Thursday, July 25, 2013

Pyramid hexies?

I know it sounds weird, but its true!  I fiddled with my 'pyramids on parade' pattern, that's all. In fact, that's not entirely true as it's not the pattern that was altered, just the fabric layout. 

With all the paper piecing I have been doing lately, I realised that my pyramid pattern could form hexies as well, just by adding a background colour which I did. 


I love the end result, well nearly end, if I would get off my proverbial and baste it!  Not quite sure how I'm going to quilt it yet.  An 'allover' is the easy option, but I'm thinking I want to make the 'hexies' stand out.

The fabric is a beautiful range called 'Crazy Love' by Jennifer Paganelli.  I fell in love with it (pardon the pun, but I did) as soon I saw it.  It is so incredibly vibrant and happy.  Not sure if I can let this one sit in the shop for too long, might need to snuggle under it for the rest of winter. And in Queensland, we don't have too much winter so I can't waste time. 

Squeezes, Michelle

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Handprint in time.....

So!.... Sally did a BIG clean out of her room which resulted in 3 quilts being pulled out from under the bed (I know I know, wrong... on so many levels!). 

One of these quilts was one I made Sally when she was a toddler, Bowtie Bears by Debbie Mumm.  So 'in' at the time.  I loved it, and the colours are very typical of what I was making at the time (around 1998 or 99 I think). 



I used to do a lot of hand quilting back then.  I loved it, and I only knew how to machine quilt in the ditch which isn't too good for borders.  So on this quilt I quilted flowers on stems all around the border (which I had forgotten about because they are so hard to see on this print, but more visible on the back... all the little lessons you learn on the way).  Picture shows front and back

    

My lovely little find?  Well, after washing the quilt I was laying it on the clothes airer, wrong side up, and saw my flowers around the edge.  What was that in the corner??  I little hand print.  Slowly the memory came back, I had hand quilted the outline of her little hand in the corner of the quilt.



I had completely forgotten about it.  It warmed my heart, I couldn't believe it, I just kept looking at this little hand print, thinking of my little smiley Sally Wags.  It also always makes me feel sad, thinking of how quickly time has gone by (but lets not go there, it really does make me sad!)

I wish I had kept this up, what a great way to add to the 'specialness' of a quilt.

Have a great week,
Michelle xx