Girls Just Want To Have Fun♡

Hello lovely lovelies♡ I hope you are all travelling okay. Down here at my flowery little place, where sweetly fragranced, rose petals fall into heart shape patterns, it has been day after day of  happy sunshine and lovely warmth.

This year I thought it might be fun to hitch my caboose to the monthly, mini quilt train, over at  Wendy's place of The Constant Quilter. I thought it would be delightful if I joined Wendy and her merry band of mini quilt makers, and fashion a mini quilt each month. Fashioning a mini quilt, monthly, sounds doable and rather pleasant. I rather love the thought of designing and creating on a mini scale every month. It would be a delightful interlude from the everyday of making my bigger quilts. 'Tis always fun to have the thought upmost in mind of going with the flow and seeing where my playing takes me because when one skips down the path of creative play, you never quite know what will eventuate. AND...I'm rather taken with the thought of stitching small and only taking a month in which to reach the finishing line.

What to make??  What will I fashion for my first mini quilt?? With only a week till the end of January; yes I left it to the last minute; I decided to fashion a mini quilt with a vase of flowers taking centre stage. 

Two years ago, before the world went into lockdown, I went to a Rachael Daisy, of Blue Mountain Daisy fame, Whizz Bang workshop, where we learnt all things burr cone, or as some might prefer, prairie point, pretties. At the time I bought Rachael's book, Whizz Bang  which is a fabulous source of inspiration overflowing with wonderful ideas on the how-to's of all things folded triangles. Arranging triangles is really playing in the truest sense of the world. One folds triangles from an assortment of fabric strips and then plays; placing triangles around and around in dizzying, gloriously hued circles, ovals, rectangles, squares; or indeed any shape you can dream up. But, we will chat that about a little later.

I decided prairie point triangles skipping around the edge of the quilt would be rather fun.  For the background I chose a pretty fabric with a collage of hearts, bows, roses, music, butterflies etc etc; all with a nod to Valentine's Day which lovers the world over, celebrate in a couple of weeks time. A perfect fabric. A fabric which was leftover from a knitting bag I made for a dear friend last Christmas. 

But before I could begin making the prairie points I first needed to design and stitch the vase and flowers. From a suitcase overflowing with lace remnants I unearthed a lace curtain remnant.

The remnant had some vases and flowers which would be perfect for what was swirling around in my imagination.  I carefully snipped a vase and flowers, placing these to the background fabric. Mmm....a tad bare, perfectly fine for some, but for me, a little flower magic from my 'Aladdin's cave' suitcase would definitely be needed.

Being a gal who considers more is never enough,  I began to add flowers, leaves and whatever else was needed to make the floral arrangement pleasing to my eye. I happily played, placing  a flower or two here, a leaf there, until what was before me caused me to smile. I had a party of a time as I hand stitched each sweet little flower and leaf wherever it landed. It has been an age since I have embellished with all my pretties. I have missed it. It is always a joy to reacquaint myself with all my vintage pretties. 

BUT!!!! When all the flowers (probably a 'few' too many....if I was to tell the truth....but hey....you did not hear that from me!) were flourishing in the vase the more I looked at what was before me, I didn't necessarily see a vase of flowers per se; I saw what could be a girl's face with flowers flourishing all over her head!! Perhaps one of those fabulous vintage, flower-covered hats?? How fun!! Now, would I continue on with what I had originally imagined, or, would I play a little more?? Mmm.....what to do, what to do?? I am thinking the girl notion might just win by a nose. =) Funnily enough, while I was adding the facial features Cyndi Lauper's song, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, popped into my mind, so that is what I named my quilt, of the funky girl with the flowery hair....or hat....I cannot decide. Mmm....the hat has it! A mod 1960's girl wearing one of those fabulous hats which only a 1960's hip young thing could get away with! I must say though, the 1960's girl's lips look a bit pursed for a girl who's supposed to be having fun! Perhaps the weight of her flower-filled hat is heavy on her mind!! =D Poor darling, she looks positively worrisome!

