French General - A Finish

Finally got to finish my French General Quilt, which I gifted to my Mum for her birthday this week.

I loved it so much I was so tempted to covet it for myself!  But I resisted, well, I guess that's an excuse to make another for myself! 

And Mum loves it!

Front

Back

Label

I basted it using the plank method and machine quilted it myself.  The doily label is a vintage doily I bought some time ago and to which I added the embroidered writing myself.

It feels good to have another quilt finished! 

Blackbird Singing In The Dead Of Night

Yikes, can you see that?  2011!
The last time I worked on this quilt was around July 2011...that's four years! Four years!

So I've picked it up again. Why? I hear you ask.  For a couple of reasons.
1.  Our regular Wednesday Patchwork and Quilting class is on school holiday break and I don't want to work on my Celtic quilt unassisted. (The truth is, Anne is such a wealth of hints I don't want to miss anything she may have to offer if I continue to work on the quilt top on my own.)

2.  I've lost a project I'm making for my Sister.  Can you believe it?  I've lost a whole bundle of fabrics with which I've promised to make more cushion covers for my Sister! So in my hunt for the elusive project I unearthed the French General quilt top I have avoided for the past four years.

On closer inspection I realised that there is not much to do to finish off the French General so I've added some sashing and a border. 

Layering the quilt and machine quilting will be easy as it's not large, more a single bed topper size. If I'm organised enough I can have it ready for Mum's 82nd birthday in September.

In the meantime, I've made these upbeat drink coasters.

I know...they could also be mug rugs but for some reason I have an aversion to mug rugs, and the person I've made them for is slightly eccentric and I think he probably has an aversion to mug rugs too but I can totally see him using these to place his crystal cut glass scotch whiskey tumbler on.
The graphic fabric is the infill out of a panel of Milvale Quilt Labels.  I fussy cut these very carefully as I didn't have much area to play with.

The binding is a remnant from my Youngest Son's 21st birthday (Yikes again...in 2008!)quilt which I can't show you as that was before my blogging days.

A few weeks ago, feeling excited about the capabilities of my upgraded sewing machine, I practised  applique and free motion quilting on a square of fabric. 

 I'm always loathe to discard anything and the end result was a very scrappy raggy quilt made with some boring fabric.  The end result turned out much nicer than I imagined.

Now, I wonder where I've stashed that fabric?
Have you ever lost a quilting project among your stash?  And did you find it?  Was it where you expected to find it?

Have a happy sewing week.

Pancakes Twice

I missed Pancake Tuesday!  You know, it came and went and when I started wondering what all the  fuss about pancake recipes was all about it had come and gone!

Can't believe we're preparing for Easter already.

So we had pancakes for dinner last night.

These circles of fabric and wadding so remind me of pancakes!

Mr Honey Pie's niece and her hubby are expecting their first baby in May.

I'm making this super efficient cathedral window cot quilt for their baby.

It's a quilt as you go, no binding quilt!

You can find the instructions here.

I've added two more rows to make it larger.

As you may have guessed, they're expecting a girl.

I've managed to get The In The Pink Quilt Top  I've been working on off the floor.

Yes, off the floor!  It's huge and the floor had to be my design wall.

It is now numbered and pinned and some of the squares have been stitched. 

But now the cathedral window cot quilt is my top priority.

I've decided that my hexagon scrappy quilt is never going to progress if I don't double up on my fabric selection. (Hey I might even triple up or quadruple it.)  So I've taken that up again at night.  Hopefully this way progress will not only be quicker but I'll get to use up more of my scraps.

There's been no progress on my French General quilt top or the Dragonfly Japanese Fabric one.

It's been a long while since I've linked to WIP  Wednesday.

Why don't you drop by and visit Lee at Freshly Pieced?

WIP Progress Wednesday

WIP Wednesday.

1. The long hexagons are progressing slowly. Around 240 have been completed.

I'm still procrastinating about whether I should stick to only one hexagon per fabric, or just go all out and use up as many of my scraps as possible. If I take the second option, progress would be much faster.

2.  Dr Seuss Cat in a Hat cot quilt #1 has been labelled and gifted...yay!

Cat in a Hat #2 (above) is (almost) ready for sandwiching, basting and machine quilting.

3.  French General quilt top...no progress sashing cut.

4.  English paper pieced scrappy quilt is now hand quilted and awaiting purple binding. (Almost finished - phew!)

No progress on the following:

Do drop by and visit Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to this past week.

Happy Wednesday to you all.

Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday #42.

Wednesday Already Dr Seuss?

I've labelled this my "Bitza" quilt...not only is it bits of this fabric and bits of that fabric but it's got bits of every theme in it too. Dragonflies, butterflies, cats, dogs, pigs, frogs...you name it.

I'm continuing to hand quilt the border and now  putting a bit of detail into the butterflies...just couldn't resist.

Dr Seuss cot quilt number one is quilted and awaiting binding. I've machine quilted this one  as I've got a deadline (baby due in less than tree weeks).

The second Dr Seuss cot quilt top is almost done but alas no photographs yet!  Hopefully next week.

We're redecorating so I've had no choice but to make curtains for the guest room...almost done.

And I'm contemplating joining the Freshly Pieced Summer Sampler QAL. Okay, so it's already into block number five...hmmm.

French General and Japanese Dragonfly quilt tops have seen no progress!

Drop by and visit Lee at Freshly Pieced to see how everyone's progressed this week.

Managed to complete curtains before posting...here's a sneak peak at the newly painted room with curtains hung...I'm loving it so far but it was a shock to the system at first as it was a TOTAL change.  Can't wait to replace furniture etcetera.

Don't forget to drop by and visit Lee's Blog at Freshly Pieced.

Dr Seuss Quilt Top WIP

This has evolved into the above. Question is do I frame in red, yellow or blue?

My hand pieced quilt is being hand quilted and is now looking like this:

It is very much a scrappy quilt and I want it to have a cottage feel and look to it, so I've quilted the border free hand which hopefully will just give it that look.

In the middle of making two quilts for my Twin Sisters and two more for expectant nieces, I decided I really needed to start two more just for the fun of it!

The above quilt top is made from Moda French General charm pack and will be framed using a terracotta coloured sashing.  The border is yet to be decided.  The option is a French General floral or not.  That is, not if I use it to make a summer dress for my Grand Daughter (see the pattern below).

The above quilt is made from a collection of Japanese dragonfly themed fat quarters which I began collecting about five year ago.  My quarter inch seams are out even though I've been using a quarter inch foot, so each block needs to be trimmed 'cause they're not square!

I've also been knitting myself a mohair sweater, completed two pairs of newborn mittens, and thinking about knitting myself a lacy scarf. (Like I NEED another scarf.)

Half the windows in the house are screaming out for curtains or swags and I want to up-cycle some t-shirts into summer skirts for Grand Daughter.

Oh well...I'm bound to have more time to do all these things when I'm retired...but wait, I thought I was retired!!??!

I have linked this post to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday # 34 Why don't you drop by and check out Lee's fresh looking Churn-dash?

Thanks Lee for the opportunity to share.