I bought a bundle of beautiful batik fat quarters from Kaleidoscope when I was at the Festival Of Quilts a few weeks ago, in shades of turquoise and teal, as I had a very special project in mind. My daughter was going to be 21 and I wanted to make her a special quilt for her birthday. I decided to use a simple pattern for the quilt design as I needed to make a quilt top that was quick to piece together. "Turning Twenty" by Tricia Cribbs was the perfect choice of pattern... ...this quilt top pieced together really quickly, and is a great quilt to make to showcase gorgeous fabrics like these batiks (my regular blog followers will know that I've made quite a few of these "Turning Twenty" quilts!) As you can see, it was quite a blustery day when I did this photo-shoot... ...once this was pieced together, it was taken to Janette at J-quilts to turn it into a fabulous quilt - and she certainly did an excellent job! My daughter loves dragonflies, so "Dragonfly Pond" seemed the perfect quilting design for this one. The backing fabric was an extra-wide Moda fabric (this was from the Shangri-La collection by 3 Sisters for Moda) that had been in my stash for simply ages, and was the perfect colour. How spooky is that! Unfortunately the batik fabric that I'd ordered from Kaleidoscope for the binding didn't arrive in time (so much for ordering Priority Post - 5 days later and I was still waiting - I won't order from that company again if I need fabric urgently!) but luckily there was just enough fabric left over from the backing to make the binding too... ...I was so pleased to be able to get this finished in time for my daughter's special day, although I did burn a lot of midnight oil getting the binding finished! Alice really was thrilled with it, and that made me a very happy mummy :) Thank you SO much Janette - your quilting was superb as always!
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My batik "Turning Twenty" quilt has been longarm quilted by Janette, and she has made it look absolutely beautiful. This was a really simple quilt to piece together, and the "Turning Twenty" pattern is designed by Tricia Cribs. We chose a swirling leaves quilting design, which looks great on both the dark and light coloured batiks... ...initially I was going to use one of the batiks with the leaf design for the binding, but didn't have enough, so on Saturday I made a mercy-dash to Sew and So's and decided to go for this rich dark brown batik (this was also used in the quilt). I prefer wide bindings for larger quilts, so cut my binding strips 3.5" wide, joined the strips with mitred seams, folded the binding in half and machine stitched it into place 0.5" from the edge of the quilt. Luckily my walking foot is 0.5" wide, so I can easily use the edge of the foot as a guide. Janette used a Moda extra wide fabric for the back, which really compliments the batiks on the front of the quilt. These Clover Wonder Clips are brilliant at holding the binding in place while I hand sew it to the back, using ladder stitch... ...nice sharp mitred corners, and I'd already machined one of my labels into place across one corner. This dark brown binding is very effective, and really frames this quilt... ...and here is the finished quilt. I really am absolutely THRILLED with this one, and it looks even better draped over my sofa than it does draped over my decking!
On Wednesday morning I collected my cream and white quilt from my longarm quilter. This was made using 25 fat quarters of different cream and white fabrics. The pattern is "Turning Twenty" by Tricia Cribbs. I couldn't resist taking a picture or two before I'd had time to stitch the binding on! And this shows a close-up of this gorgeous quilting pattern, "flounce" - it adds a wonderful texture to this quilt, and meanders across it... ...I used a gorgeous cream fabric from the "Noteworthy" collection by Sweetwater for Moda, that was already in my stash. This was machined to the front of the quilt, then it was lovingly hand stitched into place - all 344" of it, and yes I did wear a thimble!... ...this shows the different shades of neutrals that were used - it is a very simple pattern to make, and made with these fabrics it blends perfectly in my cream bedroom. I'm trying really hard to use my fabric/thread stash before buying anything new as Mr F keeps complaining about the size of my hoard! So far I'm doing quite well, although I'm not sure if I can last until the end of the week without a quick trip to Bungay!!
Yesterday was National Quilting Day, and I did my bit in supporting this day - by purchasing a few half metres of gorgeous brown batiks from Sew and Sew's at Bungay. I was en route to visit my daughter who is studying at uni in Norwich, and as I have to drive through Bungay to get to Norwich, it seemed silly not to drop in a make a purchase! The project I was planning for these was another Turning Twenty quilt, this time for my lounge, to hang over a large brown leather sofa. These blocks really do piece together very quickly... ...and in no time at all the quilt top was finished, complete with border. This is now ready to take over to Janette, so she can work her magic on it! Oh and I must say "hello" to Diana, a very nice lady who I met in Sew and So's and we got chatting - like you do - anyway, I hope you and your husband managed to find the cafe in Earsham Street, and had a safe journey home :)
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About me...Hi - welcome to my quilting blog! My passions are my family, my dog, my friends and sewing, not necessarily in that order! Archives
July 2023
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