'Tis time to quilt

A lovely hello to all you lovely lovelies♥

My husband gifted me this sweet lady pot for Mother's Day. And......how lovely she looks with her hydrangea hat. =)

Why, I wouldn't mind sporting a confection of a hydrangea hat, myself.

Besides having fun with fabulous pots and fancy hydrangea hats, I have been stitching my Buds in A Basket quilt. All my baskets overspilling with tiny little buds and leaves are finished and have been stitched in rows of delight. I must say, seeing them all assembled together sitting ever so nicely beside each other does make me smile. (I smile a lot don't I.) Well.....when you think about it, there are so many joyful, every day things that can make us smile.

But what to border these baskets with?? A lot of dithering has been happening here this past week over the question of borders. Do I go with the scrappy borders as so beautifully presented in the book, or do I use just one fabric??

I always love a smattering of scrappy fabrics dancing around the border of a quilt, but the last couple of quilts I have fashioned have scrappy borders. I wanted a different look this time.  Besides, I have only just tidied up the 'helluva' mess that I created with the pulling out what seems every fabric from my armoire, to fashion all the little circle flowers, leaves, baskets and handles. You would not believe the mess I make when I fashion a scrappy quilt. A textile bomb always looks as if it has been detonated with an explosion of bits of fabric everywhere. I wonder.....are you the same??

So, if I don't have a scrappy border what fabric would I use. I really didn't want to acquire more fabric for the border; I wanted to use a fabric I already had.

About a year ago I happened upon this  fabric. It made my heart aflutter at first sight. I have used it in other pretties I have fashioned and I had just enough for a border, with a little to spare for the binding later on. Love, love, love all the tiny little flowers and I love that every colour is represented. This fabric has a plethora of flowers blooming all over it; roses, delphiniums, forget-me-nots, daisies.......so, so many pretty blooms. I also love that the background colour is pink and not white. The busyness of the pattern  is so very me, but would it look spiffy skirting my pretty baskets. Admittedly it certainly packs a colourful punch, but I rather love how it makes my pretty baskets of sweet buds pop. I am a little sad that this is the last of the fabric but it is always a most excellent thing to use up what's in one stash......is it not??

I love how each blossom and leaf is outlined in black. It brings to mind a fabric I might have seen in the sixties. It also evokes a Liberty feel.

So, now 'tis time to quilt. I chose a white homespun for the  backing. For a girl who loves busy, busy, busy a plain backing is a stretch for me. I didn't have anything suitable in my fabric collection and I didn't want to spend time or money piecing together a smattering of fabrics. Plain ol' Jane, I'm afraid. Though, in saying this I do consider white will be a good fit for this quilt. As to the quilting design, I am following the ideas for quilting as suggested in the book; mostly diagonal stitching, quilting around the appliques and basket weave quilting in the baskets.....easy as.

So, the next little while I will enjoy hand quilting. As this quilt is queen size, I will be fashioning other pretties whilst I am slowly quilting. AND.....there is a small matter of my applique garden quilt to be seen to. I have not picked this pretty up for a month or so. Stitching variety is the spice of my life. Juggling oodles of pretties at any given time is what makes my life beautiful.

I am linking up to Kathy's, Slow Sunday Stitching when Sunday comes aknocking at my door, as that crystal ball of mine reveals me enjoying a little hand quilting  this Sunday evening. Actually, I think I will snuggle down most evenings in the coming week and enjoy a little hand quilting whilst watching a little TV.

Thank you for your sweet visit. It is a chilly and rainy Friday evening down here at the bottom of the world, so I am off to  enjoy a little hand quilting. May all you lovely lovelies enjoy a beautiful weekend♥

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

A Li'l Bit of Happy

Hello all you lovely lovelies♥ 'Tis Sunday again. The day when I take it a little easier....the day of rest (well it is at least for me)..... the day for a little slow hand stitching. This week I have been enjoying a li'l bit of happy stitching. More fabric baskets and handles, which I chatted about here, have been stitched together. More playing with bright and happy reproduction prints.....and of course more playing with flowers cut from the garden.

More tiny circles of pretty fabric have been coaxed into flower buds and appliqued onto the baskets. I must say these little buds and leaves are the easiest to applique.....much easier than the flowers on my flower garden quilt.

If I am not careful my fingers will forget how to fashion flowers for my flower garden quilt. My fingers will forget the deft touch needed to shape those sometimes complex flowers. Funnily enough, if you leave appliqueing the more ambitious flowers even for a little while, you easily forget all those little tricks you discovered and learnt along the way. It is so easy to consign into oblivion those little things that make forming fabric flowers more facile, those little tricks that prevent you from going a little loopy after you have just formed what seems a gazillion tiny petals and having taken all day to fashion them. If I am not careful those helpful tidbits I have gleaned as I dawdle along the flower applique path, enabling a more pleasurable stroll.........well......they will slip from my memory. Aah yes....that memory of mine.....mmmm!!  Note to myself.....Must, Must fashion Cosmos so they can bloom on  my Flower Quilt, this week......if only to reprogram my brainpan and kick start the memory; to enable all the encodings in the nerve endings of my needle-pricked fingers to start computing again! 'Tis amazing the process of  flower applique....isn't it. =)

Another row of scrappylicious flower buds sitting in baskets...soooo much fun to stitch. This quilt is going to be queen size so there is a ways to go yet. As it is Sunday I am going to steal some moments  of a li'l bit of happy.......a li'l bit of hand stitching. Ain't Sundays grand??

Once again, the calendars all around the world show us that Valentine's Day is nigh. The day that comes but once a year, when sweet-faced cherubs with swathes of gossamer-like fabrics covering their modesty, appear with their chubby little arms laden with flowers and chocolates, gifting them to those whom believe. May a sweet little cherub find his way to you at your lovely place, this Valentine's Day. Sending you all a little beauty and LOVE this blue sky, sunshine-filled kinda day.

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

Linking up this week to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.
                                       Judy's Design Wall Monday