Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and A Fabulous New Year

As the year comes to a close, I would like to wish you  all a very Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Fabulous New Year.  Thank you so much for stopping by my blog, sharing your comments and kindness along the way.   It is a an absolute joy to see the random acts of kindness that occur amongst the world wide quilting community!  Thank you for allowing me to be part of the community

I can finish up the year with the completion of my baby quilt for a beautiful baby girl named  Eva!  It has been fun to make and  I hope it brings her much joy!

I used Sarah Fielke’s From Little things fabric with a little bit of Liberty!  It has been long arm quilted with circles/ hearts and binded in the purple/ pink polka dot fabric!

For those of you who visit often, you will know that I love hand quilting.  The centre hexagon wasn’t long arm quilted; it allowed me to embroider the babie’s name and surround it with love hearts.  I hand quilted with various  colours of perle cotton 8!  I think it  personalizes the quilt a little more!

For the backing I used a fun fabric that I purchased at Ikea some time ago!  I think she will enjoy the bright colours and playing with the birds and frogs.  Well that’s it from me for this year.  I look forward to seeing you all in 2014.

I would like to acknowledge the kindness of the linky party hosts who allow us to share our work and enjoy the creativity of others.  I am linking up with Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict ,  TGIFF @ Gingersnaps Quilts and Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts!

Best wishes to you and your families over the festive season!  May 2014 bring you good health, much love, happiness and all that is good!

Till next year………………Marie xxx

It’s that time of year!

Well it is that time of year and I still have works in progress.   I am  working on a quilt for my sister.  I was suppose to have it finished so my friend could deliver it to her personally.  Alas hand quilting is never fast and the quilt has missed the plane!  The lesson learnt is you can’t rush hand quilting!

I am hand quilting with perle 8 cotton using an interlocking circles design on the outside border.  I think the circles compliment the lovely Yuwa border fabric!

Baby quilts are a new trend for me! I am making this quilt for a family friend.  The fabric is From Little Things by Sarah Fielke.  I have a few more borders to attach.

For the borders I am using a lilac and pink spot by Jenifer Heynen – In the Beginning Fabrics , Pink and Grey Stripes From Little Things and a little Liberty Lifestyle print to add the finishing touch.  I will be trying out my machine quilting skills to get it finished for an up coming Baby Shower!   I look forward to sharing my progress with you in the near future.

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story and WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced.  Stop by these fabulous blogs  and check out the amazing projects.

Wishing you all a fabulous day filled with fun and laughter………Marie x

My favorite finish so far

Sarah an absolutely fabulous job!!! Just love it + the backing too!!! Colours are gorgeous.

Sarah Quilts

I love this quilt.

As soon as Rachel started posting sneak peaks of the projects for her penny sampler class (now available as an ebook), I knew I would be first in line.

I learned a lot of new skills and honed some others.

But what surprised me was how much this project changed the way I think about all of my projects. (I wrote some of my initial thoughts about this here.)

I wanted to understand why I love this quilt so much, and why I didn’t tire of it during the process. Certainly some of it has to do with the sampler nature of the quilt. Each week brought different challenges and experiences. And then there’s the fact that I used just under 100 different fabrics. That kept it interesting – always something new to look at and enjoy.

But I don’t think it’s just that. I think…

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Winding my Way through stitches…….

I am so very happy that I have a quilted Winding Ways to share with you!!!  I have been hand piecing this quilt on and off for the last two years!  It is for my beautiful daughter who is coming home after a long trip around Europe and South Africa.  Now that it is finished ( almost with the help of a little binding)  I really love it!!!

Initially when my daughter Nicole picked the pattern and chose the fabric I wasn’t too excited but could appreciate her choices.  She chose A Day in the Country Red  Gingham and white quilters cotton.  As I started hand piecing the Winding Ways it wasn’t so easy to get a nice finished with multiple points in the centre.  I persevered slowly while working on other projects.  When she went away I knew that I needed to finish it by the time she came back from her trip.  It was only supposed to be a small quilt but when I asked for your feedback previously the consensus was to do more rows to maximize the effect of the circles.  I was going to hand quilt but just too much going on at the moment; so off it went to be long arm quilted.  I chose varying size of circles.

You can see a close up of the quilting in this picture.  I am very pleased with the way that it turned out.  The quilting enhances the quilt and doesn’t take away from the pattern.

For the backing my daughter chose Paris Tea by Lakehouse.  I love this fabric and think it works nicely with the front of the quilt.  Once the binding is completed I can tick this quilt off my Quarter 4 Finish A Long list hosted by Leanne @ She Can Quilt.

I also participated in a challenge with my sewing friends.  The challenge was centered around the use lace.  Whilst I am not a big fan of lace, particularly on quilts, I chose to crochet a doily.  I was inspired by Marelize @ Stitch by Stitch who posted a beautiful doily using gorgeous colours.   So I decided to try it out…..

 I haven’t crocheted for a very long time and it took a while to get into the rhythm!  I used perle 8 cotton threads in white and blue.  I thought the saturated blue gave it a vintage modern look.  The pattern was a free download from Yellow, Pink and Sparkly.  I am very pleased with the way it turned out!  It has certainly reignited my love of crochet!  Neeless to say my daughter has claimed this one to put in a picture frame. Her friend also asked if I could teach her how to crochet.  I was delighted!!  Always nice when young people are interested in learning a craft skill.

On another note, my posts have been a bit irregular over the past weeks.  Please accept my apologies, my life has been challenging of late.    If you wish to keep up with what I am doing you can also find me on Instagram @quiltswithpersonality.

I am supporting the linky parties and linking up with NTT Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation,  Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts!  Stop by these wonderful blogs to check out all the lovely projects and/or link up and support them!!

As always,  thank you so much for stopping by!!  Wherever you are in this world have a fabulous day!

Sew Happy ……………….Marie xxx