This afternoon was spent washing, drying and ironing fabric. I hadn't bought fabric for quite a while but in January and February I made up for it :-)) - just could not resist all these lovely bargains calling out to me. I always wash my fabrics before use especially to make sure that there are no "bleeders" in between. I would hate spending all that time making blocks and quilts only to have them ruined one day by a fabric that bleeds.

November last year 4 ladies in our little group decided to make the same quilt - a small wallhanging only 40cm x 50cm (approx. 15" x 19")- it is the first time we have done this as we never work from a pattern and mostly make up our own design. Well there has to be a first time for everything and although the basic pattern is the same the results are so different. I made mine as a present for a person very dear to me in "her colours". I was very lucky to be able to use all fabric from my stash - some of the pieces in my stash only being 8" x 8". Goes to show how a little can go a long way.
When the wallhanging was finished I found it a bit "dull" (see photo above) so after taking the workshop on fabric painting with paintsticks etc. I decided to be brave and used some gold in the centre of the large flower - yuk it looked as if I had messed something on my poor flower. What now - I searched webshots for some photo's of Lilies - this flower is meant to be just that - and found some beautiful shots. One of them had the gold centre and then spots of "gold" running from the centre of the flower and splashed all over the leaves. I then remembered having been given a box full of beads from someone who used to make decorations out with them. So out came the box and there I found these tiny golden green beads. OK - in for a penny in for a pound. Got some fabric glue, a pin and a toothpick and glued each little pearl on to the fabric one by one. This is the result and I would love to hear your reactions. I haven't the faintest idea whether this person will like this or not and am nervous about giving it to her so I am anxiously awaiting your verdict!

The pattern comes from the May/June'98 issue of the Quiltmaker - an American magazine