Real Country Quilt finished from a class in 1998!

This is Jean's beautiful quilt that she began in a class taken in Palmerston North in 1998!!!  Now that is a year or two ago.  It took me some time to get my head around the plaids and strong colours and exactly what to quilt where.  However, in the end I am pleased with the result and Jean is too, which is the most important thing.  A happy customer is my aim after all. There are lots of photos as it was quite a large quilt...72 x 90 inches with lots of ditching to do and I found it hard to choose which photos to show you.  I do have to apologise for the quality of some of them...couldn't find my camera and used my phone.

I used Superior's So Fine #50 Tan 454 over the whole quilt.  I found it worked really well.  It was a bit scary when I decided to use it on the dark green and red, but it looks really great and this colour was perfect for a country quilt.  I had Bottomline tan in the bottom.

Lots of applique blocks too with some buttons and domes already sewn on, so had to be a little careful.  Loved the block of bugs, hehehe.

Mr Scarecrow puzzled me for a while, then my friend Catherine came calling and flung around the fact the I should just do some pumpkins in it.  So here you are then Catherine, I have done pumkins in the sashing and one or two flung around the background among the small loops.

This was a quite large group of blocks and once again it took a bit of thinking to get cracking.  Thank goodness there was lots of ditch work to do while I was trying to think, otherwise I would still be working on it lol.

Two sets of these little blocks to keep me occupied.  Everything had lots of sashings around and between it, and of such a width that something had to be done in them all. Hmmmmm......

This watering can was a lovely block.  Jeans applique was very well done.  The apples were cute too.

The village.  The trees were fun to do as they had perfect lines on the for criss-crossing and it made them look great.

More plaids to play with!

I was really pleased with the way this Wheelbarrow full of vegetables came up.

The birdhouse blocks looks really nice with the buttons on the flowers...just had to be extra careful going around them.  A lovely block...here's another view...

Did these lovely leaves around the sashing.  Was hunting for inspiration and found this tutorial on Pinterest.  The quilters name escapes me, but I will hunt it up and let you know.

At each bottom corner were these star blocks.  Went to a wonderful book by Eva Larkin called "Free Motion Quilting Made Easy" and put two shapes together plus one of my own to make a one start one stop design.  Loved it.
Along the bottom of the quilt was this great animal collection.

I did a feather in the border, but it is very hard to see with the colour on this plain.  You can see a little of it in some of the photos.  No photo of the back because it was patterned and you couldn't see anything.

So there you have it...the grand tour around Jean's beautiful quilt.

Thanks for stopping by and look forward to seeing you again.

Take care and blessings to you all.
Clare

A Scrap Quilt top finish

I can finally say that I have finished the scrappy blue and red quilt top for my grandson Caleb.  Now it gets to move to the "waiting to be quilted" pile, but the birthday is coming up in September and that aint gonna take long to get here.  What made it even more delicious to finish, was I found the lovely fishy border fabric in my stash!!  Yayyyy, using up my stash with this quilt.  As this does  not happen too often we must celebrate.

I only just had enough border fabric so did the corner square thingy.

Caleb often goes fishing with his Dad, so it was a very appropriate fabric.

Our walnut tree is always the last to lose it leaves in winter, but we have had about five giant frosts in a row, and on the morning of the heaviest we woke to a carpet of leaves.  (The lawn had only been mowed the day before and there were no leaves in sight.)

This is quite a young walnut tree at 10yrs.  Fruited for the first time last year, then this year we had a few more, but only one walnut survived!!  Patience.  In the mean time good old Clair Matin doesn't know that it is supposed to be a rest time for her.  Next month will give her a good prune which will make her rest up a bit.

I am linking to Oh Scrap which you can find  here and see other gorgeous scrap quilts.

Short and sweet catch up.  Hope you are all well and snuggled up on these cooler days.  Alternatively, you may be sunning yourself at the beach and loving the hot weather.  Wherever you are, take the time to ponder on your blessings.

Take care
Clare