Creatures, Great and Small is completed

I accomplished what I intended to do yesterday and sewed on the binding for my latest baby quilt.

I didn't think of a title for this quilt straight away.  Because of the rows of elephants and rows of various creatures in the appliqued circles and Happy Blocks I originally decided to call it
 "Animals on Parade" but then didn't think that was quite accurate as there were caterpillars, butterflies, pukeko and hens included. I expect they are technically part of the Animal Kingdom but decided on "Creatures, Great and Small" instead.

Coincidentally I noticed Cathy's post yesterday (Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting) was called "All creatures great and small" but she is doing hexies.

A few photos:

The completed quilt

 

 

 Two close up of some of the "Creature" fabrics and Perle hand quilting:

The backing:

 

And a close up:

 

As I said yesterday nothing was bought specially for making this quilt, everything was in my stash.

The backing was a piece of fabric I bought at a reasonable price at the Festival of Quilts, maybe last year or perhaps the previous year - the time goes by so quickly! I wasn't sure whether it would be large enough, but it fitted just right, only strips to cut off when I trimmed the quilt. I have been very good and trimmed those strips and added them to the relevant bags of my Strings stash.  So they will someday appear in a future quilt!

There is a lot of work in this quilt: the fussy cut creature fabrics, the fusible webbing process, hand quilting and hand blanket stitching around the circles etc. I also spent quite a time designing the quilt and finding suitable fabrics from stash.
I am delighted with the result and now hope the new Mum who will receive it will enjoy using it for her baby and that it will get lots of use. It's a good size, 47" x 39" so it should be useful for a long time.

Another quilt for New Zealand

I was delighted to hear that Libby Rose's quilt arrived safely in New Zealand.  Everyone loves it and I hope Libby Rose uses it a lot.

Another New Zealand neighbour emailed us on Sunday to tell us that their 7th grandchild had been born. Last year I made a quilt for the elder brother Max and now I needed another boy quilt for new baby Tommy.  The last two quilts I have made are definitely "girly" quilts but I already have two Boy Quilts in the cupboard which I made last year. It always pays to have a stash of completed baby quilts.


Last night I finished the hand embroidered label and so now I am going to parcel it up and take it to the Post Office and send it on its way to NZ.  Tommy and his family actually live in South Africa but as Granny is flying from NZ to South Africa in a month's time I am sending the quilt to her and she will take it out for me.  We have decided that's a better way than sending directly to SA - I don't think the post is always reliable.

So here is the quilt which I called "Elephants on Parade":

 

And in an hour or so it will be on its very long journey:  UK to NZ to SA!

Travel well little elephants!

Animal Parade quilt

 

This is a much better photograph of the quilt I made for baby Harry.

Taken in the garden, my lovely husband holding it up for me.

The colours are very true to the actual quilt colours - the indoor photos in my previous post are not bright enough.

Baby Harry's quilt

I was commissioned by my friend Jo to make a baby quilt for her friend's baby. They knew the baby would be a boy and Jo wanted a quilt in a similar style to one I had made for her baby James.

This was James's quilt which I called "Hello World":

 

Jo asked if I could include some elephant fabric. I didn't have any of the yellow or grey little elephants fabric left but I did have another one with elephants on a turquoise background so included it. I liked the addition of the pop of turquoise, it seemed to make the greens and yellows of the quilt stand out more.

I made the quilt a few weeks ago, leaving the name strip blank and hand quilted as far as the top area.  Baby Harry was born on 21st June.  His Mummy and Daddy took a few days to decide on his name but I have now completed the quilt adding his name and a star either side.

 

 

Harry's Quilt which I have entitled "Animal Parade".

 

 

I hope to see Jo on Wednesday so I can hand over the quilt.  Hope she likes it!

 

 

A close up of the name panel:

 

 

 

 

First quilt finish for 2016!

Wow, I feel as though I should hang the flags out................... I have finished my first quilt in 2016!
I have been making two baby quilts side by side, one in pink for a girl and one with blues, greens and oranges for a baby boy. Baby boy Josselin arrived a few days ago so the blue quilt has a home to go to, back in the UK.

Here it is:

 

The quilt top is made entirely from scraps, fabric leftover from a baby quilt I made last year for Max. 

The crumb blocks were also made from those scraps augmented with a few other scraps in the same colours which I thought added extra interest and variety.

 

I hand quilted in the ditch, very simply as I thought the quilt was 'busy' enough.

I bought the backing fabric at Spotlight, a cute elephant design ( I love elephants!), a soft silky feeling Japanese fabric. I know elephants don't really go with the On the Farm theme of the quilt, but I couldn't resist it and the colours were a perfect match for the colours in the quilt top.

I chose a lime and white striped fabric for the binding, again purchased at Spotlight.

Striped bindings are my favourite choice, somehow I think it gives the quilt a smart, finished look. And this lime and white is very crisp, like a Granny Smith's apple! 

 

Quilt details: Blocks 4.5" unfinished,

Alternate fabric block and crumb block.

Border cut at 3".

Measures 41" square

 

I have two more Quilt Groups to attend this week, the last for each Group before we go back to the UK.

 The MQC meets tomorrow and I will be making some more QAYG blocks for Jan in Australia.

I have got 9 prepared, backings cut to size and batting pinned on so all I have to do is sew on the strips - all ready too. I managed to find enough batting scraps to make 9 more blocks which, when trimmed, will finish at 10.5" square.  They will be mailed later in the week.

On Saturday it is the Vintage Quilters Group meeting when I will hand sew the binding on the pink baby girl quilt and hand embroider a label for Josselin's quilt.

