Buds in The Basket......A Quilty Finish!

A beautiful welcome to all you lovely lovelies.

Today I am the bearer of good news....well at least for me. After about six months of machine piecing, hand appliqueing and hand quilting, my Buds in a Basket quilt is finished!! YAY!! So very excited.

This quilt embraces all that I love; a gathering of sweet 1930 prints,  pretty baskets  and  of course,  flowers. This quilt oozes scrappylicious loveliness, my very favourite type of quilt.

If you have been reading along from the beginning of the fashioning of this sweet quilt you will recall I found this book what seems a lifetime ago and was saving the pattern Buds in a Basket for a rainy day.

Little bud by little bud, basket by basket, I stitched and stitched on my little vintage Bernina until all the sweet baskets were joined in rows to form the quilt.

When it came to the quilting of this pretty I decided I definitely wanted to hand quilt. Hand quilting can sometimes seem painfully slow and sometimes.....just sometimes I wondered if indeed I was ever going to stitch the very last stitch and see a finished quilt on the bed; but after months of stitching straight lines up and down and up again.......my pretty is finished! I love the quilting in this quilt, both straight lines and diagonal lines alternating in opposite direction in consecutive rows. The diagonal quilting gives the quilt a gorgeous texture. When it came to quilting the border I decided simple straight lines of quilting would be perfect. I chose a soft pink Kona solid for the binding as the background of the floral border fabric is pink. I think the pink binding adds a soft touch.

Just look at all those happy, little yellow, trumpet-like daffodils heralding Spring! Though still a wee bit chilly for my liking the sight of these bulbs swaying in the breeze whisper to me that perhaps warmer weather and sunshine is on its way down here. I just have to be patient.

Now that my Buds in the Basket is on my bed, I must say the gorgeous texture and bright and happy baskets do greet me with a quilty smile each morning when I wake up. Why, I do believe sleep is just that little bit more blissful when one spends those sleepy hours exploring  the land of Nod, snuggled under a squishy squashy handmade quilt.

Another quilt completed. Why I do declare there is something in the water down here at the bottom of the world. Within the last six months I have stitched not one, but two quilts from the first stitch to the very last.....why I never!! It probably will never happen again. =) Another quilt oozing scrappyness and loveliness to add to that scrappy pile of mine. Love, love, love scrappy quilts!

Puddles and puddles of scrappy quilts......ahh.....bliss!!

Anyway, thank you for visiting my happy little place. You always delight me with your beautiful visits. You have sprinkled sunshine to what was a rather chilly and overcast Sunday. Ahh.....Spring.....where are thou??

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

Linking up this week to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Alycia's Finished or Not Friday and Wendy at Wendy's Quilts and More Peacock Party.

Buds in a Basket

A lovely Good Morning to all you lovely lovelies♥ It is a sunny Sunday morning down here; and as it is Sunday I am going to enjoy a little hand stitching.

Although some new fabric flowers have bloomed on my flower quilt this week, the subject of my delight today is a new quilt oozing with scrappy baskets of flowers, or perhaps I should say, flower buds. I was hankering after a little machine stitching and scrappy happiness so I have begun to fashion a new quilt. As I have been stitching my flower quilt since September last year, I just wanted to start something different; a new pretty oozing with scrappy loveliness.

I happened upon this beautiful book about 15 years ago, to keep for a sunny day. It is a book filled with delightful flower quilts. It is not often I follow a bought pattern for a quilt as I find my muddly brainpan overflows with enough designs and pretties to last a lifetime.....but I decided to live dangerously. =) I decided to follow another lovely's, fun pattern. I seem to recall at the time being taken by the beautiful and delightful scrappyness of each of the projects.

"A Bouquet of Quilts" is a book where the projects come from Nihon Vogue's preeminent quilting magazine, Quilts Japan. As this magazine is not widely available outside Japan, Jennifer Rounds and Cyndy Lyle Runner, as editors, decided to bring the gorgeous projects within the cover of this book to a wider audience. It is a wonderful book filled with enchanting quilts. There are a few which I would love to stitch.......one day. The projects within this fabulous book showcase Japanese quilters' fresh new perspectives on traditional western quilting. The pretties within truly are gorgeous.

I have decided to make the quilt "Buds in a Basket". Apparently this "dazzling quilt" appeared on the cover of  Quilts Japan (Issue 5, 2000). This quilt is the project that inspired the collaboration with Nihon Vogue and the editors of this book.

It seems Nihon and Vogue and I share a passion for reproduction 1930's and 40's fabrics. It seems I am in very good company then. =)

To add to the other reproduction 1930's fabrics that sit in my armoire, I have acquired a few more fun, whimsical fabrics to fashion the pretty baskets and flower buds. All the scrappy quilts I have stitched have some of the same fabrics but I love that. I love that each quilt has fabrics that I have loved for a very long time.

Fabrics of every hue, and sweet whimsical prints.

"Enough of the flowers, woman", I hear you say, "show us the quilt!!" Okay, here 'tis. The baskets are pieced and the flower buds and leaves are hand appliqued. When each basket is complete they are stitched together by machine to form a row.

I am finding this new quilt relaxing and fun to stitch. A little machine piecing and a little hand stitching....the best of both worlds. Although I am loving the designing and stitching of my flower quilt; this quilt is a  pleasant change, just for a little while. I am not really in a hurry to finish this quilt, nor am I in a hurry to finish my flower quilt. I rather love slow stitching. I rather love the slow mindfulness that it brings to my day. I will continue  with this pretty this week, alongside my flower quilt. I am thinking Cosmos are about to bloom on my flower quilt; and more pretty buds in baskets on this scrappy quilt. Oh, how I love to have several pretties on the go at the one time.

May you enjoy a little beauty, a little delight this coming week. May you find many pockets of  joy as you go about your days. As for me, I am going to enjoy this day, this Sunday, soaking up the warm sunshine kisses and a little, just a little slow hand stitching.

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

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