The Cathedral Window

I wanted to make a Cathedral window quilt as they always look so pretty. I have seen many Cathedral window quilts where the inner parts of the petals were left plain, but after seeing many Cathedrals in Europe, I wanted to emulate the way the glass looked when sunlight poured through them.  A bright example of this quilt is what I was after. I thought a wall hanging would be an excellent vehicle for this design. 

I had collected a large amount of Japanese fabrics and 

thought this would be an original way of using them. I thought the vibrant colours peeking out would be original and add some fun to the wall hanging.

I started by making little squares out of cream fabric. This was partly due to knowing where the piece was going and knowing that cream would meld better with the wall than stark white. I created all of the blocks needed by wrapping each piece of cream fabric around a square of paper. This was quite laborious as each point had to come together and meet in the middle.

All of the blocks needed to be identical. I used the paper to achieve the accuracy needed. I then sewed all of the cream blocks in the format that I had decided on. 

Once I had all of the pieces together, I removed the papers and the whole project took on quite a punkish look. 

At this point I covered bits of batting with all of the bright colours I was going use. Each inter-section was going to have a block inside. This wall hanging is actually quite heavy from all the layers of fabric and multiple layers of batting. I tacked all of the colourful blocks in place. 

Next was to get all of the greys that I had decided to use as the top layer. I needed to visit a few fabric shops to achieve this collection. Each piece of grey fabric is stitched around a small square of batting. 

I used my favorite thing in the world and that is these little red clips from clover. They do everything that you wanted to get done without knowing that you wanted it done. Once they were clipped, they were tacked and then put in a pile. 

The next problem was how to arrange the grey fabrics. Once again a spread-sheet came to my design rescue. This actually took quite a while as there is actually a difference. I see now that it is finished it really does not make that much of a difference. 

Once all of these blocks were done, they were stitched to the quilt.  I then quilted the bottom layer to keep the inner coloured blocks in place. I added little buttons to each intersection to make it shine a bit.

The quilt does indeed have the brightness of sunlight flowing through beautiful coloured glass. The border is a rich gold which   finishes off the wall hanging quite nicely. I made a sleeve at the top of the wall hanging and then all that was left to do was to hang it up.

Please vote for this wall hanging, for although it is made as all quilts are made it will never have kittens snuggle within its’ depth.

Thanks to Amy for holding this awesome festival.

Have an amazing day!

Cathedral window finished

Cathedral Window wall hanging

The Cathedral window wall hanging is now complete and hanging in the dining room.

I thought I needed something quick and easy between doing my Dear Jane and the next quilt. I have actually started the next quilt and the decision was, now wait for it..... A Granny's Garden with appliqué around the border.

The decision was partly due to have been given quite a few jelly rolls and thinking this would be a stylish way to use them. The hexies are going to be 7/8th of an inch or 2 cm so they will be fun.

Sleeve and wood

Back to the hanging up of the Cathedral window. This is the sleeve that I stitched on the back of the wall hanging. The wood was a wedge shaped piece of wood we picked up at the DIY store. Who knows what it should actually be used for. It looked like something that should be part of hanging up a quilt, so it was purchased.

Husband Drawing on the wall

This is my husband drawing on the wall, with wood bit and bubble thing showing...Ok a spirit level. Spirit level, bubble thing, (same thing) whatever the name is, as long as it does the job. When I was single I used to enjoy going into a hardware store to find the things I needed. I grew up in a house where all of the home maintenance articles were present. The thing is that I never did learn the name of things even though I knew how to used them.

Quilt level

I see the levelling thing did work as it should as the quit is obviously on the level.

Label

I had a whole lot of labels made. I added one onto the back of the wall hanging.

Wall friends

The wall hanging and its companion. Hope they enjoy living in close proximity to each other.

Have an amazing day!

June !

Wow the 6th month of the year is here. We are now using my Irish chain quilt as it has wool batting. This seems to be holding the cold at bay, but, as soon as it gets colder we are going to have to add a layer.

