The stitches that bind

How this post has not happened til now I don't really know - as I've spent many a winter evening of late snuggled under this lovely quilt.

Those who know me or have read my blog for a while would know (as I have said on many occasions), that I don't quilt.

I am, however, lucky enough to have a lovely friend who does.

She noticed once the size of the 'scraps' I was donating to kinder and I realised that what is a scrap to a garment maker is more than enough for a quilter to work with.

So I started keeping scraps and giving them to her to look at to see if there was any treasure amongst my trash.

At Christmas, she presented me with this amazing quilt, made with many of my scraps and with her own special pieces added in.

She has that gift of colour combination. 

She just gets it right when it comes to colour - things that I would never think to try she just does; it's inherent, I don't believe it can be learned, at least not in the intrinsic way she can do this.

It's quilted with a combination of hand and machine stitching and as a fellow 'hand-maker ' I know it has been made with time, care, consideration and love as a reflection on our friendship.

Every time I look at it, it reminds me of so many things; the many different garments that each scrap represents, the enjoyment I get from seeing hand-skills so well executed and of course the wonderful friendship I enjoy with my very dear friend, who was introduced to me through a mutual love of sewing.

A belated but ever so sincere, thank you for caring enough to make this for me.

Grandma love!

If you are a regular reader you'd know I am not a quilter, I refer to it as "The Dark Side", not because I don't like quilts, I do, particularly those with a modern bent to them.

It's just that becoming a quilter means adding a whole lot of new fabric to my stash - a quilting stash, and I don't think that would be a good idea, for the capacity of the cupboards in my sewing room or my marriage!

Three little quilts featuring teddies are now used daily for assorted dolls and 'babies'.

Miss A saw a simple doll quilt at a market one day and wanted me to buy it for her.

It was squares joined together and bound, I am pretty confident I could have made it so I found it hard to consider parting with $25 (x 3 of course!) for it.

What I actually said to her was "I am sure if you asked Grandma she would make one for you".

Perfect passing of the buck, don't you think?

I knew Mum would happily make something for them - but I never expected her to go to so much effort!

Wishing on a star (a little fuzzy sorry!)

Mum made these up over a series of weeks, hand-stitching all the applique down as always and she let them have a little say in the patterns for each.

Some of the fabric scraps are from things I have made the girls 

Mum has, of course, tackled things far bigger than these, having made each of the girls a single bed-sized quilt as well as a baby cot quilt in the past.

And this one, of course, for the ducky lover!

I love that my girls are so delighted with these quilts - they are always either on their bed or tucked up around one of their animals on their beds.

Their appreciation of handmade is wonderful and I hope as they learn the techniques involved in the 'making' of things, this continues into the future.

Crossing to "the dark side"

This is a really pic heavy post - you have been warned!!

Here's something you probably never expected to see on my blog - yep - my small (almost invisible) helpers are holding up a - gasp - QUILT!!

But don't be too shocked yet - it wasn't all my handiwork...

I think I need to work on my quilt photographing skills...

What happened was this -  one gorgeous adopted to Melbourne girl - Cath - told us she was returning to Sydney.

We wanted to send her off with a fitting reminder of her time in Melbourne and thank her for her friendship and becoming an integral part of our craft group - along with her Mum, Louise whenever she was visiting.

oops - that stray thread looks so obvious now.    Love these owls from Wendy's stash

So a plot was hatched.
You can read the back story and see the work in progress shots here on Wendy's blog.

Suffice to say we wanted a group project we were all involved in, together, and a quilt seemed like the best solution.

My second ever quilt block - I made a tiny, tiny one for Helen's birthday quilt that arrived too late to be included!!

The block we did is called Wonky Star - the Master suggested it and her apprentice played along while the two quilting 'virgins' shuddered in fear!!!

Cath's favourite colours - green and pink with a hint of grey for balance.

You may recognise the floral pattern below as what I used for Miss A's art smock - Cath commented she loved it so we used what was left as part of the backing.

The strip through the middle is shown below...

Part of this fabric, depicting some of the places (good coffee shops!) and experiences (horse and carriage ride) Cath has enjoyed in Melbourne was used on her card too.

This was part of one of Spotlight's recent ranges

It was really thanks to Wendy that I was heard to utter "it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be!" - I think Wendy celebrated a quiet victory when she heard this!!

Isn't it pretty!

The best part though was Cath's reaction, excuse the lousy low-light restaurant pics...

She couldn't quite believe her eyes...

I think she likes it!

Try explaining 'happy tears' to a six year old!!

Here are the culprits - Virgin 1, the Master, Virgin 2 and the Apprentice!!

We will miss you Cath - and I do hope that every time you snuggle under this quilt you think of us and that both things make you feel warm.

She thought we were all very sneaky!!

I took a label-making tip from Helen - and used some ink-jet printable fabric to print a label that I created in the Mac program Pages.

Just so she doesn't forget us!

Sheridan once used what I jokingly called the "Q-word" when I asked what to do with some left over Minky I had.

So she and Donna (among others I am sure!) were both pretty surprised at my involvement in this project.

So there you have it - I crossed over to 'The dark side' for the sake of friendship - and (don't tell Wendy) but I actually quite enjoyed it!