Strawberries and Butterflies - a finish

My first finished quilt of 2017..............................  Drum roll please!

I present "Strawberries and Butterflies"!

This little Premature baby Quilt was made from already completed 4.5" Crumb blocks, alternating with 4.5" butterfly fabric blocks cut from a FQ which has been in my NZ stash for some years. The sashing is a Strawberry one which I bought this year at Spotlight. I also used the Strawberry fabric for the backing and binding.
The quilt measures 22" x 24" which I understood to be the size required by our local Maternity Unit at Motueka. Apparently those are the maximum measurements: anything from 18" x 21" is required.
Thankfully mine was acceptable and I received some nice comments following Show and Tell.

So pleased to finally have a finished quilt to show for all the sewing I have done since being in NZ from the beginning of January.  However  today at my Quilting Group I put together another Premature baby quilt and sandwiched it ready to quilt and bind at my Saturday Group meeting.

I handed in Strawberries and Butterflies at today's meeting and will give my current project in at the next meeting on 15th March. It's another variation of Crumb blocks

Preemie Quilt top from Scraps

 

Lots of sewing this week but only one photo.  I guess you are all tired of my endless sewing of scrap triangles! 

 

 

 

 

All week I have been churning out 3" blocks from my paired triangle scraps.

 

When I tired of making pinwheels I arranged the HSTs differently to create a sort of  diamond effect.  I expect there is a name for this sort of block but I don't know it.

 

As a change from churning out little blocks I decided to use some of the diamonds to create a small 15" x 20" quilt top.  I sewed 5 diamond blocks together into each row.  What doesn't show up in the photo is that two blocks in each of these rows are the same, a red on cream patterned "neutral" with a wine coloured fabric. Pretty.  I interspersed these row with a rabbit fabric and added a narrow pink border to bring it up to the size my local hospital prefers for their baby cots.  The babies lie on the quilts and the quilts are washed in a washing machine on the ward every day so they get a hammering!

 

So next job is to sandwich and quilt.  a nice easy project with a quilt of this size!

 

Linking up with Clare's Thursday Brit Sewing Linky.

My Quilt books

I saw a photo on another blog a few days ago which showed some of the quilt books the blog-writer owned.
It set me thinking of my own collection of Quilt books.

Over the years I have amassed quite a collection, many bought myself and a lot gifted to me.
I have loved reading through them all, lots of them many times and I like to dip into them when I am looking for a particular idea or method of sewing or piecing.

This is the corner of my sewing room where I keep my books, ring binder files of Quilt ideas cut from magazines, my sweet jar of Perle cottons and plastic tubs of cut scrap squares and strips of various sizes.  As you can see, I use a bedroom for sewing so there is a wardrobe and bed in there too.

Close ups of the book shelves:

However I realised that actually there are 5 I use all the time. And here they are:

Sorry, for some reason the photograph as turned itself sideways en route from my Flickr Photostream to my blog!

Most of these books are never back on the bookshelf, they are on the bed with half-finished projects beside them.  In fact, I had to gather them up and return them to the shelves for these photos.

I love Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran books.  Their quirky style, wonky blocks and their liberated block ideas sit very happily with me.  Also, the use of so much colour excites me.  Freddie Moran's view that the more colours in a quilt the better and her wonderful notion that RED is a neutral colour are just great! When I first started quilting back in 1997 my use of colour was very restrained: three or four colours in a handful of different fabrics, in pale or quiet ( not as interesting as the recent craze for Low Volume!) colours were used in my first quilts.

Bit by bit I became more adventurous, colour crept up on me and then I saw some American Quilt Shows on TV in New Zealand.  There I met Freddie Moran, and that led to Gwen Marston.  I was blown away!  I even did a One Day Workshop with Gwen In New Zealand when she came to the Quilt Group I belong to out there.  I have never looked back!

I probably always liked the idea of Scrap quilts and using Freddie and Gwen's ideas I was able to make one Scrap quilt after another.

Then through blogs and Flickr I met Emily Cier's Scrap Republic book.  Her use of colour and scraps excited me too so that book is also in constant use.  I am currently working on two quilts based on projects in this book.

So, if I had to limit my collection of Quilt books to just a few those five would be an absolute must.

What are your favourite Quilt books and why?  I would love to know.

Favourite Quilts - Linking with Mary at Molly Flanders

A few days ago I read Mary's post on her blog Molly Flanders where she had been considering which of her own quilts were her personal favourites.  She asked readers to decide on their own favourite quilts ( ones they had made themselves, not other people's that they admired).

That made me think back over the many, many quilts I have made myself over the past 16 years. 
Five immediately came to mind as absolute favourites and several more as ones I really loved.

