Quilting the Green Star

Thursday 1 February 2018

Free Range Happy Hens Quilt

This week I have finished the hens, eggs and feathers quilt. I love this fabric range from Makower and have been thinking about a name for the quilt as I have been making it. It has been a calm quilt to make, relaxing and such soft colours. I don't often get time to make quilts which are not commissioned, but January has been a quiet month at Green Star Quilts and really I am grateful for that. So here is my Free Range Happy Hens quilt.....

Free Range Happy Hens Quilt by Green Star Quilts

I am delighted that it has given me a chance to dust off Cyril the Cockerel who lives on the top of the dresser in the dining room too..... he was given to me by my sister in law Helen and is a great treasure.... I love to hand him to the children saying he is very heavy, he looks like a stone statue, but he is light as a feather and made of paper mache!

Free Range Happy Hens Quilt by Green Star Quilts

I love the way the hens flounce across the quilt, with little Bantums in the blue and taupe squares too, all milling about.... free range eggs in all sizes and colours and feather floating about the paler squares....

Free Range Happy Hens Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The backing fabric is a lovely soft red with tiny flowers woven in to it and the wadding is 100% cotton which gives a super drape. I have washed the wadding before I used it so it would not shrink too.

Free Range Happy Hens Quilt by Green Star Quilts

This quilt is the size for a generous sofa throw and would look very much at home in a country kitchen. The binding is a chicken wire print, to go around the field..... There was not quite enough fabric to complete the binding and I was so sad not to use such a perfect print, but then I remembered that the chicken field at home always had holes in the fence so I added another fabric to create a gap on each side, so the hens can get out to look for better worms! The quilt is for sale on the Buy Now page of the website.

Free Range Happy Hens Quilt by Green Star Quilts

My Hyacinth bulbs have gone into overdrive this week! They suddenly grew enormous and flopped over the bowl despite me trying to prop them up with twigs from the garden.

Can you see Cyril on top of the dresser? What have I done wrong with the bulbs?? Other people seem to grow Hyacinths which stay very disciplined and grow straight and neat with no flopping! I must confess that I forgot to plant them in December and these are bought from the market and then potted up into the bowl so I can pretend to be a super organised person who never forgets to plant ahead for flowers after Christmas. Oh I do wish I was that person!

I walked round the garden on the one sunny day last week and found to my delight that the Witch Hazel tree was in flower though. It is still a very small tree, even after several years but the flowers are so welcome in such cold weather....

I hope you had had a good week, did you see the super moon which was wonderful here but not red ? This week I am making another charity quilt and it is not going well..... I'll show you next time to see what you think!

Thanks for visiting, do come again,

Kind regards,

Sue

PS. I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts on Friday.

Sunday 21 January 2018

Winter Chicken Quilt

Today it is snowing in Lincolnshire, soft and wet stuff that does not settle but will make the roads freeze and dangerous tonight. It is a day to stay inside and eat cake. Hibernation seems a good idea and it was hard to get up this morning from a warm bed. So I want to tell you about this lovely book, a just right book for a day like today.....

Making Winter by Emma Mitchell, quilt by Green Star Quilts

I will just say that I am not under the quilt, the bed is made and I am dressed in many layers and jumpers, woolly tights and a big scarf...... Emma's book is all about the way we feel in winter and how to comfort and encourage ourselves to get outside and make the most of all things wintery.

Making Winter by Emma Mitchell, quilt by Green Star Quilts

It is a beautiful book, with lovely photos, so carefully composed. There are things to make, recipes to try, and lots of good advice, a book to dip into when eating that cake and drinking hot coffee and a book which opens your eyes and makes you look around on a winter walk or in your garden.

I bought it from my local book shop and Emma also has a blog with beautiful photos too.

Making winter by Emma Mitchell, quilt by Green Star Quilts

The next thing to tell you is about is my chicken quilt. I am making this from fabrics I have been saving in a box specially and at last I have time to start it. Here is the top so far, up on the design wall, a grand name for a flannel sheet on the wall!

Chicken quilt by Green Star Quilts

I love the way the chickens flounce across the quilt, this way and that....

