Stitching Stones

 

You may or may not be familiar with Jude Hill's Magic Feather project ....... all the info can be found here.

While there do have a look at the feathers contributed from stitchers all over the world, they are  so beautiful & the variety submitted is astounding.......creativity at it's best!

 

 Unfortunately I was too late to send in some feathers but Jude has now put out a call for appliqued stones, so I've picked out bits & pieces of cotton & silk from my scraps to make a few pebbles to add to the project.

silk pebble on old linen

I'm enjoying making these as their shape is not meant to be uniform so any rough circle/oval that evolves is what ends up being stitched.

If you fancy sending Jude some stones, the details can be found in this blog post

Basket making

 

Whenever I finish a quilt I allow myself to start another on my wish list & this time it's the lovely baskets from the Blackbird designs book Where the Cold Wind Blows. I 've always wanted to make this & once I read about Jeanneke's method for prepping the baskets I was on my way........

I'm also going to make this one using the Quilt as you Go method & am hand quilting around each basket before I add the sashing to make up the rows.

Thinking of sticking to mainly blues, reds & pinks from my stash for this one, here's the progress so far.......

Finished this....

A few weeks ago my son contacted me from Wales where he is currently at university asking "Got any spare quilts kicking around Mum?" On further questioning he was wanting to gift a quilt to a kind couple who run Old Chapel Farm where he does volunteer conservation work on weekends.

 

Having many projects 'on the go', nothing was really suitable or completed yet to send in such a short time frame so I decided to make a large 4 patch in repros using the Quilt as you Go method following this blog tutorial by Welsh Quilter, Andrea (how uncanny is that with this quilt going to Wales!)

1st 3 rows back view with long sashing still to be slip stitched

 It was so simple and quick to do, the quilt grew row by row in no time at all and just took 3 weekends to complete the sashed blocks with just the binding to add.......voila, quilt complete!

 I love this technique as I really struggle with a large quilt on a domestic machine.......no more aching shoulder, arm and neck using this method.

Edit: just noticed looking at these photos I have made a boob & placed 2 purples together, bugger! Too late now :(

and finished this too......My 1st Mini Quilt!

 

On catching up with my blog reading I came across this post by Kathie of Inspired by Antique Quilts and just had to have a go at this little pinwheel quilt. Not being an expert piecer on the machine, I decided to make the blocks by EPP and it wasn't until I had cut and prepped all the pieces I realised the error of my ways......... I should have made my card templates smaller and not the size Kathie had given which included the seam allowance!

Hence my white pinwheels are not the same size as the red and to be honest it doesn't bother me at all, I'm not striving for perfection and like it just as it is :)  Have you seen this super flying geese mini Kathie has recently posted about? I think another mini red & white may be in the making, could be the start of a collection........lol. Do go and check out Kathie's blog, she makes the most amazing quilts and all her minis are gorgeous!