When you have something lying in your cupboard for over 27 years and you find them after a good clean out and wonder what you are going to do with these.

Yes a thing of the past called handkerchief. Something we don’t use very often now but there was no way I was going to get rid of them.

I looked at the number of sizes and thought I could make something with these and what else could I make but a Quilt!!!

So after joining each of them with an embroidery stitch so they did not need to be positioned exactly all butted up against each other meticulously I came up with the following haphazard pattern, but it worked really well.

Next I found an old quilt cover which was well worn and well washed and backed my vintage quilt

I thought this was a good time to do some more free motion quilting as the quilt was not too big and was easy to move around.

A few days later with all the quilting done to the best of my ability and found my shapes and swells were getting a little better I found the edges and my quilt is ready…

Can’t wait for the next one to start

Doing small things with great love makes your soul shine !!!

This I believe with all my heart. I had a few Fat Quarters in orange and olive and knew I was going to make a quilt with it. Being a newby at this I haven’t learned the skill of setting out patterns and layouts before starting. I opened them out and ironed them and laid them flat on the table and admired the colours in front of me. I knew I had a whole lot of cream embossed material from a huge swatch of curtaining given to me years ago. I know that oranges olives and cream will go together beautifully . So to my box I go and the long strips are brought out.

Now knowing the type of person I am, I’m impatient to see how these colours are going to match up.

I don’t want to cut the quarters to make a design. I want it whole so as to give maximum effect. A few hours of sewing and the pattern comes together . A very simple but effective design. The colours dance in front of my eyes and there’s a constant smile on my face. Oranges & creams bring out the joy in my heart.

Once I had all the pieces together I decided I wanted to try my hand at free motion quilting. I look at all the videos and I absolutely love the whole idea of letting the machine do the thinking for you and your hands just guide….. I know this isn’t really the case but the feeling of freedom is intoxicating.

So onwards I trudge with yet another new concept and as easy as it looks to do it really isn’t…a few thousand yards of thread later the quilting was done.

Look closely and you will see what a lot of higgledy piggledy curves and circles make up my “free Motion quilting” But what joy this has brought me. I have a lot to learn and the quilt is by no means even a semi professional one … but its all mine and I know I will get immence joy from it.

As anyone can see I’m totally obsessed… but I cannot be classified as a “conventional” quilter.

I take ideas and make them my own… the basics are the same … but I just gotta add ‘me’ to it… so taking that into account I’ve added embroidery to the mix …. and thus my ‘Bluey’ was born… each square has been made with a choice of Jelly Roll pieces and then joined together …

Look very closely and a professional eye will pick out every mistake I’ve made … but I’ve loved the process of doing something new ! Hopefully in a few years I’ll iron out the mistakes but in the meantime I’m very happy with Quilt #7 …