An industrious week...

I have been on annual leave this week, pottering around my cottage, doing some housework, some ironing and some weeding! and, in between what else but some quilting!

I have finished two more blocks for my version of the Beyond the Cherry Trees Album Quilt.

I wasn’t too sure about the fabric for the urn. Initially it looked a little too heavy, but all the colours are represented in the quilt and amazingly the shape fitted the fabric design, so I decided it was meant to be, but  those rim “fingers”..., I was sooooo happy when I finally finished them. With this block I have finished my first row, so I will take the blocks into work next week and lay them out to take a picture, I just don’t have a large enough room here at home, it is such a little cottage.

I am very pleased with the berry basket block, I didn’t think I would get all the berries done – only 43 berries, so what am I going to be like after 120 grapes? The basket fabric looks a little modern but it reminds me of the 1807 Julia Southgate quilt in the V & A museum exhibition last year. Her quilt had so many contemporary looking fabrics (21st century), including several with large solid stars printed on them, so I chose this fabric with the Southgate quilt in mind.

What else have I been doing? I’ve prepped six blocks of the Maltaville Quilt. I just wish I could make a start, but I am still not happy with any of my background fabrics.

In my frustration, I revisited my version of the English Baskets quilt. Whilst I was in Zutphen, Bep and I started discussing the Antique Baskets Quilt which I started back last July. Yes, it's another quilt that I have started and put to one side, but it is on my list as a work in progress, not a UFO!

The original quilt is from the 1800's, so being from that period of course I had to add it to my "to do" list. It is in the collection of Karey Bresenham and I first saw it in the November 2009 edition of Quilt Mania. Corliss Searcey of Threadbear in Victoria, Australia produced her own version, but I have decided to go with a reproduction of the original quilt setting, which means making a few more baskets (22 in all).

I decided that the blocks would be a perfect way of using up my scraps of fabric and was determined not to buy a thing! Even the background fabrics were in my stash - perfick!

I took these photographs this morning. I had forgotten how many blocks I had already stitched. Some of the fabrics are quite old i.e. I bought them nearly 25 years ago! It has been fascinating rummaging through my stash, some of the designs have been reproduced again in other fabric collections e.g. Judie Rothermel's designs  and some I wish they would bring out in another collection, especially the ones from the Smithsonian collections from back in the mid-1990's. So, with all my scraps of fabric used in this quilt, I have decided to call my version of the quilt - "Everything Old is New Again".

I should really get on with finishing these blocks, I have just seven more to do.

Have a good week!