 years ago the farmer did a paint job on it and it is now bright red!   Each Christmas the tractor is decorated with some tinsel, a Father Christmas and sleigh!!!

It is quite a sight to see on the side of the road, but nice to know that someone is motivated enough to do this ritual every year!

There are usually cows in this paddock but they must have wandered off to the back on this day, you can see Father Christmas is cordoned off with an electrical fence to keep the curious bovines from interfering with the display!!!

Just one of the nice things about living in a rural area, not overly flash like in the city, but someone has decided to use what he had at hand and put it to good use -  good old Aussie ingenuity!!! - it's always a pleasure to see it as I drive into town and work most days of the week!!! 

We are also coming to the end of Barbara Brackman's CW blocks! 

#49 Yankee Puzzle

#50 Grapes of Wrath - it was great to be able to use some of my purples for this block - love purple!!!

#51 New York

I decided to use a different block format for this one, I had a look through EQ6 for a block where I could incorporate some stars 'n strips and this one fitted the bill nicely.  It was nice to be able to use some of the star farbics I had in my stash!

Only two more blocks to go and then the real hard work begins LOL - arranging the blocks into some visually pleasing order and sewing them into a flimsy - I'll definitely get a long-arm quilter to do the hard yards though,  I'd like to think I could have it finished before June when Barbara closes off the blog for this project!!!

Last post I put up a picture of a Christmas wall-hanging, but it was the uncompleted version, I must'n'have been concentrating, so here is the completed version complete with binding and little hanger!!

I used a lot of stitch in the ditch and stippling for the blocks and free motion quilting for the borders!!

This is a table-runner I made for Christmas 2010.   I created it after being in a Christmas themed 4"x 4" block swap through Carol Doak's online Foundation Paper Piecing group.  I made 12 blocks,  and received 12 blocks in exchange, I had to make a couple of extra ones to fit in with my design, I put in a 12"x 12" centre block, also one of Carol's designs.   This is the centre block.

I had a bit of math to do to work out how to make things all fit together, and here is the result!

It is 46 1/2" long and 19" wide.

Here is a couple of close-ups of each end!

I'm ashamed to say that I still have some work to do on it, some stippling mostly, I used a stiffer batt, (for placemats and bags) and it wants to fight with me everytime I try and do some extra work on it, being stiff it has no give, so I have avoided some of the battles, but I'll eventually get it done - you can see some of the chalk marks on the green border!

It's been a very busy year and despite my best efforts have not been able to post on a weekly basis, but that's life I guess, other stuff gets our attention and we just have to go with it!!!

I wish all my followers/blog readers a very happy and safe Christmas, I have really appreciated my followers comments, your support, generosity and in some cases wonderful friendships, thankyou all, you have made this journey into blogland a very happy one and I've had a lot of fun too!!!!

Stay safe and we'll see you in the New Year!!!!!

Take it easy,

Merilyn

Red, White & Green!

I have no idea where the time has gone lately, but it sure is puttering along at quite a speed, only 22 days before Christmas!!!!  November just whizzed past LOL!  it didn't register at all this year!!!  (to me anyways, dont' know about you!)

We're getting very close now to the end of Barbara Brackman's BOW's,  somehow I have managed to keep up my weekly habit of getting these blocks done!

#47 Dixie Tea.   I really enjoyed choosing the fabrics for this block, I'm happy with how it turned out!

I just loved the opportunity to use some of these rich brown/reds by Jo Morton and Judie Rothermel, and the maple leaf block is one of my favourites!

# 48 West Virginia

I badly needed to include some more purples into my collection of blocks for this quilt, so this block lent itself very well.  The centre print was a 10"x 10" square in a small bundle of purple prints I bought recently at the Brisbane Quilt Show.   Luckily I had just the right purple print to go with it and another wonderful rich red as well.  That shirting has been hanging around in my stash for the longest time and finally found a home!

