Friday 25 April 2014

Spring blossom and Buttercup

The time has flown by  since I last posted and I have been busy, but do not have much sewing completed or fit to be shown.  The weather has been beautiful and the garden has taken priority, plus museum visits and family commitments over the Easter holidays.  Younger son now back to school and a degree of order restored, so I hope to sew, and post, more regularly.

The photo below is of plum blossom, now over, but hopefully the bees have done their work and we will have a fine crop of plums in August.


  


My one finish has been the Fig Tree Double Irish Chain quilt which I last posted about here. Simple cross hatching with off-white thread, and a scrappy, mostly pink, binding.  The range was called Buttercup and the backing is Whimsy, also by Fig Tree.




The quilt finished at 70" square; the small squares were cut 2 1/2" as I used a Jelly Roll and a Layer Cake.  I added a few soft tone-on-tones and pastel checks from my stash to increase the variety of patterns and textures: even the 40 fabrics in a fabric line don't seem enough for a scrap quilt!







Apart from this finish, I have managed to progress the Strips that Sizzle top so that it is now ready for basting and quilting: I have chosen variegated threads from Guterman in pink and aqua.  As it is not too large a quilt I quite fancy having a go at spiral quilting but I don't know if I have the nerve....  Next post will reveal all!




Writing this blog has encouraged me to dig deep into the shameful cupboard of uncompleted items and to see what I can do to finish them - I recall there was a quilting book called: Out of the Cupboard and Onto the Bed.  I always thought it was an excellent title.

Well, this UFO won't cover the bed, but it might get finished now it has seen the light of day: I found a small bag of Broken Dishes blocks made from the offcut triangles from a Spools quilt.  I hope to show you more next post.



Final photo - this wild flower is unromantically called Cow Parsley but I prefer the less common name, Queen Anne's Lace.  It is looking lovely at the moment.  Enjoy the Spring wherever you are, and any Spring cleaning of cupboards you may feel inspired to do!


I am linking to Crazy Mom Quilts today - it's great to have Amandajean back blogging and inspiring us with her lovely quilts.

5 comments:

  1. Congrats on the finish! Lovely job!

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  2. Beautiful quilt and blocks with lovely soft colors. Perfect for Springtime! Spring is just beginning here and after a few days of April Showers the grass is greening up and buds are trying to come out on the trees. Your spring blossoms are so pretty, and something for me to look forward to here in another month or so.

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  3. Lovely finish! And I love the hourglass blocks! Nothing like cleaning out the cupboards :) Happy Spring to you, too :)

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  4. I can't wait to see the finish of your triangle leftovers; it's looking beautiful already! The colors of your double Irish chain work so well together. Strips that Sizzle is just about the brightest, happiest quilt I've seen today!

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  5. Thank you so much for all your kind comments. I have had a rather demanding couple of weeks, with not much time to sew or blog, so your encouragement is all the more appreciated.

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