Gifting a baby quilt and starting de-cluttering

So far there hasn't been too much sewing happening here for a variety of reasons.

At the end of March we returned from our 3 months in New Zealand and there was lots to do - house, garden, catching up with family and friends etc.  We also had a short trip to Holland to visit friends over Easter and in addition I had two unexpected trips to A & E, one in Amsterdam and one back home.

However I have managed to embroider and sew on a label for my Peter Rabbit Quilt and this was handed over to my next door neighbour this morning.  Her daughter had a baby girl a few days ago so this is for Eadie.

 

I made the quilt top a couple of years ago and then it was put away in the cupboard.

Last year, as part of my finishing UFOs campaign it was finished.  Definitely a quilt for a baby girl I think, with so much pink included. 

So, I hope baby Eadie enjoys it as a playmat and as a quilt for cuddling.

 

Eadie's baby cousin Freya was born only three weeks before so both of the baby quilts I have gifted so far this year have gone to the same family.

 

Our Dutch friends were so kind and looked after us so well whilst we were staying with them. We met again their elder daughter and her two little children, Nolan-Jay and Eden-Rose. Eden-Rose is a delightful 3 year old and typically "into pink".  She also loves her cuddly toys and dollies and her favourite pastime is tucking them up and taking them for a walk in her dolly pram.  So, as part of a "Thank you" to our hosts I am making a very pink Doll's Quilt for Eden-Rose.

 

Lots of hearts which have been attached with fusible webbing but I am now hand blanket stitching round them with matching embroidery floss.  I love blanket stitching so this is a very enjoyable part of the quilt making for me.  I will add two borders and perhaps even a little pink ric rac for extra embellishment.

De-cluttering is uppermost in my mind at present.  As I was unpacking from New Zealand I decided it was time to go through every cupboard and drawer in the house and throw out as much as I could.

Last week I started on my wardrobe and so far have taken three bags of clothes to the Charity Shop, a paperback I finished reading since I came home and returned lots of unused medicines and dressings to the chemist's for disposal.

I have really got the bug now and am determined to be ruthless and give away anything I have not worn/used for a long time.  This morning I made another visit to the Charity Shop, taking 5 T shirts and a pretty skirt that I have not worn for probably ten years.  I doubt I would now fit into it and it is definitely too young a style for me.  However, each time I had sorted through the wardrobe, back the skirt went because I thought the fabric was so lovely I should make some cushions from it.  Well, that has never happened, so out it went this morning.

My aim is to sort through a cupboard or a few drawers each week until the job is DONE!

Has the Spring cleaning and de-cluttering bug got you too?

 

Another UFO finished

Another UFO finished yesterday and I have just photographed it so I can link with Clare of Maybush Studio blog for her Brit Sewing Thursday Linky.

I made this Peter Rabbit quilt top in Feb/March 2010 when I was stuck in the house recovering from the Norovirus and a chest infection.  I felt awful and sad that I couldn't be with my daughter helping with our baby granddaughter who had just been born.

To help ease the frustration I made a few quilt tops, raiding my stash, especially my scraps.
This Peter Rabbit quilt top was one of the tops I made. 
A friend saw it and asked if I could make something similar for her niece's baby.  I did and finished that really quickly and  off it went to America where it is hung on the wall of the baby's room.    Apparently it was deemed too nice to use, it was an heirloom, hence pride of place on the wall!  Still there although that baby is now a three year old  little girl.

But my original top was put away and not finished.

Fast forward to a few months ago when it came to light again whilst I was sorting out my sewing room and it was put into a big plastic box of UFOs.  About three weeks ago it was this quilt top's turn to be finished.  I used a piece of backing fabric I had bought on sale for half price and hand quilted it in the ditch.

Yesterday I added a lovely pink binding, just the colour of strawberry ice cream.  I bought this fabric at the Festival of Quilts and I think it finishes the quilt nicely.

The fabric is called Cherry on Top by Keiki for moda and is made in Japan.  It has a lovely soft feel to it and was an ideal choice for the binding.

So, a drum roll for another finished UFO!

The front:

 

A close up showing the log cabin blocks:

Showing the backing and binding:

I fussy cut Peter Rabbit motifs for the centres of the log cabins and used strips cut from my scraps in pink, blue, yellow and green which were the main colours of the motifs.
The quilt was hand quilted in the ditch using a cream quilting thread and finished at 36" x 36".

 

In the pipeline

A friend gave me a strip of cartoon-style frogs, ideal for a baby/child quilt. There were 11 blocks on the strip, each measuring 3.5" square so just right to make the centre of a Log cabin block.

The frog blocks are bright primary colours and orange so I hunted out scraps of orange, yellow/cream, green and blue to make the logs.  When I made my two Peter Rabbit Log Cabin quilts I used the colours in rounds: pink, yellow, green and blue, alternating the order of the colour frames for each block.

Like this:

However, when I started to make the Frog Log Cabin blocks I don't think I was really concentrating (blame the hot weather!) and  I used the four colours in turn for each round of the log cabins.  By the time I had made all 9 blocks I really wasn't keen on them, they looked too busy and haphazard and I felt the logs rather detracted from the cute frog centres.
But I had trimmed the blocks on each round so didn't want to waste the fabric or my time unpicking.
So, I persevered and decided that aqua Kona Cotton might tone things down a little so I cut 2" sashing strips.  As soon as I started joining the blocks and then the rows with the sashing in between the blocks suddenly started to look much calmer and much better! Magic.

Yesterday I completed the sashing and made a narrowish aqua border around the whole quilt, again using 2" strips of my Kona Cotton.

At that point I stood back and decided the quilt needed two more borders, a bright scrappy one and a final aqua one. I raided my stash of 2.5" cut squares ( which I cut when I have suitable small scraps, one day perhaps making a Scrap Vomit Quilt?) and made the four scrap borders. 

So here we are, My Frog Quilt 'In the pipeline', ready for it's final 3" aqua border.

 

 

And a Close up of the blocks, sashing and scrappy border:

 

I still think I prefer the way I did the Log Cabin blocks for my Peter Rabbit Quilt but, as this Frog Quilt has evolved, I find I can live with it and will be happy to finish it and gift it at sometime in the future.  Two more babies due in the Autumn, and if one is a boy, then this is the quilt I will give as a present.

I do find it interesting how my ideas change as I work through the process of making a quilt. 
I set off with fairly clear intentions as to the colours and main design ( Log Cabin, Strips, Stars etc) and then as the quilt grows I find colours I thought would work well, especially for sashing, don't really pass muster, and I change my idea and colours.

This happened in my last quilt the QAYG Strip blocks when I changed my idea of aqua sashing to the yellow and again in this current project, adding two extra borders, including the scrappy squares one.

Do tell me if the same happens when you make quilts!