Chicken quilt by Green Star Quilts

The egg, stripes and red fabrics are part of the same collection by Makower....

Chicken quilt by Green Star Quilts

It is a very simple pattern but the random placing of the small squares gives the scrappy look I love. I hope to quilt it next week and then it will be for sale on my website.

Last of all is my Project Linus UK quilt for January. Jan and I are trying to make one each month this year to donate to children in need of an extra cuddle.

Project Linus UK quilt by Green Star Quilts

I made the colour blocks from scrapes left over from another quilt and just made them into random log cabin style squares...

Project Linus UK quilt by Green Star Quilts

Each block is a little different...

Project Linus UK quilt by Green Star Quilts

The backing is bright colours to match the front and the quilting is in straight, well fairly straight lines....

Project Linus UK quilt by Green Star Quilts

Now we are going to bundle off in the car for Sunday lunch with our little ones and their parents. I have the chocolate cake ready to take too.... This is apparently a 'Random Act of Kindness' my little grand daughter informs me, as taught at Sunday school. Last week she brought me her last two chocolate pennies from her stocking as a 'R.A.K' but was rather surprised that we ate them without sharing! Life can be so hard to understand when you are little!!

The snow is hanging in tiny pearls from the bare branches of our beech tree, I'm just admiring winter beauty, we have snowdrops coming up though so soon it will be spring,

This is the week for hand sewing quilt bindings, nothing like a nice warm quilt over the knees,

Happy quilting week,

Kind regards,

Sue

Saturday 13 January 2018

Fairies, Flowers and Butterflies Quilt for 2018

I am so late in wishing everyone a Happy New year. I hope I can still do so, I blame the horrid flu which struck me down just after Christmas and still lingered on with an incredible tiredness thing for many days. Now I am back in the sewing room, still with the need for the occasional afternoon snooze, but basically feeling a lot better. Note to self: have the flu jab earlier next winter!
Enough moaning, along with coughing and general snuffling.... here is the first quilt for 2018. It is a single bed size and the theme is Fairies, Flowers and Butterflies, and it is such a pretty quilt! The colours have been chosen by the new owner Elen who will be seven years old next week.

Fairies, flowers and butterflies quilt by Green Star Quilts

I started drawing my design with my usual big stars in each corner, then divided up the other blocks so each 6.5 or 12 inch square has it's own character.

Fairies, flowers and butterflies quilt by Green Star Quilts

I use lots of different fabrics and lay the blocks out on the floor if it is a big quilt or on the design wall ( that's an flannel sheet hung up) if it is a smaller quilt.

Fairies, flowers and butterflies quilt by Green Star Quilts

It is so exciting as the quilt blocks are made and I can see how it is all working out...

Fairies, flowers and butterflies quilt by Green Star Quilts

The flower fairy fabric is by Malcom Miller from the original drawing by Cecelie Mary Barker. This fabric is so pretty and has gold glitter too!
Here is the finished quilt:

Fairies, flowers and butterflies quilt by Green Star Quilts

Next I am going to make my first Project Linus quilt for 2018. I am attempting to make one each month, partly as a scrap buster, my scraps are way out of control, but mostly because these quilts bring a tiny bit of joy to a family who have a poorly child and are so worried about the future.
My other resolution is to blog regularly. Things have slipped, good intentions wobbled and a good friend even asked if I had given up writing. That's a shame as I really enjoy writing the blog and reading the words from you too.
So I wish you all joy in 2018 and some very happy quilting,

Kind regards,

Sue

Friday 8 December 2017

A wedding memory quilt finish

Dear Readers,

My good intentions to show the finished quilt quickly slipped away due to a sprained ankle acquired on slippery leaves in the garden. Sewing became a bit difficult ( sleeping, reading and resting was much easier) so the quilt finish took longer. I never realised how painful a sprained ankle could be and how scary it is to be suddenly unable to walk.

But in the end the binding was added, the names free stitch embroidered and the parcel posted...I was really pleased with the final result inspite of the fabrics being tricky to use and fraying dreadfully.

Here is the quilt finished. Can you see the names and the wedding date stitched across the border?

Memory Quilt by Green Star Quilts

The colours very much remind me of my brave dahlias, still flowering into November, but not for much longer I fear before the frosts catch them....

