Happy Christmas from Green Star Quilts

It is Friday and the Christmas shopping is done. Well I am done with Christmas shopping really. This is the time I love the most, when there is no time left so anything else needed must be home made as I can't bear the shops anymore. We have a very low key present policy here, so there are lots of home made biscuits wrapped up and practical gifts for DIY enthusiasts. But this year I want to share with you Judy's lovely idea for candles...

Christmas candles 2016

She has done this with a much deeper bowl but it still looks lovely in a shallow one. So take a vintage cut glass or moulded glass bowl, just the sort you sent to the jumble sale but can buy back again in a charity shop! Wash and dry it until it sparkles. Fill half full with aquarium gravel from a general shop like Wilkos, (yes I know it looks like biscuitcrumbs for Santa's reindeer in the photo) and then sit as many tealights in the gravel as you like. I used red and white ones which were scented too. When the candles are lit the glass glimmers and sparkles beautifully especially in the dark. So it is just a bowl of light and hope for 2017 because I think we really need that more than presents this Christmas.

Christmas candles 2016

If you have little ones around at Christmas you can use battery electric tealights for safety.

So just to wish you all a very Happy Christmas. thank you for reading my blog, listening to my ramblings and sending messages of encouragement for quilt making. As the local
co-ordinator for Project Linus UK I have given away 425 quilts to children in need of an extra cuddle this year. It is a huge tribute to the kindness and generosity of the quilting community here in Lincoln area. Well done and thank you so very much, I hope it just balances the scales of compassion just a little bit in this world today. 

Happy Christmas 2016

Thank you also to Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, her Finish UP Friday link sets my quilting compass every week,

Happy Christmas everyone,

kind regards,

Sue   

A Picture quilt for Ada

It has been a huge honour to make a quilt for a customer in America. The quilting community in The States is vast and multi talented so to be asked to a quilt for baby Ada was a big surprise and I felt I must do my very best as it might be seen by some very clever quilters!!
Karen, a proud Granny to be, gave me a list of things to add to the quilt which meant a lot to their family, she also sent over some treasured fabrics to be included. I am just going to show you some highlights, I had such fun making it all fit together.....

Picture quilt by Green Star Quilts

There was a Celtic Cross, some books, a Dala horse from Sweden .....

Picture quilt by Green Star Quilts

Picture quilt by Green Star Quilts

A Picture quilt by Green Star Quilts

Here is the finished top of the quilt:

Picture quilt by Green Star Quilts

The pots of flowers in the nine patch blocks came from Karen's dress fabric and there is a dove flying in the top corner: 

Picture quilt by Green Star Quilts

So here is the finished quilt which I hope will be a real treasure for baby Ada who surprised us all by arriving two weeks early!

Picture quilt by Green Star Quilts

Although it isn't a Christmas quilt, it does seem a bit Christmassy, I think it's the stars which sparkle in the night sky!

 Are you all ready, cards written, presents wrapped, tree decorated, all ready to go in every way? Is it just me who is still dashing about hiding ready made Christmas food in the freezer and hoping the turkey will make it's own way into the oven.... I just feel it all starts too soon, it should all begin with making mince pies whilst listening to carols from King's College Cambridge on Christmas Eve. Then I love all the secret rustlings of coloured paper and 'You can't come in' shouts from behind closed bedroom doors. We have a £10 Christmas in our house, only that to be spent on each person but hand made gifts can be added on, this year I have new biscuit cutters and I plan to make boxes of reindeer shortbread.... if it works and it may not as my biscuits tend to have a mind of their own in the oven, I will tell you the recipe....

In the last week before Christmas I hope you all have a little time to slow down, sit down, wind down and enjoy the little, small things which make it such a special time,

Kindest Regards,

Sue 

PS. I am linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, it's so kind of her to provide this link everyweek, thank you Amanda.

Memory quilts in Spring colours

This month I have made a larger than single bed size memory quilt for Lauren. Her children's clothes were such happy colours, sun, sand and seaside holidays kind of colours and they made a lovely modern style quilt which I was really pleased with, it is amazing how the colours all complimented each other and came together so well! I think we need a few of sunshine reminders at the moment. I keep thinking 'Nearly there,very nearly there ', as I draw the curtains at 4.30 pm, so early in the afternoon and nearly at the shortest day and then positive thinking all the way to Spring and hooray, new flowers in the garden and buds on the trees and sun, that lovely, delicate and so welcome spring sunshine!

memory quilt by Green Star Quilts

memory quilt by Green Star Quilts

There's something about memory quilts which makes me feel so close to the families I make them for, it is such a personal thing to send someone your baby clothes to cut up.The trust they have that I will make something lovely from them is a huge compliment and I take it really seriously.

memory quilt by Green Star Quilts

I really enjoyed doing the swiggly quilting ( this is a very serious quilting term) too !!

memory quilt by Green Star Quilts

I have just finished a second smaller quilt for Lauren too, made from leftover little pieces of fabric and some that didn't fit in the first quilt. 

memory quilt by Green Star Quilts

And tarahh, at last I have got the hang of machined binding and those tricky folded corners, even with a scrap pieced strip.... after I realised it is important not to get a seam on the corner..... impressive eh?

