It has been a long time..

..between posts! And all because there has been 5 weeks, not the usual 4 between our Saturday Sewing dates. So imagine what it was like as the girls gathered after such a long break. Lots and lots of chatter catching up on who's been doing what over the past month. There were also 2 birthdays, Deb and Sue's, to celebrate. Our hostess with the mostess, Ann, baked a beautiful, multi-layered birthday cake. I won't tell you how many candles, let's just say that the combined flames burned brightly! Our rendition of happy birthday may have been slightly off key but was sung from the heart.

Julie, Merri and Di were all working on the Burnt Quilt. Julie has taken on an enormous task with her quilt as she is adding an extra row of blocks to bring her quilt up to king-size. If anything is going to tempt me to add to my UFOs it will be the Burnt Quilt. I am just starting to hear its siren call in the dark recesses of my brain. Any suggestions on how to resist the temptation?

Ann was working on DNQTTT and Kerry on 'Mary Brown'. Barb was unhappy with one of the blocks she had made for Antique Wedding Sampler so was busy pulling it apart and adding new boderie perse to it. Deb brought along Phebe as did I. Sue is working on a quilt of her own design which is destined to be a wedding present to a lucky niece. It is art deco in style and will be gorgeous when finished.

And finally a photo to show the progress I am making with Phebe. I have finished the centre medallion and started working on the 2nd border.

My courting couple are yet to get features on their faces. I am not the most competent of artists and worry that I will make a mistake that cannot be undone.

Until next time,

Meghan

PS. I promise to take a camera to the next sewing day and take a few photos of the girls at work!

How time flies!

Here we are already at the end of January and I doubt if any of us have had time to draw a line under 2009 yet, let alone get ourselves organised for another year. The weather however, has been relatively kind and conducive to sewing, today excepted!

Over the past two weeks I have been working on the centre medallion of Phebe. It is a little lopsided but I am getting there. See what I mean?


I have also been hand piecing a few more octagons for a quilt that was inspired by Kim McLean's Turkish Tiles.

I wasn't sure that I liked the centre of the quilt so designed an alternative for the girls to sew using a pair of plates purchased while on holiday in Turkey and some photos from a book as my inspiration.

From here, the pattern was supposed to revert back and follow similar lines to that of the Kim McLean original. Having just finished the Morrell Quilt I wasn't ready to do more sampler blocks so decided to complete the quilt with a large border of pieced octagons.

In total there will be 736 of them (not that I am counting). And I will end up with a quilt that is completely different to the one we all planned to do.

Merri has completed her version of Turkish Tiles and it is another gorgeous quilt. I think it is just waiting to be sent to the quilter. Hopefully she will post a photo for you all to see.

Enjoy sewing on Thursday girls, wish I could be there

Until next time,

Meghan

My version of Phebe

Well to tell you the truth - the thought of making this quilt was a little daunting. After all - I did see Di working on this quilt......her amazing eye for controlled cutting not to mention her enviable fabric stash were given a pretty thorough workout. In my opinion - whatever that's worth, Phebe is Di's masterpiece to date. If you haven't seen a photo of the completed quilt, have a look here. I hope my version will do hers justice. I'm going to replicate the fabric choice where I can just to keep me on track. I try every now and then to go for "subdued" but my natural tendency is for a lot of colour, so I have to keep dragging myself back.

Here it is so far.

A couple of people have already asked about the backing fabric

Wasn't sure about it at first, but I think it's working for me. It is a Windham fabric called Valley Forge. I love their fabrics, what a great addition to the market they have been. This one is adding a lot of texture and dimension to the background which I just love.

Next I added some greens

nice lime ones - my favourite. Two are from the Tanyard creek range, the one with the red dot is from Miss Jump's scrapbag, one is very old, and the second from the top (like a stipple pattern) is gorgeous, but I don't know the name. If you do - please let me know because I think I could buy a bolt.

