Last of the Year's Quilts - lots of photos

Hello again, I'm just squeaking in with a last post for 2015.  Oh my, isnt it a bit of a worry how fast these years seem to be going.  Never mind, we all suffer from the same complaint so it makes me feel a little better.  I hope you have all had a wonderful time with your families as we have done. My last week before Christmas went in a blur, but I did managed to achieve a few things.

I quilted, buttoned and stuffed (with inners) to get daughter Rebecca's cushions all finished and ready to take up with us.  I am most pleased with the way they have come out - three different sizes that grade up pleasantly - all completely unplanned, hehe.

I did really enjoy designing the layout of these to have a more modern look to them and hope to play with the modern look in this coming year.

Also managed to finished this lovely floral square in a square quilt of Jean's. I used a free motion pattern that I enjoy using and am pleased with the results.  I used a lovely Magnifico thread.

It's always a pleasure quilting Jeans quilts as she makes such a good job of making them.  I never have any issues.  This meant I was able to have enough time to pop her other quilt on and get in finished before Christmas as a surprise for Jean.





















Isn't this childs quilt so pretty.  Jean put lovely soft pink minky on the back, which quilted up extremely easily with no complications.  I used another gorgeous Magnifico pink on this one too and put cotton batting in it.  What a super soft and cuddly quilt this one is.

I used a freehand combination of hearts and flowers for this one, connecting them with small loops.  I am so enjoying learning to do all over patterns like this and have to admit that I have not done a pantograph for quite some months.  Mind you, most of my quilting at the moment is custom.

This next quilt is my  friend Felicity's, and she informed me that it was made some 30 odd years ago when she was just beginning her patchwork journey.  Some of the fabrics have wonderful memories for her of her mother, aunt and her own dresses that were made for her.  It took me a long time to decide on an appropriate design for this one and am extremely happy with the result.  I hope you agree.

 Felicity thought this was called Jack's Chain, and was going to have a hunt to see if the pattern was still around.  We quilters do like to hang onto things, dont we?

The blue backing gave the whole quilt a really nice lift and quilted up nicely.

The photo bottom left shows how the quilt looked before quilting.  I am always amazed at how quilting completely changes the look of a quilt top even after all these years.

Thanks Felicity...I have loved quilting this for you, and delighted in each nine patch and it's different colours as I quilted along.  May you get lots of joy out it now.

And for the last finish for the year, I was so thrilled to get another grandson's quilt finished.  That's quilt an achievement this year for me, as it has been a year full of ill health and set backs.  Thankfully, we can put some of that behind us now and get on with our quilting.  What about this fun quilt?

 It was made from a bundle of Cat In the Hat fabrics that I had purchased about 3 years ago, (yay, used some stash) and there were only 8 fat quarters, but with some sashing we managed to make a good sized single bed quilt.  I did have to go buy a little bit of sashing as there was no green that was "just right" in my stash.

I quilted it in a quirky fun fashion, after getting the idea from a blog I follow called Tamarack Shack.  I did oddball shapes and did the vertical sashing in a different pattern to the horizontal.  Such fun was had by all, nope - by the quilter!!

The backing is a gorgeous fun dinosaur fabric I picked up on sale at Spotlight (like Joanne's) and it was perfect.  There was just enough left over to make a cute little summer dress for my granddaughter.

The quilt was given to my grandson Hamish when we went up to Te Awamutu at Christmas time.  I bought the book to go with the quilt.  This was actually a birthday gift, not Christmas, but who cares?

I am just stoked that I got another quilt finished out of my own pile on top of finishing three customer quilts. The next grandchild's quilt is for my older grandson Brad.  I have started cutting it out and am doing this one "quilt as you go."  Not sure how this is going to work out but I love the pattern so we will see what happens.

Last photo is my tidying up efforts in the last couple of days before Christmas.  This is only a portion of my stash of threads...I just love threads!!!

They look so neat and tidy.  Hope it lasts. Well I hope you will all have had a fabulous Christmas with your family and friends.  We did and I will talk about that next year.

I would like to wish you all a Happy and Joyous New Year.  May you be blessed in more ways than you can ever imagine and may you experience God's love for you in abundance.

Blessings to all and thanks for hanging in there with my erratic posting.

Clare
I am linking with Sarah at confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com

Check it out for some more delicious eye candy.

Quilt Exhibition and lots of other stuff....

We wont talk about how long it is since I posted.  Life trundles on and the quilting is slowly happening.  One good thing is another grandson's quilt is now just waiting for me to make and sew on the binding. I forgot to take some photos so will put it in the next post. It's the bit I dislike the most because my head has moved on somewhere else!!

Some pics you might enjoy from the bennial quilt exhibition of Hawkes Bay Quilters & Patchworkers held in Hastings last month.

 This gorgeous quilt below won the Viewers Choice award.  All machine quilted on a domestic machine.  Stunning.

Our trip to Wellington on our long weekend was so enjoyable.  The weather was fabulous for the time of year.  Spring can be so unpredictable. We went to the Botannical Gardens on Saturday and took a picnic lunch.  "Look at the ducks Nana! " Marcy is wearing her new wee dress that Nana managed to whip up before we went down.  Boy I was a bit rusty at making little dresses lol.

It was a lovely, lovely day.  We went to the rose gardens but there were very few out, but a couple of gorgeous beds of poppies were on show.

 Come on Grandad...push!!!

 Trying to hang on the little miss squirmy

Here's pointing at you!  Marcy loves pointing at things now and is so cute. Well, it goes without saying from this very biased angle...lol.

 I have finished cushion no. 2 for daughter Rebecca.  No. 3 is under construction and I had better hurry up if I want to take them up at Christmas time.

 Kerry is such a clever bloke.  This is  my portable oxygen trolley!!  You dont get given anything to cart the small oxygen bottle around in and a backpack is not an option for me.  So, Mr No. 8 Wire went to work on figuring something else out.  It's great because I can put all my gear in, it's lightweight and I can take it anywhere.

Our front verandah garden is looking really gorgeous with our triffid geranium on the left and right and our Clair Matin rose also on the left.  The rose in the middle is a small indoor rose I bought at the supermarket cheap as a left over from Mothers Day.  I put it in this bigger pot, stuck it outdoors and it has turned into the most beautiful rose.

Thought I had better finish off with the boys.  Travis (top) is actually sitting in front of me as I type, in the very same basket and sitting on the batting for the next grandson's quilt!!  Tyson is having a big stretch here.  He measures about 1.1m long at full stretch lol.

Hope to chat with you all again soon.  Take care in the mad season, and let's all remember why we have Christmas....to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Blessings to you all
Clare