Enjoyed a wonderful morning with a dear friend today.

Worked a little in the garden, some sewing and lots of dishes and washing.  We are going to have so many tomatoes!!!  I will miss snowpeas... wow they have been yummy.  I think any legume plant is good for the soil so I will just let the plant die and fall into the soil.  I cant remember what else Ive put in but Im sure there are chilli and onion and pumpkin and flowers in there somewhere !

All just ordinary stuff but two quilts will be finished any time now and it feels so great!!!  And getting the house organised ready to put in lots of Christmas decorations and of course fans!!!   'cause the heat is coming isnt it?

Finally the school exams are over, Charlie is in VCE yay.

Really tired and really looking forward to the weekend.

MEMORY QUILT - boy's quilt... animals animals everywhere

I received in the post some little man's t-shirts and grow suits and a flannelette wrap.  Luckily in my stash is plenty of animal fabrics... for front and matching for the back.... so I decided on a matching set.... too easy.

Unfortunately the animal repeats in my fabric were very close together... but I think Ive fussy cut them out nearly ok... didnt chop too much off.  And I put the larger animals in squares mixed in with squares from the baby clothes.  Lovely!  I was careful to collect the wonderful pictures from the t-shirts and even saved a couple of signature pics... there is a wonderful ant !

I didnt want to lose too much of the baby clothes so its piano keys around the centre piece.... broken up with solid colours that match those in the fabrics.

Ive been a bit disappointed in how people quilt quilts.... anyhow after much searching Ive decided to put together a line of animals and hand quilt them ..... this will quilt the fabric nicely and it wont be a boring "in the ditch" design but a meaningful quilting pattern.

Ive just made plastic stencils of the animals... I draw around them with a wash out marker... and away I go.  Animals hiden inside the animal mix of the quilt.

quilting and binding!  post out tomorrow?    fingers busy (instead of crossed LOL)

MEMORY QUILT - little girl's pretty dresses

When I received these dresses in the mail I instantly thought of pretty shops with beautiful awnings and flowers and colourful girls with parasols

But .....

So often - when I put pen to paper, to draw up the pattern, I get dissatisfied with the first thought.

And so this collection of pretty colours is working its way into an art quilt.  To one side is the lower part of a nice looking tree.... that accommodates a stylish resident in its base.  The pockets from one of the dresses are toadstool caps and a fairy sits on one.....  towards the centre of the picture a bent Dandelion stalk holds a fairy swing.

I bought from USA some gorgeous colourful fabric squares that are now the colour wash background of this piece.

It has taken ages.... and there is still much embroidery to complete.  But I think the customer will love it.

What happened to the shops?  Well I didnt think that they worked in with a child and growing up all that well.  I much prefer how the fairy picture works for girls of all ages.... and there is a kind of Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree connection.... as it is one of my favourite books and it has always fitted in beautifully with my fascination with trees.

So.. Ive given myself 3 days to finish it.  We will see!!!
M.

I wish I could have finished this by now!  I wish I could have met the President.

Nov 5

It isnt starched or blocked... but I really loved the work straight off the hook and had to share....

 I like picot instead of just plain chain.  And I like this Round 7 :

Round 7: 1 sc in ch 2 space directly below (working over the sl st you just made),

*ch 6, into next ch 10 space work 6 sc, 4 picot, 6 sc, ch 6, into next ch 2 sp work (1 sc, ch 3, 2 dc), (5 picot) 3 times, sl stitch into base of first picot, back into same ch 2 sp work (3 dc, sl stitch):

repeat from * around, sl stitch into 1st sc, bind off.

Link here to a very kind lady sharing a wonderful snowflake crocheted for Christmas