When I have a quilt at this stage I always think about skeletons, do you? The stems are like the bones that you can hang things on. As you can see - I don't mark my fabric - except for a line where the stems should go. I use an overlay and slip the pieces underneath. How do you prepare your fabrics for applique? I don't wash anything either - yep, I like to live on the edge!

So now I'm waiting for some fabrics to arrive - never seem to have just the one I want, at least that's my excuse for buying some more gorgeous pieces of repro fabrics.

I hope you are enjoying seeing some of these gorgeous things by my quilt buds. Believe me - this is just the tip of the iceburg.

Happy stitching,

Deb

The U.F.O Challenge

My daily exercise routine consists of an hour long walk along the Scotchman's Creek path, sometimes with my friend Nola ( a fantastic bespoke tailor), sometimes with my dearly beloved partner but often I ramble alone. The reason I am telling you this is because the quiet walk is a fantastic opportunity to draw breath and ponder the wonders of the world. Often it is the quiet time I relish to think of what colours will go with what and how I will approach which quilt pattern next. ( some might say I don't have enough to worry about).

This week my thoughts have been of the U.F.O.s that are inhabiting my cupboards and which of them most deserves my undivided attention. Some have not escaped for quite a long, long time. As a result I have "liberated" my Wedding rings quilt which has been languishing in the dark recesses of the cupboard. I just can't bring myself to get it done! I have decided to do another row of rings to make it bigger - it's single bed size just looks too small to me! I was going to do a solid, straight edged border but now think the scallop edge will look more appropriate.

Of course, this got me thinking .............if I have a "few"UFOs, how many would my dearest friends in the Sisterhood have? So here is the challenge. How many would each of us have tucked away in our quilting cabinets? It is possibly just too scary to answer but I thought it seemed like a fun challenge. And of course there are no prizes for the winner with the most ( or least). Not sure if you can measure our enthusiasm for starting new projects in win/loss terms.

The reason for such a challenge is that many of us are attempting to finish projects for the Quilts in the Barn which is later this year. More information on this will follow but, in the meantime, there is a lot to go on with.

Oh, and speaking of projects, I have included a progress photo of my work this far on the Burnt quilt.

Look forward to your tally
Merri

Ps. I haven't quite mastered the art of photo shopping will keep trying!

Who remembers...

...the original Mickey Mouse Club? Before Britney (Spears) and Justin (Timberlake)? When our heroes were Annette, Darlene, Bobby and Cubby? Each day had a theme and Tuesdays were always special guest day. The Mouseketeeers would sing "so roll out the carpet and sweep the place clean" as they prepared for their visitor(s).

So where is this leading to? And what has it got to do with quilting?

As you will have read from Di's post, yesterday was the second sewing day of the month for the Sisterhood and I was host. So in between working, I was busy with preparations. I may not have rolled out the carpet, but I did bake a cake and I swept the place clean! And surprisingly the mood of industriousness carried into the sewing group. All of the girls had busy fingers and we manage to complete a considerable amount of stitching - or in Merri's case, a lot of cutting out of little triangles for the Burnt Quilt.

Julie was also working on her version of the Burnt Quilt. It is really quite lovely.....I am sure you will agree.

I continue to work on Phebe and am making steady progress on the centre applique medallion. Some of the pieces are so tiny to sew, particularly the sheep's legs. (What were you thinking when you designed this one Di?)


For those who are also making Phebe, Di and I had a little chat about the sheep's ears. I noticed that while Di has marked them on the pattern they are conspicuous by their absence in her finished quilt. It would seem that as she was making Phebe, Di went for a little drive to check out the Black Suffolk sheep in her area and decided that you cannot really see the ears. She promptly decided to leave them out of her quilt. A VERY wise move when you consider the size of the pieces!

So with the weekend drawing to a close, it is time to say goodbye in true Mouseketeer fashion...
MIC, c you real soon, KEY, y? because we like you ,

Meghan