Another finish!

I have been working on 4 baby quilts in order to have a stash ready for the 3 babies that are due in the next couple of months.

At the beginning of the week we received the news that New Zealand friends Anna and Tony became grandparents on 14th August when Libby Rose made her way into the world.  Always lovely news to receive!

Initially we didn't know whether the baby was going to be a boy or girl but one of the 4 quilts I was making was very pink and girly and I had earmarked it for this NZ baby should she be a girl.  I had already quilted it up to the space I had left at the top for the appliqued name.  So this week I have added both names - Libby Rose - and also another border of the candy striped border fabric.  I realised once the letters were in place that it needed another border to look balanced.  Fortunately I had plenty of fabric left and more than enough batting and backing at the top for another border to be added. Phew!!!

The quilt is loosely based on a quilt called "Flowery Applique Quilt", a Lynne Edwards' design from her book called 'Making Scrap Quilts to Use it Up!".  However I have substituted my favourite Sun Bonnet Sues for the flower clusters and also put a simplified flower in some of the appliqued blocks, alternating with Nine Patch blocks.

I think this quilt will be well received by baby's Mum and Dad as it's a very traditional design and Shelley and Anthony appear to be a traditional couple.  We had an emailed photo of the baby all dressed in knitted garments made by Nana Anna. Gorgeous!

Now it is bound and finished and I have embroidered the label for the back of the quilt.
On Monday I will take it to the Post Office and send it on its way to NZ.  I could have posted it today but didn't fancy the idea of it being held in some Sorting Office waiting for Monday. I am always nervous until I know my quilts have arrived safely.

In view of the candy striped border fabrics I have called this quilt "Sugar Candy", just right for a sweet little baby girl.

 

And a couple of close-ups:

 

 

Everything used in this quilt came from stash including the pretty backing fabric which has been in my backings drawer for years. Every time I have tried to use it the fabric just didn't seem quite right but this time it was.  :

 

I love the cute little red cat faces dotted around the fabric:

And I have a small piece left to include in patches in future girly baby quilts.
Happy sewing!

 

 

7th quilt finished!

Yesterday I finished my 7th quilt of 2016.  It's a Baby Quilt which I have called Strawberry Patch.

In the next three months I know of three babies on the way - one is due any day now.
So, I have been busy making baby quilts - four in the pipeline, one of which is Strawberry Patch.

Here it is:

 

The finished quilt measures 42" square and consists of alternate 4" Crumb blocks and 4" fabric squares.

I hand quilted in the ditch.

I love striped bindings and just had enough of this bright pink and white fabric to bind my quilt.  I literally had a 3" piece of binding left!

 

The backing fabric was a piece I bought at last year's Festival of Quilts. I love owls and couldn't resist this one. However, when I came to use it for the backing I discovered it was unusually narrow, nowhere near the normal WOF and once the selvedges were cut off  it was not wide enough to back my quilt.  So, I decided to put a pieced strip off centre down the length of the quilt.

I used some 10" squares of vintage sheet fabric I had bought many years ago at a Table Top sale at my NZ Group.  I have been steadily using these squares in my projects this year but still haven't finished them all.

 

 

 

And a couple of Close-ups to show some of the variety of fabrics I used up in this quilt.

 

I am pleased with it, it's really bright and cheerful. Stimulating for a baby I think and lots of opportunities to play "I Spy". 

So, if Fiona's baby is a girl, this is for her.

 

Strawberry Patch

I have made another baby girl quilt using 4" Crumb blocks interspersed with a variety of pink fabrics.
I made a similar quilt earlier this year and I have used the same design again, this time featuring a lovely strawberry fabric I bought in Spotlight. Originally I used the fabric as the backing for another baby quilt but as I had a sizeable chunk left I decided to showcase it in this new quilt project.
A few 4" patches of Strawberry Fabric and used to make the outer border too.  Still got some left which should be enough for another border in a similar quilt which I am sure to make sometime soon!

Some of my favourite Owls fabric in this photo - only scraps of this fabric left now!

 

Another of my favourite fabric in several blocks in this picture.  Can you see the pink fabric with little French buildings on? I bought this for a quilt I was commissioned to make a couple of years ago.  Again, only scraps left now!

 

 

 

I was awake early this morning so I was able to assemble the quilt and it is now ready to quilt. 

The owls fabric I had in my stash (not the Riley Blake owls in the 4" squares) was bought at last year's Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  It wasn't very wide, nearer 40" so I had to add a pieced strip vertically. I think I will hand quilt this as I did the last one.

 

 

This was a fairly quick project as the Crumb blocks were all in my tin and it was just a matter of choosing the ones I thought were most suitable. My pink scraps were all stashed in the same drawer, so it was quick to cut the required 4" patches from them.

 

 

Here's the whole quilt.  I love it!

As The Beatles said: "Strawberry Fields for ever!"

 

Seeing stars

I have been making some more Wonky Wishes Star blocks (Bonnie Hunter style) and today I sorted them into piles according to the neutral fabric I used for the centre of the star.

I now know how many more blocks I need to make in order to have enough for another Girl's baby quilt.

Here are the piles of blocks:

 

Some piles have 3 blocks, some 2 and there is the occasional single star block.

 

Here are two lots of 3, showing the different arrangements of colours using the same centre star fabric:

 

 

 10 more blocks needed.  I love making these blocks - very satisfying use of scraps.

 

I love strawberries!

From when I was a little girl I have always loved strawberries. In those days, of course, you could only buy strawberries in season - June and July - which made them seem even more special. Nowadays because fruit and vegetables are flown in from all over the world strawberries are in the supermarkets every month of the year but I don't think they have the taste or the 'specialness' of the strawberries I ate as a child.

