The comments

Ahhh I'm so sorry! You have all been sending me lovely comments and I didn't find them until just now! Has Blogger changed the comments system while I haven't been paying attention??  Anyway, a million apologies to you all who have so kindly been encouraging me and please don't feel ignored. Now I have found the button for the comments and will read  them everytime. 

 And a huge 'Thank You' to you lovely kind people!

While it was raining the other day I had a moment of tiny quilt making...... The young visitor to my dolls' house had requested a change of use.... so all the dolls were evicted and the Sylvanian animals moved in....  

They needed new furnishings, quilts, cushions and some clothes....

I used up lots of tiny scraps which were from this quilt.... don't you just love the hedgehogs...

So now they are all comfy and in this cold weather will be in cosy hibernation until my young visitor comes again!

Thanks for dropping by and leaving such kind comments too,

Kind regards,

Sue

Blue Tumblers Quilt

This was a quilt I had been thinking about for a while and at last I have had time to make it. I am so pleased with the colours, there are lots of  bright modern fabrics in this design and they tumble across the quilt , it makes you feel happy and rather summery just looking at it!

Blue Tumblers Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The backing fabric is an Aztec design and all the fabrics and wadding used are 100% cotton. 

Blue Tumblers Quilt by Green Star Quilts

Blue Tumblers Quilt by Green Star Quilts

Can you see the turtle and the skiing cat? There are lots of little Russian dolls too and the odd toucan.... Here is the whole quilt:

Blue Tumblers Quilt by Green Star Quilts

If you fancy becoming the new owner, you can see the details on the Buy Now page of my website. Just click on the link. 

Also I have been making a little cot quilt for Kate to give her friend. The baby is due in the middle of the month, what a great present for Christmas!

Farmyard Cot Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The backing fabric is a gentle soft grey colour with tiny yellow fireflies:

Farmyard Cot Quilt by Green Star Quilts

I very much enjoy making these little quilts, each one is different although the theme is always the same.

That's all for this week. At the moment we have the Christmas market on here in Lincoln. It is a huge event and 30,000 visitors come so the city is pretty busy. Lots of my friends are taking stalls so if you are nearby do go along, even just to get the wonderful scent of cinnamon, chestnuts and mulled wine!

Thanks for calling in to see me,

Kind regards,

Sue  

Turning over the next leaf

Oh I have neglected the blog, and the commissions page of the website and the Instagram page but I have a good excuse..... I have a new granddaughter, born in the land of snow and ice, just within the Artic Circle, the land of the midnight sun.....

Northern lights from the Artic Circle

We arrived and the next day looked out of the window to see lots of snow...

Tromsø

It was as though Christmas had come all at once and it was so beautiful and -10 degrees so woolly hats and gloves were urgently needed.....

Lofoten Islands, Tromsø

Just one more....

And of course there have been quilts but I just didn't get round to talking about them,

This one was a random log cabin style around printed fabric with horses, made for a small horse enthusiast with a wild taste in colours!

Made by Green Star Quilts

Then there was this one...

Made by Green Star Quilts

Here is the backing fabric:

Made by Green Star Quilts

This quilt is a modern sampler quilt, each block is unique and quilted differently. It will be for sale on my website in a few days time. Here you can see it with the quilting pins still  in place...

There were lots of little quilts too which you can see on the commissions page of the website   www.greenstarquilts.com just click on the link.

But the best make of the month is our new baby girl, no photos though as she doesn't need a social media presence just yet.... this is her quilt though:

Artic Adventure Quilt by Green Star Quilts

Thank you for reading all this, sorry it has been so long, I hope you haven't given up on me,

 

Very best wishes and kind regards, 

Sue

Using a big fabric design

Hello Everyone,

Green Star Quilts

I just wanted to show you a quilt made with fabrics with a big design. This is a commissioned quilt and Louise sent me her fabrics which have been used in the bedroom as curtains and cushions. It took me a while to work out how big the squares should be so that the pictures would be included. Any smaller and the design would have disappeared, and I settled on 10.5 inch squares. Here is the quilt....

