Mum's Quilt - The Big Reveal

Remember that secret sewing I told you about in March.  Well I can finally reveal what it was turned into.  Over the weekend Mum celebrated her 70th birthday, and the double sided quilt my sister and I were making was finally gifted to her at a surprise birthday party we held at my house.

My side of the quilt was inspired by this quilt. I sought out the pattern and found it was the Morocco Quilt, from LIVELOVESEW,

Needless to say the pattern was purchased, downloaded and fabric was cut that afternoon for the first block.  On the whole it was an easy if some what time consuming block to make.    I had a few issues with blocks not ending up the correct size (how does that happen, when everything is cut and sewn the same), but I was able to work with that.  Part way through the creative process, I decided it was looking a little to dark and heavy, so I made three blocks up using some green Kate Spain fabric as the inner star,  I love how these have lifted the quilt and highlighted some beautiful fussy cut flowers.
I added an extra 5 blocks to the original pattern and ended up with a top almost 70" square.

My sister had a little trouble deciding on patterns and colours for her side, (three different patterns were started) but in then end went with Anna Maria Horner's feathers. which she made at 83% and used a soft dusky pink as the background for them. She used a combination of Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner fabrics for her feathers.  She is very much a bright and scrappy quilter, so these really reflect her.

Funnily enough, Mum was the courier for taking my quilt top over to Brisbane, so my sister could get it quilted.  We decided that an all over design would be best, not really highlighting either side. Quilting was done by Chris from Sewco.  The binding was made from the original fabric that Mum picked.

So the big day has now been and gone, the quilt was given to Mum, tears almost flowed, bubbly and birthday cake were consumed, lots of photos were taken, and now the birthday quilt is at it's new home.

Here & Now

Loving // having all my family together today for a surprise birthday celebration.
Eating // all the yummy food my sister and I prepared.
Drinking //bubbly - cos we were celebrating. 
Feeling // a little tired, but oh so happy that it all worked out perfectly.
Making // memories.
Thinking //of Christmas now that the surprise birthday party is over, so a few handmade decorations  have gone up.
Dreaming // of long lazy summer days.

Linking up to Here & Now at Say Little Hen

Weekending

Mel hard at work

Rachael and Mel ignoring me and the camera.

Gwyneth knitting her beautiful socks.

• Some baking - this ginger, almond and oat slice

• Reading -The Embroidered Garden by Kazuko Aoki.  This pretty book almost makes me want to take up embroidery

• Another sewing day - where I was surprised with an early birthday club gift from Gwyneth. Remember this wool that I bought, to make a shawl, which I started, and repeatedly undid.   When I discovered that Gwyneth was a knitter,  I gave it to her to use.  I figured that there was no point having it sit in a bag in my cupboard.  She surprised me with a beautiful shawl made out of it. The photos just don't do it justice.

• Some sewing hand work was done, Mel was cutting out circles for her modern wedge blocks, I was making my Dresden blades. Rachael was cutting fabric for another civil war quilt, and Gwyneth was knitting another pair of beautiful socks.

One more week of holidays to go here - have a great week what ever you may be doing.

Weekending

At the beginning of the year, my sewing day friends and I, decided we should have a little birthday club, where we make small gifts for each other

First up was Rachael.  I decided to make her one of my bi-fold, tri-page needlebooks.  Remember all those hexis I was hand quilting last month.  This is what they got turned into.  Fabrics are a mix of French General and 3 Sisters ranges.   Rachael really likes the soft muted warm colours of civil war prints, while I didn't have any of those in my stash, I thought that these fabrics certainly echoed that soft vintagey feel. It is lined with a very fine natural linen and the pockets are a print from 3 Sisters Papillon range.  For the needle page, I used a lovely aqua wool felt and a cute measuring tape ribbon for a decorative feature.  When it is all folded,  it ties up with a natural linen ribbon.  It measures approximately 14.5" x 5.5".

And because everyone needs a little Liberty something in their life, I made her a pin cushion from the log cabin block made a couple of weeks ago,

These were given to her today at our special birthday sewing day, with Rachel and Deb present also.
As you can see, we had beautiful food, margaritas and lots of fabulous inspiration in the way of books, fabrics and projects to look at.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend, here's to a great week ahead.

Weekending

Hexagon Obsession by Marie Harrison (made with quarter inch hexagons)

Pixelated Heart quilt by Melanie Hastings, pattern from Blue Elephant Stitches

Brainwaves Quilts and close up of detail by Robyn Rognstad

Summer Geese Quilt and Winter Geese Quilt by Melanie Hastings

Close up of colours and fabrics in Summer Geese Quilt

• I celebrated my birthday with a cheats birthday cake - supermarket sponge and strawberries, still tasted good though.
• some lovely wool felt from my sister, that just happens to co-ordinate perfectly with some of my Liberty.  (can you tell I am just dying to make something with this fabric)
• a day out at the Auckland Festival of Quilts with Rachel and Deb.  Some amazing quilts, these were a few that caught my eye.  We also met up with some other blog and flickr friends, from Wellington and Christchurch,
• a little stash enhancement from the festival
• some sewing for the SSM6 swap.
• I smile everytime I see this

Hoping you all had a fabulous weekend too.

Scenes from my week

 

 

 

 

 

From my birthday

• family tradition has presents being opened in bed before  7am when everyone is  rushing to get ready for to work and school.  Yes I did receive a hippo - made by my sister.  Lots of choccy goodies, an ornament, garden art and jewellery too.  Now I just have to bake a birthday cake for tonight.

From the kitchen

• mother-in-laws pickle from this book - made with lots of  zucchini (not from my garden yet).  Some for me and some will be part of Christmas hampers for my dad and father-in-law.  The name may have to be changed on this one.
• strawberry mousse from my new Annabel Langbein Summer Annual - pureed strawberries, jelly and plain yoghurt - deliciously refreshing and sweet without being excessively rich.

From a bedroom

•  a crochet owl cushion for Miss B, again made by my very clever sister in Australia. Pattern from here.

From my garden

• crimson canna
• lovely colours on the leaves of tropicanna.