Magik Quilter

At last I have been making an impact on the pile of quilt tops that I finished late last year. This was because I finally found two more storage cabinets for all my pieces of fabric, one for inside our unit and one larger sideboard for my storage facility, yes we all know now that it is my garage! I have had almost as much fun rediscovering various pieces of fabric as I had finding them in the first place. My indoor cabinet is the perfect size for all those glorious pieces of fabric that originated in interior designers sample books. They are roughly fat quarter size and roll up perfectly so that I can see at a glance where everything is. When I first started quilting I cut up a lot of pieces without really being sure of what I was going to do with them, fussy cut them I guess you would say. What an idiot! I can’t believe the amount of small pieces I have in various boxes in the garage. So while I now have things nicely stored away it was looking a little like a bomb had hit the bedroom today as I sorted through what I will be working on for the next few weeks.

So enough of all that and onto something I have completed at last, well it is mid summer here and as I am of a certain age it gets pretty hot under all that wadding! This throw was really inspired by the trim that I found in my local charity shop, There were many pieces cut to various lengths and after doing a lot of scrap quilts with lots of pieces I thought I would do something that lets the fabric, and the trim speak. I had a length of white textured satiny upholstery fabric and had some floral jacquards that I had put away for a Kaffe Fassett style quilt. After looking through them I found the blue and thought it was a bit different to all the shabby chic style pink roses that have been around for a while now.

The top was machine sewn and then the trim was added by machine, this was quite time consuming and very heavy but was worth it as it really lifted the top and the white trim picks up the white highlights in the flowers quite nicely. After storing it in the cupboard since late last year I found the exact backing it needed while I was pottering in the garage yesterday and no, you cannot come to my garage ladies. The backing is a textured heavyweight upholstery fabric that I originally paid full price for then when they had a clearance in the store I bought an extra two metres for $8 instead of $36!!!!! It is a deep, yet soft sax blue with large flowers in a paler shade scattered over it. I finished sewing it together by machine last night and then all it needed was a little top stitching with perle thread around the outside edge.

While I was in the garage this evening I found some gorgeous aqua lightweight brocade which is perfect for the back of another throw that I finished last year. The fabric for that came from my local charity shop and was from two sofa covers. The fabric is by Sanderson of England and has the most beautiful aqua and pale pink roses scattered all over it. I plan to make a quilt and a table runner with this fabric so that it is a sort of set for a bedroom or shabby chic lounge room or even to have over wicker furniture on a verandah. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can show you the whole set. And all because I found the perfect backing fabric in my storage facility cum garage. It is amazing where inspiration comes from, with the blue flowers it was the trim and the shabby roses the aqua brocade. And having a tidy storage area didn’t hurt either!