I have just sent off to the USA a quilt for Karen  and will show pictures of it next time. This photo is a little corner...The parcel hasn't arrived with her yet so I don't want to spoil her surprise! 

Happy quilting on these dark winter days, keep eating chocolate and don't over do the Christmas shopping,

Kind regards,

Sue 

A Trip Around the World cot quilt

After eight months our household is slowly getting back to normal. Eldest daughter and young family have moved into their renovated house in up hill Lincoln with new floors, beautiful new kitchen and classy grey walls downstairs. Even Ronnie the Rubber Plant has gone to his new corner, although today he has had a little change of earth, courtesy of The Boy, now fifteen months old and keen to explore all gardening opportunities!  Younger daughter is renovating a house too with the help of her Viking, now fiance ( yes, we are utterly delighted about this recent news) and a small dog. All is going well.....

Our house is slowly returning to it's pre Christmas 2016 state, before The Return of Everyone and Their Furniture to us. It has all gone so well and in eight months and with five cars juggling for space on the drive, six adults, two little ones under five, not forgetting the small dog all at home, there have been no arguments and we are all still friends. We have been very blessed and I miss them all, but not the tiredness which was overwhelming at times! 

Quilts have been made and finished in minutes snatched here and there, but now I hope for more time to think and plan the commissions for the rest of the year.

A Trip Around the World cot quilt by Green Star Quilts

Here is my latest quilt, made for Chris to give to her soon to be born grandchild:

A Trip Around the World cot quilt by Green Star Quilts

I really love the thought that our Team GB is returning from the Olympics with so many medals and quite by chance I have made a sporty quilt in red, white and blue with cyclists, sports balls and London icons on it! How clever is that??!

A Trip Around the World cot quilt by Green Star Quilts

The quilt measures 50 x 50 inches, 127 x 127 cm and here is the backing fabric....

A Trip Around the World cot quilt by Green Star Quilts

This week I am starting a memory quilt commission and also gardening for England! The wedding next year (all very exciting !!!!) will include a big garden party here. That's not a 'garden party' rather a 'lots of people in the garden' party..... think woodland plus tables and chairs!  No pressure then, just a garden pulled up to National Trust standards.... from rather below the level of a meadow with jungle attached. I have just bid for and won a wooden garden table and chairs which will be my next renovation project too and we will need miles of bunting I expect..... 

From now on I hope to be back to blogs at weekly intervals, I have missed you all and the gentle fellowship of other quilters from all over the world, thank you for waiting for me to come back,

Kind regards,

Sue 

A Memory Quilt and a mended chair

I have been away from Blogland for over a month and it seems a very long time. Each week I have thought about a new page and found I have nothing new to say. Sometimes it is just like that and you have to wait for a while I guess. In the sewing room I have been slowly making a memory quilt for Noah, which has been a joy and a delight as I cut up his little t shirts and turned them into simple blocks.

Memory quilt block by Green Star Quilts

This will be a single bed size quilt with lots of loved pictures from the t shirts, little pockets and buttons, wiggly bits and dangly legs, Martians and cowboys....

Memory quilt block by Green Star Quilts

Here are all the blocks.....

Memory quilt blocks by Green Star Quilts

At the moment I am quilting the seams in the ditch to hold it all together. It won't be the flattest quilt ever but it will be very loved indeed....

Memory quilt block by Green Star Quilts

Last week I rescued a chair! The poor thing was dumped in a car park, the seat split, the canvas rotted so I put it in the car and took it home. I thought it could be my first attempt at chalk painting!! I didn't take a photo of the 'before' but here is the' after' and I am absolutely delighted with the end result. It is perfect for the summer house near the vegetable garden!

Chalk painted rescued chair 

The new canvas came from my local fabric shop Fabric Corner......

Chalk painted rescued chair 

As it is near the vegetable patch (well if the vegetables would just get on and grow), it is perfect....

Chalk painted rescued chair 

I can't wait to have time to sit in it.... maybe soon and if it is, at last, sunny too, glass of wine and seed catalogue in hand....

Chalk painted rescued chair 

Thanks for stopping by to read this, a rather slow diary of the week, the quilt will be finished soon,

Kind regards,

Sue 

Hen and Chicks Quilt Wallhanging

This week I have been making a little wall hanging which will be a Christening present for Liz to give baby Evelyn Rose. It is a smaller version of one of my cot quilt designs with extra rabbits added and has a hanging sleeve on the back for a rod to slide through so it can be hung on the wall. 

