Crochet baby blanket finished

In an attempt to keep scraps down to a minimum by using them up I decided to make a striped crochet baby blanket.  I had almost a whole ball of grey left over from the striped baby cardigan I knitted recently and a friend gave me leftover balls of navy, red and white yarn. As I was about to pop them in the cupboard I had a change of plan:  why not crochet a baby blanket?

All made up as I went along.  I think I made a 100 chain before starting the double row of dc, using the four colours in turn and repeating the pattern of navy, grey, red, white.
The white ran out first but I managed to find an excellent match in my bag of yarn leftovers so then continued until the red came to an end. By this time the blanket was almost a square of a useful size and I had enough navy to crochet a border all the way round the blanket.

It finished at 29.5" x 31.5".  Not a perfect square but near enough to 'look' square until I measured it.

Another part of my gift for Amy's baby who was born a little early on Thursday. A baby girl, called India Reyna, such a pretty name. Can't wait to hand over all my gifts whenever that might be.

A close up:

 

The colours aren't completely true to their real colour.  The navy isn't as black as in the photo and the red is proper pillar box red not the rather orange shade of red it appears here.

 

I'm pleased with the blanket, soft and colourful, and drapes beautifully.  Just right to tuck around a baby in the pushchair or car seat. Hope Amy agrees.

Festival of Quilts 2017

I spent two full, busy days last Thursday and Friday at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham.

As always there were wonderful Competition quilts, such amazing work on display. I marvelled at the artistic skills as well as the sewing skills of the quilt makers.
I had a problem with my camera so didn't take as many pictures as usual but I will share some with you now:

 

 

Two photos of a very intricately pieced quilt. Great colours, all swirling around the quilt.

I loved this Pineapple quilt.

 

Again, wonderful piecing. I loved how the corners connected into striped squares.

 

 

The following photos were of a quilt called Some Memories, each block depicted a holiday , each one a different scene, country, year the holiday was taken.

 

This is Opua in New Zealand

 

 Another NZ scene, this time with kayaks and, like the previous one, edged with Maori patterned fabrics.

 

Interesting to see this quilt as we had NZ friends with us, and they loved spotting the NZ holiday blocks

 

Again lots of small piecing.

 

 

 

Lots more photos to share, but off to friends for a meal.  Will come back tomorrow with more pictures.

 

 

 

Happy Cats is finished

I have finished my Happy Cats baby quilt. It measures 35" x 45", a useful size which can be used initially as a floor quilt for tummy time and kicking on, it's good for snuggling with Mummy and then can be used on the cot or as a topper on a toddler bed.

I have used quite different colours in this quilt, mostly driven by the navy and cream background small cats fabrics. Everything came from stash. I managed to use a blue and white fabric I had, extending it with a fawn with tiny white dots so that it was large enough for the backing.  I used the same fabric for the binding.

I made this quilt really quickly.  I cut out fabrics on 8th July and by 28th July it was completed!

The pieced backing:

 

I was pleased with how even and pretty straight my machine quilting was -I am still learning this skill:

 

 

Two close ups of the blocks:

 

The whole quilt:

 

 

Now just waiting for the baby to be born so I can make a label.

 

 

 

Linking up with Scraphappy Saturday

I have been making solid colour 5" String blocks for a while but yesterday I made lots more including 6 blue ones.

I always look at Scraphappy Saturday's photos of the great and varied blocks people make using the colour of the month - for July it's blue, my favourite colour.

I have put all my Blue String blocks together this morning and here's a photo of all 24 of them.

 

I'm linking with Scraphappy Saturday on the soscrappy blog.

Making blocks like crazy!

Following on from cleaning and sorting my Sewing Room I am still dealing with scraps and trying to use up "things" I have found.

I found a Square in a square block given to me by a New Zealand quilting friend as an example of this block. I decided not to add it to my Orphan blocks but to 'Use it up"!

So yesterday I created a block which will be made into a 12.5" QAYG block for Soy Amado.  I also used strings and leftover piano keys and added scraps from my recently sorted stash:

 

I made this larger than the size required because I find that QAYG takes up a bit of the size and the blocks finish a bit smaller.  I can always trim it to size after quilting.

 

I have been amassing a huge amount of part-finished Crumb blocks so I finished off 12 more of those:

 

Finally I had a splurge on String blocks using phone book paper as a base - 24 of them:

 

All made from my strips stash (recently added to !).  I think this photo illustrates beautifully the colours I use most: blue, pink and green!

 

 

Cleaning up the Scraps

I am always fired up by the RSC blocks that appear on the So scrappy link up each Saturday. Very inspiring

This weekend I loved Angie's post on her blog called Quilting on the Crescent and photos of the great 49 patch blocks she made using 1.5" squares.  Each blocks was a single colour and as this month's chosen colour is blue, she made a blue block to add to her growing stash of 7" 49 Patch blocks.

My (Scrappy) Dreams Come True on Blue Bayou is the title of the post.

I thought I would attack my smaller scraps that were a large pile following my recent Sewing Room sort out.  I had a wonderful time ironing scraps and cutting them into various sized squares, loads of 1.5", some 2" and 2.5". 

I had just the tin for the 1.5" scraps (never cut this size before so that's a new category in my Scrap User's System).

 

Today I began tackling even smaller scraps which I have bagged according to colours.  These bags are generally used when I am making Sun Bonnet Sue - type baby quilts.  Haven't investigated them for a while and I was surprised to find loads of useful sized scraps.  I cut up the yellow and pink scraps this afternoon and also found lots of strings to add to my Strings bag.

 

 

Yesterday I also found another piece of the cat motif fabric gifted a couple of years ago by a Patchwork Group member.  I cut those up and added them to my Cat Quilt project bag.

15 of them so I think I probably have enough cat motifs for 3 baby quilts!

 

 

Off to iron those pink and yellow strings so I can put them away before I cook dinner.

 

 

Found - a stash of blocks!

I am sorting out my quilting supplies in my Sewing Room.
What a job, trying to organise them into "Like with like", finding UFOs, trying to organise all those scraps etc etc.

However, I came across a bag of blocks, in various stages of production: some 2" strips of all kinds of coloured fabrics, one sewn into a 9.5" block,

Others paired right sides together and sewn ready to be cut along the diagonal to yield blocks like these:

 

20 in all but I could easily make that up to 24 blocks from the contents of the bag.

 

This will definitely be my next UFO project.  I have lots of 100% white Egyptian cotton strips which could be used for sashing with some bright scrap cornerstones to make a Siblings Together Quilt.

 

These were made so many years ago I cannot even remember what they are called or why I started that project.  I can see that my sewing has improved since then so "Practice must indeed make perfect"!

 

Have too many things in the pipeline to start on this quilt now but I have given it a name:

Square Dance.