Ruth's Quilt & An "Heirloom Fantasy Tales" Journal ♥️

Greetings lovely friends & readers

It has been a busy time lately but I promised myself I would try & do a blog post today.

 I snapped the sunrise this morning as I went out to my car at 7 am to go pick Sid up, bring him back here for breakfast, then school drop off. 

Last week I received some very Happy Mail in the post which did indeed cause me extreme happiness - just like the label warned!

After Retreat finished I sent my Ruth's quilt flimsy home with "Quiltmekiwi " Leeanne to be quilted on her long-arm machine.  I did not expect it back quite so soon & was delighted.

This is what the quilt top looked like lying on the carpet at Retreat .   .   .   .

And this is what it looked like once Leeanne had worked her magic on it (!!) 💗  Leeanne very kindly sewed the binding strips on, ready for me to hand sew down & this took me about 3 days as it was a long way around all the edges of that quilt (!!) To say I was ecstatic was an understatement.

The quilt was a block of the month that I purchased through Millymac Supplies.  The pattern is Ruth's Quilt by Leannne Beasley of Leeanne's House.  I decided to use two of Mum's vintage supper cloths to replace some of the tags - this saved me hand stitching so many & the colours in the supper cloths were a good match to the fabric range. 

You could stitch the tags that were supplied in the pattern as well as make up your own & this was encouraged.  I "altered" a few to suit my own taste but mainly I stuck to the pattern.

As Mum passed away during the making of this quilt I decided to give Mum her own tag & was conscious to place this in the rows for the month of August, which is when she passed away.  I am so pleased I did this ... it just makes it that bit special to me.  And this was a quilt very much stitched purely for myself. 

I had been keeping an eye on Leeanne's blog for awhile noticing any E2E quilt designs that appealed to me & I chose Wildwood which I am thrilled with ... lots of flowers & swirly feathers which I adore.  The extra wide backing fabric was also supplied by Leeanne & this is called Magnolia.  

I am so grateful to Leeanne for bringing this quilt to life to me - the professional quilting just makes it so much more beautiful.  

I found one of Mum's single doilies that was in a complimentary colour way & used this for my label on the back.  I am SO so happy with my quilt and have yet to find just the right spot for it in my home. 

The second project that I took to Retreat was this Heirloom Journal Cover "Fantasy Tales".  I spent 2 days working on this at Retreat & then finished it the following week at Home.  

If you click on the above pic to enlarge it you will see the price tag of $79 on this Kitset.  I purchased this at my local St Johns op-shop for $12 & the kit contained everything needed to make the cover except the Journal itself.  Lots of details in this project - the tiny flowers above are hand dyed silk ribbon that I frayed & then gathered into flowers with beaded stamens.  

The beaded lace leaves above & the velvet strawberries were all made at Retreat.  I have to be honest here & say I am not a great bead worker so most of the time I was winging it !!!  The instructions were good in some areas & very poor in others ... a lot of it was guesswork.  

The beaded tie closures & the bookmark above right.  

Showing inside the journal & the back cover.

I am thrilled to be finished it & there will NoT be another one made by me any day soon 😉

I should mention I omitted the beaded spider that was meant to sit on the cover ... I could not understand the instructions, decided I don't particularly LiKe spiders anyway - so it could stay off.  

Since my return from Retreat & unpacking all my sewing supplies, this little furry fairy has taken up residence on my sewing bench - I think she feels if she camps out on here it may prevent me from heading off to any more sewing retreats anytime soon.

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week ... remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you all,