Easter Parade

My very special Easter gift from my Mum.  It's a Blue Bunny needle case.  I LOVE it.  It is so so special to me.

My darling Easter Bunnies



The Easter Table



The Easter Table



Greek honey and pine nut cake with cinnamon orange glaze



Little stitches



Hand quilting....



Finished this book

I caught 'the movie Ëaster Parade on tv this weekend. I'd never seen it before.  It was lovely to sit stitching away at my hexie quilt listening to the songs and watching Fred Astaire dance. Judy Garland really had the most amazing voice!

So in homage to the film, here's my pictorial Easter Parade for you. Just a few snippets of what we got up do over the lovely, lovely break. 

Absent from photos...my weekend also included, walking Tilly, kayaking on the Swan River, a movie outing to "The Other Woman", lunch with friends, a whole day at home and working on my hexie quilt, dvds with my girls, coffee and chocolate - I love the little Turkish delight eggs.

and for fun....yours truly having a go at the piñata.....

Strippy Liberty quilt finish

 

Quilt No 13!  Finito!  My Liberty Strippy quilt is done.  I finished binding it last night.

 

The top is all strips of Liberty Tana Lawn in varying shades of blue.  I think I will call it my Blue Lagoon quilt.  I do rather want to dive in it or under it and float around daydreaming with it.  It is divinely soft and has a lovely drape.  I think that's the combination of the tana lawn, and the hand quilting which I've kept to a minimum of just one row of stitching per row of fabric. I thought about quilting it more, but it didn't need it as it sticks well to the wadding, and I want the fabrics to speak for themselves - they have such a lot to say, can't you just hear them from where you are?  

 

I can't believe in my 35-40 years of collecting and loving Liberty, this is my first all Liberty quilt!  That's it now though...the lid is well and truly off my stash box and my mind is whizzing with ideas for more Liberty quilts.  Often, I've included bits of Liberty tana lawn in my quilts, but I've never devoted a whole quilt to Liberty...well I've broken through that little barrier, and the stand off is OVER.   

 

 

 

the binding

The rest of my weekend was lovely.  I saw a great film at Somerville - "Short Term 12". It's an American film about a home for children awaiting foster care or unable to live at home.  Some people do such good work in their lives - they give so much to those in need.  Watching the film, made me think about that.  I am in total admiration for people that have the capacity to work with fragile beings and work to empower them when they have suffered so much. Carers are incredible.

I had a lovely catch up with a few girlfriends for lunch on Saturday.  Lots of laughs. And yesterday a friend and I went to Homecraft Textiles as they have a gigantic sale on for the month of March.  I picked up the backing fabric for another quilt.  I've blogged about this shop before - you enter another world when you step inside.  You could be in Turkey, or a souk or market in some faraway dreamy place.  I love it. They are stocking a lot more 100% cottons - the minimum cut is 1 metre though, but for the month of March, they are 1/2 price at $7.50 per metre!!

And I started my next book for book club...'the autobiographical "The Happiest Refugee" by Anh Do. Very easy read by the looks of it.  More about that when I've read more.

Happy Monday to you all! :)

Hand quilting

I got busy hand quilting last night.  The time flew by and I had to tell myself to go to bed as I could have spent the whole night stitching away.  It is pure heaven.  It's so rhythmic and rewarding.  I woke early, such is my level of excitement, and quickly got in another half hour before work.  Bliss I tell you, sitting stitching and sipping my morning cuppa.

I've put a row of stitching in half the quilt. I'm using 5 different Perle 8 thread colours.  I'm stitching each strip of fabric once, then I'm going to review and decide whether to put in more rows of stitching.  I've tacked the layers together, which I'm finding easier than negotiating pins, but a bit more time consuming in the preparation-to-quilt stage.  I've had abandoned the hoop and I'm not missing it one little bit.  I found it to awkward and cumbersome and moving it all the time, well hats off to those of you that have that patience!  It sure ain't me!  Partly because so far I've used fairly big stitches and I like to just get on with a whole row.  I'm too clumsy with the hoop and don't get any rhythm up.  I like rhythm.  My hand quilting feels absolutely melodic in a very organic kind of way.

Look at me...I'm hand quilting

You're thinking it's been all coffees, beaches and concerts for me lately aren't you?  Neglecting my crafty time....well you're wrong :) very wrong.  Let me tell you little bits of crafty happy things have been happening.  Don't get me wrong there is nothing earth shattering or any big ta-dahs about to happen, just little itty bitty stitches, one stitch at a time. 

I'm so excited...I've started hand quilting!!  I am all fingers and thumbs and have not yet got a groove going on by any stretch - I'm told on good authority that will come in time.  I'm absolutely loving the charm of it though...my awkward little uneven stitches, each one made with great excitement.

Front view
 

back view...

 

I think the captions are unnecessary :)

 

I'm stitching every second square.  And loving it, loving it, loving it! I'll be back when I've finished...oh and there's been quite a bit of hooky going on too.

 

Have a glorious, glorious day, my lovelies xo