border rebellion

The empty field quilting world has been in the throes of a border rebellion.

A major re-think has occurred with the border of the mad little birds quilt and although a great deal of time and effort had gone into border design1, it has now been removed and replaced with border design2 - a design with which I am much more comfortable, and can see myself achieving, eventually. The sepentine fabric and appliqued hexagons are OUT and a border made entirely of hexagons is IN.

 

Do you ever sew something believing it will be great and then once it's done, know it's not? This was where I have been with this quilt for the past 4 or so weeks, knowing changes needed to be made but resisting. Saturday was crunch day with Material Obsession's last Marg Samson workshop for the year - finally the decision was made, the seam ripper deployed and several major backward leaps later, a new border was underway!

Meanwhile applique has continued on BTCT...

My second block is complete - these blocks are enjoyable and not too taxing. A bit of  redesign has happened to my version - changing from 25 blocks to a centre eagle medallion +12 blocks...

The eagle centre is based on a quilt in Crib Quilts which I have written about previously ...clearly he needs a lot more work.  I've posted these over on another blog BTCT - do hop over and visit every now and then, there are some very talented quilters who are making this quilt.

Perhaps sewing can progress further after Saturday's festivities. I only have the stautory holidays around Christmas/New Year, but my boss is away for the entire month of January so there is scope for some "down time" work wise and "up time" stitching wise.

So this will be the final post for 2010 - I wish all my newly met bloggy friends a very happy holiday season, thanks so much for stopping by, I love to read your comments and value the new friendships forged through this amazing medium.

May all your Christmas wishes come true!

would ratty feel at home?

Trees are quite hard to draw, don't you think? In a previous job incarnation as a landscape designer I had plenty of cause to draw trees and although a subject I enjoyed, drawing them well is not so easy.

I find sewing trees a challenge, too. The traditional pieced patchwork trees (often seen lying on their sides!) composed of many triangles I see as somewhat stiff and unnatural.

This month in my online friendship group we were tasked to sew "trees". Sue provided a piece of unbleached muslin and instructed us to give her trees, with the only restriction being no taller than 6".  Thinking that a 6" pieced tree from me had the potential to be a mess of seams and not much else, my thoughts headed towards applique, thus ensued a dive into the bookshelf to ferret out some ideas I knew were there...somewhere.

Three possibilities came to hand:

this one's too tall (and somewhat dejected) (from Kiracofe)

this one's too branchy (QEC 1987)

this one's ju-u-u-st right!! (QEC 1988)

Then, because I'll use this pattern again, a sturdy template was made (I find old CT films very handy - AND  here is proof positive I actually do have a brain! pity you can't tell). I simply tape the photocopy to the film then cut the paper shape and the film shape out together.

photocopied and enlarged on the printer about 500%

So, here are my "Willows for Sue"- is that Ratty and Moley I can hear?
Sue, I hope you like them.