My year in photos

Flowers from Andrew 2011

Pictures of me 2011

Andrew & me 2011

Charlie 2011

A Year of Craft in Photos

Mixed projects for 2011

Post Cards from Paris quilt 2011

Lachlan's quilt 2011

Roman Blinds for Andrew 2011

Sampler quilt 2011

A quilt for a special girl

This year I have been a kids hope mentor. With my little girl I decided to make a quilt with her. Every week we sat and hand stitched our blocks together and at the end of the year she had a special quilt that would be a reminder of out time together.

Pinning the top to the batting and backing.

The finished quilt

A very proud little girl

Mani's quilt

Mani's quilt

I was asked to sew a quilt for a girlfriend and decided to make it for her 50th birthday. Unfortunately I didn't get it finished for her birthday but I don't think she'll mind if it's a little bit (well a lot!) late.

This is only the second quilt that I have sewn on the machine. Machine sewing is definitely a lot faster than hand stitching! I've sewn the top using a quilt kit and have added extra fabric to make the border. I just have to put the quilt together and will machine quilt it using a shadow stitch around the blocks.

A wide border helps make the quilt  a bit bigger.

Charlie just had to try out the top of the quilt

Update on my 'Postcards from Paris' quilt

I have my Postcards from Paris quilt ready to be machine quilted in the new year. My family have given me some money towards finishing the quilt for Christmas which was lovely as the quilt will always be a reminder of Christmas gifts from my family.

Mary, a friend from my craft group has been using my pattern to make a quilt for herself. Mary has sewn her quilt using blanket stitch whereas I have used needle-turn appliqué. She has also used different fabrics and on some blocks added her own design.  It's amazing how different and yet similar the quilts look.

Mary's 'Postcards from Paris' quit

Mary's 'Postcards from Paris' quilt

I am looking forward to Mary sewing her blocks together and finishing her borders so that we can take our quilts to the quilter to have quilted.

Quilting my sampler quilt

I have put together my sampler quilt and am really pleased with how it looks. I've decided to try and quilt it on the machine - mostly shadow quilting around the blocks with some hand quilting around the teapot and Dresden plate.

My first attempt at machine quilting is going well. I have used basting glue but will also use quilting safety pins to help keep the pieces together.

In my last quilting class my teacher showed me how she lays her quilt over a trestle table and uses monster bulldog clips to hold the quilt in place while she pins the layers together. This method looks much easier than laying the quilt out on a large table. I have been using 3 dress making cutting board to make my table big enough to fit the quilt which worked well but leaves me very little space to walk around the room.

Another great tip for quilting was to use rubber dish washing gloves when your machine quilting. Simple but great as the material doesn't slip under your hands!

Charlie testing out the quilt

I'm hoping to get more machine quilting done this week and get the quilt finished. It would have been great to finish it before the new year but I'm not sure that's likely to happen.

sampler quilt top finished

Front of quilt - machine quilted

The back of the quilt - My first attempt at machine quilting 

Borders completed

I've now finished the borders on my Postcards from Paris quilt!!

It is ready to be quilted but this time I am breaking from tradition and am going to have it professionally quilted. I love hand quilting but with this quilt being over 80 inch square its far to big for me to manage.

Charlie giving the quilt his stamp of approval..

This is one of the biggest projects I've undertaken and I can't wait until it's finished!

I'm not sure how I will use the quilt yet but I'm thinking I will hang this quilt on the wall and use the Charm Tumbler quilt on my bed.

Andrew's jumper finsihed

I finished Andrews jumper three weeks ago and gave it to him on our six month anniversary.

It was great to see him try it on and best of all to see that it fitted him.  It's the first time I've knitter a shawl neck line and found it much easier than knitting a 'V' or 'round' neck where you have to pick up stitches.

proud in his new jumper... 

Exciting week - a little bit closer to finishing my Postcards from Paris Quilt

This week has been exciting as I'm a little bit closer to finishing my Postcards from Paris quilt.

I finished the checkerboard and borders on the centre medallion block and have now sewn all the blocks together!  Yesterday I cut out the final borders and am hoping to sew them onto the quilt today.

Butterflies

This week I made some more butterflies using a pattern called 'Blossom' by Melly & Me.  I've made these butterflies before but this time I decided to try and make them smaller so I reduced the pattern to 69% on my photocopier.  I was not sure how they would work out or how I would go making the antennas as last time they caused me no end of grief.

To my surprise they have turned out fantastic! I think they are better in the smaller size than the original size.

One of these is for my great niece Jessica and the other for my home help ladies granddaughter.

I now have orders to make them for people so it looks like I'll be getting to know the pattern very well.

'Blossom' butterflies