Quilt Qwazy Queens

Hi everyone, it's great to have you visit for a while. Come in and sit down, maybe make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and let's talk about quilting. Many thanks to  Marion from Seams to be Sew for coming up with the idea for the hop and for doing all the organising. 

Many years ago my mother taught me to sew, both hand sewing and using her hand cranked Singer machine. Most of the sewing we did was dressmaking and as a teenager I would use the money I earned from my Saturday job at the kennels to buy fabric to make myself up to the minute fashion items. One day she showed me how to do english paper piecing and I spent many months sewing together hexagons to make a quilt top. During this time I moved to London to start my nurse training and when finished the top sat in a cupboard for a few years as I couldn't work out how to do the quilting. In the end I turned it into a duvet cover rather than a quilt. I loved using the cover as the fabrics were all left over scraps from dresses I'd made and I knew at some point in the future I would make quilts. I continued sewing, making clothes for myself and the children when they were younger but as they grew and my working life got busier this tailed off.

Now fast forward to October 2011 and I decided I wanted to try and make more time in my life for sewing, knitting and other needlecraft. My quilting journey started with this quilt kit that John bought me from the Stitching and knitting exhibition.

The quilt on display at the exhibition looked fabulous and I was sure it would be easy to follow the instructions. It took until February 2013 to make the quilt and I learnt a lot along the journey. When I first read the pattern it was very confusing as there were many new terms to get to grips with. From dressmaking I'd learnt to read the pattern through and make sure you understand it all before you start. I employed the same theory and so the first few weeks were just spent making sure I understood the instructions until I was finally ready to get cutting and stitching. I love the quilt and it lies along the back of the settee ready for snuggling under when needed.

In April 2012 at Guides we started a project to make rem baby quilts and we extended the project to include the younger girls. My love of quilting grew as we taught the Guides how to make the mini quilts. The Rainbows designed their quilt and they also learnt to use the sewing machine. The quilt was donated to project Linus. Scamp is posing on the Rainbow quilt in the header photo and the photo below is of the top part of the quilt.

Part of my delight in quilting comes from being able to turn scraps into useful and pretty quilts.  This one was made for the Tetris quilt a long run by Melissa at Happy Quilting. I won a jelly roll as one of the weekly winners

Here's the Christmas quilt made from the jelly roll.

The internet is a great source of quilt patterns and I followed the block of the week to make the Votes for Women quilt. Quilts are fabulous because they can help celebrate events. This quilt was made in the colours of the suffragettes to celebrate my paternal grandmother, I enjoyed making the blocks and learning more of the movement across the world to secure votes for women. Putting the two hobbies together, quilting and history is a great idea. Some of the blocks were very challenging to make and involved learning new techniques. If you want it to, quilting can challenge you and push you to increase your skills.

Quilting lets you make the perfect gift. My son is a Star Trek fan and his quilt went down a storm 

This quilt gave me the opportunity to practice circles using free motion quilting. The meander was mastered a little earlier. I was also able to finish the quilt on my home machine although it is 90 by 90 inches. So this really is a hobby that you can do at home.

Of course quilting isn't just about the big pieces, it's fun creating smaller items,

 Mug rugs are fun to make and are perfect as presents.

Several friends asked for tea cosys

It's fun making book and folder covers.

An original piece of quilting made from a drawing done years before.

Finally I love the historical aspects of quilting. It was very interesting seeing the quilt produced by Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit now you need to visit the other blogs on today's hop

March 25
Just Let Me Quilt
Sew Many Yarns
Quilting Queen Online
Jane’s Quilting

There is also a giveaway for you. This will remain open over the weekend. I'm away on holiday and I'm not sure about the internet access so Marian is going to notify the winner. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Today I'm going to be catching up with my visits to the participants of this hop. I've visited several of the blogs and it's been fascinating reading about the various quilting journeys. Today I'm not working and I'm having a little me time. Mmm a nice cup of tea and reading some blogs. Sounds like a perfect morning.

Lyndsey