Tulip Block

It only took me a few hours to get this up and running.  When I first started to turn my patterns into PDF for the digital download, it was a major trial and error.  I got a programme called CutePDF that turns Word docs into PDF, sorts them,. edits them etc.  What I did not know until about 6 months ago, is that it would scan as well and add the drawings to the pattern.  Makes it all pretty easy for me now.

The Tulip block is there now on the Legend and Lace website.  Some people hopped in early and have it already.  There is no charge for the pattern, but just like the Baskets Galore BOM, you have to put it into your shopping cart and proceed to the checkout.  Many of you will know how this works, but for the new people I will explain.

After "buying" the pattern, you get an email, with the link.  You get 3 goes at downloading the pattern, and you have 3 days in which to do it.  If something goes wrong, and you can not do it in that time, please let me know and I will reset the time for you.  I can help with these things, but I can not help with your printer problems!  If you can not print off the pattern straight away, try saving it to a file, and you can print it later.

Happy stitching with this new project.

**I forgot to say..........If you would like me to supply a fabric pack for this project I can do that for $15 a month.  It is not of the website, as I just thought of it.  The background fabric is Moda Bella Fig Tree Cream, and the design fabrics are all 1800's reproduction  fabrics.  The fabrics will be the same colours, but not necessarily the same prints, as I made this quilt a few years back.**

While I have your attention, I will show you my progress with Dawn's Calico Paradise.  I am going to call it Return to Paradise.

This is the whole centre completed, and now I have 2 of the 4 borders done

Most of the fabrics in the border are solids, that I found in my "Amish" stash.  The blue is a tone on tone print from the old Smithsonian range.  It really sparkles.

Past Reflections

 I have been thinking about what I could do over the next year or so, and have decided to have a new free Block of the Month, and this time it is applique.

The blocks are from my quilt Past Reflections which is made up of a collection of traditional blocks from a number of sources.  I will only do 12 of them, and you can then find other blocks that might fit into this quilt.  I will show you books, and other sources, that might help with the idea.

The blocks will print out to 10" and you will need two sheets of paper in you printer, plus one page of tips on how to tackle the block.....what to do first, second, etc.

The first block is the Tulips shown above .  It is not there yet!  so don't go looking for it, but it will be once I turn it into a PDF, and upload etc

A few more close ups for you.  They are pretty tradtional blocks, as I said above, and you will be sure to find others to fit the bill.

Watch is this space......I will get back to you in a short while.

The Trick.....

.....is getting it done.  Yesterday I had a clean up of my sewing room.  Yay!    Now I can make a new mess.  I needed that table clear so that I could baste my 4 Card Trick Quilt.  I pinned basted it, and did not know if I would hand quilt with Perle cotton and "big stitches" ( I am getting hooked on this!) or machine quilt it.

Machine quilting won!  I need this quilt finished by the end of November.   I know it would look beautiful if I hand quilted it, but reality is I don't have the time.  If I hand quilted this one, even with the big stitches, I would not be able to work on anything else for a whole month.

I am doing pretty basic quilting, in the ditch, around each of the "cards" and probably something in the border.  If I do an hour each day, then I will certainly have it all done in time.

It did look nice for a very short time.  Darn!  next thing I have to tackle the floor.  It is covered in dropped pins, and all the tiny little triangle "ears" cut off the blocks.

How does your garden grow?

I can't decide if my favourite season is Spring or Autumn.  The gardens are just beautiful this year, and the best the roses have been for years.  I am not a propper gardener, I just plant things and hope for the best.  My grand-father was a great garden, so I have learned a lot from him.  My DH is big on the fertilizer, but he is not aware of the old saying, that sometimes less is best.  He fertilizes too much and the wrong times.

 The hollyhocks are out so early this year, but some of them never actually stopped flowering.  Must have finally got it right.

This red one is my favourite.  I tried for years to grow hollyhocks and they simply died.  I would travel around remote and dry parts of the state, and see them growing wild by the sides of the roads!  Why can't I grow them in that case? 

So I took this attitude.....I  took seeds from these hardy unloved plants, and scattered them about the garden like in nature, scraped them in like the birds do, did not water them - just the rain when we get it, and there you have it!   A thriving hollyhock garden.  All the plants are now self sewn, and they are everywhere!  They pop up in the cracks of the paving, and in the lawn, and sometimes I move them, but not often.  Too much fiddling about and they don't like.  I ignore them and they grow.

 The other thing we "non gardeners" can have success with are climbing roses.  This rose is called Albertine.

 It nearly died the second year I had it with the drought, but now it flowers A LOT in October to November.  The whole fence will be covered in the delicate pink blooms.  They are a bit early this year as well.

 This climbing rose called "Gold Bunny" is less than 2 years old!  and to the top of the fence.  I got it for Mother's Day last year.  The blooms are on long stems, so you can pick them and put them in a vase.

Not sure what the real name of this plant is, but we call it Bird of Paradise.  I have about 3 of them in the garden.  They grow without help and so BIG!  It really does look like a bird, dosn't it?

