A word to the wise

I am pleased to say that I managed to finish my charm square quilt in time to take with me on our recent trip to visit friends.

Last time I blogged about the quilt the blocks looked like this

and this is what they became!

It was a close run thing though, I was still stitching the binding on late in the evening before we were heading off, and the completed quilt only came out of the dryer about 1 hour before we were due to leave :)

The random line quilting was inspired by similar in Elizabeth Hartman's Practical Guide to Patchwork book. Ideally I would have quilted this more densely but the choice between more quilting and finishing in time was an easy one to make.

I couldn't resist taking photos of the quilt with the backdrop of a beach just up the coast from where this quilt now resides. I think it will fit in well, don't you?

This was such an economical quilt to make too. The backing you can see above was cotton sheeting bought in the bedding factory shop in Riga before we moved back home, the binding was left over from the Siblings Together quilt, the text charm squares were from the Texty Charm Swap I took part in on Flickr and the white for the blocks was a sale purchase several moons ago!

The pattern for this quilt was in the Aug/Sept 2013 issue of Quilt Magazine. I have hoarded this magazine for all this time as I knew that I wanted to make this particular quilt someday, so I am delighted to have finally got around to it.

Two quilts finished in the space of a week or so, I don't know what has come over me :)

If you have a finish that is Christmas or Holiday related this month, don't forget to link it up to the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party over at Sunshine through the Rain

There is a £10 gift voucher from the Village Haberdashery up for grabs for one lucky linker!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

 

Two out, three in!

I have been on the road in the last couple of weeks, both North and South. Before I went South I managed to post off both of my blocks for April in the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee.

Grammie Q asked for a strip block with aqua and a hint of orange applique for the Gumdrops quilt she plans to make.

This block couldn't have been easier, as the applique will be stitched down during the quilting I only had to stitch the shapes down along the bottom of the strip after they were fused!

Tessophia is planning to make a rainbow quilt so asked us to sign up to make a slab of a particular colour. I chose blue as it is the biggest bag of scraps I have.

 Having made over a dozen of these blocks for Round 1 of the SMQ Bee this was another quick block to whip up. Next month it is my turn to receive blocks and I will need to get my act together soon to decide which of the many lovely quilts in the book I would like my Bee mates to contribute to.

In between the road trips, I received the first of my blocks from the Star of Africa Bee. I had seen the blocks in the Flickr group but the photographs definitely do not do them justice.

I have asked the Bee members to make a block on the theme of houses, as I have always wanted to make a quilt based on the Schoolhouse block, but never managed to get around to it. Being the creative bunch that they are the interpretation of the theme has been great fun to see.

Benta has traveller families living near her village so stitched up a traveller caravan complete with open campfire for her block! Isn't it wonderful?

Patti sent me a block to represent the barns and silos that dot her prairie landscape. Check out that large green cat at the window!

 

Look at the block and matching pincushion that arrived from Janine, isn't that the cutest thing?

I am a month behind on this Bee as the request for a block based on trees in March has challenged my creative juices! As ever I have an idea but the hard part is translating that into a quilt block :)

In between flitting about I have managed to sign up for the Texty Charm Swap too. You can never have too much text fabric :)

Some Summersville is my contribution to the swap! I really like this fabric so I might just have ordered a bit extra for me :)

Off to catch up on all the posts that I missed.

Linking up to