caro-rose-creations

A new twist on an I spy quilt

I think this is a great twist on an old quilt.  It was sewn by my friend Judy on her Bernina machine.  When I first looked at it I thought it was just another I spy quilt.

But then I saw the question blocks.

I like the use of uppet and lower case letters.

And the different colours of threads used.

Those variagated threads are so effective used like this.

And a number of different variagated threads.

You could change the questions to suit your fabric and this quilt would keep a young child interested for ages.

Starting a new embroiderey and an update

During my few days away I prepared some linen for an embroidery that I am going to do for a friend.  Here are a couple of tips I picked up.

When working in a frame wrap both the inside and outside hoop to hold your work so that it will only move when you undo that screw.

I like this one.  To keep it clean when you are not working on it cover your work with a shower cap.  Works like a dream.

And the update is my heart quilt.  It definately is not a single bed quilt.  I am off the end of the board and onto the pilates mat and am nowhere near the corner yet.

Another observation that I have made with stitching the needle turn applique is that working one heart a day doesn't improve my technique.  But working 3 or 4 straight after one another does.

Playing with fabric

I came across a UTube tutorial about tube quilting from the Mossouri Star Quilt Co. and when I also found some very cheap fabric, thought I would have a play around with it.

Now this fabric isn't the most wonderful but my niece has moved her family further south.  That means that she will need warmer bedding etc.  So I thought some ordinary quilts would help. I followed  the instructions and then found there was a pethora of ways you could arrange these blocks. 

After nearly driving myself crazy I selected a pattern that would drive me crazy!  It's all about direction.  I had to put it on the board and then take down one block at a time to sew so that I wouldn't reverse the direction of the block.  ( I only reversed 6 blocks.) I've sewn most of the rows, the hardest part for me, now I just have to sew them together.

Now I'm in debate with myself about borders.

Inspiration for a quilt

I saw this image on Tumbir and thought how it could be a quilt.  I haven't been able to find a high resolution of it but those stars at the top seem to have a lot of texture

The reference was;

Hildegard of Bingen
Scivias Codex: Book III, First Vision, German Romanesque (detail)
1165
Weisbaden, Landesbib. Ms. Scivias Codex

I have tried to find the original but without a lot of luck.  I did find a series of images here which included this one.  Hildegard had a series of visions which were illustrated in her writtings.

I have always liked her music and this page 'heroines of history' has some interesting information about her and you can still buy her work (almost 900 years later) on Amazon. 

A slight miscalculation

I am 6 blocks behind on my 'Sweet Heart' quilt but I think I can catch that up.  The other problem is that I looked at the original pattern and thought "This will make a nice bed spread for the girls".  Now as it starts to outgrow the design board and I am still 6 rows from the corner I think it might be a bit bigger than a single bedspread, more like a double, even a queen sized bed spread.

Being  dyslexic means that moving off the design board is a problem because their is a good chance that I will reverse the direction of the blocks. To overcome this I am taking the next 6 rows side ways so that I have something visual to refer to.

You can see some of the other quilts here.

My Minature Heart Quilt

I have washed and ironed my little quilt that I had forgotten I had and now it is ready to go back up on the wall.

There is a problem however.  I have very high ceilings and the picture rail is about 12 feet from the floor.  I hate ladders.  I am going to have to get some help.  It is wonderful having all this wall space when you want to hang big pictures but getting up there is a problem.

I took that trip

I ended up driving up to Toowoomba and the road only had a few problems.   All the water had drained away but you could see where it had been from the piles of ruined household goods out on the side of the road waiting to be picked up.  The good thing about the trip was that there weren't that many trucks.  Normally 5,000 trucks go up and down the range each day but at the moment the roads west are still blocked so I had a great drive out and back. It isn't that far, about 2hrs each way.

My friend, Angela, had baked delicious cup cakes and made great coffee and we talked and talked all day.  First stop was the Op shop.  Vinnies in Toowoomba usually had the best old doiles etc.  Not one this time.  I think a trader has taken them all but I did get a Royal Minton dish, ($8)

lots of tins for my threads(20c each)  and some bears to dress for the next raffle.  ($2 -$4 each)

Tucked away in a corner I found these badly damaged embroidered children's pictures.  I know they are old but they look very modern.  I could use these designs.

We dilly dallied around shops and then stopped for lunch at Veletta's. 

Great period cafe with wonderful pressed metal ceilings that were different in every room. 

And the lunch was delicious.

My main reason for going to Toowoomba, besides seeing my friend, was to get some embroidery supplies.  We got to the shop only to find we had dilly dallied for too long, it was shut.  I will have to go up again in a little while.  (how sad).  Nothing for it but to hit the patchwork shops.  At Precious Time they were having a fabric sale.  I don't need it but I had to have it.

I also wanted to  buy old crocheted doilies, not one today, so Angela kindly gave me a selection from her stash.  I want to make a table runner by joining a series of doilies together.  At least I have the beginning of my runner.

It was a great trip and I had a lovely day, can't wait for the next one.

Progress on the Sweet Hearts Challenge

Back on the 1st of this month I posted that I was going to take part in this challenge, the 'sweet hearts'.  One block a day for 365 days.  This is my progress for January.

Firstly, I decided to change the arrangement of the blocks,  I have put in white backgrounds to make a bigger heart pattern distributed across the quilt.  I had 28 of these to make but I missed that some would be on point so I have made one extra.  Poor little orphan block.

I had cut all the other background blocks, but I have made them all 1/2" larger 4.5" instead of the 4" in the instructions.  I did this so that I could trim back but I think the appliques look better with that little extra space around them.  So this quilt is going to be bigger.

This is a red white and blue quilt so I thought I had better put it up on the board to make sure it would look alright.  I think it will be a little bigger than a single bed size.

Those white background blocks don't come in until row 8 so I have a lot of sewing to do until then.  Most other people are up to row 5 and have a lot more to show.  But I am on track with my one block a day.

Sweet Hearts Challenge

Now why did I decided to taken on this challenge?  I'm not sure really. 

I loved all the little houses that were made in last year's challenge and one a day seemed achievable.

I have been collecting red, white and blue fabrics to make Dutch inspired quilts for my grand daughters and I thought perhaps this would be a good place to start.  It looks easy.  That is until I started my first block.  It is just a heart appliqued onto a background square.  I want to needle turn applique my blocks so that I can take it with me.

I bought the background fabric, cut the squares, thought about my layout, made a heart template, got a little box of supplies all ready for day 1.

I made my first block.  Beautiful stitching but not straight.  Start again.  I hope this isn't going to turn into a nightmare.

My quilt made by Kay

I didn't post a photo of the quilt I received in the Xmas swap.  It is special because it was made by my friend of many years, Kay.

Kay emigrated to Australia from the USA but comes originally from Jamaca and still has that lovely accent which her sons give her a bad time about.  I came across some old photos of our children when we were on holidays at the beach, many years ago. They are all grown up now but just as cheeky as they were back then.