Hello lovely friends, from my home to yours, I'm wishing you a Happy New Year! I hope this year brings us all good things, and it can be a year to remember in a positive way. I always try to do things I'm keen to continue on the first of the year - this year I slept in (which is not something I want to be doing too often) we had quite a late night celebrating with some of our lovely friends. I managed to get some hand quilting done - so time in the sewing room is a good thing. I made sure to do some tidying - always something I want to keep going with through the year, and I made sure to try and have a healthy day after a slightly less healthy evening. Let's hope I can keep most of these things up during the year!
And now on to quilting matters. I mentioned recently that I'm contemplating making a small start on the Morrell quilt by Di Ford Hall. Sweet Chris from Quilting at the Farm is working on it too, and we're going to be stitching buddies. I had stalled as I couldn't decide on a background fabric - when Chris mentioned that she was using several I thought maybe I should do that too, as I so often work with many different fabrics in my quilts. So, I'll show you where I am at this moment:
The French General background fabric on the left, I have a small amount of that - maybe a yard or two. The Apple Crisp dots in the middle, I am pretty certain I have enough of that for the whole quilt, and the little floral print I have about 8 yards of that. So, I can do a scrappy background with those (and potentially some others) or the whole quilt with two of those options. For some of the broderie perse blocks, I purchased this County Clare panel from Somerset Patchwork (I'm so sorry, it's sold out now) I hope the background colour of the fabric will blend well enough with the other fabrics when I'm needle turning the edges under. We will see!
I'm looking to you for some reassurance sweet friends - should I use a scrappy background as I so often do or should I be more conservative and keep it simple given that there will be a lot of fabrics in the quilt anyway?
I've also pulled a few fabrics for the hexagon block - which will be my first foray into the Morrell quilt - and here they are for now:
It is likely that I'm going to change out the green for something a little softer and maybe a bit more floral. But I need more time to rip the stash apart to find the perfect thing. Hopefully this first block will give me some inspiration to work on some of the other blocks - at the moment I'm finding the pattern a little overwhelming. I know it'll be an amazing quilt to work on once I start though!
Hand quilting has continued slowly - it's super relaxing, and I would love to spend so much more time on it. Patience ... patience ...
And the last picture for the day:
The Christmas tree has been taken down, and the lounge/dining rooms look so much emptier without it. I'm ready for less clutter around the house, so I'll enjoy this feeling of space for now.
That's all for today - thank you so much for stopping by, and I look forward to spending this year with you! Chatter soon xox
6 comments:
Overwhelming indeed. That is why it took me 2 years to get started after I bought the pattern and why it sits languishing in a project box or 4. I am looking forward to joining you on this journey. It is a beautiful quilt. I have a picture of the original in one of my books. The dot fabric may just be the right one.
pretty fabrics. I think I have the book that the pattern is in - the Morrell quilt I should look and see what it looks like I don't remember
The quilt will look lovely whatever you decide for the background. I will say though that i was drawn to the dot print.
I guess I am in the minority, I say go scrappy. For me this means you can use even more fabrics in the blocks, if it doesn't look good with one background it will with another.
I took your advice and prepped some hand applique and worked on it New Year's Eve and day. Hope the trend continues for us all.
I so look forward to seeing you you do through the year.
I love your green walls. Whoever the bridal couple are, very beautiful and handsome.
Happy Stitching.
anxious to see more of this project as it goes along...yes the tree does leave bare space...i haven't yet caved to a complete deconstruction, leaving lights only on for a few more days to get thru gray days...
That's an awesome start for the new year. It's hard to make that first block. So many decisions
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