 

Then no more sewing for me until I am back home in the UK.

Our family arrives on Sunday so we are all very excited. First visit for our SIL and beautiful granddaughter. Our daughter has been here once before, back in 2007!

 

But I will blog about the baby girl quilt once I've sewn the binding.  And that will make TWO finishes for 2016!

I don't seem to have done as much sewing as in other years but we have had a lot of visitors so lots of cooking and washing and changing bed linens!  But that's all good too. We love to see people here.

Elephants on Parade - a Finish!

I finished my baby boy quilt, Elephants on Parade.

Here it is:

 

And a close up of some of the blocks:

 

 

I am so pleased with this quilt.  Such lovely 'cool' colours, all found in my stash to compliment the elephant Fat Quarter I found.

 

Then I used this pale green with lemon spots fabric for a backing - I literally had just enough for the quilt backing!

 

 

It's not the same shade of green as the fabrics in the front of the quilt but is somewhere between the green and turquoises in those fabrics so, in my eyes anyway, it works. The lemon dots tie in with the lemon stars in 4 of the charm square patches.

 

The batting was a piece I had in my stash of remnants.

 

The hand quilting is a mixture of deep turquoise Quilting thread in the ditch between the blocks and in the sashing joins and a variegated turquoise Perle cotton larger stitch around the appliqued hearts and in the sashing.

 

So, another finish for 2015 and a baby Boy quilt to add to my stash of completed quilts.

All of the fabrics and the batting and threads were from my stash so nothing bought especially for this project.

 

 

 

Another entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

I make a lot of Baby Quilts and the one I have chosen to enter Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival is a quilt I completed last October.  Our cousin's daughter was pregnant and I was quite convinced the baby would be a boy, so I made this quilt:

I had previously bought some "Boy" fabrics and used them in this quilt.

The pattern I chose was Fairy Lights by Ruth Buchanan, published in a magazine in 2007.

 

The selection of fabrics were perfect for this pattern as I wanted to showcase the lovely fabrics: gorgeous elephants, trains, cars and rows of fairy mushrooms.

 

I loved making the blocks as I always enjoy the process of making HSTs.  When I came to lay out the blocks I discovered that Ruth had used non-directional fabrics whereas mine were directional ones!  No problem - I just added an extra strip of HSTs to the fourth side of each block. More sewing but I had enough fabric and it made the quilt a good size, 42" square, which I think is a useful size for a Baby Quilt.

 

Here's a close up of those lovely fabrics and the HST borders around the blocks.

 

 

The quilt is still with me as my baby prediction was wrong! Helen had a little girl so a very different quilt was gifted.  I still haven't thought of a suitable name for this quilt but I am sure a baby boy will come along and that this quilt will be a perfect gift and the perfect quilt name will come to me.

 

I would like to enter this quilt in Amy's Festival in the Small Quilt Category.

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Spring 2015

 

A finished baby quilt

I know of three babies due to be born from November to January next year so I am trying to build my stash of baby quilts.  I have a few baby girl ones but no boy quilts.

When I was in New Zealand earlier in the year I was given a patchwork magazine from 2007 which included a pattern for a baby quilt.  It was by Ruth Buchanan and the quilt was called Fairy Lights.

I loved the pattern as it showcased a pretty fabric and was surrounded by HSTs which I always enjoy making.

The Pattern:

 

 

About two years ago my Patchwork Group went on an outing to a favourite Quilt Shop, The Bramble Patch in Weedon, Northamptonshire.  I bought a lovely selection of fabrics and some yellow Fat Quarters which I thought went with the fabrics I had chosen.  The quilt I had in mind didn't materialise so the bag of fabrics languished in my sewing cupboard.

 

Fast forward to a month or so ago when I was thinking of ideas for Boy Quilts and I suddenly remembered my stash of yellow, grey and blue fabrics. Perfect for a boy and perfect for the Fairy Lights pattern as I wanted to showcase the gorgeous elephants (I love elephants!), trains, cars and rows of fairy mushrooms.

 

I set to, made all the blocks without difficulty and then laid them out in a pleasing order.  That was when I discovered my mistake.  The fabric Ruth Buchanan had used was a non-directional design.  All my blocks had directional patterns!  Oh dear!  I put my thinking cap on and realised I would have to add extra strips of HSTs to the fourth side of each block.  more sewing but I am happy with the result.  I didn't have to buy any more fabric as I had enough in my stash for the extra HSTs and the border and backing fabrics were ones I had bought at the Festival Of Quilts back in August.

 

As I had added extra strips my quilt came out at 42" square, a bit larger than the pattern.  I think this is a useful size - big enough to wrap baby in, use on the Moses basket or later on the cot and is a great size for a playmat.

 

 

 

As the pattern was so busy I decided to machine quilt in the ditch.  Although I have been quilting since 1997 this is only the third quilt I have machine quilted.  It's not perfect but it's not too bad either. I'm happy with it anyway!

 

And here it is - my Boy Version of the Fairy Lights quilt:

 

 

 

And a glimpse of the backing:

 

Now I have to think of a name for the quilt.  I don't think Fairy Lights is quite right for this quilt!

Any suggestions will be very welcome.  No idea springs to mind at present.

I have already used the scraps of elephants, cars and mushrooms fabrics in another boy quilt top - strips this time.  It is now ready for sandwiching and I am going to hand quilt this one.   It will be my handwork project to take to my Patchwork Group.

Off to sandwich the quilt top.  Not my favourite part of making a quilt as it involves me crawling around on the floor in my Sewing Room!

 

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!