Glinda Quilts

A bit more of 2011 ...

I met a lovely French lady in hospital - she had broken her femur whilst stepping off the pavement ... we weren't on an open ward as we have over here in the UK but in a room for two with an en-suite bathroom - all very civilised. She spoke no English and my schooldays French was slow to return but thanks to a phrasebook and Google Translate, we managed to chat away like old friends for the 5 days we were together. As I was able to sew more and more, I wanted to show her my gratitude for her kindness and bon-ami and so I made her a cushion and a notebook cover (she loved to write her prayers) and sent them over to Versailles (end of April 2011). Nell had to make sure the cushion was comfy ... of course:

Cheeky little Madam ;)

As is my way, I then made a few more of these notebooks for friends and family:

And I finally finished my niece's quilt (single bed size) and she LOVED it:

Piecing was tricky matching all those points

The 'meandering' quilting was still coming along but onto the binding - my favourite bit

And the finished quilt ;)

And a friend asked if I could make her a 6ft x 3ft 'throw' - something with cats on it. I didn't follow a pattern as such but decided on a couple of blocks then repeated them until the quilt was big enough. A little bit hit and miss because of not deciding on the measurements at the beginning and I ended up running out of one of the fabrics but, thankfully, was able to source some more. This can be a problem when only buying fat quarters but by using a variety of fabrics, I was able to stretch them out and this was the end result:

Shame the photos don't really do it justice

I finished another quilt and decided it would make a lovely birthday present for Mum (in-law). This was the quilt I had started at a workshop in Sevenoaks last year but hadn't got around to completing. Thankfully, I had all the fabric for the borders and backing so I just needed the discipline to get it done and with Mum's birthday approaching, I had my motivation:

As thrilled as she was with it, it didn't move off the back of the settee all year - quote, "It's too nice to use."

I free motion quilted all of these quilts with a meandering/stipple effect and, whilst it is rather tricky, it definitely gets easier with practice!

This blogging does take time - my apologies for the lack of finesse to my blog but I'm really not sure how to do it any better with the 'host' I'm using coupled with my total inexperience. When starting this blog, I thought it was only ever meant to be for me - to catalogue my quilting journey, it's challenges and the lovely feelings I get to experience when I'm creating ... I may have to think about sharing (will anyone want to read my ramblings?) but that's a decision for another day ...