This blog should be called "The Adventures of a Fabric Junkie!". I am passionate about fabric, threads, colours and textures. I can record my crazy quilting, sane quilting, embroidery and everything else that I consider important in my life.

Photo shows my block for the Hurricane Katrina fund-raising quilt "All That Jazz".

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Cream on Cream crazy quilt block 3


This block contains some double frilled really antique lace which I hope doesn't disintegrate in a hurry plus a small circle of linen which came as part of a sheet of twenty circles, all hem-stitched around ready for crocheting an edge . I stitched an edging of vintage tatting and added the ribbon roses to cover the join in the tatting. This is the block which gave my husband and me such a puzzle when we came into the bedroom at night to see a row of tiny bright lights glowing on the bed. We turned on the lights and all that was on the bed was this unfinished block and some threads where I had been sewing earlier in the day. Turned out the lights again and there were the little shining lights again. I put my hand on the lights and discovered that I had embroidered a row of stitching on the block in GLOW-in-the-DARK Kreinik thread. What a laugh!! We cracked up laughing because it was so funny to think we had actually wondered what on earth the lights were....duh!! The Glow-in-the-DARK stitches are the Pistil stitches and French knots between the Chain stitched scallops above the two rows of frilled lace.

Cream on Cream block 3 auto-corrected


Funny how these blocks develop a mind of their own sometimes. I dithered about where to put a gold fan charm, the bottom left corner or the top right corner??? The block told me to scrap the fan, it was too heavy, too gold........so I finished up putting an organdie flower and old gold fern leaves at the bottom and God forbid - sea horses and seaweed at the top. I had no intention of putting seaweed and sea horses anywhere at all on the block and yet, I'm happy with the result.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Lola's Quillow finished on Christmas Eve


Thank God for Carols by Candlelight from the Myer Music Bowl as it is one of my favourite programs and also it kept me awake long enough to finish Lola's quillow in time for Christmas today. Lola is nearly five so I made her quilt from my scrap bag, using animal prints and colourful matching fabrics. Only one more to go now but Taylia is eleven and will understand that I am not Wonderwoman and hers will come in due course - besides she ordered an iPad Touch which Santa got - that girl knows her Nanna is a soft touch!!!

Close-Up of the quilt


Lola's quillow didn't really have a theme like the Dinasaurs and Construction Vehicles, it was more a fun quilt using up all my various animal patches and scraps of colourful fabrics that sort of co-ordinated with the animals.

Lola's Quillow


This is the pillow part of Lola's quillow. It is done in crazy quilting with colourful plastic buttons instead of the usual charms and beads.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Block 2 in Natural Colours


These are the true colours for block two, the floral block. The buttons on the antique collar are about as old as the collar, all mother-of-pearl and all unpicked from ancient shirts. The two crocheted flowers have three layers of petals plus two padded "buds" which are covered in rows of single crochet. The broderie anglaise piece at the bottom right is also very old as is the fawn lace in the centre of the block. This lace fascinates me as it is made in rows of different patterns so that it looks as if someone has painstakingly joined single rows of lace to make a fabric.......this was given to me by a neighbour of my parents - Mrs Tobin. She died about 28 years ago now but I will always remember her when I see this piece of machine made lace. The piece of lace fabric at the top left hand corner of the block with the matching lace edging is from my wedding dress from when I married DH........this quilt is turning into a memory quilt without me meaning to do it.

Second Cream on Cream Block Finished


This block is mainly flowers, seemed to want to be that way. Not all blocks need to have a theme but this one lent itself to be a "garden" block. It is more 3D than the previous one but that won't matter in the overall scheme of things, some will be flatter while others while others will have more texture - DH just commented that "boy, this quilt will be heavy when it's finished!!" It will, but all it will do is lie on a bed - not to be SAT on or LAID upon or SCRUNCHED up. He's got the message, I think.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

First Finished block for Cream on Cream Crazy Quilt




This is the first block for the cream on cream crazy quilt which I am making to use up my collection of antique laces, threads, buttons and beads. It seemed a shame to keep all these wonderful pieces from the past hidden away in boxes, bags and plastic containers when they could be used to create a lovely quilt with no rhyme nor reason to the design except to use up these old bits and bobs. Altogether I will need 96 blocks so I will join them in pairs, then in fours and then eights, embroidering the joining seams as I go. Seeing as a lot of the embroidery will be done on the train going to and coming home from work (1/2 hour journey each way) plus in my half hour lunch break, the smaller the piece of background fabric, the better. I will blog two versions of the photo, one in the natural cream and ivory colours and one with the photo "auto-corrected" which throws shadows on the work and makes it easier to see properly.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

The Pillow part of ths Quillow


I hope Beau approves of the 3D dinasaur........it is a bit scary!! The quilting doesn't show up in this photo but the dinasaur's body is stuffed using the Trapunto method of quilting and his eyes are covered in tiny, sparkly red sequins.

This is the quilt part of the quillow


The quilt is machine pieced then each Dinasaur has been hand-quilted around the edge.

Dinasaur Quillow


This is the second UFO that I have finished. It is a dinasaur quillow for Beau who is seven. Now I've only got the two girls to go and with three weeks to Christmas I think I will make. it.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Link to My Other Blog

After I began this blog on Blogger I started another blog on Wordpress, however I have returned to my original one after a gap of three years. There is a lot of crazy quilting and fabric postcard stuff on my other blog as well so here is the address which will have to be cut and pasted into your browser as the link doesn't work.
file:///C:/Users/Vivienneg/Desktop/Anlabyhouse blog/Anlaby House.htm

Friday, November 26, 2010

The Quilt part of the Quillow.


Close-up of Jesse's Quillow


These photos show close-ups of the quilt part and the pillow part separately.

Jesse's Quillow for Christmas


I had planned to make four quillows for Christmas, one each for my two eldest grandchildren and one each for their step-brother and sister. Before we went away for three months, I pieced the four tops(therefore all UFOs) and yesterday I finished the first one. This is for Jesse who will five years old on December 1st and who is into trucks, bobcats and any other construction vehicles. First photo is the quillow itself with close-ups of the the quilt part and the pillow part.

First and Second UFOs finished in November


When we got back from our UK holiday the first thing I noticed was that everywhere I looked were UFOs......so before I start any new projects I decided to tackle the UFOs (un-finished objects). The first one was to complete a jumper and beanie for grand-daughter Juliet for next Winter. I'd started the jumper in England so it seemed the logical thing to finish that first. I bought some variegated wool at Abakhan in North Wales and thought I would have a mixed bag of cream, pink, green and lemon colours but much to my surprise it knitted itself into a sort of a pattern which I love.