The temperature still warms up to an excellent temperature by about 10 in the morning.
I see that next week is going to be quite chilly. We will definitely going to be adding an extra layer. Possibly the Dear Jane can start earning her keep.

May was fun. I did something I had never thought I would do and that was enter my quilt into a festival. I was lucky enough to come second in hand made quilts and third on Viewers choice. Thanks to all who added their vote. I do appreciate it. There is even a prize which is quite exciting. The other quilt got 38 votes and that was fine seeing as it was the first quilt that I had made. 

I have made progress on my wall hanging. I have done the top of the cathedral window. I am now adding buttons. Oh the boredom of sewing on more than 100 buttons. Each button had 6 crossing strands and the a stay knot. On and on and on. I stole all of the buttons off my husband's shirts(old shirts not the ones he currently wears). Some of the buttons that come off expensive shirts are quite beautiful.

I bought some old fashioned buttons on Ebay, but, I think I will have finished this item before they arrive. I may add one or two on the border. Today I may work on the border. If I spend another whole day, stitching on buttons, it may render me incapable of ever sewing on another button on anyone's shirt and then my husband would be sad.

I have been going through Dear Jane withdrawal. I need to find the next large quilt project to do. I started the Dear Jane on the 1st of June 2012.
I want to decide today what my next large project will be.
What did you do as a follow up quilt to Dear Jane?

I don't want to end up in an endless cycle of making Dear Jane quilts.
It feels almost as bad as when you are studying. Once you have finished it takes an effort to give yourself permission to do something else. Quilting is the something else that I chose to do.
I have seen these two pictures each time I looked up a block when I was making my Dear Jane. 

I have been gathering pictures to try and spark the creative juices as it were. I thought a granny's garden may be fun. A stained glass window would be dramatic. A fully appliquéd quilt may be a challenge.  A mandala quilt would be Zennish. My husband wants me to do a fresh and original design. This would be fine if I just knew on which path my next quilt lay. I think this is the problem with hand piecing and hand quilting quilts, they take a long time and should not be entered into lightly. See I even think of quilts in the same way as I think of marriage. You should only start a quilt once you know that you can faithfully complete it. I think if everyone was committed to their projects, then no abandoned projects would exist. :D

I have been thinking of doing some mug rugs and some oven gloves. I don't know if this is considered a project as they should not take me too long to do. Maybe inter-project tasks are a good idea.

Hope all in the north are enjoying their summer and that all of us in the south are enjoying the cool weather.

Have a good one.

Happy May Day 2014

Happy Workers Day. I like to think of myself as a worker. I think all people who work with their hands as workers.

As a career I sit have sat and typed for the last 36 years. I don't even type very fast and still find myself looking at my fingers to see where the letters are. I think that is why I have always been creative.

 I have a need to make things as the work I do largely leaves nothing in it's wake to show that it was there.  I have always wondered about the effect of interacting with machines for too many years. I know that you get a feeling that you should be able to direct life, seeing as you writing programs pretty much is the pinnacle of being bossy.

As it has now been proved; Sitting on you butt, in an office is detrimental to your health. I suppose sitting on you butt being creative is not that much better. It is the compromise, the yucky one pays and allows you to do the fun one, but uses up most of the time that would be better spent being creative.

So happy workers day and I hope that you all have time to be creative.

With the Dear Jane completed, I am now doing a Cathedral window wall hanging. I have stitched the little blocks together and  I am now covering the foreground batting with fabric. The end part of April had so many public holidays that I have been able to get a whole lot done.

Cathedral window wall hanging

The dear Jane has been slept under and was lovely. The ridges of the close quilting made it very snuggly. I am trying to find Colour catches, but coming from the deepest darkest continent, these things are not always easy to find. I will probably order some, but it does feel a bit silly ordering wash time items on-line.

Autumn Leaves

The weather here is getting quite nippy and all of our trees are losing all of their leaves. The winter dryness has started and hand cream is becoming an essential item.

Autumn in our back yard

We have may day off, so I am now going to dash and get some stitching in.

Have an amazing day.