A Most Floraliciously Delightful Finish!!

A lovely welcome to my little place♥  It is a place where there is a floraliciously, delightful quilty finish! I am so very excited! I wonder, do you jump up and down with rhapsodic glee, telling everyone who unfortunately is within earshot of hearing you bang on and on and on; that you have just stitched the last stitch on the quilt you have been working on for what seems forever??? No. Well I do. I suppose I am always a wee bit exuberant with each quilty finish because as I have said on numerous occasions, I am that gal who doesn't seem to produce a quilt in all its glory every other week.

Floralicious Delight is a quilt which dances with glorious colour and pattern. It is a veritable feast of blossomy happiness which swirls and twirls as each square settles into its possie and sings "look at me, look at me". Love, love, love all the busy-ness of all the floral loveliness. When I designed Floralicious Delight I wanted to showcase all those flowery fabrics that had been sitting in my armoire for a long time. I wanted the beauty of these flower-filled fabrics to shine in a simple patchwork quilt.

I started Floralicious Delight last October when the blossom trees first heralded that spring had once again shooed Old Man Winter and his bag of frigid tricks away to his next destination. Spring had happily set up camp ever so entrancingly on my doorstep, adorning my little place with glorious blossomy colour and perfume. The season of spring spoke to me as it always does, with the language of floral delight. Though in saying that, I consider it's always a good time to skip along the flower-lined path and fashion a pretty where there is a flower or two showcased, no matter the season.

Floralicious Delight is a simple patchwork quilt. It is a quilt where a hexden, rosette-type flower sits oh-so-prettily on a 7 inch square of floral fabric. There are 120 squares in all. Each square was then joined to each other by machine into rows, resulting in a quilt measuring 84" x 70". For the backing I used a fabric with large flowers dancing all over and I used this fabric for the binding as well. The quilting was done by hand, stitching around each square and flower. A simple design but that is what I wanted. I adhered to the KISS (keep it simple stupid) rule when quilting. I desired each floralicious square to be the star. I love the wrinkled and soft look of a hand quilted quilt, even though my hand quilting is far from perfect. Once I get in the groove, I can sit and happily hand quilt for aeons as I find the slow hand stitching relaxing and rather therapeutic.

So, another floraliciously, delightful quilt finished. Well, I think it is oozing delightful floralicious-ness....but hey, that's just me. =)  Another floraliciously, delightful quilt resting on my bed for a little while. Aahh.......flowers.....and hexies, how they make my li'l ol' heart and soul sing.  As it is Sunday tomorrow  and for months and months I have been hand stitching this pretty including many a Sunday, I am linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, where each Sunday lovely ladies from all over the world enjoy the pleasure of a little slow hand stitching. Oh....and I will find a little hand stitching to enjoy tomorrow; perhaps a little Sweet Sunday hand piecing to while my Sunday away.

'Tis with much gratefulness, overspilling with many thanks to you, for visiting my little flowery patch. May your day be a floraliciously delightful one♥

Until the next time........

Sweet Sunday

A lovely welcome to you lovely lovelies, this sweet Sunday♥ Here in my little place Sunday has awoken. A cloudy sky kinda day, but nevertheless a day oozing with flowers and sweet fabric to put a smile in my day. A day filled with so, so many delightful possibilities.

With my blue hexies for my chaise lounge all stitched together, waiting to play nicely with the other fabrics..........and waiting for me to decide exactly how I am going to tart up my lovely chaise, I have started a new hand stitching, pretty. Now before you chastise me about finishing the hand quilting of Floralicious Delight before embarking on something new and fresh, I have been quilting this week, but I ran out of thread.

I confess, I have fell headlong into temptation yet again. With no portable, on-the-go pretty  to stitch  whilst travelling in the car over hill and down dale, I was wanting to have something to hand stitch. I happened upon a quilt called Sweet Sunday. I have seen this sweet quilt out there in cyberspace for a while and have always wanted to fashion one. Besides, this pretty oozes hexies and vintage embroidered linens......so considering I have a penchant for both hexies and sweet linens that were lovingly stitching by women in a bygone era, this quilt had my name on it. It was kismet. You know I am always up for a new hexie quilt. Why, she who has the most hexie quilts wins! =)

Sweet Sunday is a reworked Candied Hexagons design by Emma Di Stefano, of Treehouse Textiles, though I purchased the paper pieces from Tales of Cloth. This pattern has seven templates, consisting of small hexies, diamonds and triangles, which when pieced together form a large hexie. It is a fabulous quilt to use up all those leftover scraps and embroidered pretties from other projects. I might add at this juncture that I am not going to follow the pattern exactly. It wouldn't be me if I couldn't deviate from the straight and narrow path of patterns to explore other possibilities.

