Monday, November 18, 2013

A Few of My Favourite Things (the reveal) and a new Block of the Month pattern

I was able to get outside and photograph These are A Few of My Favourite Things. Let's start with the border. It was a challenge. The instructions for the entire quilt fit on a single page!


For the border they read "Join each row in the border" and then "when each block has been sewn, sew and join the whole". That was it! There was a diagram of the entire quilt on the page but it wasn't a lot of help.


These are the instructions for the corner. Not a lot to work with!


I spent many hours with a pencil, eraser and graph paper working out the border to make sure that it fit perfectly! And here it is.


Here you can see the corner resolution.


And now the reveal....These are A Few of My Favourite Things! It was entirely hand quilted. There are some creases in the quilt because it has been folded for many years. I'm going to give it a light pressing and then refold it on the diagonal.


It is time for the Block of the Month pattern. Each month I select a piece of Canadian art and reinterpret it as a quilt block. This month I selected a painting by Edward Malcott Richardson. Richardson was English and while I normally select a Canadian artist, Richardson painted watercolours of people and places he saw in British Columbia. As a young man he succumbed to the allure of the Cariboo Gold Rush of the early 1860s. Did he make his fortune? You'll have to read his bio in the pattern to find out! Richardson was a watercolourist. His painting Indians at Williams Lake is the painting that inspired the block.


The block is based on a half square triangle. You will find the pattern and the artist's bio here.

There are all sorts of design possibilities for this one! Here are three of my favourites.




Last month's pattern was also based on half square triangles. In case you missed it here is a picture of the blocks. I would alternate them with an old fashioned bubble gum pink or a soft blue as in the picture below. You will find the pattern along with a picture of the painting that inspired the block and the artist's bio here.


I'm off for a day of sewing with Mom! Until I blog again, happy sewing!

6 comments:

  1. It's a lovely quilt - and a nice way to feature favourite things! I do love the blue border - perfect :)

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    1. Thanks Hilda. Your praise means a great deal because I think your quilts are pretty fabulous!

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  2. I love my visits here, we are always in for a treat. I am worried that you will run out of lovely things to share :-o

    I liked this quilt very much, it has a delightful 30's feel to me. It always strikes me tho, that our beautiful quilts are folded and stored away. Someone said to me, layer them on a "spare" bed and change them over from time to time, so they lay flat and you can enjoy them every time you go into that room. What great advice. I don't have that many finished quilts, but I shall be doing that as we are lucky enough to have a spare or "guest" room.

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    1. Oh I've still got loads to show and share. And when I run out my Mom has just as many that I can share with you!

      I don't have a spare bed so I have to fold quilts but my Mom lays most of hers on the spare bed. The bed used to be quite low but now you almost need a step stool to get on the bed!

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  3. I love this quilt. I wish I'd seen something like this when I made my "westies" redwork. Maybe I'll just have to make another one. I don't know, but did I miss out on how you managed the bows around the blocks? Those look like they'd be a bit more of a challenge than the border. Just wondering also, if you adapted the border in the pattern to go all the way around as oppposed to just on the corners as the pattern shows, or was the diagram indicating to continue all the way around? Are there any other interesting quilts in that book that you'd like to share? Thanks for your wonderful blog. It is my morning wake up with coffee every day.

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    1. Hi Carolyn - the bowties are pieced by hand. They were fussy more than challenging. The border on the other hand involved long thin stretchy strips and all of the little white bits had to match up. Plus I had to do all the math because the instructions were so vague!

      Thank you for reading my blog and taking the time to comment!

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