So, here are my Top Five Favourites and reasons why I love them so much.

1.  RAINBOW STRING QUILT

 

This was the first String quilt I had made although I had wanted to make one for a while.

I had a very personal reason for wanting to make a Rainbow Quilt, in memory of my dear son, but had struggled to think of how I could interpret the "Rainbow Theme".  Suddenly the idea for this quilt came to me.  It combined my love of colour, scraps and strings into one quilt which I felt spoke Christopher's name.

 

If you look closely you will see that I incorporated the ROYGBIV colours into the solid strips creating the diamond pattern within the String Quilt.  As there are 9 blocks I had to repeat the Red and Yellow solids in the corners which I felt balanced the quilt nicely.

 

The coloured strings are all made from scraps that I had in my stash and I restricted my colours choices to ROYGBIV colours.

 

I gave it to our daughter in memory of her brother and she hung it on the wall of her new baby's room along with some family photos including some of Christopher. Our little granddaughter loved this quilt from when she was just months old and loved looking at its brightness.  Later on she was able to look for colours and play I Spy too.

 

Since then I have made several String Quilts, one very similar to this original one but several scrappy ones including a couple made in the QAYG style. 

 

2.  SUGAR AND SPICE COT QUILT

A very special one as it was made for my Granddaughter. Our daughter didn't know whether she was expecting a boy or a girl but she wanted a quilt starring Sunbonnet Sues and Overall Bills as she had always loved these motifs on other quilts I had made.
So I made the Sugar and Spice Cot Quilt, very pink and girly with lots of Sunbonnet Sues and also another "Boy Quilt" which had Overall Bills.  As baby Annalise came along, Sugar and Spice Quilt was the quilt gifted to her.  It was used so much, washed over and over again and now lives on Annalise's bed at our house.

Two close ups of this quilt:

 

 

3.  WATERMELON STARS COT QUILT


This quilt was inspired by Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quilts. 
I loved Gwen's work and was lucky enough to attend a one day workshop that she gave at our Quilt Group in New Zealand.  It was a marvellous day, everyone had a wonderful time, free from the idea of being perfect and just enjoying colours and putting scraps together. 

The Quilt we made that day was a Liberated String Quilt and I have done several of these since as it remains a favourite pattern. But then of course I went on to try out lots of Gwen's Liberated blocks and made this Star quilt.
I called it Watermelon Stars because it featured a watermelon fabric which had languished in my stash for some time.  The quilt eventually was gifted to a baby born in New Zealand so it was apt that it went to the country where I first made a Gwen Marston inspired quilt.

4.  BRIGHT STARS COT QUILT

Again Gwen Marston Stars, this time in girly pinks and lilacs and gifted to my very good friend's granddaughter who was born a few months after our granddaughter.

5.  WHERE'S ELMER?

 

I originally made this Cot Quilt for another baby but loved it so much I couldn't part with it!  Another quilt was made for that particular baby!
So this quilt lives at our house and covers the doll's house when it is not in use. Annalise plays with it and when she was first learning to count she regularly counted the elephants and found the pairs with matching blankets on their backs.

It's still one of my favourite quilts for all sorts of reasons. 
It was the first quilt where I had set blocks on point.  Thinking about it I haven't made another quilt since using blocks set on point.  I shall have to rectify that!  I love elephants and these little elephants with their embroidered tails and 3D tassels appealed to me. AND it was a lot of work! Sometimes when you gift quilts the recipients aren't always aware of how much time and effort has gone into the gift and I felt this particular quilt should live here, where it was truly appreciated!

I have loved thinking back over the quilts I have made and have had great fun looking through my Flickr Photostream, deciding which ones to write about in this blog.

Like everyone else who quilts, each quilt is loved and each one has a story to tell. It has been great wandering down memory Lane.

Looking at my quilts and deciding on my favourites has pinpointed once again how much I love colour, scraps, strings, applique, and Gwen Marston -style Wonky, Liberated Quilts.

Thank you Mary ( Molly Flanders blog) for suggesting this exercise!

QAYG String Quilt finished

So pleased to finish my QAYG String Quilt today.
I sat in the garden enjoying our beautifully hot sunny day hand sewing the binding and embroidering the label.  Now all ready to post tomorrow!

I loved making the QAYG blocks, using lots of scraps of "Boy type" fabrics, including some scraps I have been given recently.  I also needed to augment them by cutting strips from fat quarters and yardage from my stash.  It's amazing how much fabric you use making strip blocks.
I used a variety of blue fabrics for the back of the blocks, including some novelty prints.  All of these appeared in the strips too.