Green Star Quilts

As it is curtain weight material it was nice to use a light weight wadding and and very light Liberty Tala Lawn as the backing so the quilt would not be too heavy:

Green Star Quilts

The binding is navy and white stripes to echo the zebra on the quilt. I am also making a very bright 'Happy Horses' quilt for a little girl who is eight years old on Saturday.... I will show you that next time, my quilt group members have been rather astonished at the colours and it will be interesting to see how it turns out! More next time.....

I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather, in Lincoln today it was 25 degrees, breezy and sunny, my garden looks so pretty and the bees are out all over the lavenders,

Garden Lavender and Feverfew

Happy holiday to those of you in the USA,

Kind regards,

Sue 

Modern quilts and modern blogging

I have been blogging for 10 years now and recently I have gone to less frequent posts, it seems there is less to say and so much more to do! But I miss it, I love taking the photos of quilts and I hope to make more time to carry on blogging, even with Instagram, Pinterest, the website and many other things to do. I don't think I have time to Twitter though! I have been making quilts though so here are some photos:

Modern Quilt by Green Star Quilts

I was inspired by Tula Pink's book and used a million tiny scraps to make the blocks:

Here is the whole quilt which measures 43 x 49 inches, 109 x 124 cm

Modern Quilt by Green Star Quilts

This is the inspiring page although I didn't use her blocks, but made up my own:

100 Modern Quilt Blocks by Tula Pink

The colours are like the primulas and primroses which self seed all over the shadier parts of the garden. This is the backing fabric....

Modern quilt by Green Star Quilts

I have also finished a sweet baby first size bed quilt for a little boy called Teddy which uses some of his outgrown clothes including his first football shirt.....

Memory quilt by Green Star Quilts

The children in the middle are Teddy with his big brother and sister. Now I am really hoping to have time to tidy the sewing room which looks such a mess!

Happy quilting in June to my visitors, 

Kind regards,

Sue 

Scrap Flags and Bunting Quilt

I have been saving red, white and blue scraps for ages and truth be told I have had this quilt in bits in the to do basket for over a year. But recently I have been on a mission to tidy and clear up the sewing room, with a buy less, use more up resolution..... you know, the resolution you hope to keep but then you go to a quilt show and guess what happens......

The design started as one from a tutorial by Ashley at Film in the Fridge but then I added some tiny flags which could be bunting.

Flags and Bunting Quilt by Green Star Quilts

One thing I have learnt from making a white background quilt is this..... don't use white scraps unless they come from the same bolt of fabric! Reader I tried but then came a great deal of unpicking as there is white and then there is white, there is unbleached and there is ready to dye white..... There are also bits of old sheet, bits of Cona white and bits of white shirting in my white fabric drawer. And I can tell you that they are all different. And I can tell you that when you mix them in a quilt top they all look different On The Quilt Top........ ahhhhh and then there is a lot of unladylike language and hours of unpicking. Then there is a lot of recutting because you have lost the points of the flags ends..... 

Flags and Bunting Quilt by Green Star Quilts

But in the end it is all worthwhile and the quilt looks so fresh and jolly:

Flags and Bunting Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The backing is a pale grey cotton with tiny swirls which look a bit like fossils. The quilting is like coiled loopy rope.

Flags and Bunting Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The binding is scrap pieced too. The quilt measures 102 x 133 cm (40.5 x 53 inches)

Thank you to Ashley for this tutorial, do visit her using the link above if you get time, her quilt photos are brilliant!

Happy quilting

and very best wishes 

from

 Sue  

Purple Makes Me Happy Quilt

For ages I have been collecting purple fabrics and scraps and tucking them away in a big basket in the sewing room. Pirjo from With Love From Lincolnshire makes gorgeous little girls' shift dresses and gave me lots of lovely offcuts from her dressmaking, so I had added to the basket and then it was full. Time to tackle the purple mountain. I had mostly rectangular strips so decided that would be the basis of a very happy, throw everything at it quilt. So here it is, put on your sunglasses before looking......

