Liberty Fabrics - To Do

In 2015, 2017 and 2019 I visited the Liberty shop in London - one of my favourite places to stroll around. And over time, I have chosen a few pieces of fabric with which to do something - but what?

One of these days I'm sure I'll get the inspiration for which I am looking and then you'll be the first to see what it is!

In the meantime, this is a not-so-good photo of what I have in my Liberty collection.

My Ironing Board Mat

Before we left our previous home, I decided not to take a full size ironing board with us - it took up a lot of storage room and as I mainly used the iron for sewing stuff, I felt I didn't need the full size ironing board. And so it went to the ironing board heaven and I have made do with a smaller, table-top ironing board - which so far, I'm very happy with.

However, as it sits on our table, I thought that maybe a mat under the legs might be good idea. And so was born my ironing board mat, as seen hereunder. And "yes", it's padded and quilted - of course!

And here it is, in situ:

Beechworth Quilt - To Do

In May 2018 we drove to Beechworth, Vic with our friends, and towed our respective caravans.

As part of our time in Beechworth, I visited a quilt fabric shop which was in a home, out of town. She had a wonderful array of fabrics, out of which I chose one piece in particular that caught my eye.

I've had a couple of ideas what to do with it but so far none of them have born fruit. Some of the fabric is already cut into 6" blocks, ready to piece but one of my great ideas actually was going to look awful had I carried on with it - and so I'm now up to about version 3 or 4. And so eventually it was placed in a plastic box awaiting further inspiration.

Herewith is the fabric and some of the options:

Option 1: To be patched with multi-coloured blocks in between. The colours are the same as in the floral fabric but I felt they dominated, rather than enhance the florals. So, I'm pretty sure that won't be a go-er! However, I'll use the multi-coloured blocks elsewhere, that 's for sure!

Option 2: To be patched with a light pink, as in the floral (note: these are pieces of fabric yet to be cut, so apologies that they have that crinkled look - that's coz they are crinkled!

Option 3: to be patched with a medium coloured pink, again this pink matches some of the pinks in the floral

Option 4: to be patched with the deepest pink within the main floral fabric

Overall: I still can't decide. Pink it is but which one? I'm weighing up which one will enhance the floral the best.

What I do notice is how the different shades of pink enhance their respective tones within the florals.

NOTE: I'm very happy for you to offer your choices!

From Kilt to Quilt

During 2023 (in July, in fact) I received some tartan kilt offcuts from a friend and decided to make a knee rug from them. And here is the result of a lot of trimming and sewing - not to mention how much tartan fabric frays!

This photo shows the reverse side of the quilt.

… and here it is thrown over our couch - it fits perfectly - both in size and colour.

Photo showing the kilt offcuts.

And so the tedious task of joining all these rectangles started...

My Amish Quilt (UFO)

In 2017, my best mate (AKA my husband) and I went on a holiday to the Northern Hemisphere, taking in a cruise along the way. The cruise was from New York City to Quebec, Canada; and while in North America, we took a detour to visit friends from our Egypt days, who were then living in Cleveland, Ohio. While in Cleveland, they offered to take us to an Amish community nearby. I jumped at the opportunity, not even realising that the Amish lived in Ohio - how ignorant was I???

Being a quilter, I knew all about the Amish and their quilts. Their reputation is global. I could hardly wait. The drive took only about an hour and I spent ages in one shop in particular, chatting with the staff about all sorts of things and in the mix the conversation included patchwork and quilting. I bought a panel of Amish-related pictues (if that’s the right word for it); and then pondered on what to do with said panel.

Eventually, I decided to leave the pictures as they were but I would embroider just ONE part of each picture. And then what? More thinking time ensued until I decided on what you see below.

As can be seen, this is still a flimsy (not yet made into a quilt). I may yet add some borders to it - it's there awaiting my next spurt of energy. I have not embroidered the pictures, except for one piece, maybe a fence, or a roof line but I wanted to leave the Amish blocks as I bought them.

Clara's Quilt

 In about 2010-2012ish my friend and I decided to make a quilt for our sewing mate's first grandchild.

I had recently seen this technique where you buy a panel, then slice it into x number of pieces and rejoin it with sashing - so we decided we'd give it a go for our friend's granddaughter; and herewith is our finished piece. I'm not sure it turned out exactly how we imagined but we were happy with the result nonetheless.

In the photo are Heather and I with the very happy grandfather.

Raffle Quilt

Around the 2008 and 2009 mark I was asked to make a quilt as a raffle prize for a not-for-profit group, to raise some funds - which I did. It was agreed that the colours be subtle so that no matter who won it, it would not offend - ie not too bold, not too pale, not pink, not blue, not too busy and the list went on. The photo below is the finished quilt and by all accounts the winner was thrilled with their prize and the colours and tone were perfect.

Manuela's Quilt

In about 2008 we befriended Hani and his wife Maggi, Egyptian newly weds. I think someone asked if I would help Maggi with her English but in the end, I probably learnt more Arabic than she learnt English - she just wasn't all that interested in it. After a while (maybe a year or so), they were having a baby, so I made their little bundle of joy, who they named Manuela  a small quilt.

Eventually, we lost contact with one another as she was bound up with baby-things, naturally; and still wasn't interested in improving her English. And I had my own life which was becoming increasingly busier and busier.

Anyway, this is Manuela's quilt!

Hamilton's Row-By-Row Quilt

This was my first real quilt, made as part of the curriculum of a Textiles 3-Year course, which I started in 2008! Well, it will be a quilt when it's finished - this is only the top part of it - the "quilting" bit is yet to happen - but given time, happen it will!!! And "yes", I'm really happy with the result thus far. 

I'm currently on a commission to make another Sampler Quilt but this time as a Queen Size for the 40th Wedding Anniversary of special friends - it will be basically like the one above but will be wider - wait for the photos - I'm hoping to have it finished by April 2010.

Update: in 2023, himself and I moved into a Retirement Village which meant, for us, that we were going to a smaller home, which meant that we had to reduce stuff in almost every area of our lives, which included our interests and hobbies. We didn't stop doing our respective interests and hobbies but what we did do, was to downsize what space those interests and hobbies took. For me it was my love of sewing. 

And so, in the mix, I looked at the heap of flimsies I had (a flimsy is a completed quilt top [patched and stitched] but not yet sandwiched into a quilt.

And this little number was in the mix of what went! I gave it to our Quilt Guild through the Quilt Club I attend and some angel out there, would take it as it is, or enlarge it and then sandwich and quilt it - from there, it would go to someone via the Charity Depot - whether that be as a knee quilt, a cot cover, a play mat or as a small child's quilt.

Esther's Quilt

We have 2 Middle Eastern young ladies who call us "mum and dad" and one of them loves to sew and this is a quilt which she made - she chose the fabric, the pattern and did all the cutting out and sewing of it. Both young ladies are refugees and are therefore in Australia without any other family members.  However, before she came to us, she had never sewn - not even threaded a needle to sew on a button. I think she did exceptionally well with this!
Esther's quilt has been hung at both our local exhibition and also the Statewide exhibition, which delighted her no end.
Sadly, our other adopted daughter is not the least bit interested in sewing!!!

The Bilby Quilt

My husband once asked "so, where's my quilt???". We looked at fabrics and designs and settled on what you see. It's his own quilt and he loves it - it sits on his lounge chair and he uses it every day (that we're home).
While it might not look it, there is a definite pattern in this, with large blocks making up the quilt!

... and on the reverse side is a patchwork bilby, a native Australian animal - a similar size to a rabbit. 

Caravan Quilt Cover

And when one purchases a new caravan, then one needs a new quilt cover for said caravan's bed and so, here's ours!!!
Except the photo was taken with it on our house bed, not the caravan bed!!! But I reckon you'll make the translation from one to the other...
We chose what we call "happy colours" for it...

My Spotlight Quilt

The fabric from which this quilt was made was the first "Story of Fabrics" which I bought; and like many others in my collection, it's still waiting to be quilted...

A "Story of Fabrics" is where a manufacturer will create several different fabrics that go together - every time any colour appears, it's always the same dye lot, for example. In a "Story", there might be florals, plain, checks, stripes, spots or variations of each of the aforementioned. Some "Stories" can have up to 40 different designs in the collection.

Update: in 2023, himself and I moved into a Retirement Village which meant, for us, that we were going to a smaller home, which meant that we had to reduce stuff in almost every area of our lives, which included our interests and hobbies. We didn't stop doing our respective interests and hobbies but what we did do, was to downsize what space those interests and hobbies took. For me it was my love of sewing. 

And so, in the mix, I looked at the heap of flimsies I had (a flimsy is a completed quilt top [patched and stitched] but not yet sandwiched into quilt.

And this little number was in the mix of what went! I gave it to our Quilt Guild through the Quilt Club I attend and some angel out there, would take it as it is, or enlarge it and then sandwich and quilt it - from there, it would go to someone via the Charity Depot - whether that be as a knee quilt, a cot cover, a play mat or as a small child's quilt.