A great variety of fabrics, so lots and lots of I Spy opportunities from elephants to insects, and space ships to bird houses!  Even some penguins and pukeko (swamp hens) from New Zealand.

 

Can you see the pukeko, bottom left?  The bright blue birds with red beak and legs? They are almost as bright a blue in real life!

 

 

 

 

And here's what it looks like on the back.  I used a lemon Kona Cotton to join the QAYG blocks, hand sewing the joining strips on the back.

 

 

 

Two more close ups to show some of the many different fabrics used in this quilt.

 

 

And the finished quilt, 63" inches square.  Very heavy as my husband will testify, as he held it up for me to photograph!

 

 

 

I have to say I found joining the blocks quite hard.  Joining the blocks into rows was OK but joining the long rows together was a challenge.  The weight of the quilt was unwieldy and dragged the 1/4" seam line off so many times. A lot of unpicking was done.

 

However I am pleased with the result and can't wait to see how this quilt is received by the 3 year old boy who will have it.  I only know of this little chap through his Mum's blog that I follow so hope they will both enjoy playing I Spy and that he will love being warm and cosy in the winter.

Zigzags for New Zealand

During the past few months I have been busy making baby quilts, often using tiny scraps of fabric to create Crumb Blocks and turning them into baby-sized quilts.

There were several babies due this year, mostly grandchildren of friends, so I had lots of places for the finished quilts to go.

A few days ago Annabel was born in New Zealand and I then had to decide which of four finished quilts to send.  I enlisted the help of a friend who had popped round for coffee and we auditioned them.
Mildred loved the Zigzag one! She returned to it over and over again, finding all the parts of owl's faces, cat's eyes, etc and declared that this had to be the one because Annabel would love picking out all the I Spy elements in the Zigzag scraps.

So, here it is, now fully labelled and about to be parcelled up for posting to New Zealand on Monday.

 

And a photo of the hand embroidered label:

 

 

This will be the 4th baby quilt I have sent to NZ this year!  There must be a Baby Boom going on over there.

 

Definitely WAS a UFO, now a WIP

Continuing with my New Year Resolution to finish UFOs, I have been tackling one which has languished as a pile of blocks gained in a Bee a couple of years ago.

When I participated in the Bee I was really excited.  Enjoyed making the blocks, loved sending them off to the USA and really loved looking at the parcel of blocks sent back to me.

Why I didn't just sew them together then I don't know!  Instead they were put away in a padded envelope in THE CUPBOARD!

So, a couple of weeks ago I decided that this pile of blocks was the next UFO on the list and that it was time to tackle them.  In an afternoon I turned them into blocks of 4 and decided on the arrangement of blocks to create a quilt top 4 blocks square. 
Then we went on holiday and the now WIP went back into THE CUPBOARD.

But I promised myself it would now be finished so yesterday I sewed all the blocks together into a top and in the next few days I will sandwich it and finish it!!!

So three Sneaky peak photos:

 

I have chosen this quilt's name:  A Riot of Colour!

I wonder if you can work out what pattern this is?  Photo 3 is a good clue and if you look back on my Flickr photostream ( koshka2 ) and look at my Bee swaps I think you will find the answer.

I have to say finishing UFOs is great.  Lovely feeling of accomplishment.

However I did find it gave me the dilemma of when is a UFO a UFO or when is it a WIP?
I had a Set on Flickr I had called 2013 Completed WIPs but then decided they should be more accurately described as 2013 Completed UFOs so I changed the title of the set.  Two quilts in there at present, soon to be joined by a 3rd.  HURRAH!

Do let me know if you have worked out which set of UFO blocks this was.

 

Another WIP finished

I finished another WIP today, my Rainbow Bands cot quilt, made using the Plumb Quilt design in Emily Cier's book entitled Scrap Republic.

I loved putting this WIP together and cannot understand how it was ever put aside and left in my sewing cupboard for over a year.  The Rainbow bands are made from scraps, arranged from left to right from paler to darker shades of each colour.

I love the scrappy borders using scrap strips of neutral toned fabrics.

The backing is a fabric called Oberon by Westmister Fibres, bought a few months ago when it was on sale at half price.  Hand quilted using a pale cream quilting thread.

The finished cot quilt measures 32" x 40" and is now being put back into my sewing cupboard but this time in the Finished Quilts Box!  Several babies due in the next few months so this is ready for a girl.

 

 

 

 

I just love these scrappy strippy borders as I think they make a lovely frame for the bright middle of the quilt.

 

So, another WIP finished and more scraps used up.  Fabulous!

 

And tomorrow I'm off to the Malvern Quilt Show.