Feels like all my birthdays have come at once...

My quilts are finally back from the long arm quilter - whooo hooo!!!

They have been with Chris for about 6 weeks. When I took the quilts to her there were 22 in the queue in front of me and although I was bummed that I'd have to wait so long, once I saw the piles of her own quilts I knew they were going to be worth the wait! Katy dropped hers off about a week before mine so I knew once she had her quilt back that mine wouldn't be long behind.I actually felt quite emotional when I went to collect them and saw how beautiful they looked ('quite emotional' being an understatement as had I have known her better I would have blubbed like a baby!!) I think Maggie likes them too!



The first one is a Grandmothers flower garden. It's hand pieced from 3069 hexagons and took me about 3 or 4 months to do as I attacked this project like a woman possessed. We probably didn't eat too well, jobs around the house didn't get done, and fingers were shredded to bits but I loved loved loved every single minute and every tiny stitch of this quilt. I had a romantic notion that I was going to hand quilt around every hexagon but know myself well enough to know that after 50 I would have wanted to poke my own eyes out with the quilting needle - or it would have stayed unfinished for years. I have (stupidly!) decided to bind around all the hexagons with narrow continuous bias binding. It will be a pain to do but I think it will be worth it.

The second one is a Triple Irish chain using mostly my favourite fabrics of all time - Heather Baileys Freshcut (with a bit of Amy Butler thrown in). I hand pieced this one from 2" squares and it probably took me about 6 weeks. This was the start of the hand-piecing frenzy that led onto the Grandmothers Flower Garden!! I wasn't too keen on the large expanses of calico so i appliqued the daisies on and then embroidered around them.Because the design didn't lend itself to an all-over pattern I opted to have it custom quilted. This was the one that I most wanted to see as it had sat folded up in a carrier bag for 6 months as I was too scared of messing it up by attempting it myself. I so LOVE it.

I will spend the first part of the weekend parked on the sofa sewing the binding on the Triple Irish chain and then I plan to spend the rest of the weekend wrapped up tightly up in it.

I think it will be a loooonng time before I'll be able to say the same about the grandmothers flower garden!