Tea Party part 6

Wow! It's been two and a half years since I worked on this quilt! But I'm going on holiday soon and I need some hand stitching to take with me. 

My quilt.

The full finished quilt designed by Wendy Williams

I have 4 tea cup blocks and 4 coffee cup blocks all prepped and just waiting for me to applique the flowers on.

So this week I've been cutting circle motifs out of fabrics and appliquing them to the wool felt in the evenings. I'm just building up a collection at the moment and will decide which flowers to put on each block when I have a good range to choose from. 

This pattern includes some reverse applique wool felt stars and they are fun to make.  I'm tacking the underlying fabric into place before I attach them to the background. 

Hopefully I can get at least 3 blocks ready to take with me to sunny Noosa. 

You can read my previous blog post about the Tea Party quilt here. 

You can find the pattern here at Material Obsession.  Or the full kit here. 

Tea Party part 5

I made a lot of progress on my Tea Party quilt this week. 

And I'm loving how it's looking.  I was slightly worried when I put the first border on and the red crosses were a bit concentrated in the bottom half (see below). But I kept going and the next border has balanced out the colour placements.  The next round of blocks will disperse the colours even further, so I'm confident that it's all going to be OK.  

The next round is the 16 feature blocks - I've finished 8 of the blocks already, but I still have to do the wool felt applique on the 8 blocks with tea and coffee cups.  

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!

Click here to enter

Tea Party part 3

I've been quietly working away on my Tea Party quilt in the background.  

I've now finished all 8 of the plainer blocks that will alternate with the tea and coffee cups.  

Next up is the centre block which I might start this week.  Strangely enough, I'm worried that I might stuff it up! I really want this quilt to be beautiful - I guess that's why it's taken me years to start it.  I think I'll just prepare some flowers and leave them on my "design floor" for a few days before I start stitching them on. 

I was the guest speaker at Rose City Quilters in Palmerston North on Monday night.  It was a fabulous meeting, because not only did I get to share my quilts with the guild, but I also got to present the certificates and prizes from their exhibition at the weekend.  

I'd gone to Palmerston North the previous Monday with Clare Smith and we had judged the Rose City Quilters Exhibition.  It was great to see all the quilts up close, and it was quite difficult to determine the winners in some categories.  Congratulations to everyone who won an award. 

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!

Click here to enter

Coffee in a Kaffe cup

This week I've been working on my Tea Party quilt.  How I wish I had coffee cups like this at my house!

and shiny tea cups like this too.

I think they work well with my tea pot.

I've still got to applique flowers on to all of these blocks, but I'm happy that I've finally decided on my cups and tea pot.  Although I do like the softer colours used in the pattern, I like the darker cups and tea pot even more. 

I've added the finishing touches to some of the other blocks too.  There are 8 of these plainer blocks, and I've finished 3 of them.  

It's true, I do love fiddling about with fabric and threads.  Cutting and sewing these circles on made me happy this week. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tea Party quilt - part 2

Shirley from Zipzog blog in the Netherlands got in touch after my post last week, and told me that she had made the Tea Party quilt with some friends.  Here's Shirley's finished quilt.  It's gorgeous!

by Shirley of Zipzop blog

You've inspired me to keep going Shirley!

I've finally chosen my fabric for the tea pot.  I feel that the tea pot sets the tone for the rest of the quilt, so it needed to be right.  I've chosen the flowery fabric at the bottom in the photo below. 

There are 16 large blocks around the outside, and I've pieced six of them so far.   I've decided to machine piece all the blocks before I start adding the decorative wool felt applique.  

Most of these fabrics are the ones supplied in the Block of the Month packs, but I have decided to change the outer borders on some of the blocks.  This green above is from my own stash, and I'm going to make more substitutions in coming blocks.  I don't want too much orange in my quilt.  

So that's where I'm at.  We've had a slight easing of lockdown restrictions where I live in Wellington, but the only real difference is that we can have takeaway food now - coffees, fish and chips, McDonalds etc, and order more things online. Office workers are still all working from home. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tea Party quilt

 If you've been following my blog for a while, you might remember this one.  It's appeared on my annual To Do list a number of times, but somehow I've never got round to starting it.  

This is a Wendy Williams Block of the Month from 2016.  I didn't enroll in the programme, but I came across someone else who had, but then decided she would never make the quilt.  So I purchased her unopened packs, and I have had them in my quilt stash for five years.  

I initially thought that I might substitute out some of the fabrics to make my quilt a bit darker (more blues, greens and purples), but as I started to open the packs this week I decided against that idea.  

The fabrics in the packs are amazing - such a range of beautiful fabrics, many that I haven't seen before.  Material Obsession carries lines that we don't see in New Zealand.  

When we went back into lockdown on 18 August, I knew it was time to tackle something challenging. This quilt is challenging because of all the curved piecing.  I intend to machine piece all the blocks first, and then I'll do the wool felt applique later.  

So far I've

- prepared the background for Month 1

- made the borders for Month 2

- made the blocks for the borders in Month 3

- machine pieced the two blocks for Month 9

- made the blocks for the final border in Month 10

So, I'm all over the show, but I'm having fun and that's what counts during lockdown. 

Thank you for all the lovely comments on Mirage and Fireworks.  I've tried to reply to everyone, but some of you are No Reply Bloggers so I can't see your email addresses.  I do appreciate all your kind words thank you.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week?  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter