Tea Shoppe Quilt

At last the quilt top Mum made is quilted and finished!  All the little tea pots and tea cups have been sewn around and flowers have been carefully stitched so that they are not stitched too much...for I quickly found out that too much detail makes the quilt too flat and hard.

Finished Quilt on my bed

I photographed the quilt this morning with the sun at the perfect angle to show all those little details (so long as you turn off the flash).  Click the link for more detailed pictures!

Quilt Assembly

Assembled and ready to Quilt!

This is going to be a beautiful quilt ...  While my Mum and Dad were visiting recently Mum decided to piece a quilt with me helping on the design a bit.  She showed me how to stretch out the backing while repairing another quilt she made me years ago, so I assembled the "quilt sandwich" this weekend.  Now for the quilting!

So I am currently up 3 1/2 quilts after Mum and Dad's visit, one gorgeous one Mum brought with her as a gift, two she repaired, and this one I get to quilt myself.  Phew!  Thanks Mum!
More pics -

Is this a Chrysanthemum Ball?

I made a toy/puzzle ball that I first saw on a cover of "Quilts Japan" magazine over at superbuzzy.. I looked all over for a pattern for it and then a tutorial showed up on craftgossip here, which I followed...with some modifications.

How I made fabric bows for my place mats

I put a little bow in one corner of each place mat, I think it really made them look finished.  I used the same ribbon as the trim that goes around near the edge and stitched it in white too so it would match.   I didn't have much of the ribbon as it was given me so I had to make sure I saved enough of the ribbon to make bows by calculating how much I would need to trim each placemat and still save some for bows.  The bows are not actually tied, they are made from two strips of ribbon, a long piece for the loops and tails and a smaller strip to wrap around the middle.

Follow the link to see how to make the bows like I did, step by step...

Placemats from nowhere...

Here are 2 of my 5 new tablemats.  They look super on the table (they now each have a bow on one corner too) and everyone likes them which is a major plus!  Table mats may not seem very exciting to some, so I should explain why they are are important enough to me to get in the way of making cool stuff like stuffed bunnies...  It's quite simple, I have frequent headaches, and a large glass topped dining room table on a tiled floor next to a huge window with not much soft furnishing to soak up the resounding "CLANG!!!" of plates and cups plonked onto it by the less sensitive members of the household.  The noise bounces off the afore mentioned hard surfaces and amplifies into a brain mushing sensation when it hits my ears....I can't take it I tell you!!!  Placemats it had to be, pronto!