Just look at those eyelashes♡

With all the stitching on the girl and flowery hat finished, I then hand quilted around some of the sweet hearts that appear on the fabric. I then proceeded to make the prairie points adding them to the edge. The prairie points dancing around the edge as a frame adds to the whimsy. For the back I found a polka dot fabric in a pretty green and machine sketched Girls Just Want To Have Fun on the back. For the binding I again chose a Tilda fabric.

I spent four days and today, Sunday, petting my flowery pretties, placing and hand stitching them here, there and most definitely everywhere! I have a feeling I got lost in LaLa Land where vintage, lacey flowers were raining from heaven. It happens to me sometimes. =) It was fun to just play. It was fun to change course midway and skip down another path to see where it led me. AND.....it was fabulous to sew on a mini scale. In my crystal ball I can see a few more mini quilts in my future. I have put my suitcase burgeoning with vintage lace pretties away for another day when lacey inspiration will again swirl and swirl around my muddly head. Hoping my mini quilt is acceptable to add to the monthly mini quilt party. I wonder, at 20 inches by 17 inches, if my pretty is mini enough. Well, for me who always seems to make queen size quilts, I should think this quilt is downright Lilliputian in comparison. I did look to see what was acceptable, and I read there were no rules. Well.....excepting of course the quilt has to be 'mini'. No rules....my very favourite stipulation when it comes to quilt making.

Bye for now. Sending all you lovely lovelies, a little love, and sprinkles of falling rose petals into your day♡ Hoping your week is a fabulous one♡

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

Linking up this week to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching and Wendy's Monthly Mini at The Constant Quilter, Frederique's Applique, Patchwork and Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Absolutely Beautiful Things

Hello there! Remember me?? My good husband and I have returned from our little holiday. I must say our friends, who kidnapped us, certainly know how to pick the most glorious spots in which to relax and forget about the rest of the world. This amazing house is in a little place called Four Mile Creek. The house is called Watercolours and is about 50 metres from the ocean.......heaven!!

Our friends insisted we have the best bedroom, so.....not wanting to break the ties of our friendship, of course we accepted! =) Beautiful blues.....the most amazing bath......bubbles.....candles......just heaven!!

Each morning my good husband and my good self woke up to glorious sunrises such as this. Yes this was the view from our bedroom!! One could not sleep through this glorious show, now could one.

My good husband and I are both early risers and each morning we would lay in bed, enjoy a cuppa and drink in the beauty of God's wondrous creation!

BUT......we are home again. Back to 'normality'! 'Tis a pity as I could have happily stayed at Watercolours forever. I haven't been creating at my usual maniacal speed of late. I have been sewing curtains for several people (BORING) but other than that, the creative magnitude on the Richter scale has been zilch!! No earth-shaking creative pursuits happening here. =(

BUT......the purpose of this post is to show you what pretties, the royal representative of Her Majesty's mail service has so sweetly delivered to me in the last couple of weeks.

Janine, of the beautiful blog Rainbow Hare sent me these absolutely beautiful, pretties......(I was the lucky winner of her giveaway). A gloriously coloured, crochet blanket and the most divine little purse!!!

Now how on earth did Janine fashion this beautiful purse??? 'Tis beautiful, isn't it!!!

Just stunning!!

Thank you, Janine, for my ..........

A b s o l u t e l y   B e a u t i f u  l   T h i n g s !!

BUT......the friendly post lady didn't only present me with Janine's "absolutely beautiful things".......she also presented these absolutely beautiful pretties from Sandy, who lives in New York. Sandy doesn't have a blog, but one morning I was delighted to receive an email from her. I don't know how Sandy found my drivel of a blog, but she told me she loved reading about my happenings down here at the bottom of the world. Imagine that!!!!! This thing they call blogland is fascinating, isn't it.

