We come to the end

It has been a heavenly holiday. Just what I needed, as the first term this year was rather long and stressful at times. I have been so excited about creating, and focused on several projects I had either put on the back burner, or had bought fabric for, but hadn't started. I had a charm pack of Moda Potluck squares that I planned to turn into a little wall quilt for Johnny's office (where our dear wee nephew and hopefully nieces stay when they visit). The fabrics are so bright and cheerful, with a 1930's feel. I arranged the squares in 2x2 blocks of matching colours then sewed the strips together. 

 There was some unpicking - yes, I'm now a real quilter. My unpicker has been thoroughly utilised over the past two weeks. I stuffed up the order of one row and ended up with two matching squares together. Curses!!!

I made the quilt sandwich while watching The Darling Buds of May.

Then I quilted it with squiggles, in threads to match the blocks.

 I have vowed to work on my photography. I really need to do better.

I was very pleased with how the quilting turned out, and would love to use these fabrics to make some blouses or dresses.

 Look - wee chickens!!!!

 Even cuter yellow chickens!

 I was given the green spot fabric that I used for the backing a while ago. Hanging on the wall it won't be seen, but I was so pleased with the quilt that I couldn't use something ugly. The binding is a dear wee spot too. Bigger spots are not such a good idea for binding because any wobbly sewing shows up in the line of spots. I know from experience. Wee dots are fine for slightly disorderly types like myself.

 Apart from some unfortunate machine needle snapping and catapulting, my machine did a lovely job, and I'm even pleased with the reverse side quilting stitches.

Onto another project I had in the pipeline. The pretty small hexagon English pieced quilt, which is expanding merrily. I adore these fabrics, which are a blend of Lecien Sugar Flower, Pam Kitty and other scraps from the stash. They have a summery feel about them. I think this project will take a few more weeks to reach the quilt construction stage. I'm not sure about quilting it. Any ideas?

 I have quite a few Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics in my stash, and a long time ago I started hand quilting three fat quarters to make cushions. I finally finished all of them over the holidays.

 They make up part of my warm winter nest on the couch. I have seen some divine crocheted cushions on other wonderful blogs that would look right at home in the nest. With wee flowers! So pretty.

The third cushion was perfect for quilting, with great big lotus leaves, and pointy flowers to outline. Yummy colours too.

 All three cushions are backed with dark navy denim. They are so comfy! I have one more on the go, and ideas for more. I'm sure you can never have too many cushions.

Mr Mouse is a huge fan of my quilts. He especially loves the red Kaffe quilt along the back of the couch.

 Look at those furry paws. So perfect!

So, at this point I have the small hexagon quilt well underway. I have cut the hexagons for a machine pieced larger hexagon quilt. I have one hand quilted cushion underway. The fabric for a quilt in 1930's style fabrics for the bed in Johnny's room is awaiting a design. There is also a blue Kaffe quilt top pieced, but I have plans to modify that before making it into a quilt. It will be fabulous, I'm sure. Finally, I have fabric to make an extremely pretty Tilda quilt. Then there are all of the ideas.... I really don't have time to go back to work.

I hope you have a lovely week, and will do my best to check in frequently with more posts.