Happy dreams and plans

Since I finished the latest Project Quilting challenge "Lily, The Christmas Tree Skirt" a couple of days ago, the adrenalin dropped, and there has been time for the heart rate to return to normal, and sleep to return at night instead of lying awake in bed with patterns, colours and ideas dancing in my head.

I spent a couple of days relaxing with the Red Brolley Christmas redwork.


One stitchery finished, and another started. I am feeling very keen to complete one entire block along with piecing while heading towards the feeling of a finish, just to keep me going.

The Christmas redwork quilt needs to be finished by the end of May for a 40th birthday gift. I need to power on with it before I become immersed in applique... which is definitely on its way .... I can feel it waiting to get out!

But, I won't be working on the Civil War Bride Quilt. The reproduction fabrics are too cosy. They just don't feel right up here in the subtropics. We only wear long sleeves for two weeks of the year. We don't need quilts for warmth. And so, our decorating is different here. Perhaps cushions, tablerunners, wallhangings, ornaments, stuffed toys and throws that never get used except for making cubbies or decorating. When I decide who The Bride will be for, I might get around to finishing it.

And now, my heart is pounding again, the sun is shining, and my face is smiling... one of the local quilt shops re-opened today, and I went in with Esther's new free BOM "Diamond Hill" pattern looking for fabrics in purple and turquoise to make a 70th birthday quilt for my MIL.

(The quilt shop has been taken over by another owner (a previous staff member), and has been renamed "Quilting Desires"!!)

I chose a medium-dark purple moda Grunge fabric for the background of the large applique blocks, and a batik stripe for the corner baskets.


Then instead of just 2 greens and 2 pinks, I chose lots and lots of fabrics for flowers and leaves. Mostly purple and turquoise, with a little bit of pinky-red-orange to add POP!

The fabrics are a mixture of grunge, batik, fairy frost and shimmer fabrics. I chose them all for a range of values, depth and a mixture of colour

I don't know what I will use where yet, elsewhere in the quilt. I bought small amounts of fabric and can audition the prints for pieced sections later. Although I am already liking the pearly shimmer for the light colour between some of the pieced squares in the outer border.

And then something for me. A quilt of mainly applique. This year I am celebrating 20 years of making quilts! I signed up for Esther's Mystery BOM Secret Garden. Today I bought a stack of mauve-grey fabrics from the $5 per metre discount box as the background. 
Pairing them up with some delicious new Kaffe Fasset Collective fat quarters and some 40s retro and 70s retro fabrics.

I don't even know what the fabric requirements are yet! But, it's going to be a bright, fresh
scrappy quilt!

There's a lot of quilty energy that needs to come out at the moment... after a few years break, all of these projects want to be made, and ideas want to be used just in case I stop again.

This leaves me with the main current projects of:

1. Christmas Redwork (need by end of May)
2. Diamond Hill
3. Secret Garden
4. The Goblin King QAL
5. 12 Days of Christmas Birds quilt
6. Little Pears decorations
7. more Project Quilting challenges to come (gifts to be made!)

I hope you are happily dreaming and creating too.