13 years later, it’s now a quilt…

Or at least, a flimsy.

Were you one of those collectors like me who, wayyyyy back in 1999 collected a million squares from all over the world?  Were you planning on making a millennium quilt, so we could have something for posterity to mark the occasion?

Were you like me, in 2012, still with a box of squares you just didn’t know what to do with? 

I had a box like that.  Filled with 3” squares, which at the time seemed like a good size to swap.  But three inch squares aren’t a good size to work with, at least so I’ve found.  I’ve pulled that box out year after year waiting for the inspiration to hit me, and nothing ever did.  I know I could have made about a million half square triangles, but the thought of trimming them all just did me in. 

So this year, I decided – that’s IT!!  The little buggers are just going to be sewn into one huge postage stamp quilt.

And here it is.

It’s not my best work, though I did try very hard to make my points match.  But I like the overall look of it, and it sure screams scrappy.  Which is the aim.

I began by sewing squares together to form a rectangle:

Then when I had made all my rectangles, I sewed them together into a width that was ‘long enough’. 

That was about six or so units.  I’ve lost count.  Oh, to be organised.

Then I had the problem of what to do with all the signature squares.  I could have randomly placed them throughout the top of the quilt but that idea only came to me after I’d sewn most of my rows together.  So I pieced them in with some left over squares and I decided I would use them on the back. 

Do you recognise your name?

I often wonder where the lives of these ladies have taken them in the last thirteen years. 

So that’s it.  Another flimsy bites the dust.  Another box out of the cupboard and stitched together. 

 

 

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

A Rose By Any Other Name

Every year, in the small town where I live, we hold a ‘Rose Week’ which is actually more like ‘Rose Fortnight’.  It started off as a week and gradually they kept adding days and now who knows how long it will run for in the future?

We are lucky that we have one of the largest private rose gardens in the Southern Hemisphere here, and this is where the interest in roses lies.

Plus, apparently we have the perfect climate for roses.  Didn’t know that, but now I do.

There are many events held around the town that we go to – our quilting group is holding a quilt show this weekend, and I promise I’ll show you lots of photos.  But one of the highlights is a town hall decorated with rose formations.

My Auntie, who can’t sew a stitch despite having a very clever mother, has the ‘gardener’ gene and is one of the organisers of the display.

The event is held in what we call our “Institute”, a beautiful old building with wooden floors and a stage where they used to have dances, apparently.  i will take some outside photos some day and show you.  One of those old buildings with marvellous columns outside and just gorgeous architecture.

In the foyer of the building is a ‘Roll Of Honour’, a list of names of those who served in the wars, along with special note of those who died in service.  I understand this is a very Australian thing, in that most small towns have such a building.  Do they have them where you live?

Every year, my aunt who is on the Committee of Rosy Stuff ropes my mother in to help get the hall set up.  The rose bouquets above are Mum’s work.  I think she’s done a stellar job.

Every year it’s a bit iffy with the weather.  This year we’ve had the worst spring gales – hot, dry winds that rip everything off the bush or tree.  I’m amazed that we’ve got roses to show you at all!

This divine pedestal was enormous.  It’s hard to show you the scale of some of these designs, but this particular one was a mass of every sort of flowers.  The smell in the hall was AMAZING.

There were many, many more displays but I only took so many photos.  The hall was fairly teeming with people who kept on getting in my way.  I thought I did well not to include myself in the mirror above!

I love this purple one.  I’ve always loved purple flowers – lavenders are my favourite.  Sadly they are also my daughters’ favourites and they pick their little posies often, which means I rarely have any lavender flowers left on the bush.

We have about thirty rose bushes in our garden.  Funny story really – my husband and I have had some ding-dong arguments about rose bushes, or more succinctly the way he prunes them (and let it be known that I’m not allowed to prune them).  We have lost more than one rose bush because of his pruning, which he flatly denies.  When we moved into this house I put my foot down and decided NO ROSES – we argue too much about them.  Then the two little people grew into such rose lovers I decided we would have a large amount of them, and surely he couldn’t possibly kill that many rose bushes? 

So far so good.  He’s taken lessons and the bushes are doing beautifully.  And the girls have a mass of roses to choose from when they make their little posies.

I think some of these photos look like they are taken from some old painting or tapestry somewhere.  Don’t you think?

The show stopper of the event was this meticulously presented carpet of roses.  I don’t know how big it is, you can use the people as a size guide.  But I do know that it took the volunteers eight hours to complete.  It was amazing.  Just truly wonderful.  And such a shame that it had to be taken down at the end of the show.  Kind of like the Buddhist sand pictures.  Made for the joy of making them.

Here’s a close up of the design.  Amazing. 

So that’s my little show for you today.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Next week I’ll bring lots of photos of the quilt show, including my lovely, LOVELY quilt that I AM GOING TO WIN VIEWERS CHOICE WITH, ok?

Positive thinking, everyone!

Till later on, happy quilting,

Suzie

A Little Update

It seems once again I have been gone far too long from the blog.  It’s not something I want to happen and I apologise (again) that new content isn’t being uploaded as often as I like.

A combination of timing issues plus stupid dumb computers has made blogging very difficult.  But I have tried my hardest to resolve those issues so let’s hope today is the day where Everything Works As It Should.

Deep breath.

