Exhibition week

Last week was insane. Whatever made me do my father's quilt, dubbed "Persian Tiles", in 2 weeks?? I had very little sleep and my neck is still recovering but I did manage to get it finished. I have to say though that I would not have finished in time for the exhibition without help on Friday from Elizabeth and Trudi from my Friday Friends group. Thankyou girls. It was well received at the exhibition and apparently several people wanted to buy Persian Tiles. I am told one lady was very upset that it really was not for sale but already had a home to go to. The first photo shows me presenting the quilt with my son in the foreground. In the second photo I am sitting next to my father catching down the hanging sleeve on the back. I didn't have time to hand stitch it for the exhibition so the bottom of the sleeve was pinned on and I stitched it after I had presented the quilt. You can see the red paisley backing in the second photo. It is difficult to photograph the quilt to show off the fact that all the fabrics except the backing are overprinted in gold. You can see some of the sheen on the border in the second photo but the sheen fades out the red and green striped print. I will try to get some better photos in the next few days.

I also finished "Stasia's Jungle" for the exhibition. It is the attic windows quilt in my last entry. I am thankful for having posted the photo here last week because I discovered an error in the piecing of the main border. Were you able to pick it? Compare the last photo with this one. Fortunately it did not take to long to fix. It would have bugged me forever if I had not changed it. I free motion quilted the main border to give the feeling of a jungle - leaves, puddles, trails... - picking up on the parrots in the windows. It was fun doodling. No-one else may see what I was trying to do but I enjoyed doing it. I will be giving this quilt to my surrogate granddaughter Stasia for Christmas. I will have to add a photo later - I haven't taken a photo of the finished quilt yet.

Quilts under construction

These are the quilts I am working on for the Bungendore quilt exhibition this coming weekend.

The first one is an H quilt for my father. He will be 91 on Sunday. I still have to add the borders which I cut out this morning. The fabrics are

 almost all William Morris style or paisley. I have been doing it in a big rush and using it as therapy to keep my mind off losing my darling Ann. All the fabrics are top printed in gold so it has a sheen to it. Very rich looking. I love the fabrics very much and am quite pleased with the way it is turning out. All the top fabrics are from my stash, with the addition of a few from my sister's stash. I actually made several more blocks but didn't like them in the quilt so I will make a lap quilt for my sister with the left over blocks - after the exhibition. I have managed to find a red paisley print for the backing - no gold!

The second quilt I am going to give to our surrogate granddaughter Stasia for Christmas. The "window panes" are folded and the fabric is brightly coloured parrots. I added the yellow spot border yesterday. I finished the top other than the final border early in the year after starting it in a workshop. The fabrics in this quilt have also all come from my stash. The technique was fun and created little pockets. Unfortunately the pockets are upside down to the parrots - a little lesson to remember for positioning a directional print another time. Ooops thank goodness for this photo. I just realised I made a mistake - just in time to fix it thank goodness. Do you see it?

The third one I made last year for my friend Raeline's 40th birthday. Unfortunately she had the bad manners to upgrade to a king size bed a couple of days before her birthday LOL. I am now adding more side panels to make it big enough for them to sleep under. I think this is the only quilt I have made from a pattern other than those I have started in workshops! Even then I have deviated with the borders.

I will post more photos when I have finished the quilts, including some closeups.