Saturday Sewing

Yesterday was the most perfect late spring day in Melbourne. It was also the third Saturday of the month and time for the Sisters to gather, this time at Deb's, for a day of sewing and chatter. For the first time in ages all ten of the Saturday sewers were present as Barb and Kerry are back from their travels. It was not one of our most industrious days as there was so much to catch up on. In addition to hearing about Barb and Kerry's trips, Di has also been away, somehow managing to fit a visit to Houston in her busy schedule.

I took along a recently finished quilt top to show the girls. The top was started at Patchwork on Stonleigh's Summer School in January 2008. I took a class at Summer School with Karen Cunningham. She called the original quilt, Miss Emma.

As I am making it for my niece Erin I consulted her on colours. She wanted something 'black'.

After the initial burst of enthusiasm that marks the beginning of any new project, I had got this far. It then disappeared into my cupboard, not to see the light of day until 4 weeks ago.






I have done mostly hand stitching for the past 2 years, lots of needleturn applique and hand piecing. It was a nice change to get out the sewing machine to add the final 3 borders.
This little pile was destined to become 24 10inch blocks.





According to "Carrie Hall Blocks" by Bettina Havig, they are called Godey's Lady's Book Block. Such a mouthful! There must be a better name for it!








And here is the finished quilt top. As you can see, it is very black! (And very big, 94 x 94 inches.) These are not my natural choice of colours and therefore it was a bit of a struggle to finish. The Sister's assure me that I will like it more as more time passes.
Because of the darkness of the quilt top, I have made some alterations to Karen's pattern; removing the soft, rounded blocks that are in the original and replacing them with blocks that have more angles. I think I also need to rename the quilt. So, in deference to its original title I am calling it Miss Emma's Husband So much more appropriate don't you think?

Until next time,

Meghan