Anniversary Blooms

Anniversary Blooms - Final Reveal!

Wow, this year has gone so so fast!  I can't believe we are in spring here and you are in fall.  Welcome to my blog and if you are visiting for the first time, let me introduce you to my darling quilt called Anniversary Blooms!

In her full glory hanging

and here she is laying on the bed!

I would encourage you all to check out the lovelies being posted on the links at Amy"s Creative Side!  Once again, thank you Amy! You have been hosting this festival for 8 years and have lots of prizes available for everyone, not just for the bloggers. You have done a wonderful job to get this festival underway.

I would dearly love to have one of my quilts nominated as a favourite overall quilt and here is the Viewers Choice nomination form which can be completed now until the 24th of September.

Voting Starts on 25th of September,  you can vote for your favourite quilt in each section from then.

I am entering Anniversary blooms into the Hand Quilted Section here

And my other quilt is called Lollipop Drops and it is in the Original Designs Section here

Remember to leave comments on the blog posts where you can for your chance to win also.

Nitty gritty of Anniversary Blooms!

I am sure you are all dying to see some lovely photos and here about this quilt.   It all started 2 years ago when the American Quilters Society released the 30th Anniversary Dogwood Fabric Collection.   They had a competition to design a quilt.  I did but didn't get it quilted in time, I finally finished this year.

Here are the fabrics and the starting of the piecing

I decided to use the familiar Churn Dash Block to form a lattice and the drunkard paths to form a wedding ring flower.  Hence the name of Anniversary Blooms.  When these fabrics arrived I couldn't believe how delightful they were.

this was my rough mock up which I had decided upon

So after the top was sewn I commenced the hand quilting.  I decided to use Aurifil 28wt threads in several colours.  I also wanted to give the striped border a slightly different look so I went with doing small baptist fans and then I highlighted the flowers and made a cross hatch in the centre.  I then started putting leaves around in the churn dash blocks.

The adding of the background leaves

nearing the end of quilting

I just love the texture of the hand quilting

For this quilt I used Hobbs Tuscany Wool Wadding.  It is definitely my favourite for loft and stitch definition.  Now I just loved working on this quilt but as I thought I was finished I would keep deciding it needed more background quilting.  So I kept going on and off for the 2 years.  Many other quilts were completed in this time but for me this is my favourite quilt so far.  Many have asked who this quilt is for and my answer is ME!  It will be my quilt for ever even if the family are all claiming it!  So I hope you have enjoyed my Anniversary Blooms Blog.

a few shots of the background filling 

Don't forget to visit the other bloggers and their quilts over at Amy"s Creative Side.

So Until next time take care and have fun, 

and many thanks for reading my ramblings,

Wendy

Slow and steady Sunday!

Happy Sunday to you all!

Well I have been away from blog land for a little while but thought I should share a few things I have been up to today and recently.   

Although today was cold it was fine enough for me to snap a photo of Gelati Stars for you all.  I am deciding how to quilt this, jet me know if I should hand or machine quilt it in the comments please. I'm really glad I decided to do this quilt as a mystery for you all to join with me.  It's certainly been lots of fun.  So many thanks for joining or following along. 

Recently I went shopping for a few new text fabrics for my glacier star, these will be used in my outer flying geese and sky units.  Below are the units that have been completed so far.  I'm really excited about this quilt top.  I have decided to do the extension borders. 

Today I finished bagging all of my fabrics into each of the lessons.  During the next few weeks I will prepare my papers and final pieces.  

I was lucky to spend some time with hubby over the weekend and had this gorgeous hazelnut, chocolate gateau to share over coffee.  Was delicious!

Now my final project today was a little bit of free motion quilting on my blossoming news quilt.   Tomorrow I plan to finish the las birder and to do the binding.  So if all goes well I will be able to reveal this quilt complete for you this week.

For all who are going to Melbourne Craft Fair I will be there on Thursday through to 

Saturday so if you see me or spot my quilts say hello or tag me in your photos will be great to meet some of you in person.  

But until then I have lots if things to complete and organise.  So I will keep focused and keep my eye on the prize and not be dismayed!

Keep creating and enjoy the colours you are given in life,

Wendy!

A busy week to be sure and company in the garden

Hello from my little happy quilting place down under!  How have you all been?  What's happening in your part of the world?  Read on and see what I have been doing this week.

Tuesday saw a little visit to the Sewing Connection for these beauties.  The pinks and purples will be for my Glacier Star Quilt and the strip and star fabric will be for my border and binding of my mystery that I am sharing with you all here.  Next clue in the morning.  Please note that the first clue did have a mistake and you should have 72 four patch units not 36.  I have edited the blog post but just Incase you have missed my amendment I thought I would just mention it here.

I have been working on my Decades of stars quilt and I am happy with the progress and the way the quilting is bring this quilt to life.

These Little Wattlebird visited the garden for the nectar in this Calistemon and I managed to get a couple photos of them.

They also have a wonderful song and are beautiful to listen to.   I really love my garden the way it attracts these lovelies.

Oh and here are some fabrics from the stash by Denyse Schmidt that will make an appearance in an upcoming quilt which I am excited about and these fabrics are just a tad gorgeous also. I will have some piecing and some applique to do for this quilt and I'm sure you will love it.

Today I have been doing some free motion quilting on this UFO.  So tomorrow I should have another quilt finished.  I am happy that my machine quilting is coming together also.  My first love will always be hand quilting but sometimes time and other constraints make hand quilting not possible.  So I will be happy to be able to create lovely quilts using the machine for these occasions.

