Two Antique Quilts

Summer in France

Hi everyone! Back to Greece... and to my blog after a long summer in France. I am still busy there restoring my 19th century summer house bought five years ago. I love doing this job and especially  decorating, with the drawback that it keeps me temporarily away from quilting. 

I have sent most of my quilts, the antique ones and those done by me, from Greece to France, with the aim of a future exhibition, but not only : my house is going to be filled with quilts on beds, on couches, hanged on walls...

The above picture shows two antique quilts displayed on the sofa in the living room, bought by one of my sons on ebay in 2014. You can see several pictures of those quilts, with details HERE and HERE.

Giant Hexagons Quilt

So happy to start again a new project after 10 months disability! The good thing is that I had all my time to mentally prepare it! So I had decided for this new quilt to only use fabrics from my stash, choosing my favorite hues (pink, blue and brown), among my reproduction fabrics.

I assemble hexagons, using the half hexie technique. It's a very quick and efficient method. I will write a tutorial in a next post.

This early stage is quite encouraging, I am very pleased with the appearance of these hexagons on my design board...

EnregistrerEnregistrer

Drawstring Bag

I have been absent from the web since a while due to many family obligations, and especially taking care of my grand-son. No quilting or knitting these days, just a little spring gardening.

I did this drawstring bag five years ago for my little niece. Since then she is carrying it everywhere she goes. The lovely flower fabric is Anna Maria Horner's. I followed the print lines to embroider it. 

On the fourth picture you can see the border of my Kaffe Fassett Fan quilt.

Ohio Stars

This Ohio Star lap quilt is my third one. I did it for my mother more then twenty years ago. It was displayed in her lounge, she enjoyed it a lot and though washed too many times, it had remained in a good condition.

I hand pieced it and hand quilted it.

The size is 46" x 46", and each Ohio Star block measures 10.5" x 10.5".

Country Baskets

 

I did this quilt about five years ago. I had found the pattern in an old book from Better Homes and Gardens called "Quilting pieces of the Past". Being a fan of baskets, when I saw the picture of this quilt I "fell in love" with it at first sight! I had a lot of brown fabrics and scraps in my stash and thought it would be a good opportunity to use them. For each basket I used a different fabric. 

The quilt is single bed size and is machine pieced, machine quilted and hand applique.

Pink Hexagon Quilt

This quilt has a story... again. A friend of mine did it for her daughter, but as it took her some time, by the time she almost finished it her daughter had become a teenager and did not want anymore pink in her bedroom. So my friend gave this lovely hexagon quilt to me, and I finished it for my own daughter who was still a child at that time. She enjoyed it until she became a teenager and changed as well her color choices for her bedroom.

This quilt is hand sewn and hand quilted "in the ditch", it is single bed size.

The fabrics are Laura Ashley's.

Pink Feeling

Suddenly spring! Three weeks ago we were under the snow and now spring is here! The first sign is the almond tree flowering. And with spring comes my feeling for fresh colors in the house, and especially pink which is my favorite color. I started taking everything pink from the closets : quilts, cushions, blankets... with a will to transform the house atmosphere. With enthusiasm (I don't know for how long) I began to air, brush, wash... in a word spring cleaning. 

Apart from cleaning and decorating, I baked a brioche and this orange cake. This is a classical family recipe I used to make a lot for my children : 

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter
• pinch of salt
• Orange peel + 1 orange juice
• 4 eggs         

Mix the sugar + melted butter. Add the eggs one by one, then the orange, then the flour.

Lay butter and spread sugar in a rectangular baking pan and pour the mixture. 

Put in the oven at 180 o C (327 o F) for 45 mn to 1 hour.

Just out of the oven, pour some cognac or rum and sprinkle a little icing sugar.

This cake is the easiest possible to make, and always successful!

After decorating and baking, let's start a little gardening... Quilting tomorrow...