Sandy gifted me oodles of squares of pretty fabrics. Fabrics of many, many different colours and patterns. The funny thing is that all the fabrics are ones that are not in my stash. Amazing really because I have quite a fabric stash!

Sandy crocheted gorgeous flowers; some that are brooches. She also knitted this pretty teapot cosy, in the prettiest dusty pink. A teapot is so much the cosier when dressed in a knitted woolly!

Sandy gifted me a cute measuring tape which retracts into it's cover. One can never have too many measuring tapes.....oh....and this sweet, sweet pin cushion. Pin cushions are another pretty which I always seem to lose. I love this one!

Sandy gifted me this lovely notepad together with this sweet pen......soooooo pretty. So, so many beautiful pretties.

Thank you, Sandy, for my .........

A b s o l u t e l y   B e a u t i f u  l   T h i n g s !!

NOW......before I say toodles, I want to show you some more pretties that were gifted to me. No, not via my letterbox but by a friend. One day when my friend, Anne and I enjoyed a sewing day together, my friend's husband, Gary, brought out an over-spilling box of pretties. Gary said, Anne knew a lady who was a milliner, who had long since retired. The Milliner had given Anne oodles and oodles of vintage pretties that she had collected and used over the years, when fashioning her gorgeous concoctions of hats. Gary said, "Kim......you might like these". Like them!!!!! Oh my giddy aunt!!!! When I picked my jaw from off the floor I had a lookity look!!

Anne let me have half, and Trudy, Anne's daughter, took the other half. You might say Trudy and I divvied the pretties up. It was a fun afternoon oohing and aahing over all these treasures.

Sooooooo many gorgeous laces not seen today. Pinks, blues, teals, creams, beiges, taupes, whites, yellows,  oranges, mauves.......the colours go on and on........as do the lacey designs.

Gorgeous heirloom laces wound onto cardboard.

Gorgeous floral motifs mixed amongst all-over floral laces.

Billowy waves of to-die-for lace pretties!

When I cross the threshold of a milliner's shop, although my eyes ricochet from each pretty concoction of a headpiece to another, I have always thought the 'stuff' that makes my heart go pitty pat is at the back of a milliner's store; the workroom where the glorious tangled mess is hidden from the madding crowd. The back room over-spilling with all those fascinating bits and bobs waiting to be whipped up into a pretty hat. I think I could get lost at the back of a milliner's forever, fingering each tantalising pretty, imagining how each one would be used.

Are not all these laces so very pretty?? What a blessed gal I am to be gifted all these pretties.

Thank you, Anne and Gary, for my..........

A b s o l u t e l y   B e a u t i f u  l   T h i n g s !!

Alas, no more pretties to be shown. So it's toodles from me. Me thinks I might just go and ooh and ahh once again, at  my absolutely beautiful pretties! There is nothing quite like a little fabric, a beautiful crochet pretty or a 'smidgen' of pretty, vintage lace to get a gal excited!! Oh...and I just might have a cuppa......the teapot is steaming hot under Sandy's pretty woolly!

Wishing you all a most wonderful weekend. Until the next time........

Linking up this week to Janine's, Rainbow Hare.
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My Trunk Full of Hexagon Quilts

Soma, who has the most beautiful blog, Whims and Fancies has come up with an inspired idea. She is hosting a virtual 'Trunk Full of Quilts' inviting quilters to showcase some of their quilts that their creative imaginations have lovingly whipped up. So I decided I would join in the fun.

As some of you know, I am rather enamoured with hexagon quilts. Oh all right.....I confess, I am besotted with hexagon quilts. I love the hexagon shape. I love how the shape is repeated over and over again, the juxtaposition of each shape forming a beautiful tessellated pattern which fits neatly into each other without any overlapping. I love the myriad mosaic patterns which are conjured up. I never tire of gazing upon these hexagon beauties.

