Rag doll

I made this doll today (first day of Christmas holidays - yay!) using patterns adapted from various sources. I think she needs some more outfits though so I'll work on those. I might try hand-stitching the next doll as I could not manage smooth, rounded seams on the ends of the arms and legs with my ancient old Singer sewing machine.

Fruit Salad

I just finished piecing this quilt made up of random length pieces made into strips. The fabrics are a mix of new, recycled and vintage prints. I probably won't add a border and the quilting will be either simple straight lines, randomly placed, or Baptist Fans, which I love doing. The backing will be two retro print sheets I picked up in a junk store for NZ$4 each.

I now have three quilt tops waiting to be made into quilts. I thought that using up some of my stash would reduce the volume of fabric wedged into my bottom drawer, but it's hardly made a dent and I still have a number of shirts waiting to be cut up and prepared ready for use.

Op Shop Cotton Leaf

Just finished piecing this quilt. The design is borrowed from a book of African quilts, the pattern is Cotton Leaf, which is a Bear Paw variation.

The three khaki prints were all shirts bought at a local op shop in one shopping trip. The white fabric is one of Peter's old Brooks Bros non-iron shirts, as is the French blue. The pale blue fabric is another op shop find; it's a soft linen, and horrible to work with as it moves around a lot. The binding will be made from diagonally cut strips of the middle khaki stripe fabric.

Quilt therapy

Here I have laid out all the blocks for a future quilt. The design is inspired by the banner and promotional material for restaurant Bellota in Auckland, New Zealand. In December last year I'd seen an advertisement for the restaurant in a local magazine and thought, wow, that would make a really good quilt design. As I thought about it, I realised I had all those colours of plain fabric in my stash and set about planning the quilt. Each block is 10 inches by 5 inches (finished) so with 14 blocks across and 7 down this will produce a quilt which is 70 inches square. For the quilting design I'm thinking randomly-placed concentric circles, to offset the severity of the oblong blocks. Last weekend at the op shop I bought a vintage bedsheet in greens and yellows which might just fit for the backing.

Quilt therapy (2)

Here is my Grandmother's Flower Garden with the border design in progress. I'm quite pleased with it but a bit nervous that it won't join up properly when I get to the corners. I may have to fudge it a little to fit. I was a bit dubious about the border fabric, which I discovered in a bedlinen factory shop. It's very closely woven, which is hard wearing on my fingers and the quilting thread. The woman in the shop said it was pure cotton. It has been washed and came up well.

Afternoon tea

Here is a link to a recently completed project which combines my love for afternoon tea and my passion for all things hand made. I call this my Penny Rug Tea Cosy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7700628@N03/?saved=1

Quilt therapy

Meant to spend the whole of Good Friday studying but found my bottom-drawer quilt stash calling me, so I spent a happy couple of hours cutting up fabric for my next quilt. Did I say next quilt? I actually have two more quilts in the pipeline before I get to that one. And the one which is currently on the frame being quilted. So eventually, after I've finished quilting my current quilt (a hand-pieced Grandmother's Flower Garden which I thought was going to be a quick and easy project but turned out to be a long term project after all), and then made the next one (a hand appliqued quilt using antique style fabrics bought at The Stone Store, Russell), and the one after that (Cotton Leaf [Bear Paw variation] using recycled shirts), phew, then I'll get to the next quilt.

Learning 2.0

This is my first blog posting for Learning 2.0. Check out http://plcmcl2-things.blogspot.com/ for more information.