010 - Show And Tell (Country Friends)

A thousand years ago, country chic was the rage.  We made dozens of little wall hangings that we would sell in the shop.  It's not something I can see anyone wanting nowadays, but back then we did very well out of it.

This was one of the many designs of its style we made all those years ago.

It would be hard to find a place for it now, but back then they were very popular!  It's another one of those embarrassing designs that I don't know what to do with.  But I have promised myself to photograph and blog each one of my designs, more of a record for me than anyone else.  And so here it is, something embarrassing, but part of my quilting history.

Happy quilting!

009 - Monsters Updated

You've all seen the monster quilts I've made.  I get emails often from people who love them.  They do make me smile, I admit.

So I thought I'd show you the close ups of my lovely little monsters.

I'm done with them now.  I've made at least four of the monster quilts, and I am tired of them.  

But they are very cute. 

I have no leftover blocks anymore, apart from one or two and I will put them on the back of something, or make a child's library bag or something  from them.  

But I won't be doing another monster quilt.

I know I'll get emails as to where I found the patterns - some I brought, some came from greeting cards, some came from wrapping paper.  There are so many places you can get designs from - you just need to make them all the same size so they fit in a quilt (the mistake I always make which is why I've now made four of the quilts).  It's really easy and I urge you to give it a go yourself!

Hope you're doing well today.

003 - Show And Tell (Checkered Hearts)

Back into the Show And Tell routine, documenting and photographing all my quilts, even the less spectacular ones.

This one was made many, many years ago and has been washed and loved to death.

I look back now at all the flaws, and I need to remember that whilst it may look dreadful, we didn't know as much as we do now and it was loved to death.  Washed and washed and washed, now it's faded, the binding has begun to shrink, and it doesn't matter because isn't that what we make quilts for?  To wear out from use and then to make another one?

Anyway.  It's photographed and documented.

44 degree day today.  Not sure what that is in the old numbers but well over 100.  Hot (boom boom) on the heels of our all time hottest day on record, 48 degrees the other day.  Australia is either burning or flying away in dust storms, and it's really very hard to not get caught up in the emotion of it all.  I focus on the positives, we are safe here, we are far from fire trouble, we have water and we have electricity.  But so many places are burning.  It's hard to know what to say or do.  

I always sew on days like today.  Keeps me calmer, somehow.

Anyway.  Hope your day is a quilty one!

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

Monsters Inc.

Here’s a few more of these little lovelies.  Thanks so much for your comments, I do appreciate them.

I don’t think this lot are quite so scary, really.

Luscious lips.

This one looks half asleep.

And she looks quite the princess.

I love this little one too.

So another five for you, the last five in the next post.

I hope you are enjoying your quilting time.  I’ve managed to catch a cold from the little people and my head feels like cotton wool, so I have been napping on the couch.  A rare luxury.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Monster Mash

Would you like to see some more monsters?

and again

and more

He’s a cutie.  Ignore the loose threads.

Studious little one, this one.

So there we go.  Another five.  I’m very fond of all of them, some of them remind me of Muppets.

I’m thinking of just cutting a whole lot of 3.5” squares and trimming my blocks back to fit.  It’s a style of quilt I’ve made before and it works very well.  It really uncomplicates the actual quilt design and lets the applique show a lot more.  Plus it is quick.

We’ll see. 

Suzie

Little Monsters

Boo!

How are you?

These are a bit cute, aren’t they?

A few years ago I had a hankering to make some monsters from a bunch of brights I had in the cupboard.  I vliesofixed them all on in a fit of fury and then promptly stuck them in the UFO pile until I had some time (hah!).

I fused twenty blocks in all.  My very lovely mother, who had nothing to do (!!) has blanket stitched the whole lot for me.  Aren’t I lucky!

Now I get to work out the maths and make them into a quilt.  All are different sizes.  It should be an interesting challenge.

I’ll show you more tomorrow.  Not much sense clogging up your newsreaders!

Till then,

Suzie