Purple Makes Me Happy Quilt by Green Star Quilts

It has a kind of 70s look, think Mary Quant designs and there are apples, bees, butterflies, birds, flowers, so many fabrics I lost count.... A good friend had a pair of purple velvet hotpants and silver thigh high boots then and it reminds me of her dancing.... and goodness knows what comments I will get on the blog  following that sentence! 

Purple Makes me Happy Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The backing fabric is an aqua cotton with tiny white polka dots:

Purple Makes Me Happy Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The quilting is in horizontal wavy lines and the binding is a vintage Laura Ashley cotton in lilac and white which doesn't dominate the other colours on the front. I took my portable quilt stand (husband) onto our local green space commonland for an arty photo. I  thought the purple would look good against the green as they are opposites on the  colour wheel. It was a bit windy so it took a while to get him set up, knees bent to hide his head, feet tucked in so they didn't show, howls of agony ignored.....

Purple Happiness Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The quilt measurements are 49 x 60 inches (125 x 153cm)

The fabrics are all cotton and the wadding is 80/20 Hobbs Heirloom cotton.

It would make the perfect present for someone who loves purple, or as a companion on a lazy picnic, or even a sofa throw or bed topper.

If you would like to be the new owner of my Purple Makes Me Happy Quilt it is for sale on the buy now page of my website www.greenstarquilts.com

Thanks for dropping by, I hope your weekend is peaceful,

Kind regards,

Sue  

A life in the country quilt

Is it too late to wish you all A Happy New Year? The time seems to be flying by already and things are already getting busy in the sewing room here. Ellie had her baby and I made a gift for husband to deliver to her, along with a chocolate chip cake because we all know that flowers are lovely but gifts you can eat are great when you have just had a baby! Here is the quilt I made for baby Wilfred who will grow up knowing all about foxes and pheasants....

Countryside Quilt by Green Star Quilts

I used lots of small pieces of fabrics which I have been saving for just such a quilt with a 'throw everything at it' approach which always seems to turn out well amazingly!

Countryside Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The pattern is a 'bricks and mortar' one. Most the pieces were put up on the design wall to start with to get the balance right with the darks and lights. When it all got too big for my small wall, I used the floor too, a good reason to hoover the carpet of pesky threads! With all the patterns of the different fabrics, it is magical how they almost become joined up in your mind when you look at the over all quilt top and the darks and lights of the colours become much more important. I love this style of quilt but I can quite understand that it might be too much for people who like a calm life!

Countryside Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The quilting is a simple quarter of an inch from the seams to create a grid and little squares in the corners of each brick.

Countryside Quilt by Green Star Quilts

I have attempted to take the photos in the summer house down the garden but it is cold and a bit muddy.... how do quilt makers take such gorgeous photos of their quilts in the snow and on the beach etc without getting them dirty? It is a mystery to me and one I continue to struggle with!

Another finish is The Beast..... which felt as though I was knitting a large dog at the finish! 

Icelandic wool jumper

This is a jumper I have been knitting for daughter who is living in Norway, temperature -7 degrees, lots of snow, beautiful pink twilight all day and many many sledge dogs to exercise.... Again I have tried the arty photo, the jumper ended up covered in leaves and bits of twig, this doesn't seem to happen to those clever knitters who have snapped their finished jumpers on reindeer skins beside camp fires and in the snow..... what am I doing wrong?? Husband looked at he photos and commented that people would think the wood pile was really untidy..... just another thought!!!

Icelandic wool jumper

I now know how the knit a yoke though and really I love the Lopi Icelandic wool which is so warm although a bit hairy and itchy so she will need a thick t shirt underneath. The knitting grows at an amazing speed too.

This week I am making little new baby quilts and finishing a scrap one too. More attempts at arty photos to follow soon,

Happy New Year and thank you for visiting my blog,

Kind regards,

Sue