Bloggers’ Quilt Festival :: Spring 2012

OK - I have worked up the nerve to enter the Bloggers' Quilt Festival for 2012 hosted at Amy's Creative Side.

It is only a quilt I blogged/completed about a few weeks ago - but I feel it was a step in a new direction of quilting for me!

The new owner of the quilt is quite deeply in love with it and I have heard a rumour she "pats" it every time she walked past it! A Lone Star that contains all sorts of fun goodies - mermaids, cats, butterflies and hearts combined with Pink and Orange goodness. I really like to try to include meaningful fabrics when I am making quilts for close friends - which I think is a fabulous excuse for why they take me so long to make! Though this quilt for Ms C was quite easy to collect fabrics for. I already had the Heather Ross mermaids and the Alexander Henry Domesticats. A few others were from my stash and I knew the Dear Stella Mimosa and Meet me at Sunset would fit in nicely!

I used my new Westalee Ruler to cut the diamonds. It was the first time I had used it (or a template at all) and I found piercing it very easy. There was a little bit of struggling with 3 corners meeting but I got there! I have since made two other quilts this way and am happy to say I have almost perfected it!

I struggled with the best way to quilt this one - my normal straights lines were not going to cut it this time. After consulting with my creative director (aka hubby) he suggested that why don't I start in the centre and do a wavy pattern so it looks like the mermaids are swimming. I immediately said "Don't be silly I can't quilt wavy AND in a circle". But then I started to like the idea - so I used my walking foot and somehow managed to do it! There are a few jagged curves - and geez did my hands hurt the next day! But I found the process quick and not having to measure things out was quite liberating (and time saving)

It has actually inspired me to buy a darning foot and attempt free-motion quilting - It arrived the other day but I have had the worst flu in history and I have not had a chance to test it out yet

Thanks for stopping by - make sure you check out some of the other wonderful quilts at Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

L + P Quilt

Just going to say it - I have a pretty awesome Mothers Group. I was petrified going at first with my preemie Miss E - pretty much the oldest there but by far half the size of most of the bubbas. Anyways - I met some other mamas who I pretty much spent most of last year bumming around talking baby stuff with! One of the mums - the fabulous Ms L got married early this year. And a funny life coincidence - her husband to be Mr P actually grew up in Orange not far from where I grew up in Bathurst in country NSW. They had their wedding in Blayney which is where my mums mothers group meet up each year to celebrate our birthdays! Anyways I seem to be digressing from the Quilt. I hate giving money or store bought presents so I set myself another challenging task of getting a quilt done within a month (while working full time, looking after Miss E and Mr A in stressed out assignment mode) I thought it would be fun to use up some scraps and create and L + P on the front and a heart on the back. I tried to add a little bit of them into the scraps - I included some UK fabric as L is from the UK, Dogs - because they have a dog, horses - their daughter loves the horses at the grandparents farm. I hacked into some of my Amy Butler Lotus Wallflower fabric for the surrounds and some Ty Pennington Impressions Water Flower for the back. The letters are all pierced but the heart on the back is appliqued. I also tried to be adventurous with the quilting and echoed the heart out. I even was doing the handbinding at work in my lunchtime but it got completed in time! Fantastic Wedding, beautiful location - most stunning 5 month pregnant bride I have ever seen!

Working to a deadline...

Wow what a productive week I have had! Finished 2 quilts that were in my almost complete pile! (Almost complete = having the quilt top done). I was working to a deadline for a birthday party and a visit from a friend who lives far away! Quilt No. 1 - LoneStar Quilt for my beautiful mermaid, orange fan, cat loving friend C I have made quite a few baby quilts for C's friends so she got a little bit excited when she realised I did adult quilts. This one was for her birthday. I cut into my precious Heather Ross Mermaid fabric (well worth it!)and some Dear Stella fabric and a few other randoms in there. This was the first quilt I made using my Westalee Ruler so there a few errors that only I can see (ok most quilters would probably notice the ends of my stars missing). I also decided to free-motion quilt from the centre in almost a curvy watery way. It was the first time I free motioned but I was so happy with the results!!!
Front
Close up
Even closer
the back
Baby Quilt for Noah Next was a baby quilt for another friend's friend. She picked out the main fabrics Alexander Henry's Just Hanging as a gender neutral fabric. I thought it would be fun to use Film in the Fridge's tutorial on the converging corners and hack into my scrap box. Well baby Noah came a bit early so he got his name on the front and some more boyish colours on the back. Photos are a bit dodgy - sorry!
Quilt Front