I decided to Paper Foundation Paper Piece this block to stabilise it due to the 'y' seams and the fabric being cut on the bias, didn't want any unwanted stretching LOL!!!

Well, now that December has arrived I have been able to put up a couple of small Christmas quilts on my walls.   I love the look of these cheery pieces, and I will have to make a few more for next year.   I always love sewing with Christmas fabrics, they are kind of special and fancy!!!!

I made this wallhanging for last Christmas!   I was inspired to make it because I had been in a 'crazy heart' block swap (Carol Doak's yahoo group), and received one 'crazy heart' block made with Christmas fabrics from a lady in New York.   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CarolDoakQuiltingGroup/#ans

Sandra did a beautiful job with this block using all my favourite type of traditional fabrics. I had held onto it for a while before deciding to add to it and create a wallhanging and use some very similiar style of fabrics that I had in my stash!

I used Carol Doak designed blocks for the other three: 'tree', 'gift' and 'candle'.  I used stitch in the ditch and free motion quilting in this piece!

This next little quilt is a Kathleen Tracy design.  It's called Turkey Tracks and was a Christmas Challenge on her yahoo group October last year!   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smallquilttalk/

I just loved the blocks in this little quilt!  I did both machine and hand quilting on this one!

During the Christmas season I also like to bring out and use special cups with a Christmas theme!  So I've put away my usual blue & white cups and now have my tea in my little Chrissy cups!

I made some little placemats using another Carol Doak 'crazy tree' block!!! 

The red, white and green theme is carried through in my rather feral garden as well!  At this time of year my little gardenia tree is in full flower, I just love the smell of these blooms as it wafts up to the house from the garden below!

This little tree is completely neglected yet it rewards me every Christmas with beautiful flowers!!  I cut some to bring inside too, I especially love to have them in the bathroom!!

I can't remember where on earth I got the vintage brass vase, but it seems perfect for Christmas blooms!!!

Out the front my hibiscus is also full of gorgeous little red flowers!!

It was a bit bright and sunny when I took this photo a couple of hours ago, but you get the general idea, the bush is just full of blooms.

These are known as a single, as apposed to a double flower, love that red!!

I've also been doing some Christmas gifty sewing, but I won't be able to reveal just yet!  When the girls open their packages at Christmas I will then show you what I've been up to!

Hope you are all having a great weekend! 

Thankyou all who drop by and leave a comment, it is most appreciated!!!

Take it easy,
Merilyn

Turning Japanese

With only seven more blocks to go we are definitely on the downhill portion of our Commemoration Quilt for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the American Civil War.  

Last weekend's #46 Apple Tree.

There were two options, one from Blockbase and the other Barbara offered was a simplier version.  I chose to do the Blockbase version!!!  Each little square is cut 1 5/8" square (1 1/8" finished), careful piecing and fortunately it turned out at 8 1/2" finished.  

I did however use foundation paper piecing for the trunk section, it seemed to square up reasonably well, and I'm pretty happy with it.  One thing though, I know I have very few green reproduction prints in my stash, something I'll have to remedy!!!! (does that mean I will have to buy more fabric LOL  oh! no!!!)

In my last post I mentioned that I created a little project for the girls in my Quiltbee group.  They love their paper foundation piecing, (because it's easy....) but I figured they needed a bit of challenge, grin... so on to do some simple blocks to start with, then some that require some thinking about.  It's about getting comfy with accurate cutting and piecing.  We do one block in class then I give them one to do for homework (yes...we have homework!! LOL! - they groan but they love it!!!) 

We have all chosen different fabric styles, I particularly love Japanese fabrics, and haven't used them in a while.   Because I don't have a large stash I picked up some extra pieces at the recent Brisbane Quilt Show.

These were the first two blocks.  I selected all the blocks for this project from EQ and Blockbase.

As you can see the homework one was foundation pieced (log cabin).  

The next two on the top were last months', and the botton are for a couple of weeks' time.

