Quilting Owl

I have had lots of distractions over the last few months and have been very remiss keeping up with this blog.  In between these distractions I have been working on lots of different projects mainly UFOs but not too many finishes as yet. There have been some additions to my pincushion collection, some gifts from dear friends and some I have made myself or purchased at craft fairs. I have finally finished quilting a quilt top hand stitched as a gift for me by Jenny and this quilt now hangs in the studio. I have turned a panel into a quilt for the latest addition to the family, a great grandniece called Ivy. Then it was time to start on some of the UFO projects housed in plastic boxes and I finished this quilt top which is now layered and currently being machine quilted. I have assembled these hand pieced diamond blocks into larger sections which are now ready for an appliqued centre medallion.  At least I have made some progress on this long time UF...

Quilts from the Sunday Stitchers made by Jan and Jenny feature this week and first up is Jan with "Vintage Roses" that she began in one of my classes which she has now finished machine quilting.. Jan with "Vintage Roses" by Frances Leate Another very happy panel quilt made by Jan which she has again finished with her own very effective machine quilting. This quilt was made by Jenny as a gift to Joan who recently lost her little black dog, a long time friend.  Jenny has also machine quilted this with a bone motif on the background. To finish off I thought I would show you my one handed attempt at some hand quilting.  The quilt top was made for me by Jenny some time back and while I had done all of the machine quilting on the background and border I had put the quilt aside when I ran into some tension difficulties on the owl appliques.  For the last few days I have been racking my brain about what I could do while watching TV and came up with the idea...

I have been thoroughly enjoying watching the olympics this week and this gave me the opportunity to work on projects old and new.  My very long time Double Wedding Ring project was brought out for an airing and I enjoyed doing some hand piecing to progress this quilt.  I am still not completely sure how large this project will end up but I am determined to finish it some time. As I have also been recovering from a particularly nasty bout of flu/cold I needed some comfort stitching and the machine pieced Farmers Wife blocks filled the bill beautifully.  I am still using an eclectic scrappy mix of fabrics and so far have not repeated a fabric in more than one block.  The block count is now 59 and I have passed the halfway mark. I like to vary my stitching so I have also been doing some nice and easy fusible applique with blanket stitch by hand.  These have been the perfect blocks to stitch while watching the games when I have enjoyed sports I don'...

Its been a fun week working in the studio and I have lots of projects to keep me amused.  I have now finished the 49 8" Pie blocks and am enjoying moving them around to find a pleasing layout.  They are up on the small design wall (an old office divider covered with pellon) and it is not in the best place for photographing but you get the idea. In the meantime I am making some tarts to go on the intersections with five down and 31 to go. Most of my time has been spent working on a large project commission which features fuchsia and white along with lots of other vibrant colours. While watching television of a night I have been doing some hand piecing on another of my many projects.  I find hand pieceing to be very relaxing and therapeutic and I do this now when once I would have knitted. Till next time Frances

In between recovering from a bout of flu and teaching the odd class I have just figured out that I have actually done some work on 7 different projects over the last 10 days or so.  I have been working on a log cabin block project, designed and started cutting for a new wall quilt and have been doing lots of hand stitching however the only finish I have had is this delightful little Sweet Treat Bag from the Moda boxed kit.  This little bag is a shop sample and has been on my "To Do" list for far too long and if I had realised how quick and easy it was then it would have been made a lot sooner. I have been working on the Pies & Tarts quilt and have been busy preparing and stitching a few of these. In a mad moment I decided to do some work on a very long time UFO and resurrected my Double Wedding Ring project and made a little progress on it. In between these I had made a little progress on two other large projects that I am enjoying hand piecing, one of which is ...

I finished stitching the binding on this wall quilt today which was machine pieced and quilted and uses the Winding Ways block.  The original intention was to make a single bed sized quilt but I realised that was not going to happen so instead decided to try something a bit special with the border.  Adding a piping with a curved border was a lot fiddlier than I would have liked but it is finished now and all that is left to do is for me to decide on a name and cross this project off the UFO list. To select the winner for the fabric giveaway, I wrote down and numbered all the names of people who left comments and sent me emails and then fired up the Random Number Generator which selected the lucky number 4 which belongs to Linda who has a lovely blog called billabongs2bling .  Thank you to everyone who entered this draw and for your support throughout my first year and a bit of blogging. Till next time Frances

 Here is my Block 5 "Kansas Troubles" for the Civil War Quilt which I had a lot of fun making. "Kansas Troubles" - Block 5 CWQ During the last week I have been working on blocks for various projects including some "Winding Ways" blocks which I found deeply buried in a box under my worktable.  These blocks were destined to forever be a UFO but on a whim I decided to change my quilt design and turn a double bed size quilt into a wall quilt and hey presto the quilt top is complete and the machine quilting well on the way to being finished. For the last few days I have been feeling a bit rough (just a flu bug) so I have spent time curled up in a comfortable chair hand piecing while watching a DVD - yesterday it was "To Kill of Mockingbird".  These pink and blue pieces will be blocks for the final border on a quilt I have been making for about 18 months now which is a mixture of machine and hand piecing.  Most of the hand piecing has been done o...

There were lots of emerging projects on show at Cairns Craft Centre last weekend. Pris and Kay with their own interpretation of my sampler quilt "Quilting a Pieceful Journey" - Kathy is progressing well with her Baltimore quilt using invisible machine applique - Thora's Baltimore block look wonderful and I love the fabric she has used for the vase - Jenny had a new project using Australiana fabrics and a completed kid's alphabet quilt - another one to cross off her UFO list - Heather is enjoying the fun of hexagons - Till next time Frances

There is a website that lists bizarre, wacky and unique holidays  and I noticed that one of the holidays listed is "National Yo-Yo Day".  In my early days of patchwork and quilting I was introduced to making yo-yo's and still have a UFO box full of them.  I am not sure now what I originally intended to do with them when I started making them about 16 years ago but maybe one day a window will present itself and they will be made into some sort of quilt.  Meanwhile they will continue to live in their neatly labelled box on a shelf in the Studio. Till next time Frances