This is the entirety of the quilt.  It was a free block of the month I did with a Facebook quilting group about four years ago with my scraps and I finally got these blocks into a top this year and am now completing the quilting and having fun!

So tomorrow morning I will give you the next clue in the mystery.  We will have one more week and then the mystery will be revealed.  I hope you are having as much fun with it as I am.

So tell me how has your week gone?  Have you had a Quilty  week or a relaxing week of something in between.  Leave a comment in the comment box and let me know!  

Until the morning have a great night or day wherever you are in the world.

Wendy

P.S.  Remember A creative person never gets bored!

Sewing Sunday Slowly Away

Happy Sunday to you all!  I hope you have had or are having a wonderful day!

Let me introduce you to my oldest UFO (unfinished object). This is Decades of Stars.  Now I will not go through all the details today as to why this has taken way too long to finish but I just want to let you see the start.  I will be posting photos of this over the next few weeks as I continue to work a little bit each day on it alongside my other projects.

Loading of the quilt onto my hand quilt frame

Ready to start quilting life into this baby

These are a couple of photos as I was loading this on the frame a couple of weeks ago!

Threads for stitching

These are the threads I had purchased several years ago, they are Superior Threads Treasure hand 

quilt thread.  

Cable for the border

This is the border as I started to work on it again.  This quilt had been on the frame a few years ago but was removed as I had more pressing deadlines.

Border complete

Border was completed during the week.

Side border started 

This is the start of the right hand side border.

Start of the main body of the quilt

After a few hours it is starting to look quite ok and I am starting to get excited for this project again.

 where I am tonight, I am loving how this is looking

And this is where I am quilting tonight. This quilt is mainly all Debbie Mumm fabrics.  It does have very special memories which I will reveal with the completed quilt as soon as possible.  So what are you stitching up this Sunday?  I will be linking this Slow Stitching Sunday and would like to thank Kathy for hosting this link up once again.  

Have you heard that I am hosting a Winter Mystery quilt along?  If you would like to join in please check out the featured post on the blog.  Plus here is Link to the clues so I hope you can join in.  

So Until later in the week take care and have a great day and remember to give a smile away! :)

Wendy.

Whooping for the Weekend to finish with a slow stitching Sunday!

Hello Everyone!  How are you all on this weekend?

Firstly would just like to say I am linking with the following and thank them so much for the opportunity to link to their wonderful blogs.

Sarah for Whoop Whoop it's Friday, 

Zenia From A Quilted Passion 

and to  Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday     

The first two for a couple of finishes that can't be shown yet, but mostly for getting back to sewing my winding ways quilt top and for loading my oldest UFO quilt back onto the frame to be hand quilted.  I'm really doing a happy dance and I am whooping the town down this weekend for this.

I am really loving the way this winding ways is coming along.

Then I managed to sort through my fabric scrap bins and pull these fabrics for the mystery I will be sharing with you.  Yes, if you missed my last post I am going to be doing a mystery quilt for Winter.  Since my BOM blog is due in two days I will share the first clue on Friday with you.  I hope you can come and join in on the fun of this mystery.  Just in case you need the requirements Here is the post you need

My yellows and pinks are my mediums, my lights are my backgrounds and all tone on tone whites and my darks are my blues and greens.  Whilst they might not be truly lights, mediums and darks they will work as the colours are different.   I will use a few more pinks than the yellows and the blues and greens will be around the same.

Now to end the day with slow stitching, I have pulled out my oldest UFO called Decades of Stars.  This quilt commenced it's life around 15 years ago.  This quilt is dedicated to all of the loved ones who have departed this earth and now watch over me.   The special lady who carefully picked out a fat quarter from an Amish shop in Pennsylvania all those years ago is now looking down smiling that this quilt is being finished.  

The stitches from a few years ago.   I am not happy with what I did in the corners so I will remove that and redo but I just love this cable.  I am looking forward to writing on this label. 

Look at how it looks on the front!

So I will do a few needles of thread each day and am hoping this will be off the frame in the next month and I will start the next special quilt in my life for someone.  

So I hope you have had a great weekend, please take a couple of moments and say hello and let me know what you have been doing or just let me know you are cheering me on with my UFO or joining with me for the mystery.

Keep smiling and keep creating it's great for our soul!

Wendy.  

Lang Lang Quilt Show 2016 Winners and Highlights

Mini Tour!

Winning Entries

Winning Quilt and Owner by 1 Vote!
this was amazing

Winning All Sort entry and Owner!

Quilt Raffle Winner!

Winning Challenge Block!

 

My Quilts at Show

Bushman's City Visits
dedicated to my dad

 

Hey Grub! Let's fly a Kite
childhood memory quilt of mine

Girly Whirly News
another of my quilts hanging

Bastille Day Celebrations
Art Quilt I had hanging

Challenge blocks

Other fun Quilts!

partial to a compass block

dynamic

superb quilting

loved the elephants

As you can see it was a fun time had by all.  I came home and managed to start quilting on my newest quilt to go on the frame.  I will be linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday.  I hope you enjoy the few magic moments on this Mothers day and also the few stitches I can show you.   If you would like to see more quilts I have made the album public for everyone to see all of the quilts in the Quilt show on my Face book page with the Album Lang Lang Quilt show 2016 I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

So I will leave you with the photo of my Hand quilting on Lollipop drops with Aurifil 12 wt thread and using John James Shashiko Needles.  Until next time happy Quilting or Creating and keep smiling

Wendy