Lilacs & Butterflies, Baskets and Nine Patches Pattern and Lia’s Secret Tote Bag Swap!

Every day something new is blooming in the garden. The early tulips and daffodils are just finishing, the laburnum and lily of the valley are coming along and the lilacs are just budding out now. Soon I’ll be able to cut masses of lovely lilacs and bring them in the house. They are so fragrant!

 

This wall hanging was made for me by my Mom. Her pet name for me is Kat so she called this piece Kat’s Butterflies.

 

She used some variegated flosses for the lilacs and some solid colours and combined the threads to create variation in the colours. This is a great way to add some variety; take two strands of differnt colour floss and combine them to make a new colour! Works a charm! The two smaller lavender butterflies are broderie perse and the larger orange butterfly is needle-turn applique. The whole thing is hand quilted by Mom. I love the mix of delicate colours and the bold, orange butterfly. Sometimes it is like that in the garden!

Tomorrow I’ll publish my Baskets and Nine Patches quilt pattern. I’m not a pattern maker but I’ve tried my best and hope you like it! As I worked away I thought about the things that I find helpful and I tried to incorporate many of those ideas. I’m also not a photographer or a computer wizard so if the pictures and diagrams are less than perfect I hope you will understand…..I’m a quilter, not a computer geek (and I say this with the utmost respect because my daughter IS a computer geek)! I would love to hear what you think of the pattern!

Lia is hosting a secret tote bag swap and last I hear she has over 50 people signed up! I’ve never participated in an online swap before and Lia and her blog are fun so I thought her swap would be a good place to try it out! If you are interested you can find all of the details here. Thanks for organizing this Lia; it’s going to be loads of fun to see what everyone makes!

Finally congratulations to Jenny. Her quilt Peaceful Pathways was the Quilting Gallery Show and Tell winner. I love the quilt's story (quilts with stories are special). You can see Jenny's quilt here.

Until I post again, happy sewing!