It's just an empty cage girl..

If you came from Amy's blog and are looking for my  Blogger's Quilt Festival entry  check here

My bird quilt is finished yay!

A little info, this quilt measures approx 57" x 72" {143 x180 cm}

Made with Laurie Wisbrun's Tufted Tweets and some Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt for the binding. Solids are from my local market.

Hand quilted with vintage white embroidery floss, black silk and Sulky in grey.

It's been horrible weather so I had to take pictures inside unfortunately. This was the best I could do! This is my first {and certainly not my last} pieced backing. I drew more cages on the back used up some left over bits of tweets and added the white  and black because I'd ran out of grey. I love how it's turned out even though the design was quite random.

This quilt has a lot of 'me' in it.  Often I find inspiration in song lyrics, this happened to be the case with this quilt as well. The two lines that kept running through my head were "it's just an empty cage girl, if you kill the bird" from Crucify by Tori Amos. And "all your life you were only waiting for this moment to arrive"  from Paul McCartney's Blackbird. Once I saw Tufted Tweets I just knew they'd be perfect for my black 'ravens' and empty cages quilt.

Quilting is therapy for me, as I know it is for a lot of you out there as well. It offers me the opportunity to have a creative outlet for my emotions and things I go through in life. This last year has been a tough one for me and my battle's not over yet. Five years ago I ended an abusive relationship and it's been a long lasting battle to reclaim my own life and freedom. These birds and their empty cages symbolize these last five years for me.

 

It took me a while to figure out just how to quilt this but I decided to repeat one of the patterns in the fabric for the quilting {the connected oval shapes} and I added some vertical and horizontal stripes in various widths. 

This orange binding is completely out of my comfort zone! But I've been trying to overcome my fear of orange {I blame football for that!} and I'm really pleased with how it looks!

I love this bit on the back where the quilted cage overlaps the one I drew!

Somehow I feel this quilt's very appropriate for Halloween. Maybe not in a traditional witches and pumpkin kind of way but the colours and the ravens feel very much in theme with the season to me.

Happy Halloween!

x Leila

p.s. The inspiration lyrics for my next two quilts are...."I wanna really really really wanna zigazig ah!" {yup that's the Spice Girls and I'm feeling the shame! ;-)} and it's a tie between "From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen" & "you're my pride and joy etc."

~ Bloggers Quilt Festival ~

This is my first entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Last time round I had such good fun hopping blogs and reading about all the wonderful quilts that are made. So I decided to join in on the fun and share a quilt with you all.

You can read about this quilt here as well, I'm sorry about the poor quality of the pictures, this was when I first started blogging and didn't have much experience in taking nicer pictures of my quilts yet!
Anyway...

I picked this quilt because this was the quilt that sparked my quilting addiction. I started quilting 5 years ago when I was pregnant with my son. I made him a patchwork blanket and a baby quilt and had a go at some larger sized quilts. None of wich turned out great but still, I enjoyed making those quilts. When I started making this quilt I hadn't sewn in such long time that I had to look under a pile of old fabrics and dig out my machine first!

This quilt was made for my friend's daughter Lola. She came over one day and saw some pillows I'd made and loved them. So I showed her some of the quilts I had done and she asked me to make one for her daughter.
I started off with a different design, pieced the entire quilt even started to quilt it but I just hated it! So I decided to start over again, and I'm really glad I did.
I drew this design on tracing paper, taped it to my window and traced it on a piece of white fabric. It was my first applique and embroidery quilt and I was so pleased with how it turned out.

A lot of time and love went into stitching and hand quilting this. But my friend absolutely loves this quilt and I'm sure this is one that will be kept in their family for many years to come!
I've been on a non stop sewing spree since :-D

Thanks for stopping by!

x Leila

Swapping {Hoops}

I'm back!

Cornwall was so beautiful I'm already missing it!

But I missed my old Singer too, and it didn't take much persuasion to get to work on something special for someone secret.

I joined The Scrappy {Hoops} Swap over on Flickr. Another really cool swap  hosted by Heather and Kerri . There's just so much creativity in these groups it's absolutely amazing to watch what everyone comes up with!

Here's a hoop I made that might be heading towards my partner.

I'm not sure yet if she'll like it so I'm just dangling this one in front of her....

in the hopes she'll bite!

x Leila

about Bee Blocks & Cornwall

This month's Bee  blocks are for Petits Elefants

She sent us all a lovely collection of sweet flowery fabrics a mix of Wonderland, Hunky Dory and Tweet Tweet, plus some Kona Ash. Asking for square in square blocks, and straight lines.

I've really enjoyed this month again, I'm loving this Bee!

I've packed my suitcase for a little trip to Cornwall with Mr. M. I'll be back in a week :-)

See you again soon!

x Leila

I won!!

A little while ago I won this give away over at Amber's blog!

Today my goodies came!!

A lovely bundle of red and black fabrics and four patterns!

Instead of the one she was giving away she sent four of her fabulous patterns, so generous! I'm really excited about this, I have never made a quilt from a pattern before and now I'll have four to chose from. 

Thank you so much Amber!