We went to the nursery today and bought a Blood Orange tree.  It is going into one of the pots on the front verandah.  We have limes and lemons in pots so far, and orange, peach, nectarine, and mandarin trees in the back yard.  If they all survive the summer we should be ok for fruit in the future.

Back to Paradise

 Legend and Lace Blog was temporarily "hijacked".  It is all fixed now.  Sorry if you got re-directed to another site

One of the nice things about writing on a blog from time to time about what I am doing, is that you have a record of start and finish dates and some progress.  Some people keep a diary and detailed notes of things like this.  I am sorry, but I am simply not that organised.  This is Calico Paradise, pattern by Dawn - Collector with a Needle, and according to my blog posts, I started it September 2012.....so only 2 years.  That's not bad, really.....

You may think I am going through my "yellow" phase, a bit like Van Gough, and is "blue period", but I have always loved yellow.  It is the colour of renewal and spring time.  It makes me happy!  Whenever I see a bit of yellow fabric as a fat quarter I buy it!

The centre applique is now complete.  This has been done in phases, but as a whole piece of work.  I had to join the background fabric, but with all the applique, you just can not see the join.  Then I marked the centre, and appliqued that, then the side pieces, and each corner in turn.  It is time for the final borders, and it is actually this border, (and not the remarkable applique centre) that attracted me to the quilt.

Don;t you just love this pink!  It is a rose pink solid from Moda Bella.  The leaves are in green, brown, and cheddar from my collection of solid scraps, then there is a bright blue vine and bit of floral-ly work in the centres of the border, and the corners.

Not long to go now and it will be all finished.  It is nice to get back to something that I just love.  I have to find a new name for it.

Pom Pom Tree block 12.......

The very last of the Pom Pom tree blocks is now on the Legend and Lace website.  This is a funny looking flower/tree....well, I guess they are all funny looking!  It is a little more complex than the previous few, with some of the circles and leaves much smaller.

For anyone who has not seen the quilt before, I made up the pattern from an image of the original quilt.  I had a post about it back HERE.  The pattern is drawn using EQ, which makes it much nicer than using my pen and paper.  They are a digital pattern, and can be downloaded from the website.

Next month I will have the instructions for the zig zag sashing and borders.  Gosh, I hope I remember how I made it :-)   I know there was a fair bit of unpicking involved, but I know where I went wrong with it.

Next thing........I am looking for something new for you, and I was thinking of another free BOM.......something like a sampler, where there is a little bit of applique and a little bit of piecing.......maybe one of each a month, or alternate months.  For example one month is a pieced block, and one month an appliqued block.  I will keep them at 8" again, as they are easily printed onto one single page.  I will try and get "inspired" by leafing through some books.

Any ideas out there??

It has been 2 weeks since I posted, and I wondered what I had been doing in that time.  I has been school holidays here, so I had my DGD Skylar, for a visit twice.  We had a long weekend in there as well, and I spent the 3 days working at Hettie's Patch stand at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival in Adelaide.  I was doing some "demos" of the Hedgehog Needle Puller while doing hand quilting.  Yes, I know it was a  "Machine" quilting thing, but the hand quilting was a fascination for many people.

I also spent the time getting 2 quilts finished to enter into the Adelaide Quilt show in November.  The baskets and rose blocks are all put together, quilted and bound!

 Many of you have been on this long journey with me, and I am happy to say it is FINISHED!  I chose to do "big stitch" hand quilting on this quilt.  I used a pink perle cotton number 8.  Must say, I am getting a bit hooked on this quilting.  It is so much faster than traditional hand quilting, and suits the situation where you think you might machine quilt it.

 I did parallel lines 1" apart in the border triangles, and 1/4" in the sashing, and straight down 1" apart on the blocks......no outlining, just straight over the top!

I used the same blue fabric for the binding.

Another one finished for the Adelaide show is the "Summertime" quilt I showed you a few months back.  I had this one professionally machine quilted, with an all over Baptist Fan design. and chose a black directional fabric for the binding.

You can see the binding better in this one

 You can see the quilting lines on this one

Some really way out fabrics.  My friends call them "uglies"!

People often ask me about how I choose my fabrics. Not a lot of thought goes into it.  I like to just "wing it", but a little like......I start with the centre fabric, and find something that contrasts with it using the Light/Dark principle, pick out one of the colours from the centre (in this case red) and use that again.  I love directional fabrics and zig zags.

Another one I am working is the 4 Card Trick.  I showed this to you last post, and it is now taking shape.  All the blocks are together, and I had enough "mistakes" to make a scrappy border.  Not sure what I will do after this pieced border, but I am thinking either a red and black border fabric, about the same width as the pieced border.......or just binding in red or black.  I plan to hand quilt this one in variegated perle cotton as well.  I like the way you can set these blocks square, but get an "on point" look about it.

I really want to get back to my applique, but "have to" get these jobs done first.