The Sewing Room Wall Quilt ♥️

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Remember at the beginning of the month where I wrote about my thrifted shelf to raise my Goldfish Plant up off the floor?

 Well for the first time ever my plant has decided to flower ... so I can only imagine it's feeling a lot more relaxed now it can't be bothered by furry paws 🐱(not the ginger one either !!)

Yesterday was Daffodil Day here in New Zealand, which is a huge fundraiser for the Cancer Society.  

My dear friend Shirley & I decided to drive over to the other side of the city & visit the Daffodil Farm.  This was our car after our visit, top left (luckily I bought a bucket of water along) ... & these were my purchases top right.  Two huge vases full for only $20.00. 

 I just adore them & they make me feel that spring is not too far away.  (I always put them out of reach of my furry family members as I realise they are toxic to them)

Then on Wednesday when I did my big monthly grocery shop I couldn't resist this pot of mini daffy's just at the entrance to the supermarket.  I've planted them in a thrifted tureen & they look wonderful on my deck table.  

My dear friend Jennifer of elefantz designs has retired from blogging after 17 years.  We all miss her immensely, but are pleased she has listened to her heart & is taking a well earned rest & devoting her energy to other areas of her life.  

She has shared so very much with us out here in blogland over nearly 2 decades  - more free patterns, tutorials, & blocks of the month than I could ever count, innumerable scriptures ... whenever I would see her post pop up on my Reading List, I would always feel like putting the kettle on, it was like sharing a cuppa with a dear friend reading Jennifer's posts.  She is deeply missed indeed.

At the start of this year Jennifer began a free block of the month called The Sewing Room - you can still access these free patterns * Here *.  

I decided I'd quite like to stitch along with this so I began my blocks &, as is usual with me, I promptly fell behind.  Recently I managed to finish all 6 blocks & decided to assemble my wall quilt.  Jennifer was using a gorgeous Tanya Whelan range of fabrics for hers but I decided to use up some of my Tilda scraps as I have so many 😉  I think herein lies my first mistake, as I just grabbed scraps from a variety of ranges & nothing really co-ordinated.  

Once I'd finished the applique & stitchery work I added the borders around my blocks.  My original plan was to mount the blocks on the damask tablecloth that I was using as a background for my stitchery blocks - one of Mum's old & very thin tablecloths.  I pinned my blocks onto the cloth to see how they looked & didn't like it at all.  Many messages went back & forth to my dearest friend Leeanne while I picked her quilty brain.  Add some colour she suggested.  Deciding not to use the damask cloth I chose a good quality low volume cotton for my strips & broke it up with 1 inch squares, then I tried a scrappy border around this.  You can see top right I've only done 2 borders while I walked past it for a day or 2 deciding whether I liked it or not (more messages to Leeanne).  Yes - I liked it (I think 😵)  

So I finished the scrappy border all around it.

The back of the quilt showing the E2E sewing themed design

Luckily, right around this time, I was able to meet up with Leeanne & took along the wall hanging top to discuss further.  I asked her whether she thought it would suit being quilted using a sewing themed E2E design & she took it home & sent me some samples.  The one I chose is called "Sewing 2" & I absolutely adore it.  Leeanne was able to reduce it in size so the pattern didn't disappear completely off the wall-hanging.  You can read her post about it 

* here * & she has much better photos than mine are.  Honestly her magic touch just brings quilts to life so much!

 

Jennifer has composed her wall quilt using the 6 stitchery blocks along with 30 other fussy cut blocks, so hers measures 32.5 x 54.5.  As I have such limited wall space in my sewing room due to one entire wall being shelved, a double wardrobe & a large window, I didn't have this kind of wall space available.  I only used the stitchery blocks & borders in my wall quilt.  Mine measured 22 x 24 inches. 

Jennifer shared patterns for 8 different models of Sewing Machines in this block & mine was the same as hers, a Janome.  💓

I am SO so happy with my wall quilt & it looks perfect hanging beside Emily, my Sewing Doll.

  It's also away from the window somewhat, as things fade a great deal in this room which gets good light & sun.  

The wire hanger was already in my stash & fit the wall quilt perfectly.  Once I'd sewn the binding on I hand sewed a scrappy hanging sleeve on.    

Thank you so very much dearest Jennifer for all that you shared with us over the many years.  I am wondering if any of You made "The Sewing Room Wall Quilt" ... please leave me a comment if you did as I imagine Jennifer's designs hanging in all our creative spaces 💗 

It's a grey cold Waikato day here today, with brief 5 minute periods of sun followed by rain & a chill wind.  Miss Pip has informed me she is not receiving any visitors today & has tucked herself into a little nest on the dining room couch.  I wish I could join her 😉

Have a lovely weekend dear friends & thank you, as always, for your welcome visits here today,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,