Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Mother's Day comes early...

I'm so lucky.
Recently, I was looking around the internet- as you do- and I came across a store of elderly quilts.
Normally I can look and not touch, but this time I saw one that I loved.  I've never bought antique textiles before, so with more than a little trepidation,  I purchased a quilt for myself.


Oh, just look at that pink!  Gorgeous double pinks and browns, not to mention the shirtings.  It measures approx. 88" by 74", has never been washed and is in very good condition for its age.

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I love the stripes in this block.


Just look at that green.  I'm sure I've seen a reproduction of this print in the last couple of years.


In the borders, the quilting follows pencil lines that are still visible!


Up close and personal with the back.  A gorgeous purple-ish brown, and look at the thread beginnings!
So, forget the cold toast and lukewarm tea this year family- just wrap me in my quilt. LOL.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Netherfield corners...

Moving on to the cornerstones for the next border.
Can't wait to get these trimmed and added to the previous border so I can stitch them on.


Thursday, April 25, 2013

Netherfield...

 Finally, I've finished the next round of borders for my Netherfield quilt.  They were on hold for a while as I waited for the stem fabric to arrive, but then there was no holding back once it hit my letterbox!  Luckily, I'd pieced the hexagon flowers whilst waiting, so full steam ahead.


Four borders ready for trimming.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Easter presents...

Instead of large amounts of Easter chocolate, I love to receive fabric.
DH was so generous this year,(even though he didn't know it!), the lovely postie keeps bringing in parcels for me.
Just look at these gorgeous fabrics.
These are "Party of Twelve" by Judy Rothermel.  The red in the top left corner is simply to die for!  I thought it looked good on my screen, but in the flesh- oh so gorgeous.
The yellows are really lovely, and those greens are just perfect poison colours. 


This range is "The Merchant's Wife" by Terry Clothier Thompson.  It's set a couple of my online groups atwitter! (is that a word?  LOL.)
 It's a really stunning group of fabrics in vivid, saturated colours and really large scale designs.
The fabrics just glow so much in real life.  I love large scale patterns for cutting into blocks.  Many times in old quilts I've seen large prints cut up into squares or triangles, they look so effective in changing the scale in the blocks.  Does this make sense?
These fabrics are stripes across the width of fabric. An interesting design decision.  I prefer my stripes to run along the length of fabric- makes it much easier to cut borders and sashings if I choose.


The stripes in the top 2 fabrics run lengthwise.  The colours are so vivid.  Oh so beautiful.  I've left these fabrics out on my kitchen bench for a few days, looking and touching and imagining every time I pass.  My family think I'm nuts!


Who needs chocolate?

Monday, April 1, 2013

Block 5 is done.

Well, these Bunny blocks are being finished so much quicker than I had anticipated!  Feels so good.
Especially for Annette, here are my next 2 blocks.  I'm leaving the embellishing until I've finished them all.


Annette is doing a "great" job of keeping me going with these blocks. 
Oh no, I've just looked at the photos properly.  The left egg is correctly appliqued, the right egg seems to be sitting on the wheel!  How do these things happen?  I see a small amount of unstitching in my future.