A special moment

On Saturday amid gale force winds and rain pelting down, this lovely young couple became Mr and Mrs. Our DD2 , who has known the bride since prep ,was a bridesmaid and we were lucky to be invited to the wedding as well. This is at the reception. A wonderful night and it was so nice to have DD2 down from sunny Qld. Yes she froze! Way back when I think I put a photo of the tulip quilt that I made ( Very fluoro pink border) anyway this is the couple who were given that one as a wedding gift.
Congratulations to the happy couple

March Dear Jane

March Dear Jane.... Tick. Not sure about bottom left but in the big scheme of things it will be ok.

  

 On Friday I went to the AQC at the Exhibition building and yes, spent a lot of money but  everything will be used.  More templates, needles, thread and a slippy mat. I did get a ruler with a 1/4 and 3/8 markings but when I showed it to the friend I was with she gushed... "wish I'd seen those" anyway as she had a birthday yesterday I gave it to her. Now I have to order for myself, one from the Quilting patch in NSW!

A couple of weeks ago we met this young man. DS1's best friends new son. He was given his blue tiny treasures quilt and the other one has gone to Inspirational Quilts charity.

Block 3 and the panel is done

The cot panel is quilted and actually given to my friend Nancy who runs "Inspirational Quilts" Very happy with how it turned out

There are butterflies on the elephant...

..and I used the Westerlee rulers for the border...making sure it went behind the alligator's tail. That took some working out but overall I am happy with the way the border looks. Oh yes and if you hadn't already spotted the price tag from the last post, this little beauty cost $1.00 from the op shop. No wonder Rosalie couldn't leave it behind.

Block 3 Razz a dazzle. This came together so quickly and I love it.

Close up of the embroidery.

This is the finished top of whirlygig by Emma Jean Jansen. Once quilted I know who is getting this one so that makes me happy. In hindsight I wish I had put all the green blocks on one side and all the cream ones on the other, so swapped top left and bottom right. Ah well next time.

Razza dazzle

Wow March already and I have been very lazy in posting. Here is the next Razz a  dazzle block.Yum. I am playing very happily with the embroidery and making it my own.

Dear Jane blocks. Hmmm some were a bit of a challenge.

This is, if you stand sideways, what I have been working on for the past week. Whirligig by Emma Jean Jansen.  Have made 4 blocks in green, 4 in cream, 4 in red and 4 in blue/purple.Lots of scraps used but I had to buy the grey background. I bought 2 metres, 1.75 for background so that left some to play with, only to read the pattern where it says 1.75 background, 70 cms for borders and 55 cms for binding!!! Back to the drawing board as to do I go back and buy more of same or do I just scrounge some from my stash, leave off the borders or what. Agh. Should have taken the pattern I know. 

Op shop find

My friend Rosalie called me up on Friday asking me to call around as she had something for me. On my arrival she showed me her Op shop find. I have sewn this panel before and really like it so was very happy to think that I could quilt another one, It was thread basted and had been partially hand quilted...

.. but when we opened it up to have a good look, as you can see the wadding doesn't quite make it to the edges..... and the back,

looked like this. Knots and brown thread and uneven stitches. All kudos to the person who started it but as it wasn't finished I think that it got a bit too much and was sent to the op shop.

After 4 hours of unpicking I was left with this. I aim to use different backing and wadding( using this wadding and backing for two other projects) and practise my FMQ again.  As Rosalie said " I couldn't leave it behind" Once done I will give it to Inspirational Quilts. Take a guess at the cost??? When it's done I will show and tell.

Love cot panels

Favourite from Spotlight that I made for DD2's boss. She Loved it.

Got creative on the lion's tail...

...butterflies have to fly around and I did a bit of free motion in the border,not perfect but I think I am improving.

Bought this one first from GJ's , added the wide orange to make it a better width. This was so easy to quilt around all the animals , and I did one butterfly up the top.

This is using the Westerlee templates and ruler foot. FUN.Given away to a little girl battling cancer.

I've been playing...

... and so has blogger. Agh this is not how I wanted these photos but here goes. A couple of Fridays ago I was "gifted" this pattern , Tiny Treasures by Anni Downs. Loved it so much I quickly made one out of scraps and I just love it.

Then of course when you love it so much what do you do? Make another one of course.Both made out of scraps and I have enough for a backing and the wadding to quilt the blue one so... A friend of DS 1 is going to be  a dad for the third time in March and I have given the other two a quilt so one of these will go to baby no 3. Don't love the pinky one as much as the blue one but I just love blue so what can I say. It still hasn't made a dent in the scraps though!

 Last Friday I started Razz a dazzle by Helen Stubbings. It's a block of the month so this is block one. I am using my own fabrics ( gotta get through that stash somehow) and I am very happy with this months choice. Enjoying this so far.

As I said I've been playing...with the Westerlee rulers.  This was a kit given to me three years ago and has been languishing in the cupboard waiting to be quilted for about that long. Always late to get on the bandwagon , I decided that as I had money for Christmas I could buy the foot and rulers and maybe quilt some of my quilts. Pretty happy with the result and I think with a lot of practise I could manage small quilts.

Close up of one of the blocks...it's a bit hard to see but it is a full wreath, and I think I may end up putting a button in each centre as I didn't quite get it right. Still this is now ready for the binding and I can say DONE!

Hope everyone is keeping cool this Australia Day.