Sunday 9 April 2017

LOVING THE PATCHWORK.....


This last week has been a week of batik, little squares and another new sewing and quilting experience, alongside some fabulous weekend weather and special walks with my beautiful Oscar boy! 

I am a new quilter and am learning with the help of my dear pal Helen (Josiekitten), who is always willing to share her workshop experiences with me. I love sewing almost as much as knitting, but do less of it as there is always the upheaval of getting everything out and packing it all away again. I know,  I  really do need a crafting room! To be honest, what is there not to like when you have a charm pack of beautiful batiks to work with. 


Having stitched nine charm squares into a three by three larger square six times over,  each large square is then quartered to give twenty four smaller squares as seen above. I usually agonise over the best layout, trying to balance patterns and colours but this little beauty just seemed to organise itself.


After lining, backing and making then sewing the edging............. ta da!!!! Here it is! What do you think? I'm pretty pleased with myself.


I'm loving the colour and pattern mix and so pleased I eventually decided to go with the blue backing and edging. It finishes the quilt off perfectly.


There is still the little matter of actually quilting the finished piece, which I plan to do this coming week. The rows of stitches that you can see are merely securing the wadding to the patchwork top. 


Oscar supervised the entire process, right down to helping to hang it on the linen line in the garden for a photo. By the look on his face, he is so so wishing the quilt will be for him! He's not really a big fan of the pinks though.


This weekend brought glorious sunshine to our days and the younger Miss Snoops home for a visit. She loves walking Oscar and we enjoyed some super sunny, long walks. He sustained a very deep cut in his right front paw three weeks ago and needed stitches. Even though the bandaging was off a week ago, he still had to be kept on a lead for yet another week. For a ball and swimming obsessed boy like Oscar, he's been pretty restricted. So, imagine his joy to find himself 'off lead' again and free to race down into the river or lake for a cool down or sniff a special smell for just as long as he wanted. Heaven!



This place is just a five minute drive from our city centre home and is always a beautiful and peaceful  oasis to spend an hour or two.


I couldn't not include this last photo as these little beauties never fail to brighten my day. Such simple beauty!


This week, the family arrive for the Easter weekend, which I'm really looking forward to. There might an Easter egg or two, perhaps an egg hunt and even some Easter nest cooking for the little ones. We'll have to see. It's just good to be together!


12 comments:

busybusybeejay said...

I love the quilt.Who is it for?It is lovely to get all the family together.Not for us this Easter.Our son and family are in Devon and our daughter and family are having the most amazing holiday ever in Sri Lanka.We shall see them on Easter Monday when they will be bursting to tell us about the holiday.We shall pop over before they are back and leave Easter eggs for the girls.
have a great Easter and enjoy all the hugs and cuddles.Barbarax

Helsie said...

Well done. Glad to see you are having some lovely weather. Hope it holds for Easter

Wyatt said...

Love the patchwork. The colors remind me of patchwork on denim (just a hippy at heart!) Smooches to Oscar♥

Sue, Wyatt and Tegan

Teje said...

Beautiful quilt! I'm happy you enjoy now also the patchwork! Always love to see Oscar; he is so cute and surely loves his walks! x Teje

Jennyff said...

Look at you quilting like a professional. You and Oscar make a good team, its always nice to have an assistant. Lovely weather here too, let's hope the sun stays around and I hope you have a wonderful Easter with your family.

Molly the Airedale said...

What a beautiful quilt! We love the choice of fabrics! We're glad your paw is better, Oscar!

josiekitten said...

Your quilt is so lovely, I look forward to seeing it in situ when I'm next round! xxx

busybusybeejay said...

can I retract my comment above.I feel awful now.It wasn't until I read Helen's post today that I found out about yourOH.I must have missed that post.What a shock for you and all the family.I am really ,really sorry.Of course it won't be a great Easter.How could it be?Once again,I am mortified by what I wrote.I hope you and Helen can support each other.

kate said...

The quilt is beautiful!

Willow said...

I am impressed with your sewing prowess. I sew but I haven't really started in on the quilt making. So far, I'm leaving that to my younger daughter.
And your lake/park is beautiful!

Willow said...

I just scrolled down and read your post about Mr. Snoops. I am so so sorry. May you be comforted with your family surrounding you this Easter weekend.

Tracy said...

Hope you & yours had a LOVE-ly Easter... And beautiful Oscar! :) The quilt is GORGEOUS--wonderful finish!! Batiks are wonderful to work with aren't they? I love the richness of the jewel-bright colors in these charm squares! So much can be made with a pack or two of charm squares--quilters delight! ;) I've seen this block style referred to as Disappearing 4 Patch, and have played with that myself--VERY fun! I've been missing fabric play. My sewing machine is on the blink with what could possibly an expensive repair, so I've been dragging my feet on that... Thank goodness for yarn in the meantime. ;) Looking forward to seeing more of your quilting adventures!! ((HUGS))