Work on Wed 23rd Nov

Hi Everyone,

As many of you already know the last couple of weeks have definately been WOW weeks for me.
It was a friend from the sit and sew group at Country Dawn who convinced me to enter LE into Festival of Quilts in Auckland. Ngaire has been a member of the Auckland Guild for many years and is a successful exhibitor (this year included) so with her encouragement I joined the guild and have been attending their monthly meetings. Have to say I have been astounded by the number of community quilts the members make for those in need.
I felt like a child going to a birthday party just taking LE to the hand in day in October but nothing like the excitement when I got the phonecall after the judging day. OMG it was a fabulous feeling but it was really LE's day. All of you who have made or are making this quilt know how it has she has a personality all her own and wants her story told, I am just so happy I did her and Esther proud.

To hear last week LE received the Viewers Choice for Amateur Quilt was the icing on the cake, there were so many wondeful quilts on display I didn't think it possible LE would be a contender.

Would just like to thank here  everyone who has given my support and encouragement while I have been on my LE journey especially Esther for giving us the amazing pattern and all the members of her group, many becoming long standing on line friends.
One more thankyou is to the wonderful sponsors whose generosity allows shows like this to give fabulous prizes to the award winners. I hadn't even thought of prizes apart from the rosette but from I my award sponsors Cushla's Village Fabrics and Trendy Trims this is what my coffee table looked like on arriving home.

Fabulous prizes from wonderful sponsors

AQG has just posted photo's of all the award winners to their face book page, here is the link for anyone who would like to take a look. https://www.facebook.com/pg/AklQuiltGuild/photos/?tab=album&album_id=881535455314011

What have I been sewing recently?  Gathering unfinished quilting projects is the answer.

Have put the last border on Fly Away but it is bundled on a corner of my sewing table at the moment as I have started a new project instead of finishing what is on the go.
Fell in love with a roll of 8 inch strips of oriental fabrics while in Auckland and just had to buy them though no real idea what to do with them, you know what its like.
Started to think about the old embroidery patterns of Mum's that I have and an idea started to gel.
Could I applique some of the oriental ones and create a wall hanging.

Pattern for an Oriental Firescreen.

Found a wonderful background fabric at Country Dawn for my applique blocks, Japanese and I think it is linen with a lovely slub effect so couldn't wait to get started on my first block and yesterday I finished it.

Am really happy with how it has come out, here are some close ups.

One of my oriental fabrics had these little blossoms, perfect size for fussy cutting and I found a digitised fabric with large butterflies that I could again fussy cut my wings from.

Am so happy with my choice of background.

Butterfly fabric for the bright colours on the bird and some peacock fabrics gave me the body and the tail detail. Found a stitch that I could stitch and then mirror image to give me my tail feathers.

Metallic threads are in full use .

Lots of experimenting for this part as I wanted to replicate the pattern as much as possible.

I used the grass stitch on my bernina and loosened my foot pressure to very light so I could move the fabric sideways easily while stitching. Had a heavy weight tearaway under my fabric for this and the stright triple stitch.

Fussy cut the flowers and darkened them with pencils. original is on the right.

Border fabric is a Japanese fabric from a friend and I think it finishes this block perfectly.

With borders this block has finished at 18" x 25"

Two more panels to make in the same style, will be the same length but narrower.

Heading to my sit and sew group this morning and it will be fussy cutting more blossoms for me.

Enjoy your week everyone.

Cheers Jenny