Time to reveal the front....

Now that the table topper quilt that I showed you from the back in my last post has safely arrived at the recipient's (my eldest daughter) home, I can reveal the front of it.

I had decided to appliqué a wreath of flowers into the centre square but, I thought it would be difficult to free motion quilt around them, so I quilted the background completely before adding the flowers. I then used the raw-edge appliqué method that I used to complete the 'Honey Bunny' quilt which I posted about here to finish off the edges of the leaves and flowers.  The flower templates that I used were also from a tutorial by Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now! (Kellie now has a shop called Cutting Cloth)  The tutorial is called 'Flower Garden' and is in my 'to do' folder as another project!!

Since I last posted, I have also been hard at work on another project which will be a gift.  It is a little landscape embroidery that I am making to celebrate a wedding.  I can't show you the whole thing yet because the wedding isn't until June, so it won't be received until then but, I thought that you might like a few glimpses of it.  Above and below are a couple of small sections showing the background quilting and some of the appliqué and hand details that I have added.

It has really been a lot of fun to work on.  I finished on Friday last and now I am excited to move onto my next project!!  

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend! 

Time for a catch up!!

I see that it has been a little while again since I posted and I think it is time for a catch up!!  I have been a bit negligent with my blog posts and I have even thought seriously about closing my blog in favour of using other media tools to keep in touch with the quilting world but, I have blog friends who don't use other media and I don't want to lose contact with them so you'll have to put up with the sporadic posts instead!!

Now, what have I been doing since my last post?  Well, April was a busy month as I was travelling in the UK for part of the time visiting family and having cuddles with my cute little granddaughter who has just turned five months old.  I took with me the Honey Bunny wall hanging to put in her nursery.  I think she liked it!!

We also visited my Father-in-law and sorted through some of the legal paperwork and sorting out that accompanied the sad passing of my Mother-in-law in December of last year.  As it was really my husband who was involved with the legalities of this and, I knew that I wouldn't be attending some of the meetings, I took with me my improv quilt to bind.  I had managed to get all the free motion quilting completed just in time to take it with me.

Above is the finished quilt and below is a glimpse of the quilting from the back.  I was really pleased with how this turned out and I shall definitely be making some more improv quilts in the future.  They are really great for using up scraps of fabric!!

When I got back I started work on a new project which I am not far from finishing.  I have pieced, layered and basted the quilt top (which is going to be a table topper) and finished all the free motion quilting.  As this is a gift, I am only going to show you the back so that you can see the quilting.  You'll have to wait until my next post to see the front!!  I am very pleased with it so far!!

Since then, I have had my youngest daughter here to stay and, we had some fun as I showed her some basic hand embroidery stitches.  She wanted to make something for a friend and the stitching reminded me that I needed to re-start work on the beautiful BOM blocks from Gail Pan's 2018 i-stitch-club: Send My Love.  I managed to finish stitching the last February appliqué to it's background and start embroidering the first March block.  Now all I have to do is make the time to keep going!!

Well, I think that's about it for now.  Hope you all enjoy a wonderful first day of May!! Until next time 😄

A productive week.....

I hope you have all had a good week!  Here it has been wet and windy on and off for most of the week which, has meant that it seemed a good idea to spend a lot of time in my sewing room (well that's my excuse!)

Flushed with the success of my 'improv' pieced cushion which I wrote about recently, I thought I would try a slightly bigger project using more of the techniques from the book 'Artful Improv' by Cindy Grisdela.  At the beginning of the week, I pieced together a wall quilt using three different techniques from the book.

I am really pleased with the results but, I haven't decided how to quilt it yet, so it is still a work in progress.

While I was making up my mind how to quilt the improv quilt, I decided to start another project.  This was a free pattern from many years ago (2009) called 'Honey Bunny' by Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now!  (Kellie now has a shop called Cutting Cloth.)  It has been sitting in a folder all that time waiting for me to make it!! 

The pattern uses a technique for raw-edge appliqué which I haven't used very much as I was never very confident to try it. However, since learning to free motion quilt, I now feel I have the skills needed and, I thought I would make it.  The original pattern was made into a small cushion but, as I have made a couple of new cushions recently, I decided to make it into a mini wall-hanging instead.

It was a lot of fun to make and I really loved quilting the back ground with this all-over swirly pattern.  In fact, I liked it so much that I may quilt my improv quilt with it too!!  The bunny wall-hanging is perfect for Easter or, I may send it to my Granddaughter to hang in her nursery!

Thank you for visiting!

Another new cushion.....

Following on from my last post when I showed you an 'improv pieced' cushion that I had made, I thought I'd share another cushion that I have made since then.  It is not 'improv piecing' but it is a 'modern' style.

The pattern is a pattern by Suzy Quilts called 'Modern Fans'.  It is a little on the tricky side as it has curved piecing but, Suzy walks you through these with her online tutorials of how to best approach curved seams.

As I was unsure about sewing the curved seams, I thought it best to start with one block and make a cushion to test out how I felt about them before I launched into sewing a whole quilt top.  With this in mind, I used the same solid fabric colours that I had used for my last cushion so that they would coordinate nicely together.

