Holiday Weekend

I boiled this gingko nuts, barley and beancurd drink on Friday.  This is my favourite especially with quail eggs :)

1800's Vintage quilt is all completed.  I used high loft poly batting, so happened I had an orphan piece and used it up instead of cutting into a large piece of  low loft poly or cotton.  I wanted to try machine quilting the Baptist Fan but that failed miserably due to my non-existent skill and those many many seams!  So instead I tie quilted it with cotton broder thread.  Tie quilting was fast and easy too!  It's 20-3/4" square.

With my new 6" square ruler I am now cutting up scraps a little at a time.  These are 1-1/2" squares.  Instead of bottles like how Heather is keeping her cut scraps, I'm using plastic containers.  I think I will label them according to fabric genre.  Thank you Heather for the inspiration.

Now that I've got my crafting deadlines all met, I'm reverting back to the Amish Star quilt.  Another 3 added.  A total of 6 out of 42 completed.

Strippy Triangles Quilt Top - Completed

Love the result of this doll quilt.  Simple but very effective.  The size is 18-1/4" x 13-1/4".  It's destined for the hand quilting pile :)

Stacked coins baby quilt is all binded and all it needs now it's a good wash and it's in time for my friend's  baby.

The flannel backing with a strip of excess charms.

Faizon just posted about her birthday exchange from me on SNN.  I made a fabric basket from a tut by Pink Penguin.  The fabrics are from a Fig Tree & Co charm pack, Patisserie collection.

Strippy Triangles - WIP

Started cutting fabric for a new doll quilt 2 days ago.  Here are the strips and centre blocks for use with the Square in a Square ruler to make 60 HSTs.

It's been raining the whole of last evening so this is a shot with the room lights on.  All sewn into options and starting to cut them into HSTs.

Here they are this morning arranged and ready to be pieced.  Each triangle is 2 1/4" cut.  I'll get this pieced and assembled soon.  It's another design from Kathleen Tracy's book.

It's a long weekend starting tomorrow and after the morning chores I need to sit down and quilt this baby for the 1800's VQ QAL.  It'll be machine quilted and Baptist Fan is the plan.

Some hand quilting

I've been hand quilting this 9-patch Doll quilt pattern (freebie) by Kathleen Tracy.  Just simple lines using Pearl No.8.  I would like to try YLI thread one day.  Many hand quilters swear by it.  For the borders perhaps some fancier design as seen on the stencil.  I am using a new batting and I quite like it.  It's Tuscany (Hobbs) Heirloom cotton.  Also with the help of a leather thimble and a finger cot hand quilting is a much more pleasant experience.

As for the Broderine Perse quilt I cut a couple of motif on fusible web but somehow they don't jive with the background.  I don't have any large floral print fabrics so I've put it aside till the next round of shopping ;)

A wonderful day!

Yesterday I spent an amazing day with some dear friends, I had a gala time! Food, stash shopping, chatter and more food, just the top of the world!

A doll quilt that I made for Jess.  It's a challenge design issued by Kathleen Tracy on the SQT group.  It's 17 1/2" square, cotton batting, hand quilted with Pearl No. 8 with muslin backing.

 A fully lined drawstring pouch for Tony with a stitched designed by Plum Street Samplers (freebie). The 32ct Belfast white linen was tea-dyed in a mottled fashion.  Floss is DMC 3371.

 Some simple hemp tied calico and homespun pincushions for Jess, June, Lillie and Jackie.

Lovely gifts from Jess.  The log cabin pincushion is just super lovely!

A wonderful zippered pouch and very cute personalised pincushion from Lillie. 

Then there was the lovely lunch treat from June.  Many thanks to Jackie for ferrying us around. 

Needless to say, I am over the moon by your company and generosity!  Thank you so much everyone for a wonderful day!

Some stashing done :)

Here's my Broderie Perse quilt to date.  Need to get those flowers appliqued onto the red and cream triangles.

Broderie Perse Quilt - WIP

A new doll quilt in the works.  Broderie Perse was popular in the olden days when ladies would cut motifs from expensive fabrics and applique them to more affordable fabrics.  This is another design by Kathleen Tracy from her book American Doll Quilts.

Still some ways to go.  The bottom right yellow flower is what I hope to applique onto the 4 quadrants of the quilt.  Behind are some fabrics that I am currently auditioning for yet another doll quilt.  Can you tell I love these doll quilts! :)

Antique Doll Quilt

On the website of a doll quilt exhibition at The International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln USA, there's a lovely doll quilt with a quaint setting that I really liked. So I set out to reproduce the quilt with some slight changes. I cut and pieced the quilt top in one day.  The size is 20-1/2" x 14-1/2".

The Stacked Coins baby quilt is in the binding stage.

The Fig Tree & Co's Fig & Plum charm pack quilt is ready for tie quilting. Light peach flannel for the backing, some yardage from the same range for the binding and Floretta thread for tie quilting.  Here's a good tie quilting reference found on YouTube.

Stacked Coins Baby Quilt - WIP

The baby quilt pin basted.  I had to be extra careful when preparing the pieced backing.  There is a strip of cut charms that needed to be aligned with the quilt top.  Also I barely managed to fit the polyester batting.  At the top sides, there is hardly an inch of room!

