"...it sings because it has a song." - Maya Angelou

During the summer I bought some gorgeous fabrics from Hyggeligt Fabrics (London, Ontario). Bright pink and orange and green, flowers, vegetable leaves and polka dots by Kaffe Fassett and other Rowan fabric artists.  They were magically delicious!

I was not sure what to do with them but I had to do something, they were calling and calling me, like birds as it turns out.

I needed to quiet the voices in my head, I thought of using my own quilt design, Sliding Doors, and it looks like this.  It was a great way to use the fabrics while testing out my written design.

As I worked on the blocks I was not convinced I had it right, not the pattern but the colours. This was probably because this colour scheme was so far from the original.  But as I do, I kept going, not giving up.

I finished the top in a few weeks and put it away.  I was not entirely enthusiastic with the result.

That was until I took it over to my sister's.  When she opened the door she looked at the folded top in my arms and said I assume that is for me.  She does have quite a number of my quilts.  As I opened the quilt top, my littlest niece Lola, reached out her hands for it.  If anything was going to ensure this quilt was hers, that was it. Granted my sister's decor is a lot of black and white and grey and maybe Lola was thirsty for some colour, but it does not matter.  What Lola wants, Lola gets.

Next was the step of deciding on the quilting.  I did not want to quilt it with the word quilting as on my original Sliding Doors.

I waited patiently for inspiration to strike and it did with the magical combination of Lola and IKEA.  While following Lola around IKEA on her triumphant march through the merchandise (she has just learned to walk with some confidence), I saw a pattern of birds perched on lines. Hmm.

It stuck in my head.  Later as I sat in the car with Lola, waiting for my sister to pick up faucets for her new bathroom at Rona, I drew this.

Then when I got home I drew this.

Then I started quilting...

The back of the quilt is white seersucker and yellow gingham.

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."  Maya Angelou

A Lola doesn't walk because she knows where she is going, a Lola walks for the pleasure of it. Couldn't we all learn from that?

p.s. This is Lola, she sent me a message... she wants her quilt !

Let It Be

Here is my third Union Jack quilt.  This time I re-drafted the design a bit, making it paper pieced. It could be my British heritage, the graphic nature of the design, whatever it is, I can't stop making it.

When deciding on a machine quilting design I looked into Celtic and Anglo Saxon designs, eventually settling on a triskele...This is my version.

I also wanted to add some words from the Beatles, Let It Be.  I find that as popular as Let It Go is right now, let it be is more me.

Let it be.  Don't go poking your nose in.  Don't think everyone wants your help as much as you want to give it.  Leave things alone.  Let sleeping dogs lie and all that.  OK so it may sound a little much, but I am learning that the people and situations that want your help will indicate in some way.  My habit has been trying to fix/help everything, whether it wanted my fixing or helping or not.  Things can work out fine without my help, truly.

Hmm this post is more introspective than I had intended... perhaps January is the time in the year for introspection to surface more easily.

And finally... I changed one of the lines in my quilting to - "For though WE may be parted, there is still a chance that WE can see, there will be an answer, let it be."  I believe WE are all in this together :)

http://youtu.be/xSmZyRP_ZX0

p.s. This quilt is for sale on etsy

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/TalullahLou?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Swiss Cross - the finale (for now...)

Swiss Cross part 3... as though you had not heard enough.

This is what can happen in the days after Christmas, what I feel are an endless stream of Sundays.  If one does not choose to shop, clean the piles of dishes and pots, put away decorations... sewing is a lovely option :)

After I had made the two blocks shown in an earlier post, I had to see what more blocks would look like.

I used the cream and red fabrics I already had....

Eventually I ended up with 12, one reversed in the interest of variety.  My curiosity is endless.

Here is my Swiss Cross Quilt !

On my kitchen table, yes I swept the floor before taking these pics

The quilt measures approximately 60" square, off white quilted in the off white/cream and red quilted in the red.  The cream on cream did do a number on my eyes though until I got used to it !  I continued the cream/cream and red/red in the bobbin but it does not show up strongly on the reverse but I know it is there.

My eyes are not what they used to be, honestly they were never great

I used the remaining reds to create the binding and the backing is an IKEA red and white botanical print.

Trying more simple modern quilting designs, started as doodles on paper

I hope you were able to enjoy a week of Sundays as well, stay tuned to this channel for continued news of what else I accomplished during the week of Sundays.

Thanks to my sister for letting me play with her cool camera !