Circles of Life....

I never intended to make a traditional double wedding ring quilt, its totally the fault of my very good friend Linzi Upton, who casually asked "whats the best method for making a Double Wedding Ring quilt. I hadn't given it any thought, the question got me wondering, so I hunted out enough fabric to make a couple of blocks.

Video included below....

Only 71 melons each containing 5 fabric pieces

Thirty block centres

I had enough of the paisley fabric to make 8 centres, so I made up eight blocks and put them away in a bag as we do, as an unfinished project or UFO.

A few months later I came across the bag, pulled out the blocks realised I didn't have anymore of the paisley fabric so then now what was I going to do, I had enjoyed making the blocks and decided they would look good in a quilt so I then hunted out some matching, peachy pink coloured linen fabric, it was going to work well.

I made up 30 blocks, but that wasn't quite big enough for a bed quilt so I decided to add borders. I had a few flowers and leaves left form a previous project so made up a few more and some stems to enhance the border a little....

A bit of simple applique

Video Freehand Feathers

I ditch stitched the applique and rings using invisible thread.

I then quilted freehand feathers, beadboard, and pebbles using matching pink and white trylobal threads, I think it turned out just lovely.....

Update, this quilt was gifted to Ann and Allan on there Ruby Wedding Anniversary....

Face Off, the design process....

I thought I'd show you some of the design process on this small quilt. I was inspired by the lovely face plates on some of the old Singer sewing machines. Those lovely glossy black machines were decorated with gold scroll work and metal covers that had quite beautiful stamped design work. I have three vintage machines with different face plates, the metals used on the earlier machines had a more golden or brassy content than the 'newer' chrome enhanced models.

I photographed the face plates and then enlarged the photos in photoshop and printed them out to find a suitable size. That suitable size was actually chosen to match the fabrics I had available in my stash, I had plenty of the black fabric but only smaller pieces of the silver and gold fabrics but all worked out well....

I traced off the designs using a pencil and lightbox/large piece of tempered glass, once I was happy that my designs would all look more or less the same size, I blackened the trace lines with a permanent marker.

I had the designs on paper, it was time to transfer the designs onto fabric with a blue washout marking pencil, yes it's a slow process, but once the design is on the fabric, it's best to get onto the quilting quickly in case the blue marker fades.

I chose silk dupion fabric in colours to mimic the metals and also to give a metal like shimmer

Then I added a beaded piping using black silk to frame and then a self coloured binding which would add an additional frame when the three panels were placed onto the black quilted backdrop.

The three panels are permanently stitched into the backdrop at the top but are left floating on the sides and bottom of each panel. The finished size is 31wx23h (80wx57hcms)

Before we move on....

Well, what do you know, I intended to publish some blog posts while sitting waiting in airports during my recent holiday but here the photos were still sitting waiting in my draft folder...

This lovely log cabin quilt belongs to Jane, it's gorgeous, the blocks are set simply in a straight set design. Jane chose a red thread to match the chimneys and a design named 'Chocolate Leaves', the design shows up wonderfully on the plain navy backing fabric.

Joyce's Jewel Box design quilt has been quilted using a design named Gypsy and cream thread, it turned out really well, I love how the pearls in the design swirl and move across the quilt.

Another quilt from Ishbel, in lovely pea greens and grey colours using a star block, Ishbel has always given me free rein on the quilting design choice, I chose a pea green thread and a new design named 'Woodsprite', I love how this one turned out and more importantly so did Ishbel!

This is a sample from Kevin at Fabric Focus Edinburgh, its a traditional snails trail block design but when I saw it the colours reminded me of the night sky so I chose a design named 'Westwind', it reminded me of the night sky with stars ans swirls, I'm sure this quilt will be on display in Kevin's shop

This lovely star quilt from Ann, pieced by her niece has a quilting design I use quite often named 'Surf', it a really useful design for a variety of different quilts both modern and traditional, I used a red polyester thread.

I was saddened earlier in the month to hear that one of my customers had to give up the fight, the big 'C' unfortunately won the battle, Claire's quilts were always perfectly pieced, I'm sure that the making and giving of those quilts brought her some solace and happiness in the final few weeks, Rest in piece Claire....