St Mark's Quilters - July Jollies

Outside was very bleak and grey.

But inside was bright with quilts, large and small, as our colourful ladies met for our July workshop on Saturday. 

So many of our friends who had to miss the June get together were back in the fold again, notably Di B who was savagely attacked by a dog and hospitalized with deep cuts to her right hand and arm just before our last stitching day.

Miraculously, just a month later, there were smiles all round as Di was back at St Mark's Quilters, managing to do some machine sewing and keeping not just her quilts, but all of us in stitches! 

She has even started work on another Blanket of Love using some of her beloved Linen Cupboard fabrics by Emma Jean Jansen. Isn't this gorgeous?

 

With Di C back from her travels, Michelle recovered from her surgery, and Cath finding time to visit from afar there was much to be thankful for.

Look at our latest finishes, a double dose this month because the wheels fell off for me in June, life was crazy busy, and I missed posting. The names of the quilters are beneath their quilts.

Perdita

Perdita

Gail

Gillian

Di B

Barb

Gillian

Barb

Margaret

Cath

Cath

Perdita

Barb

After finishing her cute little Winnie the Pooh quilt Margaret couldn't wait to start another, this one Dalmatian puppy themed! 

 

And Di C showed that a little imagination and colour sense can transform some country-themed scrappy strips in quite muted tones into a bright and fun kindy quilt.

Goodness, it's half way through July already and I still haven't caught up with sharing all that happened in June!

But first I think I need a little lie down..... 

Ellie's Quilt

My friends, Vanessa and Darren, recently welcomed a sweet little baby daughter, Ellie, into the world, and I'm so excited, and happy that I can finally reveal the quilt I made for her. 

Ellie's early arrival meant the baby shower had to be cancelled at the last minute, and this, along with her needing to stay a little longer in hospital, has meant that I've had to keep this finished quilt under wraps until now - and you can imagine how difficult that was for me!

I designed and made her a cot-sized quilt using some of my prettiest, girly fabrics featuring raw edge appliqué bunting.

And since Barney the dachshund is already part of Ellie's family I included him too. Quilting that green 'grass' on my domestic sewing machine was great fun as I love the texture that machine quilting creates.

The swirls of quilting on the rest of the quilt are meant to suggest breezy eddies among the bunting flags.

Come over here where it's shadier.

Ah, that's better. Sunshine is wonderful for showing up quilting lines, but a tad too bright to look at for long.

For my photo shoot in the local park I took Ellie's quilt to a shady glade of trees.

A great advantage of using the 'no tails' binding method is that I can use multiple fabrics in my binding because it's easy to stop and start with precision wherever I want, changing the binding fabric to match the quilt top fabric, or the changing colours in the bunting. Neat, eh?

Finally, I created a label in Word and printed it onto a Printed Treasures fabric sheet. Lately I've been attaching a fabric frame to my labels too, before slip stitching them onto the quilt back.

Sometimes I have a little trouble pushing my needle through the Printed Treasures sheets, so machining the fabric frame on first gives me a softer edge to hand stitch through. 

I also love the look!

It's a wrap - finally!