Traffic jam flimsy finish

I took the Frolic top to patchwork so I could trim the edges in company of friends - to boost my confidence!  But in order to carry all the bits and pieces I had to empty these mini quilts out of a bag.  When I got home I decided they deserved some attention NOW while they were out of the bag!

The navy mini just needed hanging corners added - quick unpick of already stitched down binding and that job took 10 minutes!  The colourful nine patch neonatal quilt needed binding - took another 15 minutes to find a cute orange stripe in my stash and get that sewn on.  Last but not least the aqua/red neonatal quilt needed quilting and binding.  So now I have some hand sewing for evenings and three little quilts are nearly finished - yippee!

My Traffic jam flimsy was next in line for some overdue attention. I found a rapidly dwindling collection of grey and black fabrics and cut up 4.5" strips and sewed the borders on.  The pattern has a pieced borders from 2.5 squares, but I had depleted my supply of pre cut squares in these colours and I am happy with the final look.  I am going to try and quilt this myself, but need to find a backing first.

A continuation of my experimentation of making very large HST I made a giant churn dash - this is currently 37 " square.  I am going to add a blue border to make it finish up at the size I want.  The idea is that it will make a good teen boy quilt fand a easy kit to cut and make for the charity workshops I am hosting.  However with all that "blank" space one really should try out some new quilting patterns ; ) we will see if that happens or not!

Happy quilting Sue. 

Pink HST and Australian baby birds

Rummaging through the orphan bin I found lots of scraps but very few orphan blocks.   The find that excited me the most was a bag of pink half square triangles.  Some were made and others were still in pieces, but there was a decent amount, so there was the temptation to do something with them immediately!  I tried to make a pattern but there wasn't enough, so went with random scrappy layout.

The squares finished at 3", so I managed to get a 24" square finished top, which is the right size for a neo natal top.  I am very pleased, but there were left overs and I am trying to get rid of scraps!  

Sew I made a little dolls quilt 12" square and quilted it straight away.

I found a scrap of flannel for the back and pieced some wadding left overs.  These little quilts give me a lift, because they are quick, scrappy and fun!  Who doesn't love hot pink dots!

We were  away a week and came home to discover the New Holland Yellow Winged Honeyeaters had nested in my white lavender, right next to the clothes line.  The fledglings are very cute, but very close to the ground, so hoping the neighbours cat stays away.

These are fledglings of Eastern Rosella and Crimson Rosella parents (it is unusual for the two varieties to cross breed in the wild), nesting in our purpose built nesting box on the rear of our 1 acre garden.  You can see the cuts in the box and  wire on the right, so the young can pull themselves up out of the box and peer out the entrance hole.  This is purposely built high, so they are strong and feathers matured enough to learn how to fly.   Otherwise they play Superman and might not survive. their first flight  

Happy quilting Sue.

Neonatal charity quilt

Over January I  made four cot quilts for new babies, one already born and a couple due.  I used a fat quarter pack that I purchased from a destash sale.  That is the first time I had ever been to a destash and first time I had ever brought a fat quarter pack!  

The fabric went a long way but there were  a few lovely scraps too cute to not use.   I randomly pieced them together to make this neonatal quilt.  It has been sitting in a pile forgotten for months and I found it when I was on a quilting roll.  Which is one reason why I have free motion quilted it!  Well that and the fact it is so small (24" square) and I pieced the wadding, so I was brave and decided to  densely quilt it.   I am pleased with the results, but practise makes perfect and its a long way off.  

 

This quilt has just been straight and ditch stitched but I am now certain that it needs a bit more to anchor it down.  However the binding is on and I lost my quilting confidence when the walking foot died.  It wasnt so much that the foot died, as that it took me awhile to work out what was wrong and I unpicked way too much micro stitches in that time!  So while I am not going to tempt fate with more unpicking I do think this quilt will get some fancy free motion quilting....but I have to wait for some appropropriate quilting inspiration first.  

Happy quilting Sue.