Maggie's Quilt

This is one of my favourite quilt blocks - sadly, it's not a 'quilt' until it's quilted! I just love the colours and the design - all my own work with ideas and helpful hints from all sorts of people and places.
Like for example - the border of French Braid took me about 6 months to work out how to turn the corner while keeping the pattern going - it would have been too easy to have just placed a plain block in each corner but "no", I wanted to turn the corner with the pattern intact. Mind you, it wasn't 6 months of thinking of nothing else - it just sat in the background of my head, as I got on with life and eventually I got there! Yay!!!!

The only thing left to do, before it gets quilted is to appliqué some flowers into the centre of it - a bit like what I did on Julie's Quilt (see another entry on this blog), only different - the what is still being worked out in my head but I have some ideas in the melting pot.

PS: on the second photo, did you notice the "peep border"???

Flag Mug Rugs

Well, I should call this "Flag" singular, coz that's all I have so far.

Have you ever done something which you thought would be a real challenge - just coz you can? Well this was my "challenge". For ages I'd wanted to make a Union Jack and finally last year, I made one.
Maybe other flags might follow - or maybe life will get in the way and no more will appear on this page. The next one on my To-Do list of flags is the Scottish flag - the flag of my heritage!

And my second flag finished is the Devon flag for Norm, coz that's where he was born.

And hang in there as there are other Flag Mug Rugs on the way...

And 4 years on from my initial upload, I have a heap of them which I've forgotten to show off. So here goes with the rest of them:

This is the flag of County Durham in North-East England which is from where the mother of Alice Armstrong was born.

This is the flag of England - both of us have family history here.

This is the flag of France. Norm has traceable family history going back to the 1300s from France.

I might need to make another one for Ireland - as you can see it's been well used and stuff has been spilt on it over the years - sadly, I've tried washing it but some stains just don't budge! We both share Irish heritage.

This is the flag of Norway. According to my DNA, I have Norwegian heritage! Ah! Those Vikings!!!

This is the flag of Scotland - the country of my heartland. According to my DNA, I am 50% Scottish and proud of the fact. Other than Australia, this is the country I'd love to live in, even for a year!

This is the flag of Somerset, from whence my mother's family come.

This is the flag of Sweden - like Norway, my DNA lists this country as part of my heritage.

This is the flag of Wales - another of Norm's countries of heritage.

I had fun making each of these Mug Rugs. They measure 6" x 9" and I love using them, especially while we are camping.

And these are a couple of photos of the collective flag mug rugs.

The Splendid Sampler

This was a 50-block Challenge last year, which I started but didn't get beyond January 2016.
I did the first 2 weeks, then I made 2 of the 3rd week's blocks (coz I changed my mind about the colours I chose the first time round) and I made 2 of the 4th week's blocks - same reason. I have all of February and March's blocks cut and placed into plastic zip bags, and stapled to their respective patterns - and that's about when the rest of life took over and there they have stayed ever since!

Mug Rugs, Placemats & Runners

One Christmas I was gifted a rather beautiful and dainty tea mug - which sent my head into a spin coz immediately, I knew I just had to make a Mug Rug for it - AKA a coaster.


Herewith said mug, set upon its own Mug Rug!!!

... and here is a picture of the same Mug Rug but with a couple of biscuits popping out from the pocket. If you are gifting this to someone, you could put a couple of their favourite teabags in the pocket for an extra treat!

... and here they are with their very own Mug Bag - is this 5-Star service for the humble tea mug???

And then when one is on a roll - let's make some more Mug Rugs - these 2 were gifted as part of a Christmas Gift Swap:

Our Christmas Runner
This has been "coming" for several years now and finally, it's been pieced together but still not completed!!! Maybe 2017 might be the year it sees the light of day as a Runner????

Sodoku Mat
Just for a bit of fun, I decided to make a Sudoku Mat, so we could play the game with friends as a Board Game! But where to get big enough chips or discs from - we first used plastic bottle tops and we collected a heap of colours - 9 of each but they became too bulky to carry around - so we're still looking for suitable discs, buttons, chips or tiles - but whatever we get has to have 9 of any one colour to make it work - it's still a work in progress!!!

Each 9-piece block is a different shade of neutral...


And then I decided to make a Runner for our Occasional Table, using Japanese fabrics in positive and negative of the same fabric.
This is the positive side:

And this is the negative of the same fabric:

Ted & Fred's Quillos

After making several quillos a few years earlier, it was time to make one for each of my other nephews - both at the time were heavily into cars and trucks. Their mother and I went fabric shopping and soon settled on 2 sets of fabrics - one for each of the boys - and both sets were full of cars and trucks.

Fred's Quillo

... and Ted's Quillo