Tennis quilt, love all

Mild level of panic when hubby announces that DS2 snuggle quilt for the couch is too small and bit young for him.  DS2 is turning 12 in June and I really panic when I realise that I have NEVER made him a bed size quilt.  In fact his snuggle couch quilt was made by his grandmother. Luckily hubby was straight to the point, he likes tennis so can you make him a tennis themed quilt!

Phew, now I have a idea for a quick quilt and the not so local quilt shop, I have discovered has great novelty fabric range, so after a little bit of googling and some messaging and a parcel of tennis themed fabric is on its way.  In the meantime I drafted a pattern (stuffed up maths) and when fabric arrived I started cutting and sewing. 

Opps.  Stuffed up the math, sort by one 8.5" square :( 

In the meantime I got a full time job!  But as I am now working a 30 minute drive from the "local" patchwork shop (instead of a 1.5 hr drive), she arranged to have her daughter deliver my extra fabric on her way to work so I didn't need to pay postage, sounded like a good idea.  Except it took all week to arrive and when I did get the message I had to pick it up at the butchers!  LOL it was bad enough having to tell my new employer that I was expecting a private parcel to be delivered to work, then I had to ask where the butcher was located in town, but he didn't seem fazed about being a fabric parcel drop off/pick up point!

So this was the result, two rows of tennis rackets, one row of tennis balls and one of grass fabric (because he plays on lawn) combined with a dark blue, two light blue and a row of orange.  I got all the fabric from the Little Desert Patchwork shop except the orange.  I purchased a red fabric but it was the wrong shade when it arrived and in such large pieces it looked terrible.  Luckily Spotlight had the orange which as the same tone on tone print as the bright blue so it was meant to be! 

Then even more luckily my dear friend Vicki, kindly long arm quilted it within two days as she likes to do an all over pattern between custom quilt jobs.  I didn't put the binding on, just trimmed it and gifted it for this 12th birthday.  He was happy enough....just took me another month to get the binding sewn on, but its done now!

Happy quilting Sue.

Carolina chain on the dark side with a mini chevron.

I have used all the light and bright coloured blocks from the leaders enders Caroline chain box.  Sew now was the time to tackle the dark blocks - I say dark, but I mean those blocks made with neutral fabrics that ranged from cream to coffee toned to beige.  

I tried to add a bit of sparkle by using red blocks, but the bulk of the blocks were made with blue and green fabrics and a sprinkle of brown.    

I am very happy with this finish, but I did decide to make it bigger than the previous version, so it would be teenager size for my prefered charity.  That meant making extra blocks but it was worth it. For the side triangles I used a very old fern print fabric I picked up on special years ago, which has been a great backing fabric.  I love picking up blue fabrics on special for backing, as they are universally acceptable to everyone!

My friend Karen was the one who introduced me to blogging many years ago.  At the time I was living in a new city with small children.  It enabled me to feel connected and enjoy quilting at a time when sewing time was hard to come by.  Karen had a special birthday coming up, so I very quickly made this modern chevron mini quilt to pop in the post to her.  Honesty it is the quickest quilt I have ever made, out of necessity as I didnt know it was her birthday, but I really wanted to send her something handmade.  I popped a few other things in the parcel and by complete fluke and the good grace of Australia Post it arrived on her birthday, which was fantastic! I love orange and blue together so I was very happy with this scrappy chevron quilt, especially as the orange fabrics were all donated scraps from another quilty friend.

Happy quilting Sue.