Finally finished Quilts

At last here are better photos of the finished quilts.  Di assembled them, and did the quilting and then I did my very best stitching on the bindings.  So now they can go to Ella before the winter is over.  Thanks to Dianne, my dear friend, for all her help.

Almost there

Some years ago when I lived at Rainbow Beach, I met my friend Dianne, and we have been friends ever since.  We belonged to the local Craft Group with a lot of other clever and enthusiastic ladies.  For one of our workshops Dianne offered to start some ladies off with patchwork.  I took to this like a duck to water, and for a while was forever cutting up expensive fabric and putting it together again.

Then painting took over my life, and since then I have opted for just  embroidering squares for the other great grandchildren, and then handing them over to Dianne to put together.  I did intend doing the same with these two, but Di had other ideas, and offered to come and help with the cutting but I had to do the sewing.

Last Thursday was the big day, and we had a great time of it.  I even likened Di to a sewing teacher from Grade 5 because Di was watching my stitching and seeing that I stuck to the 1/4 in.seams.  She did make me unpick when I went crooked,  which made me think of the sewing teacher who sadistically made us unpick everything she could find fault with. So we had a bit of a laugh.

I was a little concerned about the 3in squares in the corners of one quilt and tried my best to make them perfect and get teacher's approval.  I almost succeeded, but as my Dad would say...."a blind man on a galloping horse would not see it".

So here are the sneak peaks of the tops, they are now in the hands of the darling Di, who has so kindly offered to do the quilting for me.  Secretly I think she is just as excited as me to see this project coming to fruition.

Thank you so much Dianne for all the help and encouragement you have given me not only with this, but my other projects as well.

The red quilt border fabric has ladybugs, and the binding will be in that fabric as well. The backing is a red with a star pattern.

The purple sticking out round the cupcake quilt is the backing, and now I forget which fabric is for the binding.  I like the soft colours of this.  Sorry the photos are not clear, I am having trouble with my camera at present.

Cupcakes Done.

 I was beginning to think I would never get this quilt finished.  The fabrics were bought and the designs prepared last year.  Well I have now finished the embroidery on the centre panel.The photo is not a good one because the camera is not picking up colours very well. The fabric is actually a nice deep lemon colour.

Because of all the distractions I kept the stitches as simple as i could, and kept to three designs .

I am so pleased to have this finished. The next step is to put it together, and with a bit of luck Ella will get her quilt this winter.

While out shopping last week Dianne helped me to choose some extra fabrics for the borders so I think it will be a pretty feminine quilt for a little girl.  But will keep the photos for the finished product.

Ladybird quilt.

Here is the latest butterfly for the ladybird quilt. You can get a better idea of the purple background fabric here. Don't ask what I did..it could have just been the light in the room at the time...or it could have been more fiddling. I think I am going to have to begin wearing a notepad and pencil round my neck and jot things down when I do them so I know what I did. This could come in handy when it comes to the time to undo any mistakes.

Only 4 squares to go. I have copied the designs onto the fabrics all ready for a sewing day tomorrow....that is after the washing and the gardening.....although DH may not allow me to garden tomorrow because I had a wobbly day today between my menieres disease and the effects of my minor stroke a few months ago....
I did manage to get through attending the computer group meeting. Gee we learn so much there John and Michael do the lecturing, and their knowledge and willingness to share it with us is incredible.

Ladybird quilt.

I have now completed 4 of the blocks for the ladybird quilt. They are not taking long and I will be able to start on the cupcakes. Unfortunately the photos are coming out more on the blue side, whereas the fabric is a deep purple. That will teach me to fiddle with the camera and not make notes of what I do.
Block number 5 is well on the way and that is a butterfly as well.

This is an idea of what the blocks look like on the ladybird fabric.

Have seen the new stitch for Tast 6 and like it just have to have a play with it and see what happens.

Lachlans Quilt

Lachlans Quilt. Lachlan is now 1 year old. His mother is my adorable grandaughter Rach.I worked the squares and his paternal grandmother put the quilt together, so it was a joint effort.

La Shae's Quilt

La Shae's quilt. The parents chose the colours for the embroidery. My friend Di
put the quilt together for me and chose the colours for the fabrics.
She did a great job. The next quilt is one I did the embroidery for Lachlan. Dont have a photo of Zacharia's quilt.

Attempts at patchwork

A few years ago I had a go at making a quilt. My friend Di was a member of the craft group where we lived and gave us all a lesson in making a log cabin block to give the ladies a taste for patchwork. Well again, I had no idea, so turned up with a whole lot of polyester fabrics....oops.

Well once more I took to the project with relish, and after a while wondered why the blocks looked different! You wouldnt believe it I had sewn half the blocks in the right direction then after an interruption sewed the strips on the rest in the opposite direction!!!

There was no way I was going to unpick or redo all those blocks so I just used them. They looked ok to my amateur eye. so finished the quilt, which was a double size.
I then made another using all the expensive cotton fabrics.

We still have both quilts, and would you believe it the polyester one is still good, although the greens have faded a bit, but the expensive one was on a bed that got too much light and some of the fabrics rotted so had to mend and darn a lot....but I figure it could be used as a lining for a new quilt some time.

So that is why all I do now is to do candlewicking blocks for the baby quilts for the great granchildren. Although in the process of my patchwork "rush" I did make two lap quilts and a double needleturned applique for my grandaughter.

With another great grandchild on the way, daughter number 4 rang yesterday to tell me she was in Spotlight and what did she need for the new quilt!!! After a great deal of deliberation and her wandering round the store with the phone to her ear and rolls of fabrics in front of her she decided she liked a nice green, so next question was what other colours do I need Mum, and how much of each? Well I had no idea because I hadn't even decided on how many blocks or how big they were, and since I couldnt see the fabric how could I know that.

Again after more deliberation and getting out my tape measure, as well as a frantic phone call to my friend Di, I think we have got it so I am looking forward to seeing the fabrics and getting started. I will do the candlewicking in white on the green, so that should look nice, because the furniture will be white in Granny's nursery.