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Sunday, July 1, 2018

Winter Quilt Festival–Finished

Finished just in time for our Southern Hemisphere winter – my Winter Quilt Festival wall-hanging.  This panel was a Christmas gift several years ago from my quilty pen friend Carol, who lives in South Dakota.  She had stitched on two borders before posting it half way around the world to me as a lovely gift.  I machine quilted in the ditch around the three straight lines in the borders, then several curvy lines around the blue border.  This was to be one of my “slow stitching” projects, and I decided to do some hand quilting in the centre of the panel.
 
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Ready to start hand quilting

I must say that this has been a very slow project indeed.  It came away with us on our South Island holiday for 10 weeks, and was occasionally taken out of the bag and worked on.  I slowly quilted my way around those cheeky snow people, the trees, banner and the quilts in the background.

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Then I decided that I would stitch around the teeny tiny printed block patterns which surround the centre panel.  I’m not the world’s best or fastest hand quilter, so it took another wee while.  The binding and hanging sleeve was added last week, just leaving a few more of those tiny blocks to stitch around, which I have finally finished.
  
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Quilting around tiny blocks

I made it to hang in my sewing room, actually the back bedroom, over the winter months, and it looks nice and seasonal.  So down came the floral wall-hanging which has been there for ages – and I’ll swap them back again in the Spring.  Ooops, this one’s not quite all finished, I forgot to do a label.  I’ll get onto that little job shortly.

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Hanging in the sewing room

I also have another wintry wall-hanging displayed, Winter Welcome, which was also a gift from Carol.  A wintry scene indeed, with a church and a cheeky snowman.  Carol sent me the pattern and added a few fabrics to start the project off, and I completed it last year.

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Winter Welcome

Our winters here in my part of New Zealand are nowhere as severe as Carol experiences in South Dakota.  The only snow we see is on top of the mountains, but we have our share of wind and rain over winter.




13 comments:

The Cozy Quilter said...

Isn’t it satisfying to finish a project that has been underway for a long time? We are in the middle of a heat wave right now with temperatures into the 40 degree C range with the humidity. Great wall hangings!

Faye said...

very cute panel! I too am doing christmassy projects, but I don't have the excuse of it being winter - here in Shanghai it's 38 degrees!

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I wondered how your winters were. That is a cute wall hanging and it is always nice to get a package from another part of the world isn't it.

Kate said...

Jenny, that was a lot of hand quilting but so worth it - the wall hanging is a beauty!

Tired Teacher said...

Congratulations on an excellent finish! I love all the hand quilting you did in the center section. It adds texture to the piece.

Julierose said...

Ooohh just lovely Christmas projects you've finished--I think they are beautiful. I am also a (very!) slow hand quilter--but I do enjoy it in little bits and bobs of time--my
"arthur-i-tis"(hahaha) decides when I have to stop and rest. So, things take me a long time--hugs and congratulations on the projects finished...Julierose;)))

Karla (ThreadBndr) said...

Very cute with all the snow people in both projects.

Love your camper, too. That's my dream when I retire in a few years. I am looking to get a very small one and do some traveling.

CathieJ said...

Those winter scenes are quite welcome right now as we are experiencing temperatures well into the 90s here. Your quilting is quite pretty.

Carla A Few Of My Favorite Things said...

A finish is always a cause for celebration. I am sure you enjoy seeing it on your wall. Be very thankful you don't have a Dakota winter! Ha Ha

Jenny said...

Thank you all for your kind comments, much appreciated.

Maria said...

Great lot of hand quilting Jenny. Will be lovely on your wall at christmas

Quilter Kathy said...

What a lovely wallhanging! Great idea to combine machine and hand quilting!
Thanks for linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching!

Janice said...

A very appropriate finish for this time of year. You will actually get to enjoy it for a few months.