Pages

Quilting by Celia

Quilting by Celia

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Amish inspired small quilt top, new project(s) .....

I have been having fun with my stash..... As much as I love Civil War reproduction fabrics I also love bright fabrics (and anything else in between) so I have been quietly collecting these beauties !
I started a new quilt using them but at this stage I am not ready to show you.... just the strips!

and these blocks... well, part blocks...
 

 And with a view to part of my garden to match the flowers in the fabric how can I not be inspired ?
 
I am still trying to quilt all my tops, so this one which I completed years ago is ready to be quilted.
 

I have finished something recently; the top of a small quilt... the blocks are 4 1/2" and these blocks are done using the foundation/paper pieced with my scraps...



And lastly.... I have done it again !!!
We visited  Threadbear quilt shop (check us on their blog)  and I could not resist this pattern... and a few other goodies; fabrics for the background, 3 fat quarters, circle templates, Karen Buckley scissors and fine pins which cost and arm and a leg !

I have promised myself  (wink, wink) that I won't start this quilt (another long term needleturn project) until I complete two quilt tops I have in progress at the moment... such a hard decision to make as I already have most of the fabrics for the quilt from my large civil war repro fabric stash... what's a girl to do ??

 
 

Monday, November 11, 2013

Table Runner

I have a quilt in progress (not a huge surprise !) and as I made some of the blocks I ended up with some triangles which I have put to good use by doing this table runner.


Did some other stitching but nothing completed enough to show you.

 

Sunday, November 3, 2013

My longest UFO !!! 15 years

It may seem a long time to have a quilt in progress but I like this quilt today as much as I did when I started it years ago. And now it's finally quilted, bound and labelled !

I got the pattern for this quilt in 1998 at "Primarily Patchwork" quilt shop as well as a stack of fabrics to get the project started.
I was fairly new to quilting back then but already loved needleturn applique, so I maintained my enthusiasm for the blocks for quite some time.
I struggled a bit with the piecing, trying to fit all the triangles and blocks together, eventually I got it done but decided not to follow the border design which have included several hundred more triangles.

Then I decided to quilt it by hand so I purchased a large quilt frame and began.  After a while of very little progress I got a quote to have it professionally quilted but the price was way too high, so I got it basted instead.
I then proceeded to hand quilt around each motif and this went on and on until I gave up altogether when I realised that it needed a lot more quilting in the open spaces.
This was not going to happen so the quilt stayed in the bag for a few more years.
Then last week in the middle of the night (after being called up for work and could not fall asleep immediately) I contemplated the idea of loading it on the Handi Quilter and finish it no matter what !
And that is exactly what I did....not the usual way of loading a quilt but I got it done and that is all it matters.

I did not mark it, nor did I pre-planned before I started each block, I just let my imagination take over and just went for it !
I did not worry that the designs were not perfect or conventional but I had great fun coming up with each design.
Each block is different and I used a neutral thread so unless you look really close it's not obvious the imperfections. 
The quilt measures around 96 inches (2.45 metres) and I am just so happy that is done !

The photos were taken indoors, so the actual colours don't show it's full beauty and being so large, it was quite difficult to photograph in it's entirety.