I'm really pleased as I had all the fabrics in stock so it fits in with my 'using things already bought' policy for the year.... Ha ha, I bet I can keep at one going for a whole year surely, because quilters don't buy fabric they don't need do they?!

Hen and Chicks quilt wall hanging by Green Star Quilts

I'm really happy with this little quilt which measures 25 x 27 inches ( 65 x 70 cm ) and hangs nice and flat too. The backing fabric is pale yellow with a white polka dot and the binding is scrappy, using bits left over from the main quilt. 

I tried a smaller font for the appliqued letters this time and they fit nicely onto the smaller width of the sashing at the bottom. It's quite hard to find fonts which are good for applique and don't have copyright too and I looked for ages before I found this one.

Hen and Chicks quilt wall hanging by Green Star Quilts

I love the pale blue fabric with tiny chicks on it too.

Hen and Chicks quilt wall hanging by Green Star Quilts

The legs and the circle around the sun are hand stitched with thickish thread making sure there are no loose ends of thread which would show through the white fabric.... well there is always one I miss and have to pull through the fabric with a needle. It reminds me of trying to get splinters out of fingers!

Hen and Chicks quilt wall hanging by Green Star Quilts

Now a question.... does anyone have experience of having an Etsy shop? I am thinking of changing the way I do things and wondered if an Etsy shop would be a good idea, but I don't know anyone who has tried it.... Do you have to put a lot of time into social media to make your shop popular? I love writing the blog and taking photos of the quilts and running my website, but that's enough media for me! What I really want to do is make more quilts with my time! 

Please tell me your thoughts and experiences of selling in this way. I would really appreciate your advice!

Brrrr, winter is back here and I'm wearing two jumpers and a waterproof jacket for walking the dog! My corgette plants are sulking in the greenhouse and I have lost hope of the sunflowers germinating before being eaten by mice. A very thin squirrel in making raids on the peanut bird feeder, to the delight of our little one, who watchs his antics avidly while throwing his breakfast across the kitchen.... please summer come soon!

I am off for a day retreat quilting tomorrow and I am so looking forward to it,

I hope you have something lovely to do this weekend too,

Kind regards,

Sue 

PS. As usual I am linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts  finish up Friday and Nicky at mrs Sew and Sow

Springtime Bicycle Ride quilt

This week I have finished my second brick blocks quilt and have called it Spring Bicycle Ride. The colours are soft spring shades, pale pinks like old fashioned tulips, the pale yellows of early narcissi and fresh willow greens. The fabrics are from lots of scraps, in fact lots and lots of scraps, even some with bicycles on in yellows and greys. This quilt makes me feel happy, it makes me think about country picnics, soft summer dresses, sailing along on my old fashioned bike with the wind in my hair and a large bar of chocolate in the basket, oh yes I can feel the sunshine on my back..... well actually it is freezing here and winter has returned this week, but a girl can dream!

Here is the finished quilt:
 Measurements: 40 x 52 inches  101.5 x 132 cm
Bricks block sizes are cut 3.5 x 2.5 inches and 3.5 x 5.5 inches 

You can read about how to make this quilt if you scroll down to the 8th April blog.

Spring Bicycle Ride quilt by Green Star Quilts

I so enjoyed making this quilt, it is easy sewing and just right for quick piecing and it gave me a chance to play with colour choices and balance. It often surprises me how unusual fabrics can sit happily beside others and I love the feeling of putting a colour jigsaw together and the delight when it 'goes right'. 

Spring Bicycle Ride quilt by Green Star Quilts

The wadding is Warm and Natural 80/20 and the quilting is in the ditch on every seam and then an added row through each brick vertically. The edges are bound with white fabric with a small yellow spot. 

The quilt is for sale on my website.

Spring Bicycle Ride quilt by Green Star Quilts

The backing is from my local fabric shop and I don't know what it is called but it is a lovely pink with ferns and leaves in white:

Spring Bicycle Ride quilt by Green Star Quilts

I took the quilt off for a rather chilly photo shoot with my bicycle....

Spring Bicycle Ride quilt by Green Star Quilts

Our garden is full of Spring flowers now, Bluebells and Primulas seed all over and Cowslips are naturalising in the grass. It is so pretty and there are wallflowers just arriving in bud now too....

Spring Bicycle Ride quilt by Green Star Quilts

On a warm afternoon we took his babyship down the garden for a first ever crawl on sun kissed grass... oh I so love his fat baby feet!! And he was so amazed by the grass too!

baby feet on new grass

Are you enjoying the spring flowers in your garden? Oh I hope it is sunny and warm with you and not so cold and rainy as it is here, 

Happy quilting this week, think of me as I am scrabbling through my scrap baskets for  the next quilt, I am determined to reduce the fabric mountain this year,

Kind regards,

Sue