Dear John....

According to Wikipedia, a Dear John letter is a letter written to a man by his wife or romantic partner to inform him that their relationship is over.  

I've called this quilt Dear John because my relationship with the Dear Jen pattern is over.  Although the fully finished quilt looks beautiful, (see below) I just don't have the energy or dedication to make all the templates required and then hand piece all the blocks.    

link to the pattern at Amitie Textiles

So I've turned my blocks into a cute wall hanging, table mat, sampler quilt.  

Next weekend I'm going to Dunedin for a cross stitch retreat.  So I'm going to take this quilt with me and let my friends at Stitch Witches display it in their shop.  I always think it's nice to see finished quilts on the walls at quilt shops I visit, so I'll help them out and lend them one of mine. 

The finished quilt is 30" x 30". There's more photos here in my previous post. 

the back with cute Tula Pink fabric

The binding - it's gold, but works really well with the orange narrow border and floral border print

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

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Licorice Allsorts top is finished

Yes, my Licorice Allsorts top is finished.  I'm really pleased with it.  I took my time and really tried to make all the blocks perfect. As a result of that, the rows went together quite easily.  

I love how the black linen pops up throughout the quilt.  At first I thought that the black linen was going to be too dark against the light chambray Tilda fabrics, but when it's all together it works really well.  The bright green solids help with the colour balance too.  

I want to hand quilt this quilt myself, and I usually choose wool batting for hand quilting, but I was worried that the wool fibres would come up through the loosly woven black linen.  So I was prepared to use a different batting this time if I had to.  But fortunately my local quilt shop had a spare 2 metre piece of black wool batting!! So now they are basting it for me on their long arm quilting machine (you can read more about that process here). 

I need to hurry up and finish 10 other things on my quilting table so I'll be free to start hand quilting this beauty when it comes back all nicely basted.  

Reminder: this pattern is designed by Wendy Williams from Australia, and I purchased it as a block of the month through Material Obsession in Sydney, Australia. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

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Licorice Allsorts part 2

Easter felt like my own personal quilt retreat just for me.  I got so much sewing done!

I thought it might take me until the end of April to piece all the blocks for the Licorice Allsorts quilt, but I sewed every day over Easter and they're all finished now.  

I revisited Month 3 and remade one of the blocks, but it's not a lot better than the first time around.  I've made a note on the pattern to cut the pieces bigger if I ever make that block again.  

Now I'm sewing the blocks together and thinking about how I'm going to hand quilt it.  I've just ordered a very pretty backing from a local shop and will show you it when it arrives.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

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Licorice Allsorts

It's Easter 2023 and we're staying at home for once.  Last year we were in Queenstown, and the year before that in Auckland.  Easter 2020 we were at home, but that was during lockdown so we had no choice. 

I've decided to pull out my Licorice Allsorts block of the month and make some progress over the long weekend.  

The block of the month was issued in 10 monthly installments.  I've made the blocks for months 1-5, although I'm not 100% happy with the blocks for month 3, and I will remake them if there's enough fabric left at the end.  

I had already cut all the pieces for month 6 before I put it all away in the last quarter of 2022, so now I'm sewing up month 6 and I've even started month 7 because I like to multi task!

I do love the fabrics used in this quilt, and the embroidered blocks too of course. 

A reminder of what I'm aiming for - Licorice Allsorts designed by Wendy Williams

 

Hopefully I can get a lot done over Easter while we enjoy a quiet weekend at home.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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