Just Finished !

I have just finished this quilt - like 5 minutes ago.

It is an Apple Core quilt - COMPLETELY Hand Sewn and Hand Quilted.

I feel very proud of myself.  I did a knife edge - so no binding and quilted lightly around each of the cream blocks as well as a row just inside the outer edge and another around halfway in around the border.

This next pic is the chocolate bunch my eldest gave me for Mother's Day.

So nice I don't want to eat the chocolate.  When I do I think I will replace them with a cut paper or felt heart shape.

Thoughts In Thread

You may have read in a previous post that I am following Val Laird's Thoughts In Thread stitch along.  It's a free pattern that she puts out each month to make up a small quilt or wall hanging.

I finally got around to doing the first 2 blocks the other day.  I wasn't too sure of my fabric selections, but in seeing them all in these 2 blocks they look OK together.

This photo does not do them justice.  if you too want to follow along, you can find Val on my sidebar.

Now it's onto blocks 3 and 4.

Sewing Days

Over the past few weeks I have had mum's from calisthenics come over on Wednesday afternoons and Friday nights to do some sewing - they need to learn and I have been attempting to teach them.  Five ladies have taken up this opportunity.

Not only have I been showing them how to put together their child's costumes but I have also been showing them how to use their machines.  That is not something I thought they would need.

But each lady has gone away with a sense of accomplishment in having made a skirt with attached petticoat, or a pair of shorty overalls, or even sewing up a leotard.

yay for them....

More of my Garden Quilt

Took some time off from calisthenic costume making to have some me time.  And this is what I did with that time - some more blocks for my Pam Bono quilt.

A pretty peachy one....

A bright Pink one....

And a rich Purple one....

I also made a cushion for youngest daughter's buddy.  It's in the club colours.  I hope the buddy likes it.

The buddy's name starts with a E.

And I started a painting after reading my current issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

It's actually a lot darker than the pic shows.  When I get the next layer of paint on, I'll show you.

MSNP has kicked in again!

In the week leading up to Easter I was browsing some blogs and a number of people were making Dresden Plates blocks.  Now I have made 1 of these before and I quite liked the ease of the block and how nice it looked.  Since we were going away for a week over Easter, I was also thinking of what to take with me craft wise.  I was hoping hubby qould be off fishing and leave me to my own devices.

Looking at these blogs was when my MSNP kicked in.

I decided that I just HAD to make a Dresden Quilt.  I worked it all out - 16 squares with a smallish border, Suffolk Puff where the blocks meet each other and the border (that makes 25 of those) - size and all.

Since I decdied to have a black background and I needed wanted to have rainbow colours in each Plate, I knew I did not have the fabrics on hand.  So mucjh for trying to use the stash.  So off to the shop I went.

I came home with this:

And some plain Red and lots of plain Black.

I made my own templates:

Then I cut out some of the fabric:

 And sewed it up into this, just to check my template:

It worked and sat flat, so I made some more:

By this stage we had to come home early - the weather had turned really cold and when you are living in a small caravan with a canvas annex it's not pleasant.  Once home I spent the next day finishing off all the plates blades and then started on appliquing them to the background.  I also had to cut out the centres:

The first one complete looked like this.  Each plate is hand stitched down:

With some friends the quilt looks like this:

I played around with a folded fabric flower - not sure if I like it though.  Maybe it will be better if it's a bit bigger.

All 256 blades have been sewn together to make 16 Dresden Plates.  I have put just one colour every fourth blade and mixed up all the other blades in each plate.

I am going to quilt it in a quilt-as-you-go method and use a variggated thread (if I can find 1 I like); I have cut the front background pieces larger than the back background pieces.  This will give me a flap or sort of binding to sew down on the back.  Being all the one colour - Black - you most likely won't notice it anyway.  Whatever I end up putting at the block corners will be added after the quilt is together.

Painting

I bought a monthly magazine the other day just because it had instructions on how to paint a beachy/sea scene.  Like I don't have enough mags and books on the subject!

But it got me inspired to bring out the paints and the brushes again.  I think the end product is not too bad.  I used acrylics on a stretched canvas.  I will be donating it to one of the girls calisthenics clubs for their end of year concert raffle.

Then when I went shopping a few days later I came across a canvas with a frame and a pic lightly drawn on it.  Pic looked ok, so I bought it - $12 only - and have this morning finished painting it.  Way brighter than the pic given.  The paints given were terrible to use - great if you were dabbing them on but not if you were trying to sweep them on.  Not entirely sure I like this one.

Maybe it will look better once it is in it's frame.

Easter

I wish you a happy easter,
I wish you a happy easter,
I wish you a happy easter,
Seasons blessings to you.