Cushions are also the perfect size for practising free motion quilting, so before I made the pieced block into a cushion, I quilted it using a mixture of straight-line walking foot quilting and free motion quilting.  Overall I am very happy with the results and I now have two new cushions to decorate my home!!

Thank you for visiting and until next time 😃xx

Something I had been meaning to do.....

Some while back (at least over a year ago, before I moved back to Switzerland) I started taking an interest in modern quilts/quilting.  I think this probably coincided with experimenting more with my free motion quilting as, modern quilts often have more negative space than traditional quilts, leaving lots of space for free motion quilting.

As I love quilting books, I of course added one or two modern quilting books to my collection.  One of these was a delightful book called 'Artful Improv' by Cindy Grisdela which I read from cover to cover and then put to one side meaning to try some of the techniques and ideas.  However, life took over, we moved home, other projects (baby quilts) took priority and I still hadn't tried any of the techniques.

That is until the beginning of 2019.  I had pulled this book out and put it on my list of projects to make in 2019.  I still had some quilting to finish on the last baby quilt which I showed you in my last post but, the idea to try some of the techniques from the book was still there.  Earlier this week I was browsing on the internet (as one does) and found a delightful pillow project on Pinterest, which reminded me of the style of the projects in 'Artful Improv'.  Well, it wasn't surprising as the pillow was a project made by Cindy Grisdela and is a free project from the publishers of the book C&T Publishing.  It felt like the Universe was speaking to me and I just couldn't resist trying the improv piecing and making the pillow.

I even had some similar green fabric in my stash to that which Cindy had used when she made her version.  It was a really fun project and Cindy's instructions are clear and easy to follow, so I didn't have any trouble with the improv piecing or sewing the curves.

The pieced pillow top was nice but, I knew that some quilting would bring it to life.  I added some wavy lines using the walking foot on the machine (as Cindy had done on her pillow) then I just couldn't resist adding some free-motion quilted bubbles.  

The construction of the pillow was a straight-forward envelope back, so that didn't take long and I am now the proud owner of a pretty little improv-style pillow!  I am really thrilled with it!  Now I am keen to try some of the other techniques from Cindy's book!!

A busy but very enjoyable few weeks!

It has been a very busy few weeks here.  Since I last wrote, we have had quite a number of visitors which has kept me out of mischief!!  It has meant I haven't had as much time for stitching but there are times when that has to take second place!!

We had a lot of snow at our Chalet but the sun came out after the snow had fallen and it was a beautiful Winter Wonderland.  It is always such a joy to be snug inside looking out at the beauty and to go out and breathe in the pure, fresh air.  Makes you feel good to be alive and very lucky!!

Among our visitors were my eldest daughter, her boyfriend and some other friends followed by my son, his wife and my cute little grand-daughter.  It was fantastic to spend time with them all and to have lots of cuddles with Sophie.

Before they arrived (well, actually on the day they arrived) I managed to get the second cardigan I was knitting for Sophie finished.  Luckily it did just still fit her (she has grown a lot since I last saw her).  

The house felt very empty after they all went home so, I have been filling my time with finishing off the quilting on the last of the four baby quilts that I pieced before Christmas. 

This quilt was for a friend's daughter and I used Tilda fabrics and quite simple piecing. I wasn't sure about it when the piecing was finished and it took me a while to decide how to quilt it.

In the end I quilted alternate blocks with straight line quilting and the blocks in between with an orange-peel pattern.  As soon as I started the quilting, it made such a difference to the quilt.  It really brought it to life and by the time I had finished it, I was really delighted with the end result.  Now the quilt is on it's way to it's new home.  I hope they will like it!

Here are the four finished quilts.  I have been really pleased with how they all turned out and was very happy to be able to practise my free motion quilting.  It is something that you need to keep practising!!

I have also been working on a little quilt from a pattern by Suzy Quilts called Mojo Minis.  This is a very different style for me but it is exciting to try new styles and ideas.  I have been hand quilting it and, after all the free motion quilting, it has been nice to get back to some hand work too.  It is not finished yet but, I'll show you more next time!

Thank you for visiting! Until the next time..... 😊

A special quilt......

As those of you who follow my blog will know, I have recently been working on a number of baby quilts.  Two of which I finished just before Christmas and which you can read about in my last blog post here. I also mentioned the quilt that I am writing about today in the same post as the first project I would be working on for 2019.

Today I would like to share with you my first finish for 2019.  It is a quilt which has a very special meaning for me.

Towards the end of 2017 I lost a friend.  Someone who had been very supportive to me when I had my own children small.

In 2018 I learned that her daughter was expecting her first child and I was determined to make a quilt for her.  I knew that her mum would've liked that.  So, this is that quilt.

A precious baby boy was born earlier this month and, I hope that this quilt will wrap him in the love that I know his grandmother would've given him if she had still been here to see him.

I quilted it strip by strip using different FMQ designs.  I am delighted with how well it has turned out.