HEARTFUL WISHES ...



Dear friends,

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time,

and a very happy New Year,

in love, joy, peace and health !

Thanks for your visits this year,

Thanks for your encouragements,

Thanks for the inspiration,

Thanks for your friendly care,

And above all...

Thanks for being you !

;>)

Jubilee Progress

Let's try again!!

Given that my Jubilee  year finishes in a couple of months, I decided it was time to get a wriggle on!  I've finished the border - first border? - by making them in 9-patch type blocks which will be joined together with the grey/white spot squares and squared up with triangles in the same fabric.....

What do you think?  I'm thinking there needs to be about 1,000 more leaves on the centre block!  Not sure what to do after it's all together....another border?  Any suggestions gratefully received!

I've just noticed that the Kaffe  fabric centre top block is in upside down....grrr!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year filled with quilts and stitching!

Meredithe xx

To The Letter

I have been going back and forth, and back again about whether the flower centers should be muslin or red.  You can see them both in this photo:

I have taken them off, put them on and now I have finally decided:  I am making them red like in the borders.  Final!

Okay, even a hardened dog owner like me gets a little nervous when this happens!  Look at the tension under the paw -

Okay, now the lettering.  I decided I wanted this quilt to be all hand done by me.  So I drew my own lettering.

This is how I work.  Using freezer paper  I start with a rough style and size and just keep adjusting (not starting over) until it looks right.   Then I cut them out.

Here is my date, a little smaller than my initials.

I use a ruler to line up the bottom line, then I hand baste.  They are not perfect, but then neither am I.

Consider adding a little of your own personal style to a special quilt.

Dear friends,

I'm so embarrassed and confused, as I cannot show you any progress on my little baskets project...

Actually, we've been living some stressful events, lately, with first my mother-in-law who passed away last September - she was like a mother to me - and then our beloved eldest daughter (35 years old) who had a stroke and 2 pulmonar embolis... This was like thunder in a blue sky to us - she's so very young ...  Of course, she needs our help in daily organization (our grandson is 7 years old), so that she can rest as much as possible.
She's now slowly recovering - not so easy for such a hyper-active young lady, to accept the slowing down - and we're praying that the worse is behind us...

I've been handpiecing some new baskets in-between my spare times,( but nothing consistent as to report any picture), as well as finishing a small Xmas panel that I had promised to our grandson.

I 'm now focusing on the New-year to come, hoping that some real quilt progress will be done, and also that you will excuse me for my "absence" on this beautiful Blog.  Please know that I'm still with you all, and that I'm admiring your works - as always ;>)

Thanks for your kind understanding, see you soon !

Heartful thoughts from my little corner,

NADINE

Power Outage Sewing

Hello!  I spent my power outage days by sewing on my Jubilee project.

I designed the first border without a pattern, but decided I wanted a mirror image of it for the second border.

I taped the first one to my back door and traced the design.

After the pencil tracing I used a black sharpie

Viola'

I work on my ironing board (to save my lower back) with a cutting mat.   Yes, I really do use a lot of pins!

a LOT of pins.

I machine baste my stems and vine on the machine. 

This makes the applique a joy to do!

After many hours of sewing, I'm almost done with the second border.  Looking forward to designing the top and bottom borders next.  I think I'll do them at the same time!

 

Please let us know how your Jubilee project is coming!

Jubilee Update

Now that summer is gone in most places, we need some updates on your Jubilee project! I gave a tease a couple of weeks ago and now here is the top.

After posting this on my blog I decided I am going to add a small cheddar border to the spiked sides to give it a little balance.

I got a refresher on trapunto yesterday and will start looking for the perfect motifs.

I'd love to see what everyone is up to? There is 80 members on this list...updates??? updates???

Borderland

Hello!

How is everyone doing on their Jubilee Projects?  Feel free to check in at any point to share your project and stay motivated.

I finally spent a day in the sewing room preparing some borders.  I cut the 2 side borders and made lots and lots of bias stems.

Here is the right side border basted and ready to stitch.

the bare stems will have stuffed berries on them.

Have a great week everyone!

Finally Jubilee-ing

I got some time this weekend to focus on my Jubilee quilt. Added a few applique pieces and added one spiked border. Three more borders to go and I'll show the whole thing. One more will be spikey and two borders will be a zig zag.

How's everybody doing on their quilt? I'm looking forward to cooler days so I can start sewing more!

Delinquent Jubilee+5

Yes, very delinquent.

I celebrated my Jubilee+5 birthday back in July. Because of a very busy schedule trying to get two quilts ready for our guild's quilt show in June, I decided to wait to even begin my quilt until my birth month - July.

Unfortunately, my life is still pretty stressful and some days I feel at the end of myself both physically and emotionally. Because of that, I've chosen to make my Jubilee+5 quilt a fairly simple one with bright colors. I needed some color therapy!

This is my version of a quilt I saw on Quiltsalott's blog. I admire her quilts very much.

My version will be wallhanging size and represents anything I might see in my flower garden - mostly flowers but I've included a butterfly, birds, bugs and bunnies. I used the Matilda's Own Kumo template to fussy cut the images.
After a few hand piecing errors (butterflies sometimes fly sideways but trees generally do not grow horizontally), I'm on my way to piecing it together. This has been a good project to take with me to work on in spare moments in waiting rooms.

There are a total of 56 blocks - one for each of my 55 years plus I plan to embroider my inital on the center pink 56th. block. In the picture above, I'm trying out the letter M printed on paper. The more I look at it, the more I think its too large for the block so will be making it smaller.

I plan to big stitch quilt the wallhanging but I'm not sure what color perle cotton to use. I've thought about gray to match the squares or bright pink or orange. Any ideas?

Until later, Mayleen

Finally making progress

After about 6 weeks of cutting, pinning, cutting, pinning, fiddling and finally doing the applique work - the center of my Jubilee quilt was done (except for the very center). Yay!!

It was so exactly what I had pictured.

Every part was perfect (at least to me!!).  And then I came to the borders and everything came to a screeching halt!!  For about 2 months.

I finally had a breakthru and realized what was wrong.  I made these petals smaller and added more of them, including 5 scallops on each side (my original design had 4).

The creative juices were flowing again.  The Olympics has given me a lot of time to work on the applique.  There are 20 scallops and almost 200 petals.  But I'm over halfway done - yay!!!!

I still had a huge problem of what to put in the middle between the scallops, but with the help of a very special friend, I finally broke thru that hurdle too (almost).

So for now, I'm back on track.  My goal is to have the top done before Christmas - I think I can do it. 

-Karen

News from the (HOT) Spanish front...

Olaaaaa, my friends !  ;>)

I know, I know, I've been so quiet lately... even my own Blog is sound asleep for weeks/months... up to the point I sometimes feel about  closing it.
Actually, I've been experiencing some health issues lately, due to some persistent (very) high temperatures causing swollen/painful leggs (water retention) + high blood pressure, etc... I feel a bit discouraged, having left rainy/cooler Belgium for a sunshiny Spanish spot, and now having to consider going back home earlier - sigh - we'll see.... (don't misunderstand me, I LOOOVE our Belgian home, it's just that we wanted to enjoy retirement under a better climate, some months a year).

Well, 'nough said, let's come to the point ;>)

First of all, I wanna tell you again how much IN AWE I am with all your progress and the beauties you're showing here.  Congratulations, dear friends, you are all so talented and inspirational !

As to my "Little Baskets of Joy", I'm quietly keeping on handpiecing them, at my own (turtle) pace and with much pleasure.  I even found a lovely, unusual "egg duck" fabric for the connecting blocks.
Well, actually I was hesitating between two of them, so I took both ( TeHeee...), using the second one for the border triangles.  Of course, I just couldn't help piecing some blocks together, as you can see ;>)

(for some reason this pic. doesn't want to stand up, sorry)

So, that's it up to now, my friends..... looong is the way to the finish line,

but big is the FUN in every step! 

ENJOY YOUR SEWING!

;>)

Nadine

Getting Centered

Hooray - My 4 blocks are done and pieced together.

I miscalculated and wasn't able to get a feather in the center.  Don't ask me how that happened, but suffice it to say that I'm not a mathematical whiz.

I decided to add the flower element and leaves.  I think I will make the stuffed berry red like on the feather centers, so to avoid a bull eye effect.

My little birdie looks very happy to flying around the center area.

I'm looking forward to planning the borders soon.  It will probably wait until after the olympics, but we'll see.

I saw today in the cross country portion of the Horse competition that they have a "Diamond Jubilee" jump - way to go London!

Progress on Susan's Quilt

I saw Susan a couple of weeks ago and she brought her project.  Here are some photos of her progress.

I love the colors and the lively movement!

How is everyone coming along?

Les étoiles de Béatrice

Months after my test block, I finally worked on my  quilt center

Tiny star block is only 3in

center finish at 24in x 30in, next round will be applique.

The inspirational antique quilt :

R. Porter's quilt 1777, American Museum

Béatrice

Collecting

It's taken some time, but I've finally started collecting for my Jubilee Quilt Project.  Yes, Beguiling Billings is finished and at the quilters!  Talking to some others who have finished their versions of the Mrs Billings Coverlet, we've decided that there's a "Big Project Completed Syndrome" - we're all having difficulty settling on the next thing to do!!  So I thought I'd try collecting and bringing together my ideas and fabrics for my Jubilee Quilt Project and see where that leads!


The centre will be a rendition of this iron work which hangs on the wall of the outdoor eating area at a place we sometimes frequent for delicious cooked breakfast.  Looks a bit Continental I thought!

In Florence this was on our bathroom floor and is perfect for the border.  I like the unusual corner treatment!  (Please excuse my feet!)

Then there was the floor of the lounge area in that beautiful hotel in Florence.

It reminded me of this quilt that is in progress, being made using a set of templates I designed and called Kumo

and I can just use the octagon and square in imitation of the Florence hotel floor.

 

So with these fabrics, (plus others that I pull out as I'm looking for things for other projects!)

I'll be able to fussy cut like this.

Now all I need to do is


: :work out how many Kumo's across the quilt
:: work backwards to the first border
:: work out how big the applique block can be
:: draft the applique


Not a lot really!!!!  Actually, doing this post has started the creative juices........ I just might start some investigating into the above list!


Cheers
Meredithe x

The applique is finally finished on the 4 corner pots. I have it packed for my Sister's retreat and plan on adding 2 spikey borders on 2 sides, and two zig zag borders and then figuring out how to fill in the empty areas. I have the dates for sure I want to add. Feels good to have that step finished.
Lori