So........I decided to showcase my trunk overspilling with some of my completely hand stitched hexagon quilts that I have stitched over the last few years.

My skipping along the yellow brick road of hexagon quilts began when I happened upon a wonderful method for sewing hexagon quilts a few years ago. Individual hexagons are sewn with the top fabric, the batting and the backing fabric all at once and then a little of the backing fabric is brought to the front to form a narrow border. Then the finished hexagons are whippd stitched together at the back to form the quilt.

My first 'hexie' was made from hundreds of scraps of fabric and I must admit it is one of my favourites. It is an oft-used quilt and I love how it has faded with age and has become wonderfully squashy. Indeed, this quilt is like an old friend!.

The back of  these hexies are almost as pretty as the front, which means you have two quilts in one.

A bright and fun hexie quilt I made as a present for a little boy.

The seams on the back of this quilt are covered by lengths of fabric binding which adds to the scrappy look and gives a more visually pleasing finish.

Brightly coloured, scrappy hexagons flying in the breeze.

This hexie was fashioned from gorgeous Chinese brocades my daughter bought as a gift for me whilst on a trip to China.

The front........

The back is rainbow-filled with gorgeous satins.

Aaah yes.....a vibrantly, coloured hexie quilt always adds a little something.....a little pizzazz to the landscape!

To use up some of the gorgeous vintage fabrics.....brocades, silks, velvets, satins....and the pretty vintage laces, gloves, jewellery, ribbons, doilies, buttons and all those other pretties I have hoarded gathered over the years, I decided it would be wonderful to incorporate a lot of these pretties into some sumptuous, hexagon quilts. Yes indeedy, I am a gal whose heart swoons over vintage lovelies, but as a result of my addiction, my plethora of vintage lovelies more often than not, escape their rather confined environs, weaving their way throughout our humble abode. They seem to tangle anyone and anything that crosses their path; thus the eventual compulsion for them to be whipped up into gorgeous quilts and embellish my hexies to within an inch of their lives.

I wanted to incorporate a sense of those crazy patchwork quilts from a bygone era into my hexagon quilts.  I love how there is no rhyme or reason to these crazy patchwork quilts. I love how these quilts are filled with glorious embroideries, swirls upon swirls of pretty ribbons dancing across the sumptuous fabrics, pretty buttons, vintage jewellery, opalescent beads........I love how crazy quilts are filled with treasures from a stitcher's Aladdin's Cave.

This 'Rhapsody in Blue' hexie was fashioned for a dear friend's 50th Birthday.

An overspilling abundance of sumptuous extravagance.

My luscious, vibrantly coloured, hexagon quilt celebrating a bohemian spirit. I wanted this quilt to be awash with glorious colour, breaking a few 'so called' colour rules along the way....oh.....and embellishing with the odd pretty or two.

My pastel lovelies.

This one sits prettily atop our bed, in our boudoir.

I love the random craziness of the hexagon quilts that I fashion. There is never a grand plan. I just adore seeing what exciting journey the fabrics and all those 'to-die-for embellishments take me on, experimenting with colour and texture; and playing with design. I love to twirl all the gloriously vibrant colours round and round in a merry dance! 

It has been a delight to show you a few of my hexagon lovelies. All these hexagon quilts have all been lovingly stitched by hand. Yes indeedy, there is no machine stitching to be seen here.

For those of you whose eyes have looked upon all of these pretties before.....I humbly apologise for this virtual 'Trunk Full of Hexagon Pretties'. I am so, so sorry you have had to plough through these pretties yet again! I promise, with my hand on my heart, to finish those works in progress, of which there are many, and showcase them next year, if indeed Soma should host this fun show again. Thank you, Soma, for hosting this enjoyable 'Trunk Full of Quilt' show....it has been the best fun. It also has been a delight to visit others' lovely blogs and to have a bo peep at their gorgeous quilts. Oh my goodness, there are some wonderfully clever quilters out there!!

 But for now, it's toodles from me.