An explained absence, and more baby-ness

Oh my, it has been another long, long time. The past month has passed in a flash, with more illness (me), travel (France for Moot and me, Africa for her dad) and general busy-ness.

There has been some crafting, however. Mostly cutting up bits of fabric for various projects.

The wip that needs to be transformed into a finished item is a baby quilt and ball set for my step-brother's newest daughter, born last night! No name yet, and worst of all, no pictures. They live in North America, so I need pictures.





Back to the quilt. It's my first, and it's made from old linen napkins, bought as a lot from eBay and cheap as chips. I love the way the white squares bounce off each other, with damask shinyness and cotton crispiness. I wish it was easier to get that across in a picture. The backing fabric is an old Amy Butler print. I am at the point of sewing the binding, which is really just the backing fabric folder over and slipstitched in place. When her parents come up with a name, I'd like to embroider it on the top somewhere.



The ball was great fun to make. The fabrics are a mix of my stash and my grandmother's stash. They were pieced together using the English method, with thick paper. I really enjoyed the hand sewing, making careful tiny stitches.



Then I stuffed it with wool and - a bell. Both were from Myriad. I can't recommend the stuffing wool enough, it came in a huge fluffy bushell, and I had to rip bits off to poke into the ball. The ball isn't exactly round, but it tinkles so I don't think this new baby will mind.

Next on the list are summer clothes for Moot from this book, a dress for me, and first in line, a Girlie Dress for my sister out of this fabric.

Oh, and another thing that has been making us fidgety is my regular fantasy of selling up and moving to the Gulf Islands in western Canada. Not helped by bad habit of browsing estate agents and finding this little piece of paradise. One day, one day...

Labour of love

More than 200 hours of work went into making this quilt, most of it my grandmother's. She's been a member of the same quilting group for 20 years, and they all help each other make quilts for family members and for charity.

Can you believe it, although I chose this pattern, a Dresden plate, I was disappointed with it when I first got it. In my defense, I was 16 - what did I know? I thought it was a bit boring. But I soon realised how fabulous it is. For years, I've been too scared to have it on the bed, in case it got damaged, and to my shame, it's been carefully stored away rather than displayed for all to admire. Many of the fabrics are scraps from clothes I wore, or my parents wore.

Yesterday, we got some dowelling, and as soon as I sew loops on the back of it, it's going up on the wall.

Some close-ups.

When bad pictures happen to good quilts

For the wife of a photographer, it's pretty embarrassing. While we were at my grandparents in Canada, I only managed a few seconds on the morning of our departure to take pictures of a couple of quilts, and the light in them is bad, as the room is lit like a dentist's office. I'm still a secret blogger as far as my extended family goes, and so was taking pictures on the sly.

The first is my grandfather's sock quilt. For years, my grandmother collected my grandfather's odd or torn socks, then finally sewed them together as quilt squares, backed them with pink flannel (why pink? I will have to ask) and secured it with French knots in red wool. Voila, your perfect, hard-wearing, economical quilt. Do other people make these? I don't know. We used it a lot for picnics on the beach.



The next is a quilt not actually made by my grandmother, but given to her by the daughter of a friend, who was obviously crazy because she didn't want it. My granny took it to a quilt shop one day when they was a some quilt version of the Antiques Roadshow, but they couldn't date it, other than say it is very old.





My mother isn't as actively crafty as my grandmother, but she made a quilt for the baby before she was born.



She was hedging her bets by making it blue and pink, but I think the lace applique is such a girly touch, it gives her preference away. The flowery fabric is from an old shirt of hers, and the image of Notre Dame is from one of her old t-shirts. (She lives in Paris.)

Flicking through a photo album of the quilts my grandmother made during 20 years with her quilting group, I happened upon my quilt, a Dresden plate, with a caption saying it took over 200 hours of hand quilting. That made me feel slightly queasy, as the quilt is folded up in a corner, not being admired, waiting for me to get round to fixing loops on it to hang it up. I'll post pictures soon.