I’ve done lots of quilting since I’ve been on my little blogging holiday.  Lots of finishes, not too many starts (which is very good for me).

A few months ago I found the above block on a website and I loved it.  The above block is mine, but the original design is someone else’s.  It could well be a very old block with no copyright issues anymore, but let me know if you’ve seen one like it and I’d be happy to give them credit for it.

Anyway.  I loved the fact that this whole block was made from five inch squares.  I’ve got a box of five inch squares that really need to be used up, and this was a great start.  The original quilt idea of mine was to have all the blocks in totally random colours, but as it grew it kinda just morphed into this autumn-y version which I like very, very much.

So after I had finished the blocks, eighty one of them, I needed to sash them.

And then I just kept going on and on with a little black cornerstone in the middle, till I ended up with this:

and this:

and finally this:

which ended up being as big as this:

It’s a really nice design, I’ve decided.  Easy as pie to make, and if you’ve got any sort of scrap basket it’s very achievable.  If I decide that it’s a generic design from years ago with no copyright issues and no one to offend, I’d be happy to make a tutorial for it. 

So, that’s one of the things I’ve finished lately.  There are more, but I’ll save them for another day.

Hope you’re all safe and well, lovely readers.  Thanks for your patience while I disappear from time to time on here – I wish that someone would invent longer days, I really do.

Happy quilting,

Suzie

Monsters Revealed

So you may remember my monsters a few posts ago?

I’ve finished!

I thoroughly enjoyed the making of it but I must admit, I had some angst in the setting of my blocks.

I had a picture in my head, and it just looked awful.

I had planned to cut a whole swag of 3” squares and sash them around the blocks.  But when it came down to it, it looked just toooooo bright.

I’d tried a few sashings, and the further I went on with it the more wrong it became. 

I must admit it doesn’t look so bad online, but the real life version was wayyyyyy too bright.

So I unpicked it all and sulked for a while.

Then I went over to the next town (150 kilometres away) where I could buy fabrics and I brought one fat quarter of each bright fabric plain I could find.

And then I sashed each block with a different colour.

And hey presto, it actually worked!

I have fallen totally in love with this quilt, and though my brother has asked for it for his son, I may not part with it.

It’s one of the few I’ve actually finished!

I think I probably will give it to my delicious six month old nephew for Christmas this year though, so I will have it for a few months.

It’s a bit difficult to see here, because I’ve artfully cropped out the exact part of the quilt I wanted to show you, but can you see the binding?  I couldn’t find a colour that matched how I wanted it to, so I sewed 3” strips together and made a matchy matchy one.  And it was a buggar of a thing to do (*scuse my language) but I think it was totally worth it.

So there you go, my dears.  A lovely new quilt.  I am quietly thrilled to bits with it.

Hope your quilting days are going well.

Suzie

Customer show and tell

Strictly speaking, these are not my customers.  My lovely mother does a lot of custom quilting for other people and every now and again she quilts something so lovely I have to show it off here.  To be honest, most of the quilts she does are lovely, but we often forget to photograph them.

We didn’t forget to photograph this little beauty though.

I don’t know the designer’s name, nor the name of the pattern.  Sorry about that.

If I understand correctly, this is one of the first quilts this customer has made. I think she’s done a sterling job.

I am particularly impressed with her choice of colours.  I think she’s been very smart at picking almost solids for the body of the animals, with the accent coming from the details.  That way it doesn’t get too overpowering.  And from a girl who’s made her share of overpowering quilts, this is really important.  The less is more rule really applies to quilting, I’ve found.

There is definitely one of these sort of quilts in my future.

It’s so convenient that I have a whole bin of bright fabrics, just waiting for a use.

Could you not just eat this little old lion up?

Mr Giraffe is very sweet too. 

Who said rhinos were dangerous?

I love this little zebra to bits.  I love them all to bits.

Somehow in taking my photos I missed the elephant. 

I think my mother has done an excellent job in the quilting.  After I saw how lovely she had done this one, I let her do my monster quilt.  I was going to quilt that one myself but I realised I’d never in a thousand years do as good a job as she did, so it’s quilted, bound and labelled.  All I have to do is show it to you.

Tomorrow, perhaps.

Hope you loved this little quilt as much as me!

Suzie

Well….

That was a little bit longer of a break than I envisaged.

You know the drill – life gets in the way, I won’t bother explaining. It’s not very interesting.  But while I’ve not been blogging, I have been busy.  And whilst I’m being very productive, none of it seems particularly noteworthy or blogworthy.

But!  I. Have. Finished. Stuff!!!

Want to see?

It’s still a flimsy yet but as you all know by now, flimsies are good enough right now.

I’ve at least cut the binding – it’s a pretty old UFO and I think that I’d never match the fabrics up now.

I really did struggle with my choice of flower, but in the end I used the outer border as an influence.  I found a flower I really liked from the border, enlarged it and appliqued it on.

I look back at all my old quilts, the old UFO’s from so many years ago, and I really wonder what I was thinking.  I like this one, I do – but I have a limited amount of walls, and a limited amount of beds – so why did I make something totally out of my colour choice, in a size too small to be of any use?

Too much time on my hands back then, I think. 

So that’s show and tell for today.  I hope it won’t be another month before I post again, but then again I won’t make any rash promises.

I hope you’ve been happily quilting in my absence!

Suzie