Lizzy's Quilting Pages

Welcome to my quilting pages. I am a relative newcomer to the world of quilting although over the years I have acquired various books on patchwork and quilting as well as building up a modest fabric stash. In 2001 I at last started quilting! However my collection of hexagons is destined to stay that way as paper piecing by hand is not my thing.

As well as my teenage daughter and two small boys I also have "Quilt Inspector" to "aid" me in my quilting! Blackbean is half-oriental and half-moggy (her mother escaped at a most inopportune time), to be honest she's not actually black, but a black-red-cream tortoiseshell who is very heavy on the black. Like many of her family she is named on a Chinese theme (Siu Mai, Fun Kuo, Feng Shui and Chairman Miao spring to mind - all Oriental reds).

2004

Quilt number one for 2004 was a 40th birthday gift for my brother.

I used Terry Atkinson's Yellow Brick Road pattern and used a selection of black-and-white fabrics. The border fabric has musical motifs on it and sparkles too. It is backed and bound with a red/black fabric. It's tentative name is "Life isn't just Black & White".

I also made a cushion from the same fabrics which made a great birthday gift for a friend.

In February I discovered the Cyber Friends Quilt Guild and joined for the princely sum of $5.00! It is great fun and I feel really involved even though almost all interaction is via the web.

Technically the fabric fire engine I made for Jonathan's 4th birthday is "quilted" so I must get a picture uploaded soon.

The blind down

Another "quilted thing" is the space blind I made for the boys' room. It is insulated with a layer of cotton bump interlining and backed with thermal/blackout material. There are no rods in it -it is stiff enough to draw up evenly without. The only problem is that the stitching lines show as dotted lines when the sun is behind it.

The blind raised - it seems to hang in neat folds pretty easily.

My 2002 RCTQ Round Robin is finally FINISHED! It has been sandwiched, quilted and bound, even if the free motion machine quilting is rather wobbly in parts, a lot of parts..... I used a variegated thread which doesn't show up as well in the pictures as it does in real life.

Thanks to all who took part, it was good fun and sometime I'd like to take part in another one.

As I mentioned joined the "Cyber Friends Quilt Guild" due its geographical spread it is divided into "cybee hives" and I am a member of the "Maine to Maryland Madwomen Quilting" group. Before going to the USA in April I rattled off a Yellow Brick Road based baby/child quilt to drop off with our Queen Bee as one of my charity quilts for the year. Here I am handing it over just outside Washington DC.

When I got home I made up another smaller quilt from the remaining blacks and donated that to Project Linus UK.

In August I completed my Jewel Box June RCTQ challenge from 2002 - better late than never. This has been given to a friend as a special thank you. It is backed with Polartec 200 and is quilted with YLI variegated thread.

Laid out on our sofa bed

I like the diamond pattern "embossed" into the fleece by the quilting.

Close up of the quilting

Some of my ongoing projects can be seen here together with progress reports.

2003

2003 was not a very productive year but I did complete a "space quilt" for each of my two sons. Same pattern and fabrics, but subtly different layouts and different colourways for the backing and binding. These have no wadding/batting but are backed with "polar" fleece, so are nice and cosy. Here is a picture showing just how snuggly they are. I'll add some pictures showing the quilts laying flat if and when I get a chance :-)

Laid out flat

William & Jonathan with their new quilts

Two happy small boys wrapped up in their new quilts

Close up complete with a dime and a quarter for scale

The pattern was from an issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine's "Quilt It for Kids".

I also made a baby quilt using a attern called "Hopscotch" from an issue of Quiltmaker's All time Favorites. Picture to follow sometime.

My RCTQ Round Robin came home to roost and I got as far as marking a quilting design on it.

2002

The first quilty thing finished in 2002 was an elephant wallhanging for my daughter.

The next project was a scrappy quilt for Po! Po is my son William's favourite cuddly toy and she had to have her own quilt.

I finished my RCTQ April Attic Windows Challenge in time for my mother's birthday in June, for more details and pictures either click on the picture or here.

In June I also made a set of six placemats (same pattern as those further down the page) as a wedding gift for some friends. These were so urgent I din't manage to get a picture of them before they left the country!

From September through to mid-November I was working against the clock on a HUG quilt for Karlee & Mike as a wedding gift from the rec.crafts.textiles.quilting (RCTQ) newsgroup. This was great fun and ended up as large as I had hoped - large enough for two people to snuggle under. Early in 2003 Karlee let us know that she was expecting, so not just a HUG quilt, but a fertility quilt!

Other Fabric Related Stuff

Tie-Dyeing - William had a "Red, White, Blue Party" at his playgroup to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II so we made red, white & blue tie-dyed T-shirts.

2001

My first quilt of 2001was made for my daughter. It is made up of dressmaking scraps and is tied rather than quilted as she wanted something puffy (and I wanted someting simple).

The second quilt was made as a Ruby Wedding Anniversary present. The design is "Evening Stars" by Pauline Adams from Quick Quilts to Make in a Weekend (ed. Rosemary Wilkinson) (ISBN:0805046836)

Project Linus UK has benefitted from my third quilt which was my first attempt at foundation paper piecing.

I also started a full size double bed quilt for myself (and my husband). It is being made from a selection of black and white prints with a generally black background.

I have also made some cushion covers while testing out colour ways and techniques. So far these have all featured the Evening Star block as used in the Ruby Wedding Quilt.

Following the events of September 11th 2001 the World Trade Centre/Penatagon/PA Memorial Quilt was born. Quilters from all over the world have donated blocks in memory of all those who lost their lives at not only at the WTC but also at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. Here are my blocks, one of which will be used in the main quilt, the others in smaller quilts as decided upon by the organisers of this huge project.

In October 2001 I visited my first quilt show and acquired more fabric and some more ideas which turned into Christmas tablemats.

The Ruby Wedding Quilt & Cushions as well as the Music Cushions were also part of the RCTQ (rec.crafts.textiles.quilting) UFO Challenge 2001 run by Karen Johnson. To see more details of the UFO Challenge click here.

Please visit my Quilting Links Page and the Taylor Family Homepage

RCTQ - A Quilter's Trip Around the World

Meet quilters from all around the world by subscribing to RCTQ !

RCTQ is the newsgroup for quilters and stands for rec.crafts.textiles.quilting which you have to admit is a bit of a mouthful (and takes longer to type!). There are "members" from England, Scotland, Wales, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, Singapore, Holland and Canada to name but a few. These very welcoming folks will always be happy to share in your triumphs, commiserate with your sadnesses and give useful advice on quilting and many other topics. Some people "post" regularly, others "lurk" and read the messages but keep very quiet, some are intermittent posters, some don't even quilt!

To visit the RCTQ "homepage" click here .