I've simply machine quilted it in the ditch. The batting is a locally made polyester batting with high loft very cheap compared to those imported from the States.  I do not like it and it will not be suitable for doll quilts or heirloom quilts.  But since this is a baby quilt i.e. for a real baby and not just in size, it will benefit from the puffiness the batting created.

That's the binding all ready to be cut into strips.  It's Kona Solid - Cardinal.  There's enough batting left for this quilt of which I will try tie quilting.  Keeping it simple :)

1800's Vintage Quilt QAL - WIP & More

It is all pieced but not too well I am afraid.  If you look closely a number of seams don't match.  Definitely not my best work.  But it's a nice pattern no doubt and measures 21" square.  In time I hope to grow attached to it :)

Chose 2 coordinating fabric for some stuffing fun.  This is a Strawberry pouf.  A free design by Impie, Hattie & Bea by Mary Kathryn. If you'd like a kit for this Strawberry pouf you can get it from Mary's spanking new webshop here.

My friend Kalawathi promised me a painting some years back.  I got it last Friday all framed for me.  It's beautiful and it's called Renoir's Roses, definitely worth the wait.  She's a wonderful painter and her colours are exuberant!  I designed a website for her amazing works which you can visit here.

Amish Star Quilt - WIP

This is the final package from Fabric Shack which came yesterday and also my first jelly roll or roll up as Robert Kaufman calls it.  Some Kona solid reds and of course in an Amish quilt the staple colour, black.

When I saw the Amish Star block demo by The Missouri Quilt Co on YouTube I was hooked.



I couldn't wait to dig in to making these blocks and because of my exitement I fumbled royally :(  I thought I got my directions from the video to a T but ... I was so darn gung-ho.  So the block on the left is not pieced correctly.  The right is fine.  I may make another block to replace the one on the left or I may just leave it there as my humility block :)  The block finishes at about 11" square and it'll be made into a 6 x 7 blocks bed quilt.

Elyte emailed me to say that she received her package yesterday.  This is a pincushion I made for her Belated Birthday gift.  You can see the whole package on Elyte's blog.

Stacked Coins Baby Quilt - WIP & Swap

A lovely collection of shirtings from a swap with Elyte from Australia. And a couple of cute Amish boy and girl buttons. I got the longer end of the stick for sure.

The final arrangement which are all pieced.

The quilt top is all done.  There was way too many circle charms in this Tweet Tweet pack and brown was the dominant colour :(  So I gathered all those circle charms for a strip of pieced backing instead of the front.  This is such a quick and easy quilt top to put together.  The size is 33" x 41" just right for a baby quilt me thinks. Now to get some flannel next week some time for the backing and machine quilt it and it'll be ready for a friend's baby due around mid September!

Stacked Coins Baby Quilt - WIP

The fabrics for the quilt are a Tweet Tweet charm pack by Keiki for Moda.  Some Kona Snow yardage for the sashing and Kona Cardinal for the binding.  The backing will be white flannel. I am referring to Amanda Jean's tut on Moda Bake Shop.  The size of my baby quilt will be considerably smaller i.e. approximately 33" x 40".

Charm pack all cut into two.

Here they are on the design wall.  I'm not happy with the arrangement of the coins yet.  I think I need to move it around some more.  I'll just leave it up there till I am happy with the arrangement.

More fabric stash

Package came today from my favourite INS Fabric Shack.

There's Harmony by Jan Patek and Lancaster 3 by Judie Rothermel. Some Kona solids for binding a baby quilt that I am planning with the Tweet Tweet charm pack. I think I may be able to make 2 baby quilts with the charm pack combined with some white solids.  We'll see.  And some Rural Jardin to start an etui.

1800's Vintage Quilt QAL - Still piecing

I got all the 9 components all pieced, now to put it all together.  I don't think I'll work homespun or wovens with muslin again.  First there was so much fraying with the wovens and then because the wovens has more give compared to muslin which practically has none there was a lot of wiggling, puckering and frustration!

I may have to unpick here and there but I hope it'll come together somehow :)  Since there are so many small seams I am thinking that machine quilting will be more suitable.

1800's Vintage Quilt QAL - Piecing

An organised mess :)

In the process of piecing 9 patch blocks.  Pattern found here.

More fabric stash

Being a blue person, ironically I did not have many blues in my stash and I wasn't able to move along with doll quilts designed by Kathleen Tracy.  So I made sure that I hit up on the blues when This-N-That Fabrics had their sales recently.  Their mostly reproductions and civil war by Jo Morton, Nancy Gere, Judie Rothermel etc.

You will find the lack of red/rust in my recent stashing but that will be remedied in my next package! :)

Washington Ave. House Block

This is block 7 of 12 which brings me up to speed on my self-imposed BOM deadline.  It measures 24-1/2" X 28-1/2".

1800VQ QAL

These are the fabrics that I picked out for the QAL.  Their mostly homespuns and a few brushed wovens.  The background will be natural muslin.

Fabric Stash

This came today from Fabric Shack.  A mix bag of Judie Rothermel, Jan Patek, Collections for a Cause - Legacy and Heritage, Terry Thompson etc ...

There's more on the way :)