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.

New beginnings

This is my first post on this blog. I don't know how it will go but I thought I would try it out. I have a miserable cold and this was something I could do sitting with my laptop in front of Midsomer Murders on the television. Perhaps not the best reason for starting a blog but my reason nevertheless.

Quilting is my passion after my family and friends. I first learnt in about 1982 or 1983 - I do not now remember whether I attended Pam Tawton's beginner classes before or after the birth of our 4th child and only son; probably after. I made my first quilt earlier than that though - before the birth of our first daughter in 1986. It is a simple 9 patch with eye spy seersucker. It was bagged and turned through then quilted by adding ric rac braid to the seams with a zig zag stitch. Very basic but actually quite effective. My second quilt was also made about this time - a whole cloth pram quilt using a printed heavy cotton curtain fabric. Both quilts would have been made with remnants I picked up cheaply and sewn while I was at home waiting for our first child to be born. I was very pleased to find both of these quilts recently while clearing out, along with quite a few baby clothes I had put away from when my babies were little. My youngest is now 26. I have just realised I don't have photos so will have to get the camera out when I am feeling better.

Enough babbling for now. I hope I haven't bored you all out there in blogland :)