Tats and flutters

Another baby quilt this time for one of K's friends (I can't help it - my friends friends keep reproducing!)I have had the quilt top of this one done for a while and finally got to finish it once we knew the bubba's name. It was hard finding the right fabric for this one. The Nursery was going to be done in purple and brown with a theme of butterflies. I actually had a hard time finding some - then I found the Timeless Treasures Rock On fabric - butterflies and tattoos --- ohhh --- K had mentioned that the mother was quite partial to tattoos -- perfect. Though not purple or brown or really goes with either of those colours, so I decided that it would be the back. For the front I found some gorgeous butterfly fabric called Les Jardin des Papillon from Clothworks. I also made a cushion and soft block to match for the baby shower.
Front
Bubba Tags
Back
Block and Cushion

Lakehouse Quilt

I have never used much white in a quilt before - I tend to go for greys or bright and bold solid colours. When a friend asked me to make a girly quilt in French Provincial style with pink and aqua I was actually a bit stumped! Nothing in my stash seemed to be right! So a visit to Hobbysew and I saw and fell in love with these Lakehouse fabrics. I actually spent so long mixing and matching the fat quarters that the sales assistant came to help me. I thought the white background helped these fabrics stand out a bit more! The back is a cheater fabric from good old Spotlight - it was a bit thinner than medium weight cotton but the pattern just went beautifully with the rest of the quilt. I also appliqued a butterfly on the back as it was a gift for a baby shower and the name was unknown! My friend loved it - and her friend loved it as well!
Quilt Front Bubba Tags Quilt back Butterfly closeup

ice hockey and quilting - who would have thought?

One of my friends asked me to make a quilt for his gorgeous new niece. As usual I asked "What are the parents into". Response - Ice Hockey. OK challenge set. I started looking for ice hockey fabric - and there is a fair bit out there but most of it looks like it is directly out of a horror movie (Friday the 13th). In the end I found this cool Robert Kaufman Ice Hockey field (?) panel. I can work with that! So the supported team is the Canucks so I found their team colours and put some strips down the side. Now for the back - well I wanted to make it a little more girly so I also found out the mum is a bit of a foodie fan. I found some cute strawberry fabric and from my stash some lovely Lizzy House fabric and just did a really simple back.

Funny Story

This is me at the start of the year ... Yeh my friend J was having another baby!!! A new little cousin for Miss E. Excellent great, must start looking for fabric, OMG Laurie Wisburn Modern Whimsy, there is bunnies, geese and sheep: J loves bunnies, all things whimsy and especially bunnies. Order fabric from Pink Chalk - how awesome they have a co-ordinating solids pack as well...waiting patiently...yeh it has arrived!!! Sew sew sew - quilt top done in a night. Now just need to wait until bubba is born as i like to applique the name on the back of the quilt. Patiently waiting until March - how super organised am I! Yeh - beautiful baby boy born yipeeeee!!! Wait what was his name again ... Fox. Cool name (think X-Files Fox Mulder) but wait I can't give a quilt with bunnies, geese and sheep on it to a kid called Fox... umm don't foxes eat bunnies???? Ohh what is that gorgeous fabric... Walk in the Woods by Aneela Hoey - awww what cute foxes (and here is the precise moment that I break my 6 month fabric ban) Ordered - well I better add some extras to make the postage worth it! waiting patiently... yeh fabric arrived, a few nights sewing with my new awesome Westalee Ruler and voila.. a quilt for Baby Fox! Now what to do with the other one... well I am sure J will love it (even though it has some bubba tags on it) so another volia ... two finished quilts.

Quilt for Fox

Modern Whimsy Quilt

Oh and while I am here - I also sewed by this cute little cushion while I was patiently waiting for fabric. Inspired by A Beautiful Mess