I love the backing which has tiny orange circles like little wedding rings on it, it's quite a loose weave cotton and very soft....

Memory Quilt by Green Star Quilts

I free machined the blocks which worked well and straight stitched the calico borders.

Memory Quilt by Green Star Quilts

Aurelia is such a gorgeous name! I practised my handwriting style stitching several times before attempting it on the quilt....

Memory Quilt by Green Star Quilts

This quilt is off to Kenya next year with it's new owners.

So I'm still hopping a bit but today I managed my first long walk on the common opposite our house and I am really pleased. Today has been a crisp,frosty, blue sky kind of day and so beautiful and it was such a relief to get out at last. I love setting out in woolly hat, scarf, gloves, padded jacket which feeels like wearing a duvet.....

And look, I found a woven fence to compliment my woven quilt pattern!

So now we have the days before Christmas, so busy for everyone and lots of expectation that it will all be perfect on the day. I am just dusting off my mince pie tins and trying to remember how to make pastry....

Please take care on slippery leaves everyone,

Kind regards,

Sue

Tuesday 24 October 2017

A Memory Wedding quilt (2)

Hello everyone, this is the wedding memory quilt so far, after we decided on the woven effect design. This is block one:

Green Star Quilts

I have made nine blocks altogether and sashed them with cream quilters calico. Here is the finished top:

Green Star Quilts

The quilt sandwich has been made and the backing fabric is a cotton from Ikea with tiny dotted rings on it, well, it is a wedding quilt!

Green Star Quilts

I hope the quilt will be finished by Friday so I can show it off to you,

Kind regards,

Sue

Thursday 12 October 2017

A Memory Wedding Quilt

This week I have a new commission from Louise. It is such a lovely thing to be asked to make .... She has sent me the wedding wraps used at her brother's wedding and I am going to make them into a happy memory quilt. The wraps are gorgeous colours, each one woven in two shades and they have the most marvellous tassles too. Really I am quite excited about the tassles! And strippy edges too! I hope to be able to add the tassles to the ends of the quilt... Here are the wraps, which I think are cotton and ethnic in design:

Wraps for a quilt by Green Star Quilts

I am thinking about a design, Louise says their house is decorated in a modern style, so I am thinking about that and have been looking through my favourite modern quilting books....

Here is the first idea, a design from No scrap Left Behind by Amanda Jean Nyberg , I am a huge fan of Amanda Jean and this is her new book which I reccommend massively.... I have drawn out the design in the colours of the wraps:

Green Star Quilts drawing

The second idea would to weave the fabric colours in a similar way to this picture from

Modern Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman, another brilliant modern quilt maker who writes really good instructions too.

Modern Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman,

The third inspiration comes from Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson

Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson

Big blocks of colour in randon sizes and colour combinations. I hope to use the patterned edges of the wraps too, amybe around the edges of the quilt.

Well, what do you think? The fabrics are quite loosely woven, so the design can't be complicated and I want it to look modern.... any ideas welcome from my lovely internet blog friends...

Have a good week quilting, maybe reading, or working, lots of gardening, looking after your families, cooking, thinking , oh not much time for thinking.... and I keep telling myself, try not to worry so much about things going on in the world,

Kindest regards,

Sue

Sunday 8 October 2017

Back to work in the sewing room

Church at Tjeldsund, norway

I have had such a wonderful time this summer. Beautiful younger daughter got married in this church in the Lofoten Islands, Norway and now I have a new son-in-law who we all love very much. In fact I love having boys in the family all together and acquiring them via my daughters is a huge delight for me!

The sun shone and the dress was perfect.... we did the buttons up with a crochet hook.....

wedding dress with green ribbon

In Norway there is a big tradition of a cake table at the reception. This is a brilliant idea and I intend to embrace it at every party we have! This is a camping scene cake:

Wedding cake with Playmobil

Now I am back to normal and thinking about the next quilts to make. I have found it hard to get started so I decided to make a few small quilts for Project Linus UK to get my quilting skills back up to scratch. These quilts give such comfort to children in need of an extra cuddle and are so worth making. Here is the first one: