Wednesday 20 May 2009

Feels like all my birthdays have come at once...

My quilts are finally back from the long arm quilter - whooo hooo!!!

They have been with Chris for about 6 weeks. When I took the quilts to her there were 22 in the queue in front of me and although I was bummed that I'd have to wait so long, once I saw the piles of her own quilts I knew they were going to be worth the wait! Katy dropped hers off about a week before mine so I knew once she had her quilt back that mine wouldn't be long behind.I actually felt quite emotional when I went to collect them and saw how beautiful they looked ('quite emotional' being an understatement as had I have known her better I would have blubbed like a baby!!) I think Maggie likes them too!



The first one is a Grandmothers flower garden. It's hand pieced from 3069 hexagons and took me about 3 or 4 months to do as I attacked this project like a woman possessed. We probably didn't eat too well, jobs around the house didn't get done, and fingers were shredded to bits but I loved loved loved every single minute and every tiny stitch of this quilt. I had a romantic notion that I was going to hand quilt around every hexagon but know myself well enough to know that after 50 I would have wanted to poke my own eyes out with the quilting needle - or it would have stayed unfinished for years. I have (stupidly!) decided to bind around all the hexagons with narrow continuous bias binding. It will be a pain to do but I think it will be worth it.




The second one is a Triple Irish chain using mostly my favourite fabrics of all time - Heather Baileys Freshcut (with a bit of Amy Butler thrown in). I hand pieced this one from 2" squares and it probably took me about 6 weeks. This was the start of the hand-piecing frenzy that led onto the Grandmothers Flower Garden!! I wasn't too keen on the large expanses of calico so i appliqued the daisies on and then embroidered around them.Because the design didn't lend itself to an all-over pattern I opted to have it custom quilted. This was the one that I most wanted to see as it had sat folded up in a carrier bag for 6 months as I was too scared of messing it up by attempting it myself. I so LOVE it.




I will spend the first part of the weekend parked on the sofa sewing the binding on the Triple Irish chain and then I plan to spend the rest of the weekend wrapped up tightly up in it.

I think it will be a loooonng time before I'll be able to say the same about the grandmothers flower garden!

12 comments:

  1. The quilts are asolutely gorgeous, I love the irish chain quilt, the quilting is just beautiful. I admire all the hand piecing, I've only made one quilt (so far!) all by hand as I don't have a sewing machine - but I'm working on that! Can't wait to see what you make next.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't realise you hand pieced the irish chain too. You really are one for self flagellation, aren't you? It's absolutely stunning. Well, they both are, but the custom quilting was well worth it, it's amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Both of them are so lovely, you must be delighted. You are so so clever.

    ReplyDelete
  4. hand piecing...hand piecing??!! I bow down to you and your sewing geniuosness! (I can't spell like I can't hand piece! HA!) These are gorgeous!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are so beautiful!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. the pics beauty on flickr made me look closer.
    Your work is amazingly stunning and elegantly complex all at once. Lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love both of these quilts pictured above. They are absolutely beautiful. Do you happen to know where I can find a pattern for either of them? I am looking to make a quilt for my neice; she is due to arrive in September and I think either one of these would be a perfect "welcome to world" present!

    ReplyDelete
  8. beautiful! The fabric color choices are just perfect and the log arm qilt did a fabulous jawdropping job to embellish your choices!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love your quilt. My sister is making one similar but her pattern doesn't have the applique flower petals and we would love to encorporate that element too. Did you use a pattern for this?

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a big work! All those tiny pieces in 3 or 4 Months... You Must be really really fast! Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete