Table runners

I like making table runners, they are small, quick to make and use up all those lovely charm packs i seem to be addicted to buying. I seem to go through phases of making big stuff then small stuff etc. I have just finished a huge quilt, almost king sized so now is the time to go back to table runners. Here are some pics of ones i have made in the past, its always nice to see old friends again.

The one above is one of my favourites, the pattern is from Heather Mulder Petersons Little charmers series of patterns. I love these patterns but they are quite difficult to get in the UK. The fabric is a pack from the African Fabric shop, I love the colours and thought they went so well with this pattern and were great to work with.

 For the life of me i cant remember what this fabric was but it has an Indian inspiration, very rich, another great pattern from Heather Mulder Petersons Little charmers series of patterns!

Yep you guessed it, another Heather Bailey Mulders Simply charming pattern. This one is called Tilta whirl, the fabic was a fat eigth pack i got at the Birmingham quilt show, all i had to add was the dark blue, i do love the blue/pink combo, as with all my table runners this one was sold at the church sale of work to raise funds for the church.

mmmm hmmm its Heather Mulder Petersons Little charmers series of patterns again! This was a charm pack i bought years ago, could never decide what to do with it, its very bold, but I thought the larger sized blocks in this runner suited it very well, its bold its fresh and it makes me smile, what more could you ask for!

This weeks Farmers wife

I have been a bit of a lazy mare these past few weeks with pecious little quilting being done. Well a bit of ill health for an excuse.
I decided to get my act together for the Farmers wife quilt, i printed out all the templates and glued them to cardboard (the amazon wrapping was great for this, i seem to have been order a lot from amazon recently :o) so i cut them all out, organised them, I am a librarian remember! and so now am all set to stonk through the rest of the squares, well thats the theory anyway, along with all the other quilting which needs doing.
So here are the latest two.

I won a prize!

Ok, so it was a random draw and not actually based on my quilting techniques but I still won a prize! I found out on a really horrible day too so as we say up here "it fair cheered me up"
I am avidly following the fortnightly fat quarter stars quilt along from Konda Luckau at Moose on the porch quilts imagine my delight last thursday when I went to her site and found my block appearing there. It was drawn from the flickr group. Can't wait to see my fat quarters arrive, an extra special christmas present.
Here is the block, both sets of points were meant to be the same but for some reason I cut the outer point fabric too small and had none left to recut, i actually think this version works better though, so a happy mistake.

Farmer's wife

I have finaly succumbed to the Farmer's wife quilt along ... the thinking is that the 111 6 inch blocks will take me the next three months to do and so see out my current illness. Well thats the thinking anyway :0) I am trying to use my time to perfect my technique and doing things small has never been a good point of mine so this will really tax me, but hopefully in a good way.
There is a flickr group and a yahoo group set up for this quilt based on the book by Laurie Aaron Hird. I belong to both and they are a fantastic resource of help and inspiration. The book took letters from 1920s farm wifes and built a quilt around them.
I am doing this quilt scrappy, still trying to use up my scraps ... here are a few pictures, I am up to no 17 at the mo, the flickr stream show all of them up to date.

Block 1 attic windows

Block 12 broken sugar bowl

Block 14 butterfly at the crossroads



Project linus quilt

I am so lucky to have a great Project Linus co-ordinator, well I am sure they are all great, its a fantastic organisation. Elizabeth has given me some lovely free fabric and the one i am using in this quilt is no exception, I forgot where it is from so i wont try and put a designer to it but i love the colours.
The pattern is called 'Summer Dreaming' and is from the Moda Bake Shop I love the Moda Bake Shop. All those free patterns, and for charm packs, jelly rolls and layer cakes, whats not to love. Anyhoo here is one of the blocks, more to come.

Silk quilt - shadow applique block

This is the next block in the silk quilt from Pauline Innesons book - How to make an Heirloom quilt. Great book cannot recommend it enough, fantastic instructions has taught me way more about my machine than I have learned in many classes.
I need to make a second block but that should be ok now i have worked on the first one. I do love this quilt.

Silk quilt

I first encountered Pauline Ineson at the NEC festival of quilts in Birmingham in 2010. What a lovely lady and so willing to share her talent. My friend and I were too eager to buy Paulines book “How to create an Heirloom quilt” we did this as soon as we came home, after that we spent the winter months buying silk, a little each month, plus the other supplies to make the quilt.
I cannot praise this book too highly, her instructions are very detailed, I had wanted to upgrade my sewing machine but now realise I just need to learn how to use the one I have more effectively.
Anyhoo this is the centre block for my quilt, it still needs a bead for the center but oh the fun i had creating it!

Hunters star

I bought this pattern nearly two years ago. I am not a huge fan of paper piecing so what on earth possessed me to buy a pattern which has 48 3.5 inch square blocks is beyond me! but i quite like it now, i think i may really like it. I started it in a vain attempt to start using up some of my scraps.
I have been playing around with the layout, in the original pattern (Lesley Brankin) the quilt graduates from dark to light, I don’t know if that works with the very scrappy choice of fabrics I have made or if I should try to be more random. I am a librarian though, I don’t really do random!

And here is the finished article, I do like it and I think it has converted me to smaller blocks and paper piecing.





Bejewelled quilt

First post! I was trying word press as a blog tool, but perhaps a bit too advanced for my skills, blogger seems a lot more friendly so am transferring across what i had done in word press to here. Hmmm ok, just getting the hang of putting in pictures etc. I obviously need to work on my David Bailey skills! but hey not bad for a beginner. These are some of the blocks I made in a class earlier this year. There is nothing nicer than sitting in a group of women all making something, we each made the same quilt but everyones was so different. Mine was quite wild in comparison with some of the others, I deliberately chose Kaffe Fassett fabric as the background, I wanted to see how it looked with the bright jewel tones of the scrap fabrics. My partner laughs as he thinks this is way too loud but I love it. I will probably have to give it away but thats fine, as long as it finds a good home.

And here is a pic of the finished product, it did get given away think it was to a good home, not sure though, but hey such is life!