More Greenery

Summer's flying by and as it does my pile of bowties for God's Green Earth continues to build.

As more colours are added it's becoming more sophisticated, which I love.

Sweet bunnies...

Everything that I have cut is now in blocks so I need to clear away the Christmas Crumbs from the design wall to start laying things out for real, but this is what is currently there.

I've cut several extra blocks so we'll see how that translates into size for the quilt top.

Still having lots of fun with this block.....M

Quilt-in-a-Box

It's amazing what you find when you are clearing out your emails. Anne sent me a note in the spring about a quilt that mom had started and that she has been working at off and on the last few years, and I totally forgot about it until I came upon her email again this week. She's calling it a quilt-in-a-box; here's what she wrote. 

"It’s almost as if mom knew that someone else would be completing it. All the pieces are there, extra pieces are in the box, and all the instructions and fabrics are there as well. 

And…I had forgotten that she had laid out the pieces for each block between pages of the Eganville Leader, March 27, 1991 (a local newspaper). From her notes where she kept track of hours, she started in 1990; mom’s organizational skills at their best.

It’s called Roses at the Window.

It’s been a few years since I have worked on this and from what I can recall I thought there was a shortage of some of the colours but it appears that everything is there.

I have assembled seven rows of 15 blocks. I have a feeling I do not have any more of the ecru so will have to find some to match.

I think mom had made some of the blocks and I have hand stitched the rest. I will need to make more blocks to complete it."  

When it's finished it will be another great memory of mom that Anne can curl up into....M

Backing Things Up

Making quilt backings is probably my least favourite part of the process and can be attested to by the fact that the materials to back my Blue Diamonds - a Kaffe Fassett design - has been sitting on the back of this chair for a few months now. Yes, I said months!

And it's not like that chair is somewhere that I never see it - it's sitting in my kitchen so I see it every day. Sheesh.

It probably didn't help things knowing that it was going to be a pieced back. I found a great piece of pink for it a while back but it wasn't nearly enough so I decided it was a good opportunity to use up whatever bits and pieces of the fabrics that I had used in it.

Finally the spirit moved me but it still took me several hours to get it all together.

I was going to use two large pieces of the pink in the layout but decided at the last minute to save the second piece for the binding, so then the hunt was on to find a replacement. I have more fabric for backings than I care to admit, so with all those blues you would think that shouldn't have been a huge ask, but it turned out to be. Eventually I fournd a combo that would work - I'm not totally over the moon with it, but it works.

So now it's together, but I'm already wondering if the layout works with the front. Guess I'll just have to see what it looks like after it's quilted....M

Allspice

Not to be outdone by Sandy, Jane had a finish of her own when she and Betty and Sandy were together. She's been working on a gorgeous quilt that she and I designed back in the spring and put the finishing stitches on it two weekends ago. I've been calling it Allspice but apparently Betty has been referring to it as her Jacobean quilt.

When  she was here in the spring she had most of the blocks for the strips finished.
















The fabrics are just stunning and when they all came together, even more so.

Here's a closer looks at the different colours used for the narrow strips that run through it. The brown paisley is a print that I had in my stash - love it.

This quilt got Jane through the challenge of this spring's major flooding. Her cottage was under siege from the spring rains the likes of which we had never seen before and was saved from the brink by a small army of volunteers who worked tirelessly for six weeks, not the least of which was her sister Linda. When she had a break she would sit down with her stitching and pray for the best.

Jane has gifted Allspice to Linda as a thank you for all of her support throughout the ordeal, which is beautiful gesture (sisters are the best!). Apparently Roberta will be quilting it and I am so looking forward to seeing the finished product....M