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.

Urban abacus from start to flimsy

I recently had a commission request from a family member for a teenage girl.  Of course pink was one of the requested colours, along with mint green and blue.  I had been quilting for so long I was busting to do some piecing.  But I wanted simple easy piecing and this pattern is certainly that!

Pattern is Urban Abacus by Sew Kind of Wonderful - made using the large quick curve ruler.  Simply the quickest quilt I have made in a long long time.  Blocks are 6 x 8" unfinished and whole quilt finishes at 50 x 67".

My fabric winnings from the guild show are unashamedly very pink!  Now I don't really like florals, so I find it hard to decide on floral prints for other people.  But the super large rose print looks like more of an ombre print when I cut it up. 

And in order to achieve the required nine prints for the pattern I dug through my stash and came across the Tilda fabrics I won for viewers choice at my local groups show in 2015.  This was the first time I had won a prize for a quilt and I was chuffed...but fabrics were very pastel and very very floral!  My friend Ann from Periwinkle Patchwork had donated the prize and it was very generous amount of fabric, but she knew it wasn't to my taste!  Sew its great to have a reason cut into it and use some of it in a quilt someone will love. Ironically I purchased this pattern from Ann and she also taught me how to use the Quick Curve Ruler in a class.

Super happy with the outcome.  I definitely think I will be using this pattern again.
Happy quilting Sue.

Two more bright fun kids quilts finished

I finally got the binding on two quilts I quilted a little while ago.  I normally enjoy binding at night, but a hand stitching project had distracted me.  I briefly lost my piecing mojo but had lots of energy for quilting - a very rare thing indeed, so I ran with it while it lasted!

The next quilt is decidedly girly with pink, purple and green blocks...and a pretty backing of mermaids - sorry it is a bit hard to see here with the light shining through the quilt!

The sun was shining briefly but it was bitterly cold this day, so I didn't hang around for better shots!

 The rosemary is flowering in our garden making a lovely splash of blue.

And then a few of the flag iris have also started to flower, creating more splashes of colour around the garden.

 

There is one more kids charity quilt pinned and another top to be pinned, but they will be waiting awhile now as I have started a new quilt and have plans for a second.  I am finally using some fabric I won several years ago (in our local quilt show), in conjunction with the yardage I won recently.

Happy quilting Sue.

Finishes x three

I think this is Vivid Grid # 3!  Top was made out of 2.5" stash fabrics, just pulled out the red, blue and yellow for blocks and beige background.  I was seriously short of yellow but a lucky find of yellow scrap bag at Periwinkle Patchwork solved that problem.  I enjoyed diagonal quilting this, quick, easy and looks great!

I have been on a quilting roll!  This charity quilt got made at camp in May from some already made eye spy four patches I found in my stash.  A fun musical print was used as sashing and a cheerful orange print that I purpose purchased to brighten this quilt up.

This Eye Spy quilt became very very blue, but I still like it!  I tried a white sashing and it just didn't work.  So I just went with blue.  It used more precut stash and a bunch of left over blue binding strips from past projects.

Hopefully it makes a sick child smile.

Happy quilting Sue.

Homage to Richmond!

Aussie rules football runs through the winter months, so typically occurs on cold and windy days.  It was cold, wet and windy the day I took these photos and I was dodging showers to get out to take photos.  Hence plenty of action shots of the tops flapping in the wind were unavoidable.

This kids quilt is indeed a homage to Richmond Football Club in a Eye Spy format.

My friend Lisa is a avid Richmond supporter and loves cats, there are lots of cat prints in the black background fabric...as well as Star Wars, so something of interest for everyone!

Sticking to my tried and true method of polka dot sashing and diagonal colourways to make a colourful quilt top.

And for my third top I stuck with the winning formula of blue, blue and a splash of orange!  This is because I have an abundance of blue blocks but I do admit I really like it!  I will have to go back and do a count of how many kids quilts I have made out of this donated Eye Spy fabric, because there are still a pile of made blocks and pre cut squares in my sewing room - somewhat diminished, but enough for a few more tops yet!  

But for now I am going to be busy quilting!  Its all good because a) its winter. reasonably wet so I am stuck indoors b) I quit my job and need entertaining while I "look" (wait is a better term in regional Victoria) for another part time job to apply for c) the builder finally arrived to renovate our ensuite 9 mths after we discovered the shower was leaking - so I need to be home but out of his way!

Happy quilting Sue.