What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

There's nothing like an exhibition deadline to make me hurry up and finish a quilt.  

This one all started when I saw an offcut of the beautiful Stone Flower centre in the remnant bin at my local quilt shop.  I knew I had to take it home and and turn it into something pretty. 

There's always a good selection of medallion quilts in Kaffe Fassett's books so I perused my little library and came across the Blue Square Dance quilt in Quilts in the Cotswolds.  

I didn't fancy making the final border on the Blue Square ...

Quilting

Quilting

So I made a few more. {And this is how ...

Hello!!  I'm back and I've got a finished top to show you.  

I'm calling it Stone Flower because the fabric in the centre is the Stone Flower wide back by Kaffe Fassett Collective. Here's how it evolved over a short period of time back in April 2023.

Another wide back by Kaffe Fassett Collective

mixed in with Cactus Flower in blue

I don’t see a great number of medallion quilts anywhere, but they are a great way to make a square quilt for double and king size beds. I have to admit the I don’t design a lot either, and this is the last two designs in my one and only current project file which feature medallion quilt designs.

My favourite of these two designs is the second one.

Make one block, add borders, and you have a medallion quilt.

I love the second one.

The title of this quilt describes the inspiration and process of its design, and also a great way to approach Life.

Serendipitous - occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

I've discovered that I like working on more than one quilt repair job at a time.  It keeps things more fun!  So I had fabrics for two quilts on my table and decided that I really loved the combination - a deep golden yellow and a bright magenta.

One quilt was a string quilt, a memory quilt with fabrics from a mother's blouses.  The other was ...

Interesting.

Start with a square block, add triangles to each side, then add triangles to each side again, add a border. A simple concept which can lead to some rather complex designs.

I like the second one.

Many years ago I started drawing fan blocks, and decided to make a fan quilt, and couldn’t decide if I should use pretty florals or Japanese style fabrics. The solution was to draw a lady holding a fan, though she finished up with an umbrella instead.

However, I went shopping and found a lovely collection of Japanese fabrics, so had to change the overall look of the quilt, especially the centre block

All of the design work was done on paper, with pencil so I could rub out most of it from time to time, but eventually the quilt ...

I haven’t made many medallion quilts, but have loved every bit of making them, especially the bit where I could change the design a little in each round … and sometimes changing it completely. The most special one was a Round Robyn … several of us made a central block, then it was passed around for others to add borders. Another started with a house block, and then followed instruction to add a path, a garden, and a fence.

I liked the idea of reinventing a block to use it in each applique round, with pieced borders separating them. I love ...

Oh, so pretty!

Oh, sew pretty!

My favourite of the two is … mmmmm … the second, but it is oh, so close!

Love owls … and here is a lovely quilted one.

So happy to share (another) finished Rise Above quilt! I made my first version of this pattern last winter as

Very dainty florals … and I like them.

I love flipping and turning block designs to see what happens, and most of the time I love the results, including the two designs above.

Looks old fashioned, and I like it.

Different colours, still old fashioned, but I like this one better even if it looks as if it is missing the binding.

They make lovely lap quilts, sofa throws, bed coverlets, or tablecloths.

It looks pretty straightforward, with large piecing.  I'm definitely giving this a go...

 One of the things I love this week was getting a photo of a wren. I've often caught sight of them down by the pond because I think they like the heavy shrubbery on three sides. There is a meadow there as well and loads of grasshoppers which I know wrens are fond of. However, it was right in front of my kitchen window that I managed to grab two quick shots of this little guy while he was checking out the decaying plants.

 In the third shot I took he was a complete blur.

I love this design … it only needs some very simple quilting to make it just the way I would like it to be.

I like this one too, though I am in the process of redrawing some of the blocks for accuracy, and would probably freshen up the gree, but not by much!