Grandmother's Flower Garden

I completed this quilt over the weekend, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. I started this quilt as a secondary project, thinking I could just piece a few hexagons every so often. Needless to say, the task was much longer term than I anticipated. First, making all those hexagons - cutting out the paper templates, tacking on the fabric. Piecing the 'flowers' by hand was quite pleasant, but then I still had a mountain of pathway hexagons to make. Then came the enormous job of joining all the flowers and pathway pieces. I did that part in rows, making the quilt in two halves and then joining the halves together, as the two sections were by now quite unweildy. It was a relief when I could start taking out the paper templates. I trimmed the edges and attached the border by machine, then began hand quilting around each flower. The border took longer than anticipated too, but I was determined to finish the quilt over the Christmas break. Sitting under a quilting frame in Auckland's heat and humidity was no picnic, but I pressed on (listening to Rebecca, read by Anna Massey on my iPod). Then trimming the borders, making the binding and stitching it on and it was done. Phew!

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.