My Isolation Projects.

  Apart from finishing off other people's donated UFOs and making donation quilts my other passions are repairing and restoring antique quilts and making hand stitched needle turn appliqued quilts. After the much loved quilter Di Ford Hall's recent passing, I knew that I needed to stitch some of her designs and keep some treasures for my family.  I have a couple of Di's designs in progress as I took some classes with her just for fun as I alwsys learnt so much about using fabric in different ways to enhance a design. Some of these are WIPs and UFOs and I'm yet to find them since our move. However I have started 2 of Di's designs since March and the first photo is one of her designs from 1998, called Poppies. It has 16 blocks and I have finished 10 of them so far.

The design has a cut out shape in the centre of some blocks but I wasn't really happy with it. Funnily enough it looks better in the photo.

 I covered that area with a circle and will do the same for the other blocks so they are uniform.

 This block and the 2 below  were stitched while I was resting my knee. Thankfully it seems to be much better after my last visit to the Osteo.

 I also started stitching the Maltaville quilt when a lovely friend gifted the patterns to me. It's a bit different to my usual red and green applique quilts as it uses more blues and yellows and I find that I can get blocks stitched quickly if I have them prepped in advance. I use the back basting method and try to trace several blocks at a time as that is often what stalls a project.

 I restarted the Noah and Matilda quilt as I originally started it with modern fabrics and lost interest. After one block this time I decided that I wanted a darker background so I ordered more and will either remake this block or tea dye it.

I also started Di's Lyre design based on an antique top in her collection and I have already stitched 8 blocks and have started the last one. I was stitching each block over 1 or 2 nights once they were prepped but I  was undecided about what to use for the borders and unable to visit a quilt shop so work slowed down on this one. I really need to get the blocks pieced together and then decide about the border. My complication is that I used 2 different fabrics for each block and I am not sure what to use next. The fabric is 25cm strips from Max and Louise's range and I bought it at the Leukaemia fundraiser for Di, as well as mainly  using red from their fabric range as well as Di's.

The Peter Mac auxiliary shop is currently closed due to the virus but I have lots of donated kits etc to finish off for them so I made up a cute little bumble bee beanie with antennae . I also finished the baby jacket and that will be donated to St Kilda Mums to be gifted to families in need of support.
   Aren't quilters lucky that there is never a shortage of projects to work on. It's apso good for me to complete some quilts for my family as I have very few on hand, having donated most of them.
Hugs, Jan Mac