Two Excellent Trades

Terry and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary in February this year.

 We decided to treat ourselves to a red table setting - red for a ruby wedding and red for a large family gathering at Christmas. We found a lovely red tablecloth and  red and cream runner but although we searched for a long time we could not find the table mats that we wanted. I decided I would have to make some but I haven't had much time for sewing over the last year or so and I wasn't hopeful I would get them made any time soon.

Then a lovely lady from Canada wrote asking if we would consider a trade. She wanted some delphinium seed and wondered if we would like to take something from her Etsy shop in exchange. We don't normally do this but she asked at the right time, offering the right thing. Elizabeth of Lilybeth Goodies has made me 12 table mats and 12 napkins. I chose the fabric for the mats from an online source and Elizabeth took it from there. (Oh, and before you tell me that I've set the table wrongly, the small knife and fork are on the inside because they are for dessert - pancakes with feijoas and almonds and greek yoghurt).

They are beautifully made - Jennifer and I spent ages last night trying to work out how the mitred corners on the napkins were done. Just imagine it - 48 tiny little mitred corners on those 12 napkins! Amazing! I'm totally happy with the trade. Thanks Elizabeth! I hope you get as much pleasure from your delphinium seed as we will from the work you've done for us.

 

 And this is our dining room with the table set for Sunday night dinner. Can you see the other new addition? Yes, the doors have arrived from France - but they haven't been installed on the cabinet yet, that's for another day :-) Aren't the colours perfect? It was very exciting when they arrived all beautifully packed in a wooden box.I will show you more and better photos of the doors when they are installed on the cabinet.

Here is a picture of the quilt in its new home - Christine writes that its perfect with the colours of her room. So that was a happy trade too!

Rooster Quilt Finished

Unfortunately I don't have a very good photo of the whole finished quilt yet but there are some good detail photos. AND its FINISHED!

If you want to check back to the beginning of this project, they whys and wherefores, here is the link:
http://nana-jan.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-project.html

To see the progress photos, click on the rooster link in the label cloud on the right hand side of the page.

Little by Little

Some more before and after pics of progress - which is slow because we have a guest living in the sewing room at the moment and I can only get in there when she is away tramping for a couple of days.

More on the Rooster

Back in March last year, before normal life was interupted, I started a new project. This may refresh your memory if you don't want to follow the links to my earlier posts:

 

I continued for a few more weeks but have done nothing on it since May 2009. I found other more urgent work to do when I had time for sewing.

However, now it is the urgent project as we have had word from France that the paintings for the doors are finished and the doors won't take very long to make. Aren't they fabulous?

 So I had better fulfill my part of the bargain and finish the quilt! Today I spent a couple of hours working on the tail feathers of the rooster. You can see a before and after comparison above.

Working on the border

I've really enjoyed getting engrossed in the white moulding of this door - I've used two layers and three shades of white, pale blue and a less pale blue to build up the different shades to give the moulding its 3-d effect. I've hand tacked the green outer edge to the centre background piece and then stuck the moulding pieces down over the join, ready to be raw-edge appliqued to the quilt.

It will improve with stitching of course.

And I think it may be nearly time to stop referring to the original picture and start making the quilt into its own piece of art.

A Little Further

And Now?

I think I'll add some more netting to the background, maybe some white.

How's it going so far?

A New Project

Quilters often have many projects in a half finished stage - and I'm just one of the crowd! I'm starting a new project today. A couple of years ago we travelled to France to attend a wedding. While there we spent some time at the workshop of the bride's father, Roger. We would have loved to bring home a piece of his furniture but it would have been very costly, so we compromised. We would buy a suitable piece of furniture and Roger would have some doors painted with his trademark scenes. In exchange, we (I) would make them a quilt. They had seen the quilt I had made as a wedding present for Caroline and considered this a fair exchange.

Roger's Workshop:

The Dresser we bought for the doors:

The quilt I made for Caroline - and if you want to know why I made her such a strange quilt you can read a bit more about it here.

We heard from Caroline a couple of days ago with exciting news - her first baby is due any day now! And she also sent pictures of the paintings that are going to be on the doors her father is making for us. So I must get on with our part of the exchange. And here is the pattern I have printed for my quilt. It is one of the pictures that Roger uses for his furniture.

I use PhotoImpact for my artwork and it allows me to print out posters by choosing how large the poster should be (in this case 80cm x 110cm) and it prints the picture out on a number of normal size pages (16 in this case) for me to stick together to make a poster. This poster is then the pattern I work from, tracing the pieces onto tracing paper and then reversing them onto the back of vliesofix (wonder under) to make up the picture with fabric pieces. It will be raw edge applique, the same as Caroline's quilt. I might try to piece the frame though.