Top border

I've been working very hard recently, this quilt has to be finished by end of October (and by finished I mean quilted as well)

It has taken me at least twelve hours to do the applique on this part of the top border, not including the preparation of the pieces.  When I started this quilt I tried out a few different applique techniques, I found that I didn't like traditional needleturn and preferred to use the front basting method (as described here) although I hand baste the fabric in place as I find it easier to unpick hand stitching than machine stitching.

Of late though, I have been using turned edge, whole unit hand applique over a semi-soluble fusible (Floriani Stitch and Wash)  and am finding this much kinder on my hands. Regardless of which method I use there is still a lot of preparation involved and I find it easier to spend a day or so choosing fabrics and getting the pieces ready and then a couple of days on the applique, and repeat, sometimes it feels like Groundhog Day :)

One down, three to go

I finished the bottom border a week or so ago, it seemed to take me an age to finish it off, all those circles ...

it is also a lot more difficult to take a photo of the border as it is quite long and barely fits in the camera frame..

 I think there are over 70 circles in the bottom border, I thought I had made plenty but some were a tad small, so it was more slaving over the ironing board making circles, all in a good cause though as I should be able to use some of them in the top border.

Circle work

I'm not too far off finishing the bottom border, I have finished stitching down the birds and the cat, I think there are a few wings on the birds and a couple of flowers that I still have to do,

and the circles, oh the circles, I spent the best part of a day making them.  There are 80 or so circles for the required for the bottom border, and I will be spending another day making circles for the rest of the quilt. A couple of weeks ago I bought a Frosted Donut a couple of weeks ago, I think it was a good buy as there are 36 different coloured bobbins to choose from and I have already used quite a few of them.

Last weekend the Australasian Quilt Convention was held in Melbourne, Sheila's Flower Garden quilt (Kaffe, and Kim and Me) was on display there as part of the Best of the Best display.

photo by Melissa Gottliebsen

there are a couple more photos of Sheila's quilt on Melissa's blog, just scroll down a bit.

Final block is finished

This afternoon I put the final stitch into the last block for the Flower Garden quilt, when I took it out and showed it to The Mister, his response was "that's a beauty".

I almost can't believe that I've finished all 24 of the blocks, it's taken me quite a while.  So where to now?  Well I'm almost a third of the way through the bottom border, I will finish that then tackle the top border, according to Sheila, the side borders are quite easy compared with the other two.

My Easter plan is to trim the blocks to size (making very sure not to cut them too small) then add the sashing and hopefully by the end of the very long weekend have that part of the quilt all finished, waiting for the borders.

I've just realised that I haven't put the circle on the block so it isn't quite finished yet :(     that will be the first thing I do tomorrow I think.

Progressing

As the border progresses it is getting harder to get a full photo of it, I finished another tree this afternoon, which leaves me with one tree left on this border.  I'm hoping to make a start on the tree this weekend as well as completing the last block.

I finished this block late yesterday afternoon, can't believe there is just the one block left to make.  With Easter coming up soon it will be a good opportunity to finish putting all the blocks together and get a better idea of how they all lok.

Slowly,

slowly getting there, two trees completed, and now I'm adding all the various components to them, it is quite fun selecting all the different fabrics although some days it does seem to take a long time to find just the right piece.

 During my blog watching today I saw this Flower Garden quilt on Stephanie Newman's blog A Quiltmaker's Quarters (you need to scroll down a bit) The quilt won Champion entry at the Dalgety Agricultural show.  The quilt looks quite lovely, and it is interesting to see that Holly has personalised the quilt in her own way. I also found this quilting detail picture of the same Flower Garden quilt on Facebook.  (I'm not sure if this link will work for non-FB users)

Two more blocks completed

I had hoped to complete all the blocks before the end of 2012, but it didn't eventuate.  I'm hoping to make the last three blocks by the end of February, then it will be time to start work on the bottom border again, the coral tree is partially done, the fountain is complete and I think one other tree as well.

There are some new Kaffe fabrics out so of course I have bought some to use in my quilt, despite my best efforts I still end up buying fabrics in the blue and purple colourways, must try harder to purchase other colours.  (or perhaps must try harder not to buy fabric)