Music, birds & lady birds

 First up is a sample for The Country Yard. A Music panel, with some border fabric added top & bottom & a round of a feature fabric for the border & binding. Cotton batting, gold Metalic thread for the 'bling' on the border & bobbin fill for the loose meander & the 'Organic' cross hatching, over cotton batting.

Next up is Leonie's foundation pieced bird quilt, made as a Christmas present for family members, I'm sure it will be treasured. Leonie sent me the top, a vintage sheet for the backing & a wool blanket for the batting. Because of the wool blanket, I kept the quilting fairly loose as not the make the quilt heavier & stiffer than it already was. This is Leonie's third quilt if my memory is not failing me.
Leonie tells me she got the patterns from Tartankiwi, great patterns!

 When a quilter is given a quilt with birds, we can't help but quilt feathers can we?? Well that's my excuse for banging some more feathers onto this fine looking quilt! Gunold & Madeira threads, lots of ditch stitching on these blocks.

A view of the vintage sheeting on the back...............................................................

And just because I liked the Frangipani backdrop.......................................(Thanks Leonie! )

Last but not least......................................Jacki's lovely Jelly Roll creation for the grandchildren.

Big apologies, I have forgotten the name of the designer of this pattern. I know Jacki used one Jelly roll, plus some fabric for the borders & binding. Once again I used Gunold & Madeira thread, this time over Cotton/Bamboo batting. Jacki made a cute backing.

Simple loose stipple, ditch stitching around all the applique & a flower medley on the border.

Leaving you with a lovely 'quilty' saying:


Good memories are like a patchwork quilt, each section is sewn together to be wrapped around us and treasured forever.

quilted mysteries

For all the years worked part time at The Country Yard there has been a mystery BOM running. For all that time I have been fortunate to quilt the samples. This year was a lovely stitchery designed by my boss/store owner & friend Kerryn, called "Friends". Every year these mysteries are a huge success! See why...........................................

2013 mystery stitchery "Friends"

Starting with one stitchery pattern, background fabric, thread & some instructions, the mystery starts. Our regular customers know to get in quick as these are a limited edition & places sell as quick as you can say 'Lickityspickitydodarh'........twelve times!!

The following months the packs have more stitchery patterns, background fabric & the slow introduction of the fabrics, in this case a lovely French General range, just to keep the girls guessing.

Kerryn wanted the quilting kept fairly simple, so we came with up with never fail cross hatching, orange peel & a few feathers thrown in for a wee traditional splash.
Using Glide thread, Madeira poly neon threads over 90/10 wool/poly batting.

If you are interested in seeing some previous mysteries go here , here & here for some.

It's all systems go here, quilts, quilts & more quilts, Christmas is coming in case you didn't know!
I have more to show you but it will have to wait a couple of days until the owners have received their quilts in the mail.
Until then I will leave you will a little sneaky peek of something I am working away on & nearly finished.

A family heirloom quilt

"Chicken Scratch".......go ahead & Google that, just like I did. I had never heard of this type of needlework.
A Beautiful quilt is always more lovely when it comes with a special story, don't you agree? This quilt is beautiful AND lovely.

Andrea is no quilter, but what is a girl to do when she spent many hours watching her elderly mother lovingly stitch each block with excitement. Andrea's Mum had decided to make a special quilt for all of Andrea's children's children. This was to be a special quilt handed over as each of Andrea's grandchildren were born. A special family baby quilt, to keep the precious new member of the family wrapped in love. Sadly Andrea's Mum passed away before she got to finish this quilt.

Andrea's friend suggested she take it along to a local patchwork group & see if someone was willing to make these blocks & scraps into a quilt. One of the local ladies Helen, agreed. Helen then suggested giving the quilt to me to do the quilting.
Andrea arrives with a beautiful quilt top & a bag of LOTS of bits of Ginghams all in a lovely pillowslip that had liquid embroidery (Tri Chem.......remember that stuff?) saying "Happiness is being a Grandmother".

I suggested to Andrea that I use the pillowslip as part of the label, then piece some of the Ginghams to make up a backing. Please click on the above photo to see the label.
I also used the Ginghams to make a scrappy binding.
Cotton batting & Madeira poly neon threads for the quilting.

Feathers & pebbles seemed like the right thing to quilt for a quilt called "Chicken Scratch". I didn't quilt much on the stitched blocks as I felt they needed to speak for themselves.
The backing..........................

Thank you Andrea for entrusting me with this very special quilt.

Chateau Hexagon block 3 & a sneaky peek

I am happy with my progress on these blocks albeit slow. I like the texture the stitching & touch of wool............see the wheelbarrow wheel?

A little peek of my next customer quilt, this is another heirloom. More to come.
Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day!