Shoo Fly - New Look at an Old Quilt.

I thought it would be fun today to take a new look at one of my earlier quilts.  This was back in the day when I didn't know how to machine quilt and quilted everything by hand.

When visiting my Mum recently,  I realised that I didn't have any good photos of this quilt I made her 6 years ago.
When I finished it, I just plonked it on the bed and took a quick photo without thinking about how the light was hitting it to show up the quilting etc.

It is quite a small quilt, which was my Mum's request - more of a bed topper really.

The pattern is a simple shoo fly block in pinks and greens.

After 6 years of constant use, i have to say it is wearing well and I love the crinkly look it has now.

I used a stencil to mark the quilting pattern which is a feathered circle and the whole quilt was quilted by hand.

I was a very inexperienced quilter back then.  I made a delectable mountain border but ran out of fabric and had to make a simple 9 patch for the corners.

I love the textured surface!

                                                                     This is the back.

                                                        The hand embroidered label.

I am currently making Mum a new quilt for Christmas - she doesn't have one that I've machine quilted so I hope to have pictures of that very soon.

Today I'm linking up with Freemotion By The River for Linky Party Tuesday, so if you want some eye candy to look at , head over to Connie's.

Before I go, can I just thank every single one of you who left lovely comments on my post for The Bloggers Quilt Festival, Fall 2012.  I really, really appreciate it.  Thank you.
See you all again soon.
Until then ....
Happy Stitchin'
Rhianon.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2012

It's that time again !!

 This is the quilt I am entering into the Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2012......... the twice yearly event which is organised by Amy from Amy's Creative Sdie.  I entered for the first time in the spring and my Gecko Fabulous made it through to the finals.

I am so happy to be able to enter this quilt - I think it is probably the best quilt I have made to date. 

I made it for a lady in America who told me she liked butterflies, sunflowers, she liked blues and greens and could I add a rainbow effect somewhere?.  This was the design I came up with.  The butterflies and sunflowers are machine appliqued and I quilted it on my domestic machine.

The first photo does not show up the quilting or do it real justice so here are a few close ups...

Here it is during the quilting progress - stuffed into my little machine - quite a challenge!

This is it laid out on my deck while I was basting it.  It is a big quilt measuring approx 80" x 86".

I did a blog post just with photographs, no words on the process of making the butterfly quilt.  If you'd like to see it, click here

I will let you know when voting opens but in the meantime you can head over to Amy's to check out all the beautiful entries. Have fun and wish me luck!!

Forgot to say, I think my quilt could go into any of these categories :

Favourite Bed Quilt
Favourite Applique Quilt
Favourite Home Machine Quilted Quilt.

Long Table Runner with 3D Flowers

Despite having a stinking head cold and lots of headaches this week, I have been busy making a few things for the house sale.
This is what I finished first.....  a long table runner.  It measures 38" x 17".

I also made a couple of cute little mug rugs....  but unfortunately I can't show you at the moment.  I've used my 1GB of strage space so I bought more space but Google has not applied it to my account.  I will be back when I have sorted that out. Very annoying.  Anybody else had that problem ?

I really need to get it sorted fast so I can do my blog post for the Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2012.  Can you guess what quilt I'm going to enter ?

Linking today with Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

Back soon I hope.

Rhianon.

Got the Google thing sorted, these are the mugrugs I made....

Starry Baby Quilt.

Last week at quilt group we did an easy peasy star block so when I got home I decided to use up a charm pack I had and this is the result ...

The blocks finished at 11.5" and a setting of 2x3 plus a couple of borders gave me a finished quilt of 36" x 48" - just a nice size for a baby.

I stitched in the ditch around the star points, stippled the center and used the same background filler I used on my Fishy Wall Hanging.

I wanted to see how the pattern would look quilted on a plain fabric.

In the coloured border, I quilted a half feather all the way around.

In the outer border  - well what else but more continuous feathers. 

I finished off with a nice pink binding.

This quilt is going to USA where I am hoping it will be sold along with a few other bits and pieces I am working on. I have been invited to take part in an open house sale of arts and crafts so I thought I would give it a whirl!

I've also made 5 flower pin cushions for the sale...

Here's 3 of them and a close up....

At the moment I'm busy working on a few other projects. They are fairly small so I will be back soon to show you what I've been up to.
Enjoy your weekend
Rhianon.

I'm just a little bit late, but I'm going to link up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and  TGIFF. 

Lil Twister Table Topper

I finished this last week but couldn't show you becasue I didn't want to spoil a surprise.
I made this table runner for my friend Shelley who lives in Australia.

Can you guess her favourite colour is purple?

Of course I had to 'decorate' it with some of my flowers......

I used a fusible bias for the stems and made some leaves with a matching fabric.

In  the border I quilted skinny billowing feathers..... my favourite obsession at the moment.

I hope Shelley will love her birthday present.
I'm planning a full day of sewing today, so off I go!
See you all next time.
Rhianon.

Linking this post to Quilt Matters, M R is hosting this weeks TGIFF and also Sarah's blog, Confessions of a fabric Addict for Can I get a Whoop Whoop ?  That should sort out your eye candy for the day!

My Fishy Wall Hanging - Finished!

Remember my fishy wall hanging I started a while back ? - well I managed to finish it this week.  If you missed the original post, click here.  I called it a throw in my first post but it has now turned into a wall hanging :)

I was using the blue border batik for another project and needed to keep enough for this, so that how I ended up working on it.  It wasn't my intended finish for the week.

I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 wadding which seemed very flat after using thick 4oz polyester but I am more than happy with the result.

I had a lot of fun doing the free motion quilting ( on my domestic).  On the string blocks I started off using King Tut's varigated rainbow thread but ran out so I switched to a Gutermann rainbow thread and it was much better to sew with for some reason.  Perhaps the bobbin thread I was using was more compatible.

The fish and seahorses were small enough that they didn't need quilting.

I outlined the fish a couple of times then filled in with bubbles...

In the orange border, I quilted half a feather, using the edge of the center panel as the spine.

I couldn't wait to get to the outer borders to try a slightly different feather.  I wanted them to look a bit like seaweed.

Here's a few close ups........

I'll leave you with a final shot - this wall hanging is going in my living room. 

Until next time, happy stitchin' everyone.
Rhianon.

I'm linking this post to Connie's blog,Freemotion by the River for Linky party Tuesday.  Ok I know I finished it at the weekend but it still counts, I hope:)