No foundation piecing here LOL!!!

If they read this blog and I know one in particular does regularly, then this is a sneak peak LOL!!!!

The fabrics I am using are textured fabrics, and a bit thicker than regular cotton patchwork fabric.  But it is just that, that I love so much, they have texture and add a lovely dimension both visual and tactile, are not absolutely smooth or perfect, sort of a bit prim in a Japanese sort of way!!!!

About a year ago we made a bag, and I used Japanese fabrics for mine.  These prints are a lot finer cotton quality.

I have stuffed a cushion insert into the bag to puff it out a bit so you can see how big it is, one of my sewing machines is behind it, so you can get an idea of scale.  It's quite roomy!!!

I'll also share some other projects made with Japanese fabrics.

I really should learn to use the scanner on my photocopy machine LOL, (but until then I'll just photograph the photographs).   This was made several years ago around 2001-2 for some friends featuring some gorgeous pastel prints. It's just a straight set with red cornerstones.  With the left over pieces I made little fans in the corners.  I can't believe I actually machine quilted that on my domestic Janome 4800 sewing machine.  It was quite a bright day, so the colours look a bit washed out!

I kept these small pieces for my Quilt Journal.

A year later I found this pattern in a book by Mary Ellen Hopkins.   I could just see this in Japanese fabrics too!!

The colours here are fairly true, but I it doesn't show the entire quilt, the picture below does, but the colours are awful!

By way of explanation, the outer border was not some amazingly dream't up creative option, I simply did not have enough of either fabric to do the border, so improvisation had to be the order of the day!!!

Here are some close-ups of the quilting!  It is very heavily quilted and again I used my trusty old Janome for this job.   I sketched out on some paper my quilting design, and used a couple of  simple Japanese motifs in the grey and gold areas.

The quilt was pieced in Dec '03, the quilting took from Dec '04 till March '05.  I must have been pretty determined......or quite mad LOL!!!!  So over 15 months I worked on this when I could grab some time in my busy schedule!  I used 100% cotton batt.  The quilting thread is my all time favourite YLI waxed thread for hand/machine quilting.

The influence for such dense quilting really came from an exhibition of Japanese quilts I saw at a Sydney Quilt Show a year or two before I started on this.   Their work is absolutely magical, the precision and fine stitching literally bring tears to your eyes, the work of angels!!!!

Incidently I have a few of Mary Ellen Hopkins' books, if you want simple designs and effective fabric placement she provides some great ideas.

I think they are still available, I've had these for some time!

I love pincushions too!!  so.....of course I just had to make out of some Japanese fabric scraps.

As I do with all my pincushions I love to hot glue-gun them to a small plate, in this case a tapas dish for stability!

The Crazy patch is a Carol Doak design, which I miniaturised!

My last offering remains a UFO!!  I belong to Carol Doak's yahoo group and a couple of years ago she did a Mystery Quilt.   We had no idea what the eventual quilt would look like, a giant leap of faith for me, as I love to know where I am going, especially when I have to cut into fabric!!!  We were given a fabric requirement list and off we went.  I decided to use a Japanese floral as my focus fabric and chose the other oriental prints from there.  If you are interested in Foundation Paper Piecing, check Carol out here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CarolDoakQuiltingGroup/#ans

All the blocks are foundation paper pieced.  

I added the red, gold, floral and green borders (oh! dear what was I thinking!!!!) maybe too much green here eeck!!!!   One thing I'm sure of, I am definitely not going to give it 15 months of my life LOL!!!  I'll find a sympathetic long-arm quilter to do the job on this one!!!!

As much as I love 18th & 19th century reproductions I also love Japanese fabrics as well and always enjoy working with them, they fit into any decor from traditional to very modern. 

Another CW block due out tonight, looking forward to seeing what Barbara offers us this week!

Hope you are all having a great weekend where you can find a little time for some quiet soul soothing sewing!!

Until next time, take it easy!
Merilyn