"T'was the Night Before Christmas

 

This little beauty was made by Jane, is a design by Helen Stubbings of Hugs 'n Kisses called "T'was the Night Before Christmas"; and while it is not very big, there is a lot of detail in the stitcheries and it has lots of little stars.

 

 

It is quilted entirely freehand, with loops and swirls, and hearts in the stars.

 

 

With some ditching around the stitcheries to hold them down.  I don't tend to do much in stitchery or applique blocks because the feature is the applique or stitcher, and my machine quilting doesn't need to overtake the design.

 

 

 

Very cute.

 

Enjoy

Belinda

Random pictures

 

 

Two new listings on my Etsy shop

 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/eucalyptridge

 

 

Chocolate cake made using the BBQ yesterday - as you can see, not much is left...

 

 

Indiana and her much loved ball.

 

I have some more quilts to show this week, just waiting on them going back to their owners.

 

Enjoy

Belinda

 

 

Litte Patchwork Village

This lovely belongs to Jane, and is a design by Rosalie Quinlan called Little Patchwork Village.

I love all the little buildings in the stitcheries - especially this one, because who can resist a quilt shop? (Well, actually my DS isn't keen, having retired from quilting, but he still gets the pleasure anyway. LOL. )

 

Anyway, rather than treating each star block individually and then doing something separate in the sashings and borders, I had a little think and came up with this arrangement of quilting designs.

 

The feathered ovals were freehanded, using an oval template as the starting shape.  The star points were also freehanded with a swirly continuous design.

 

The large flowery hearty design (called Nov hearts block by Joanne Knott)  then filled in the gaps, right to the edge of the quilt. 

 

I like this arrangement, as the quilt itself is very simple, and too much quilting can overtake the little stitcheries, so this worked for me...and for Jane too.

 

I'm off to finish a chocolate cake from this week's lesson, and so far the phone has rung when I was measuring out the cocoa, so some of that went on the floor; and our gas cooktop has a leak so I am cooking it on the BBQ, which seems to have man-turning-on instructions and gave me grief.  After all of that, I hope it tastes OK. 

 

Enjoy

Belinda

Christmas Quilt

This lovely belongs to Niki, and is a design by Nancy Halvorsen of Art to Heart.  It is out of her book 12 Days of Christmas.  It is all hand appliqued, using black thread in the blanket stitch which really shows the details in the designs.

 

 

It is quilted with a mix of freehand and computerised designs.   The outside green border is a design by Kim Diamond called Christmas 2010 border, and the inside green border is by Anne Bright called Christmas Bells stopborder.

 

 

I stitched a freehand fill around the lettering in the top green outside border, and then pushed the computerised stitching right to the edge of the freehand fill.

 

 

In the individual blocks I put some SID and then filled the background to make the applique designs pop.

 

I haven't seen this design before, and it was a pleasure to quilt, and to see all the little details in the design.

 

Enjoy

Belinda

"Dad's Dream Quilt"

 

This quilt belongs to Karen and is a design by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched fame.  It is out of her "A Boy's Story" book and is called "Dad's Dream Quilt".

 

It is quilted both freehand and with some computerised designs.  The feather wreaths are by Keryn Emmerson, as are the simple designs in the pieced blocks.

 

In the centre, and over the star is a simple grid, with freehanded stars and loops around the appliqued stars.

 

I love the back on this quilt, made especially so with a cream backing so you can see a lovely geometric design surrounding the centre freehand work.

 

Enjoy

 

 

Belinda

My Favourite Things

 

This lovely went home this week too - it belongs to Kate, and is a design by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched, called My Favourite Things.

 

 

 

It is quilted entirely freehand with loops, flowers, hearts and leaves in the pieced parts.  The applique is ditched around the designs and the blocks themselves.

 

I love these little patty cakes - yummy!

 

Enjoy,

 

Belinda

Dresden plate in purple

 

I have had this lovely in my studio waiting for inspiration for a while, so I thought I needed to get it done.  Marg wasn't in a hurry, a "just whenever" quilting job.

 

 

 

It is quilted with a mix of freehand and statler quilting designs.  Actually the only freehand was the SID around the plates and the blocks themselves, and then I had a little play with the computer program to see what I could come up with.

 

 

The design in the plates is by Joanne Knott called Dragon fly rose single  The background line design is by Kim Diamond (trim bkg sq 001) using the trim function, and an echo of the block outline.  The sashing design is by Tammy Finkler, called 1266 Feather2 sash

 

 

The outside border was quilted using a design by Keryn Emmerson called Peyton Heart border.  This was a huge plain cream border, and the design fitted the space perfectly.  It is quilted with variegated purple Aurilux thread.

 

Enjoy

Belinda

Fly Away with Me quilt

 

I have really enjoyed quilting this quilt, and especially as I am making it myself.  I had a lot of fun peering closely at the different designs to see what was coming up for my stitching pleasure!

 

It is a design by Marg Sampson-George, called Fly Away with Me.

 

It is quilted entirely freehand with rulers and templates.  The outside borders have a simple curve in them so as not to detract from the beauty of those hexies.  Scrummy.

 

The inside of the quilt has SID around the applique and some loose fill with the odd leafy shape thrown in for good measure.

 

And what about this fabric as the backing?  It also has a join right down the middle which I was hard pressed to find. Perfect choice.

 

Enjoy

Belinda