Strawberries always meant  Wimbledon, a tournament I have followed very keenly ever since I was 11 years old and began to play the game myself.  My husband and I did go to Wimbledon a few years ago which was a thrilling experience but usually I am glued to the TV set, watching every ball.

So, when I was in Spotlight a few weeks ago looking for a suitable and reasonably priced backing for my In the Pink girl quilt I just had to buy this fabric.

 

I even have a small piece left over so that will find its way into future quilts.

 

I am very pleased with this quilt and I now know who will be receiving it. The baby - now known to be a girl - is due in August - so I am well ahead in making that gift.

 

Because I love the quilt and always admire other blogger's photos of folded quilts, here's two more photos:

 

 

Hope everyone is having a happy day.  We are busy packing up, ready for our long journey on Wednesday back to the UK.

 

 

In the Pink baby quilt

My second finish for 2016. Another Scrap quilt alternating Crumb blocks with scrap squares, all cut at 4" square.

Close up showing the alternating Crumb blocks

 

The bright pink homespun border and candy striped pink and white binding finished the quilt nicely.

The quilt measures 40" square and is all hand quilted.

This quilt will go back to the UK with me and go into my stash of baby Girl quilts. I know of a couple of babies due this year, one may be a girl!

Hurrah! I finished my WIP!

Earlier in the year I decided to use up some of the MANY 4" square Crumb Blocks that had been accumulating in my tin.  There were so many I couldn't fit any more in.
So I created a quilt top by sewing four Crumb Blocks together and decided to use sashing and corner stones to complete the top. All the fabrics came from stash: a lilac Kona Cotton for the sashing and two fabrics for alternating corner stones.

Recently I decided it was time to turn this WIP into a quilt, thinking it needed a couple of borders to finish it.  Then I decided to just go with one lilac Kona border and get it finished.

I machine quilted in the ditch and then hand stitched in a variegated pink Perle cotton to add more interest and stability. I also did a few stitches in the centre of the Crumb Blocks to make sure the quilt top was well anchored.  This is a baby quilt which will get lots of washing so it needs to be firmly quilted.  It's a good size for a baby quilt, measuring 40" x 48" so it's big enough for the cot when she is older and can even be used as a top on a single bed.

And, here it is!

Jazzy Squares: showing the backing

 

Jazzy Squares, resting on the sheep we have in our garden!

 

This quilt is going to live in Leeds, as a gift for Rebecca, born in March. Her older brothers Robert and James already have quilts from me so Rebecca had to have one too.

 

I am really pleased with this quilt.  It is bright and pretty and girly.  Lots of interesting snippets for Rebecca to find as she gets older: there's a tiny rabbit, a cat's face, a rhinoceros, an elephant, flowers, stars, hearts etc for her to find.

 

I made Jazzy Squares completely from stash - including the backing and binding which had been given to me by Sue, one of my patchwork group friends.

 

When we went to New Zealand I took some white acrylic yarn (which had been hanging around for too long) and a pretty woven basket style baby blanket pattern I had found on the internet.  I almost finished it before we came home but I ran out of yarn.  I knew I had more at home so when we came back I finished the blanket and put it away.  I now have a recipient, our step Granddaughter is expecting a baby and has a Baby Shower in August so I will gift the knitted blanket then.

 

Knitted blanket:

 

 

 

 

Completing a WIP

When I was putting away fabrics and part finished items a couple of days ago I was surprised at how much fabric, scraps and threads I had.  Too much to put away unless I have a big sort out.  I don't have time for that at present but it will have to be done in the fairly near future as I don't always know where certain things are and I will be wasting time hunting for a certain bit of fabric, notion etc.

That made me decide to definitely finish some WIPs that are already neatly stashed in a plastic bin in my sewing room.  There are also sets of blocks in there - some were from Bees I took part in a few years ago.

Yesterday I took out the almost completed top which was on top of the pile in this box.  It only needs borders to be finished. For the backing I decided to use a lovely piece of fabric recently donated to me by a patchwork friend. It's a good sized piece, measuring 56" by 70", more than big enough to back this quilt, with some sizable pieces left for a future project.

Here is the top, backing and possible border fabrics:

 

 

 

I added the first border using the same lilac Kona Cotton I had used for the sashing.

 

This measure 40" x 45", already a good size for a baby quilt.
Now I am wondering if I really need to add a second border and, if so, which of the four fabrics should I use? What do you think?

As I won't be doing any sewing for the next 10 days or so the decision can be left on the back burner - or in this case, laid out on the bed in my sewing room! I will bind the quilt with the backing fabric and I think that may just be enough of a pop of colour to pull together all the colourful Crumb blocks and define the edges of the quilt.  .....................  I think I have already talked myself out of adding another border and that will help me finish the quilt faster.  I have a baby girl in mind for this quilt and as she was born a couple of months ago I do need to finish the quilt.

 

Baby gifts ready to go

Well, baby Etta has arrived!  Born on 10th January, another granddaughter for my husband's cousin and his wife.

I was sure Mum Helen was having a boy and had a quilt set aside that I made quite recently.  However, I knew I had a couple of baby girl quilts in my cupboard so I didn't make another.

Surprise, surprise, along came baby Etta and out of my cupboard came this quilt:

When it was made, way back in March 2012 (I checked my Flickr quilts photos to check the date!)
I called it Emerging Butterflies.  However, I decided to re-name it now it has an owner, and it's now called "Patches in Pink". 

I made a really scrappy backing for this quilt which I was very pleased with at the time and I still love it now:

 

I am adding a crocheted stripey blanket that I recently made so that's going in the parcel with the quilt.

 

Helen is a great crafter herself so she will enjoy this gift, I am sure, and will appreciate the love and care that went into the making.

Can't wait to see them all and perhaps have a cuddle with a new baby!