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.

Quilt with Knots

This is one of the first quilts I did, with pieces of fabrics offered by my quilting friends. At that time, about 20 years ago, I had very few fabrics, found with great difficulties! I just cut squares and machine sewed them together almost random. Then I hand tied the three layers with knots. It was quickly done! Though I never considered this quilt as "beautiful" it remained dear to my heart because the fabrics were offered to me by friends, and because I enjoyed sewing it naively, without too much wondering about the result. As a matter of fact, it was of great use, washed and rewashed again many times with no fear, and is still on my bed after all those years!

Tutorial for an Easy and Quick Flying Geese Block

With the measures I will give you, you will obtain a four units Flying Geese block

10" x 5 3/4" (once trimed).

Cut ONE large square 6 1/2" for the 4 centre triangles

and FOUR 3 1/2" for the 8 (what I call) background triangles.

With a sharp pencil draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of each small square.

Place two small squares on the big square, right side against right side, as shown above.

Sew along each side of the line, at 1/4".

Cut on the line.

This is what you obtain.

Open and press.

On each obtained piece place one square, right side against right side.

Again, sew at 1/4" on each side of the line and cut on the line.

Doing so, you obtain four rectangles 5 3/4" x 3 1/8".
Trim the sides.

Piece them together. Press without opening.
Then trim the four sides to get a  perfect 10" x 5 3/4" rectangle.

Pink Baby Girl Quilt

Fabrics

Two months ago, my dearest friend became the grandmother of two adorable little twin girls. This quilt is the second I prepared for them. The first one was the zig zag quilt, shown here : zig zag quilt.

This is the simpliest baby quilt I ever made and it's my favorite one!

In one day it was done.

I assemble the blocks, then the bands.

I chose a stripe darker pink fabric to frame.

Finished top

As I found too cute the fabric with the toys prints, I did not want to cut it in small pieces, and decided to use it as large bands all around. For the binding I chose an aqua fabric. Now time for quilting!

I chose the colors of the fabrics according to the taste of the grandmother who likes delicate tunes, especially tender pink. Let's hope the mother will like the quilts. As regards the little girls, growing older, I am sure they will appreciate them, as all little girls love pink!

For you, the first rose of my garden.

Have a great week!

Christine

Baby Girl Bricks and Squares Quilt

Bricks and squares.

Many babies being born recently in my surrounding, and it seems more to be born in a close future, I have the feeling that I will sew baby quilts for the rest of my life... Which is for sure the most pleasant activity someone can dream of!

Creating small quilts for babies or children is very joyful and enables you to see a quick result.

For this quilt I chose red, green and grey fabrics. I was lucky to find in Athens a very nice grey and white fabric for the backing, that is matching perfectly.

I had no pattern, I just cut, assembled, sewed, without too much thinking, just keeping the little girls' fabric mainly for the largest bricks. I sewed the binding as I usually do, shown in my tuto HERE.

This baby quilt was quickly done. I gave it to be machine quilted to my friend Eleni.

Always presented to be offered the same way : rolled and linked with a ribbon.

Enjoy your quilting!

Christine

Patchwork Baby Curtain

Today, just showing a curtain I sewed for my grand son's bedroom. I bought 1m 50 of ecru cotton 

fabric (width 2m40).

I used the leftovers from this baby quilt and from this baby bumper to sew a decorative band.

The squares are the same size as for the nine patch blocks of the baby quilt.

I think that this will give the last touch of harmony to the bedroom.

Next picture when the curtain will be hanged on the window (first we have to buy the pole).

Greetings from London.

Christine

Zig Zag hand bag

Today, reading again this book, bought years ago, I decided to start sewing 

a bag which pattern is inside. I always wanted to do so, but for an unknown reason, 

I postponed it many times.

The point was to use my remains from Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

I assemble the triangles into squares

I ironed them, then the stripes.

Here I try to match them properly.

I will try to finish it and post it tomorrow.