Well I thought I'd try something different on my blog! Here's a slideshow, showing each completed block for "Down In The Garden" designed by Leanne Beasley. This was a 10 part BOM that I bought 4 years ago from an online quilt shop called Buttonberry, that has since closed down. There is a list of stockists pf Leanne's patterns on her website if you want to make one too. I initially started this quilt last summer, and it's been a real treat stitching these blocks. Once this has been quilted (it's going to J-Quilts soon for some custom work) I'll show some pictures of the finished quilt.
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As soon as Block 9 of "Down In The Garden" (designed by Leanne Beasley) was finished, I was really keen to get the blocks all stitched together, ready for the borders. The feature fabric used in the border is "Grandmothers Flower Garden" by Rosalie Quinlan, and the red/white spot will be used for the binding. I used a neutral coloured thread for piecing the blocks together, and used the same thread for sewing on the borders too..
...a narrow cream border frames the blocks, then a wider border in the feature fabric is added, and finally another cream border. This feature fabric is used in the blocks, in the yellow and pink colourways, and here it is in green...
...and here's the completed quilt top, photographed in MY garden! It was quite blustery yesterday evening when I took these photographs, and this was the best picture I was able to take! I've decided to get this one custom-quilted by Janette as her work really is simply stunning. There are quite a few scraps left over from this project, and I have the perfect project in mind for using some of them up. I'll share pictures of that at the weekend. 
The final block of this quilt "Down In The Garden" (designed by Leanne Beasley) has been prepped and is ready for the hand stitchery. After sorting out the fabrics the stitchery designs were traced - I use a brown coloured Pigma Micron pen, and yes I'm LOVING my new lightbox!!...
...and then the mini blocks were pieced together, ready for stitchery and applique. This block has some lightweight fusible interfacing (I use Vilene H180) fused to the back to give it some "body" - and now I'm off to make a cuppa and settle down in a comfy chair with my new glasses and make a start. 
Block 8 of "Down In The Garden" (designed by Leanne Beasley) was still in it's packet, and I was waiting for my new glasses before I made a start on it. Then I decided I really couldn't wait another week, so yesterday morning, bright and early, I sorted out the fabrics and cut up the pieces ready for the mini-blocks, and fussy cut the feature fabric...
...I'd got a busy day planned, so getting the fabrics cut to size was all I had time to do. This morning I've traced the designs onto the fabric, pieced the mini-blocks together, and ironed the fusible interfacing (I prefer to use Vilene H180) onto the back of the block...
...and now I'm ready to make a start - hand-stitchery is very relaxing (although I haven't yet felt the love of hand quilting!) and plan to spend the afternoon stitching while Mr F is busy playing cricket.  Block 7 of "Down In The Garden" (designed by Leanne Beasley) is completed, and I've only got 2 more blocks to stitch before the quilt top is ready for the borders. I spent a very rainy afternoon last Sunday curled up on the sofa with my daughters watching a film and made a start on the stitchery - actually if the film hadn't been so good, I probably would have finished this all in one day! The churn dash blocks had been made last summer when I first started this project...
...appliqued onto another mini-block is a pretty dresden plate with a Suffolk Puff centre, (made with a scrap of Lecien fabric from my stash), and finally a little bit more stitchery showing a beautiful bird house. There are 4 different bird houses on this quilt, and they all have pretty vines and flowers trailing around them...
...I can't believe I was able to finish stitching this block so quickly - it's amazing what you can accomplish in the early hours of the morning when you can't sleep! Anyway, here is the completed block. Now there are only 2 blocks left and then the borders to add to fish it off, then I need to decide on the quilting - whether to do it by hand or whether to take it to Janette, who does some wonderful custom quilting. I actually started this quilt last summer on 6th August 2013, and if I carry on stitching with a passion it looks like I just might have the quilt top pieced together by 6th August 2014. 
Block 7 of "Down In The Garden" has been prepped and is ready for the stitchery. It's so much easier tracing the stitchery designs before the complete block is pieced together. I've used a Schmetz Microtex needle size 60 for all the piecing, and a smaller than usual stitch length, together with a neutral coloured Mettler fine embroidery thread. I used a very fine Micron Pigma pen to trace the stitchery patterns, and then ironed a very soft fusible interfacing onto the back (my favorite interfacing for stitchery is Vilene H180)...  ...this is one of my favourite projects (and my quilting friends know that I've made several designs by Leanne Beasley) as I really enjoy the relaxing time spent on the hand embroidery. These mini-blocks piece together very quickly, and these churn dash blocks were made last year when I first started this project. My friends Linda and Helen persuaded me to make a start on it, as it had been sitting in a box for simply ages, and I can't think why I hadn't started it earlier! Well I'm off to make a nice cup of tea, then I might just make a start on this block!
As you can see, I really have been as busy as a busy bee!! Each morning I've spent an hour stitching with a cuppa, enjoying the peace and quiet before the hustle and bustle of getting ready for work. This was a BOM that I bought 4 years ago, and is designed by Leanne Beasley. It included lots of beautiful Lecien fabrics, and I've added one or two scraps of my own too. This is Block 6 (only 3 more blocks to go!) and I'm enjoying spending time with this "garden" almost as much as I enjoy spending time in my own garden...  ...this block shows off several techniques, including stitchery - back stitch, chain stitch and satin stitch using mostly DMC embroidery threads. A beautiful Cottage Garden Thread in "Larkspur" was included with this BOM and it really is beautiful. Machine-appliqued butterflies decorate this block too...
...there's a fussy cutting using the feature fabric "Grandmother's Flower Garden" by Rosalie Quinlan, and I love these cute mini-9 patch blocks. The final stitch was hand sewing around the edge of this appliqued heart (I used a soft fusible interfacing on the back of the heart, and turned it inside out as my needle-turn applique isn't very neat!) using a neutral coloured silk thread, and then I was finished. Over the weekend I'm hoping to get Block 7 prepped and ready for stitching.
I've been busy preparing Block 6 of "Down In The Garden" (designed by Leanne Beasley) and I've been SO glad that I bought an A3 sized light box a few weeks ago. It really is so much easier to use, and much better than having to tape my patterns and fabric onto the conservatory windows. I've used a pale brown coloured Pigma Micron pen to trace the designs onto the fabric...
......I used a pale grey Mettler fine embroidery thread for machine piecing the mini blocks and a Schmetz Microtex size 60 needle, and used a smaller stitch than usual as the block will be put under some tension when it's in the embroidery hoop. One all the mini blocks were pieced together, and all the loose threads trimmed away, I fused a thin piece of stabiliser (Vilene H180) to the back of the block, and now I'm ready to start stitching.
Here are the results of my early morning stitching. This is Block 5 of "Down In The Garden" (pattern is by the Australian designer Leanne Beasley). The other blocks in this quilt have a combination of piecing and applique and stitchery, but this is the centre block and is very stitchery intensive! I just need to trim this to size, and stitch it to Block 4, then I can make a start on Block 6. 
All that early morning stitching means the floral border for Block 5 of "Down In The Garden" (designed by Leanne Beasley) has finally been completed, and now I just need to stitch the verse. This may take a little longer as I seem to have used all the skein of thread in that colour, so need to wait until the weekend before I can buy another one! 
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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! 
 
 
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