A Special Quilt!

One of goals this year is to only buy fabric for my classes and to make quilts from the fabric in my stash and scraps buckets.

One of my lovely friend's had a big birthday this year and I wanted to try the Marcelle Medallion quilt by Alexia Abegg's book Liberty Love. When I bought the book and then watched the QAL on Instagram I was hooked.

I decided that I wanted to make this quilt for my friend, so set about making the centre last summer. I will admit it was a frustrating process that was not fun. The Y seams and the small pieces not connecting properly left me really annoyed! Since then I have found this paper piecing tutorial for the block which would make the process much easier!

I put it aside for a few months whilst I started my City and Guilds, but dug it out 5/6 weeks ago and started working on it for the friends birthday.

Work in Progress, and Lego in as usual in the background.

Because my centre block was the wrong size I had to adapt the pattern in a few places, but overall it worked well!

Once the patchwork was finished I set to work machine quilting it, but loads of safety pins where involved first!

Lots for lovely safety pins!

I decided that I would quilt each border with a different pattern:

Lots of tiny pebbles, swirls and star bursts!

As the borders grew I increased the size of the pattern to include a tree bark pattern and the some love heart paisley in the final border, along with the family names of my friends family.

On the back I used fat quarters from my stash. The quilt patterns show up really well on the backing. It is lovely!

I found some fabulous little houses for the binding, which made me smile and fitted in perfectly with the colours in the quilt top.

The finished quilt is so totally gorgeous, and it did cross my mind to keep it for myself!

Luckily I didn't and it is now living in my friends house and very much loved!

Sewing Info:

Pieced and quilted with Aurifil 2024.

Pieced and quilted on a Janome CXL301.

Making Medallion Progress

Last night for the first time in 2 weeks I was able to sit down and do some sewing!

It is kinda strange not having the time to sew when I spend my days teaching others to sew...

Last night it was so nice to go to my studio and shut the world outside for a little bit..

I posted a couple of weeks ago about trying something new. Last night I got back to work on it.

So we started with this:

And last night is turned into this:

Don't look too closely though - the star points aren't perfect but the seams match up in the middle of the block.

I am using 2 fabrics from the bundles by Katy Jones and Rita Hodges, but also adding to it from my lovely stash!

Now onto the next border - 80 small triangles!

The cutting is my job for this evening, but right now I have to get on with my City and Guilds coursework.

Trying something new...

I have a hundred quilt books, just like all quilters.... I love them... I love looking through them and seeing the fabric ideas... tell me I am not alone in this???

So I have had my copy of Liberty Love book for ages and have had 3 sewing projects from it that I want to make. It has just been a matter of timing...

This last week has been hard work - a lovely couple of new courses started, which were great fun. But I finished the week with an eye infection. Turns out I am allergic to the main ointment used to treat the infection so I am not in drops number 2 and feeling very sorry for myself!

So the obvious thing to do is to start making a new quilt! This is where the Marcelle Medallion comes in!

I have never made a medallion quilt before but I have been hoarding my bundles Katy (I'm a Ginger Monkey) and Rita (Red Pepper Quilts) that are from Fat Quarter Shop just for this project.

You can see from Katy's bundle that it is full of sweet prints and Rita's is no different:

I am very excited to start this quilt, but I suspect it will take me a while as I am desperate to get my Swoon quilt finished and on my bed before it gets too much colder!

Have you started this quilt? Would love to see!