Atearoa

   In 2002 my husband and I had the great joy of visiting New Zealand and Australia. We were met in Auckland by our son-in-law's parents who were Kiwis by birth and given the best tour of the North Island that anyone could imagine. Of course, I visited quilt shops whenever I had the opportunity and came home with quite a few fat quarters of  beautiful fabric with unique New Zealand designs, mainly from the Maori culture.
   In the years since then, I've often thought of how I could put all these different fabrics together in a quilt. Many different patterns came to mind, but I was never sure enough of any one pattern to start cutting up those lovely, colourful pieces. To begin with, they were all very different in colours and designs and I only had one fat quarter of each. So I wanted a pattern that would blend them all, but still show each of them to advantage.
   Finally, fourteen years later, I decided to "take the plunge" and what you see below is the result.
Although the pattern looks complicated, it is really very simple, being a "disappearing four-patch." After I had the top completed, I decided to add a border of "prairie points" to finish  it off. All the fabrics, with the exception of the black sashing/ border is from "down under." I called it "Atearoa", the Maori name for New Zealand.  I'm happy with the result and glad I've finally put those lovely fabrics into a quilt where they can be seen and appreciated. I hope you like it, too.

February Post

     Although I'm a little late with the post, this is the quilt I made in February. I had purchased the package of multi-colored fabrics some time ago and the Royal Squares pattern seemed to be the perfect pattern for them. I made the quilt using the "quilt-as-you-go" method. I also tried glue basting for the first time and it has the advantage of stabilizing the fabrics before they are sewn together, so they don't stretch. I used some of the extra blocks left over from the front for the back, which makes the quilt reversible.

Until next time Happy Quilting!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

     This is the year of our bi-annual sale for World Missions. The date has been set for November 5 and I'm already trying to make some smaller items, different from quilts, which, I hope will be popular items. This is one idea that I've come up with so far. It's called "Bear in a Bag" and here are some knitted bears happily settled into their bags, waiting for someone to carry them home and cuddle them.

New Year, New Quilt

      It's only the first of February and already I've got another quilt to share. Actually, I finished it in January but didn't have the picture ready for the last post. This quilt is called "Cherry Blossoms" and is based on a pattern by a Hiroko Nakayama, a Japanese quilter. All the materials for the front, along with the batting and book containing the pattern were given to me by a special friend. I put together the quilt top, without the appliquéd cherry blossoms and leaves, and my quilting friend, Linda LeDrew, quilted it beautifully. After I sewed on the binding came the really hard part.
     The cherry blossoms are double sided and are loosely, but securely (I hope) attached to the quilt top using French knots. It was quite a challenge, as I didn't want any of the stitches to show on the back. The buds and leaves are also hand appliquéd, which was a much easier job. The quilt is for a double size bed, so working with so much bulk added to the difficulty.
     It's been "in the works" for quite a few months and I have to admit, it's great to have it finished.    It will be for sale at our bi-annual Mission Possible Sale later in the year.

December/January. Mission Accomplished!

     With all the excitement of Christmas, having all our family and other guests with us on Christmas Day, and coming and going for weeks afterward, there wasn't time to do a blog post in December. Now it's mid-January, but I'm happy to say that I did reach my goal of a quilt a month for 2015!  Hooray! In, fact, I exceeded it, by making a second Bird of Wisdom wall-hanging, as well as finishing the disappearing nine-patch I was working on in November. This a a pattern I found on the Missouri Star Quilt Co. website called the Window Pane Disappearing Nine-Patch. I wanted to try it, to see if I enjoyed making the pattern. So I choose a mixture of softer coloured pieces from my scrap stash, with one brighter fabric for contrast, and got to work. I used white fabric for the window-pane sashing and made it a crib-size quilt. Here it is:

Window Pane Disappearing Nine-Patch

This was a fun and easy pattern to make and if I try it again (there are so many patterns waiting to be tried!) I'll use a darker fabric for the sashing, which should change the look substantially.

Until next month, 

Happy Quilting!

November Quilt

     Another month, another quilt.

     The pattern for this one is "Pioneer Braid," also sometimes called "Prairie Braid." I've wanted to try this pattern for quite a while and when I saw a picture with the diamonds in the middle of the braid, I decided that was what I wanted to do. Purple and teal is one of my favourite colour combinations and I've had the striped fabric for the sashing and borders for quite a while. It all came together with the white diamonds and black binding echoing the pattern in the border fabric.
It's about double the size in the photo, as I draped it over my ironing board to take the picture.
     December is always a busy month, so it will be quite a challenge to complete another quilt, but I still have a baby quilt top made, which I just have to finish off. So perhaps I'll make my target of a-quilt-a-month in 2015.

October Quilts

October has found me busy quilting. I've actually been working on three or four projects but have only finished one. The rest are in various stages of incompletion. A full size quilt has gone to be quilted before I finish hand appliqueing some cherry blossoms to the surface.  A single bed coverlet is basted ready to be quilted by me; and a third is a little baby quilt top which I decided to make from scrap fabrics, to try a pattern before I used it in a larger quilt. Hopefully the last two of these will be finished in November.
But I did complete another "bird" wall-hanging. This is my own design and I love its simplicity and  the effect of the red cardinals on the white background is striking. I called it "Let there be Peace." Here it is.

So, far I'm on track for my "quilt-a-month" plan. 

Check in November to see what's new.