Cassie's quilt

"Now here's one I made earlier"... I think this is might be the next thing in my chronological documentation of my creations.  And luckily another one that is still used and loved on a daily basis.  I'll have to admit to a bit of necessary repair work before it was anywhere suitable for its photo shoot today!  The second time in its life this quilt has had a major repair and maintenance session.  I'm just glad she obviously loves it so much...
This was made, according to my hand-embroidered signature and date in the corner, in 1993.  Like Tim's quilt before it, it is just based on a very simple design; just same-sized square patches, and is machine pieced and hand-quilted.  Unlike Tim's however, I had learnt at least a teensy bit about quilts by this time and the border treatment is a little better.  This time, I folded the outer border over the edge and under, and slipstitched it in place over the backing, then quilted in the ditch on the back, making a little quilted border of about 2cm width all around on the top side.  Still not the proper or recommended method of finishing quilts, mind you, but since when have I ever cared about properly following recommended methods, anyway?  Yah, I'm such a sewing rebel...
The backing is simply a single sized bed sheet, and yes that rather garish blue colour is far from a perfect choice for the very soft, antique shades of blue, pink and ivory of the topside fabrics, but meh.  The back wasn't very important in my back-then eyes, and sheeting fabric is tough and cheap, also priorities to my back-then self.  Since the back is, unlike the topside, in absolute perfect condition, I guess it turned out to be a good choice.
The part I was most pleased with was the border quilting design (which I designed myself); a little arrangement of quilted hearts and nesting hearts, joined with garland-like rows of quilting stitch.  And I did quite a good job, if I say so myself.  I'm glad I still have things like this around to remind myself of how patient I used to be with regard to my sewing projects.  Seriously, I don't know if I could ever do something like this ever again.

above; all these are the original fabrics...

above; fabrics added later over two major repair sessions ("major" = "now covering nearly a third of the quilt")

below; border quilting design and (retrospective "what-was-I-thinking" moment) backing fabric

Introducing Mum...

I will say straight out this amazingly beautiful ensemble is not made by me but by my Mum here.  I had to put a picture of it here, because I couldn't resist; Mum will never ever get herself a blog and this outfit is too creative, clever, immaculately made and finished, and lovely in itself not to share.
My parents have been staying with us recently, and when Mum came downstairs one morning in this ensemble on her way to attend Grandparent's Day with my Dad and Sam, I literally stopped in my tracks.  Then raced to get my camera, simultaneously begging Mum to let me post her outfit on the blog.  She graciously agreed.
(Of course I would not be human if a little bit of me thought it might not be a good idea, posting Mum's creations here on the blog.  After all, they will just serve to highlight how my skills are but 1% of Mum's.  But let's not be petty now...)
The jacket:  Mum bought these tweed fabrics, sold as small patches or "salesman's samples" from a shop called Peppertree in NSW which she visited as part of the Australian Sewing Guild convention last year.  She pieced the different sized pieces together in an attractive random patchwork pattern... and anyone who has attempted patchworking will know that randomly shaped rectangular and square patches are not easily put together.  There are also one or two patches harvested from my Dad's old tweed sports coat that has finally bitten the dust after many years of good service (a Re-fashion!).  The pattern for the jacket is a Vogue pattern by Donna Karan, (pattern number to be provided when Mum looks it up and tells me)  Please note the perfectly constructed welt buttonhole, made from tweed too.  And I have to especially point out, see the piece of mustard/dark green houndstooth-y looking fabric, on the right, or buttonhole opening side of the front, just under and by the lapel?  Mum knitted that bit in fair isle, to tone in with the other tweeds.  On a seamstress' note, she wanted it mentioned that the knitted section required extra underlining and stabilising, as of course knitted fabric is not as sturdy as woven tweed.  
The jacket is fully lined in dark grey acetate lining.
Mum made the skirt too, from charcoal jersey knit.  I think she might have made the pattern for that herself.
Thank you Mum, for this bar-setting self-sewn moment!
Later edit: Jacket: Vogue 8605, shortened; Skirt: Vogue 2911

Cathedral window cushion

This is a cushion cover I made for my mother a few years ago. Actually more than a few. I think it was for a mother's day ... oh btw, Happy Mother's Day for last Sunday to all you yummy mummies out there! I'm sorry I didn't manage to blog this cushion cover for that day as I intended, but I've been having a few problems with Blogger... (grrr)

When my Granny had to move to a home, and after we had finished cleaning out my grandparents' house we had a big pile of things to find new homes for; many really beautiful things that found instant homes in the children's and grandchildren's homes, some things for charity, and some things that were too personal and beautiful to toss out, but really had no useful purpose for anyone.... one of those items was a beautiful paisley silk tie once belonging to my grandfather. Mum gave it to me, saying something like "here, you could use this lovely fabric for something or other if you like".
Obviously I wasn't going to toss it out but equally obviously you can't just drape a tie over your couch as an ornament. But I still felt like it was important and needed to live on somehow. Bit of background applies here; my grandfather used to own and run a highly respected menswear store in London,  and later here in Perth, so he always wore the most beautifully tailored suits and shirts. So to me this wasn't just an old tie really, but much more; a symbol of intrinsically who my grandfather was, a representation of his life and his trade.

Now, a tie has only a very small amount of fabric in it. Not enough for anything much. I thought about what to do with it quite a lot, before deciding to be brave enough to cut it up...

And I made a cushion cover for Mum to have, so she could still have the fabric there to look at as a little memento of Grandpa about the house. I took this picture of it in Mum and Dad's house the last time I was there.

So this is a patchwork design known as Cathedral Window; used to showcase small pieces of really beautiful fabric like this. The backing fabric is calico. The design is interesting, because you end up needing like three or four metres of calico for one little cushion cover, and just mere scraps for the "showcased" fabric. You cut huge squares of the calico and fold them in an intricate origami style design, down into much smaller squares in which is sewn the little pieces of beautiful fabric.  I remember having to be quite clever to cut the tie strategically to get sufficiently large squares for the cushion.  It measures 50x50cm, and has a cream coloured dress zip on the back for a cushion insert.  The top is completely hand-sewn.