For my birthday, my husband gifted me oodles of Liberty Tana Lawn hankies. He knows his wife very, very well, does my husband. I do not believe I could've received a sweeter gift. For time immemorial I have swooned over Liberty fabrics. Liberty designs have always made my heart skip that little bit faster. It is always easy to pick out a Liberty pattern from a sea of other fabrics. So, with the addition of some Japanese Lawns and perhaps other snippets of scraps languishing in my scrap box, I am going to use the Liberty pretties to fashion my Sweet Sunday quilt. Have you seen the Liberty hankies out and about?? Perish the thought that one would wipe one's runny nose on these Liberty pretties!!

Sweet Sunday is a quilt which will not be rushed. It will be one where I steal a few minutes and stitch here and there; and of course stitch this pretty whilst travelling along in the car. I will piece each tiny piece bit by bit whenever the mood takes me. Another sweet quilt which enables me to dive head first into my many suitcases of embroidered linens which it seems I have been collecting forever. I am always delighted to revisit my plethora of vintage linens. Always delighted to gaze upon the exquisite needlework lovingly stitched in gentler times.  Delighted too, to play with oodles of Liberty fabrics, and once again play with itty bitty snippets of pretty fabrics.

Thank you so much for popping by my little place. May you enjoy a sweet Sunday sprinkled with beauty. As for me, I am off for a lazy Sunday drive with my husband....and a little Sweet Sunday stitching as the picturesque landscape rolls by.

Until the next time...............

Linking this week to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Glimpses of January

A lovely welcome to all you lovely lovelies♥ January has flown by with lazy day, after lazy day filled with gardening, flowers, books, stitching of pretty bags and hexies and quilts; catching up with friends, long country drives with many a stop at a cafe along the way; and so many more pleasurable summery pastimes. January is I think, my favourite month of the year. Why?? I don't know really; it is the culmination of many things. Perhaps it's because here downunder it has always been  summer holidays. Summer holidays bursting with  relaxed, carefree pursuits where there are no obligatory timetables, except perhaps ensuring you make it to the movie cinema at the specified time. Oh, there is too of course, the small matter of my birthday which always comes aknocking on my door singing to me ♫♪♪HAPPY BIRTHDAY♫♪♬ informing me that another number has been added to my years. Another year of skipping along my flower-lined path. Oh, and of course, January is when the garden is bursting with my favourite flowers of all flowers....the glorious hydrangeas. Yep, January is the month when those mop-headed beauties are in full bloom, making me smile at their blue loveliness. There have been many a happy snap of my carefree days of January. Care to take a peek??

So, January has ushered in February, the last month of summer, which is a wee bit sad. Wish oh wish I could grab summer and entice it to linger with me forever but that would be greedy of me. It will soon be the turn of all you lovelies way up there to enjoy the warmth and beauty of my favourite season. I suppose summer is needed to melt all those icicles which you have endured for a while. I must not be selfish. Summer will slowly fade away..........but not just yet. There is more warmth, sunshine and flowers to enjoy. Oh.....and hand quilting of my Floralicious Delight; even perhaps beginning to tart up my chaise lounge for which I have stitched the blue hexies, is to be enjoyed as well. Thank you for popping by and catching a 'few' glimpses of summer here at my little place. 'Tis Sunday here today and that of course means a little hand quilting love. Come to think of it, I just might spend this afternoon quilting. Yes indeedy, me thinks I will sit my gluteus maximus on any number of seats in the garden and whilst I happily stitch away, drink in all the summer blossoms. Thank you for the gift of your visit; each one of you lovelies always sprinkle joy to my day. Wishing you all a lovely, flowery kinda day♥

Until the next time.................

Linking up this week to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.