Months of Stitches - Piggies, Liberty and Minky

My Piggies Quilt Top was finished just on a year ago.

Well now the back is done too.

I hand stitched the whole thing in white perle cotton.

It is still a mass of too many colours but I love this quilt and think I might have to save it for a special baby of the future. The patches are all my favourite fabrics. The backing is from Ikea. I think it was a child's sheet. They had a few great designs when I bought it but this one isn't available any more.

The binding is on too but I forgot to take a photo of it.

Whilst I was working on the piggies, I started a new quilt.

I bought these fabrics, and a few others, in a sale pack. They are Liberty prints. When they arrived, I was a little disappointed in them and packed them away. They have been quietly waiting for some inspiration for years!

Well finally it came. The idea was to match them with various background pale blue colours. I want the blues to vary but not by much.

I am happy with the way they have worked but I have run out of the Liberties and the blues and I need more. I have hardly bought any new fabrics for ages and am trying to work through what I have but I think I will have to lash out to finish this off.

Maybe I need to reconfigure it.

Anyway I had to put it on the back burner because my friend Rivka brought two more of her quilts to finish after having them quilted professionally.

This first one is huge!

Big enough to wrap around a couple of people at once. It is a mighty 3mt x 2mt.

 Backed with hot pink minky and quilted all over with hearts.

It is so warm and cuddly.

The colours are totally wild.

Rivka made the bulk of the blocks and I just put in the sashings, a few extra blocks and the binding.

I real team effort.

Sometimes it is sad to see a quilt go home but I am glad Rivka is finally keeping this quilt for herself. I think I have made her around 8 quilts now and she has always generously given them to her friends as gifts.

Here is a peek of the second quilt. I am loving the black and white binding.

A Couple More Pot Mitts

I love using old scrap fabric and breathing new life into it.

Here are a couple of pot mitts that will be end of year presents.

 This is where I first used the fabric by Laurie Wisbrun.

It is fun going through the scrap pile. You find all sorts of old friends and can get a tiny bit nostalgic.

Scrappy Quilting

I like to read other people's blogs but unfortunately I don't always get the chance and time to do that. One blogger that keeps my blog roll moving is im a ginger monkey . 

There is always something going on there. One day, looking for inspiration, I fell upon her tutorials page and found the famous "Scrap Vomit" quilt which led me to looking up her Scrappy Trip Along photos on Flickr . 

The light bulb went on. Get rid of scraps. I need to do that. 

I've been cutting and sewing for weeks and weeks and have made the biggest quilt ever! 

I think I could go on for ever. I can't believe how much yucky fabric I have and how many scraps I have accumulated. 

I have bought no new material and am holding back until I make some inroads to my stash.

I have even more blocks made. 49 in all and about 16" square each. Enough for a king bed.

It has been so much fun playing with the blocks.

Every time I lay down the blocks I have found another way to make a pattern.

Once I decide on the final lay out I will put it together.

Meanwhile... I am trying to make a few gifts for end of year thank you's.

These dogs are for my co year level teacher.

She is mad about dogs.

Anyway, if you are looking for an idea to dig into your stash, follow the link to the Flickr photos and you might become as addicted to making these scrappy blocks as I have been lately.

Craft and Quilt Fair

I went to the fair today with a few ideas of what I wanted to do. I had seen a You Tube Video on paper piecing that mentioned an "add a quarter ruler" that is supposed to be very useful for foundation piecing so I bought one of those as well as some other bits and pieces that I haven't taken photos of; linen to knit, a fat 1/8th and some handbag handle clips. We will see whether they ever turn into something.

I always look forward to seeing the quilts but I didn't feel the love this year. There were the usual hand pieced masterpieces that I admire but will never attempt.

Made between 1820- 1830 in the UK

Irish Circle by Helen Collins of Wodonga

Chrysoberyl by Bronwyn van't Hoff

Cheltenham by Sonia Higgs

Birdsong in the Black Forest by Lisa Anderson

Sanity Saver By Sonia Higgs

And this was pretty cool - a quilt called Broken Dishes that was made by Michelle Bardwell and linked back to Nifty Quilt's blog for the tutorial.

There were also some crazy knitted tea cosies by Loani Prior

 Princess Beatrice

 Princess Eugenie

If you are into tea cosies, Laoni has written a couple of gorgeous books called 'Really Wild Tea Cosies'

And after all of that I went home to test out my new quilter's ruler.

I used a template designed by Ayumi from Pink Penguin.

It worked but it is a messy business!

I also watched the You Tube video again on paper piecing. How good it it?

You want to learn something new and sure enough it is on the web.

I have been stitching and knitting lots but the blogging has practically stopped.

I'm just a lazy girl these days - sorry.

Here are some pictures:

Gwen Marston Class

While this is all fresh in my head, I am going to try to post everybody's work from our class today.
Amitie hosted Gwen Marston to come and teach a very lucky group of people about how to be a 'liberated quilter'. We learned that there are no rules, mistakes, formulas to making a quilt. Gwen, over many years of research found that quilters of the past did not always follow patterns. In fact, they would chop corners off, cut triangles in half, add extra strips etc to make their borders fit and lo and behold, those very unformulated quilts are what major museums show as masterpieces. we were shown a few simple techniques she uses as well as some gorgeous quilts which are featured in her books.
So, in an endeavour to get this all up before I start cooking dinner...

 Marie - Quilts with Personality

 Debra from My Patchwork Palace

Heather

 Barb

Jenny

 Chris

 Leanne

 Raelene

Sorry, I missed your name!

 Nelly from Pumpkin Mamas

Natasha also from Pumpkin Mamas

 Wendy

 Lisa

Gina

 Kerry

Leanne - who used fabric from her first ball gown as the centrepiece of her medallion quilt

And finally Pat's mini masterpiece all stitched on this little antique Singer sewing machine.

As for what I made, well, it is bright and not fit for your eyes just yet.
I do hope I got everyone's name correct. Some of the people holding the quilts aren't the makers, just the person closest to the piece at the time.
Gwen is a fabulous teacher, very relaxed and encouraging.
I believe she will no longer be teaching at her retreat on Beaver Island in the States but the retreat is being taken over by some other ladies; Sue Nickels and Pat Holly so all is not lost.