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 ??

 

 

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.

 

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.