I Have A Finish To Show...

 Once upon a time there were three little blocks......

Who got together on a design wall and had a party.

Soon they had organised themselves into this....

Not bad, but there was still more to be done.

Bit of this.....

Bit of that...

Bit of the other.....

Ta da da da da da daaaahhhhhhh.

(see the little dog he is seriously impressed)

And again for those who were busy talking and missed the first stage bow....encore encore the crowd yells..

All hand quilted and machine pieced.

I am proud of this and every stitch was worth the end result. I first saw this in a magazine in 1998, and finally it lives in my home.

I hope my next completion is not so long in fruition. 

I know it wont be because back then I had a desire but no real clue, now I have learnt a bit more and have the confidence to proceed. 

I even designed the quilting myself! I pondered on what to put in the large yellow blocks, a floral pattern didnt seem to suit, so a discovered the spiderweb pattern. I found a template at a craft show but it didnt fit the size of the space. I actually improvised and used the position of the spokes from the template as a guide and drew each block freehand. 

It is quilted in perle cotton in three colours. Pink, white and yellow.

And a voile backing......because I fell in love with that fabric.

It is soft and pretty and almost the first one JUST for ME.

Sigh.......so happy......big smug smile on dial.

OOOOpppps, little slip in blogger etiquette here,

linking up with Finish up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Its an new year, its a new day........

It is what it is.....

I have had a magnificent start to my new year....no dramas...so far.
I cannot tell you how I love peace and quiet, how I crave calm and gentle rythmns and slow breathing. That is why I love to sit and stitch and see a slow unfurling of a project as it ever so slowly comes to fruition.

Mind you there are days I want a little more and that is when I shop!! 

I have had my first little completion for 2014.

Here it is as it sat patiently on my design wall. A project that I had worked on slowly throughout last year.
It is a pattern from the fab website of Anna Maria Horner, a generous crafter and designer (whom I hope receives as much if not more than she so generously gives.) I am constantly inspired by those who live with such a generous mindset. It is something I am trying to remind myself to do more often.

I was given the fabric by a dear friend, and it has some emotion attached to it, making this a very heartfelt quilt. 
My friend lost her sister to cancer recently, the fabric was collected from sewing projects the sisters had done over their childhood years. I was handed a bag, and my friend said, "Please have these, I know you will use them and I cant stand looking at them anymore"

To me they were just so lively and pretty, I knew as soon as I saw them that I would use them in that pattern by Anna Maria Horner.

So it was a lot of cutting and sewing of strips.

A lot of cutting and resewing but as I did a little every now and then, I got closer and closer to the final end result.

This pattern is just made for scraps and bright eclectic mixes of colour. Thank you Anna Maria, you have spread your good will to someone you may never meet but my friends sister lives on thanks to your creativity.

My friend was also generous to me allowing me to make such a wonderful quilt. 

Now I knew that my friend was stuck in some sadness when she gifted the fabric to me, so I used all and any of the scraps left from the quilt to make her a gift.

I am happy to say she was well pleased, now she can see the fabric and have fond and happy memories rather than the responsibility of "doing" something with it.

I also had more to make this bag, which I think will be handed on to my friend as she loves a tote bag also, and I have too many. This sweet pattern is from Annie Downs of Hatched and Patched.

I have so much fun making things such as this, and as much fun giving them to people I know who will use them.

For me the joy is often in the creative process, the making NOT always the having....but sometimes I do like to keep a special quilt and this one will be that. A generous gift and a great friend who entrusted me with her precious memory.

Now I know a lot of people use this time of year to make promises, set goals yada yada, yada. 

 I think self improvement is admirable, I think goals are totally necessary, so I am learning to be kind and love who I am in all my wonky, crazy glory. I am who I am, complex, flawed , not perfect but I get up each day wondering not what I can do to improve me, but how I can make something that will improve someone else's world a little. Works for me.