Gypsy Four Patch Top Extension

Spring arrived already! The almond tree in the garden is full of lovely flowers and the bees are flying all around making an engine's noise! The weather was so good last week that my children and grandson went to the beach and although the sea was cold they even went to swim! 

With spring comes again the will of sewing fresh color fabrics. Searching among my UFOs I found my Gypsy Four Patch top. It was exactly the kind of colors corresponding to my mood. 

I don't often make borders to my quilts, but as regards this one, I thought it looked somewhat unfinished and useless as it was not big enough for a double size bed and too big for a sofa throw.

So I decided to enlarge it in order to fit exactly to my bed. I began to choose fabrics and to cut a first band. Then I will cut rectangles and squares of matching fabrics to complete the top.

For the backing I think of using these lovely Joel Dewberry fabrics.

Double Four Patch Quilt Offered

Over years you could follow the slow progress of my Double Four Patch quilt.
I cannot believe myself that I had the patience to cut and assemble 2200 squares!
Anyway, it is now in good hands : I offered it to my sister who will use it as a wall hanger in her lounge.
She had planned to visit us last month and I managed to finished it just in time.
Those pictures were taken last month as snow started to fall. You can see some snow flakes on my sister's red coat.
We were too cold to hang the quilt outside to show it entirely, but you will see it soon exhibited on the wall of her lounge.

TUTORIAL : How to Sew a Rod Sleeve on the Back of a Quilt

If you plan to use your quilt as wall hanger, one method is to hang it on rod fixed in the wall.

For this purpose, you will have to attach a hanging sleeve on the back of your quilt.

This tutorial will show you how to proceed to sew the sleeve and to attach it on the quilt back.

Cut a 5" large stripe of fabric. The length should be 1" less than your quilt.

Make a little hem on each side.

Fold your sleeve in two, lengthwise, and sew it before sewing your binding.

Sew you binding on the right side of your quilt and then hand sew it on the sleeve.
For the binding, you will find the explanations HERE and HERE.

Press and pin a little fold to allow the rod to have space.

Hand stitch the sleeve all along.

Take the pins away, your sleeve is ready.

Your quilt is ready to be hanged.

Double Four Patch Quilt Finished

At last finished! Machine pieced and machine quilted. I have used mainly leftovers from my Civil War repro fabrics stash. On the last three pictures I have displayed it on my small Tumbling Blocks quilt, as well done with Civil War fabrics.

My sister, for whom I did this quilt, is arriving to Greece very soon and I am so happy I managed to finish it in time!

Fan Quilt

So happy to receive those lovely pictures from my niece in Paris! I had offered her this Fan quilt few years ago and she was pleased to show me how great it looks on her new sofa.

How rewarding it is when you make a quilt for a beloved one and you see that it is cherished!

I had done this Fan quilt exclusively with Kaffe Fassett fabrics. It is square (about 1yard 25 x 1 yard 25) machine pieced and hand quilted.

Bicolor Alpaca Poncho

Searching in my stash of wool I found four alpaca yarns : three light blue and one beige.

I had them since a long time but could not find a way to use them until last week came to me the idea of knitting a poncho. The yarn is very thin but I decided to use needles 6mm for a soft and light touch. As I could not find a suitable pattern I thought of making it very simple in garter stitch, which is my favorite stitch recently. It is a simple rectangle with a neck hole in the middle. 

I am not sure if the final result will be ok...

The cute woolen sheep comes from Uruguay!