Emily's Quilt: Fenced in Flowers

My cousin Ingrid and her husband Neil added a beautiful little girl Emily to their lovely family a few months back.

This is the quilt I made for Emily, I named it "Fenced in Flowers".
I used 2 Sherbet Pips charm packs (by Aneela Hoey for Moda) and a couple of layer cake squares for the dresden centres. I umm'd and ahh'd about using a solid or polkadot for the background fabric, and even though it's a little busy, I'm glad I went for the polkadot.

I made dresden plates in 2 different sizes (the flowers :) and I used dresden like wedges for the fences. Here's a close up of the centre dresden plate. It was longarm quilted by the fabulous Jeannette (The Quilting Platypus), in a fun all-over bubble pattern.

Here's sweet newborn Emily having a nap on her quilt (she's so much bigger now).
So adorable!!

(Thanks for the photo Ingrid)

Giveaway Winner!

The winner of my 100th blog post giveaway is ......

............ Jodi from "come tarry with me"

Congratulations Jodi!! I really hope you enjoy the Cherry Christmas charm pack and I look forward to seeing what you make with it :)

Thank you to everyone who entered my little giveaway! I loved reading what each of you have planned for your Christmas sewing. Some of you are very ambitious, including entirely handmade Christmas's.

(source - thanks Bec!)

I'm planning on sewing a Christmas version of  Bec's (Chasing Cottons) gorgeous "Curlicue Crush" quilt. To me it looks like Christmas tree baubles and I think it would look great in some red, green and silvery grey fabrics :)

I better get started because Christmas will be here before we know it!!

100th Blog Post Giveaway: CLOSED

Today's post is my 100th and I thought that there's no better way to celebrate than to have a giveaway.... more on that later.

Over the last 2 years I have blogged fairly frequently at times and then less so at other times. I don't always feel that I have a lot to say, but when I have the time, I love to keep a journal of what I've been creating and to share it with others

I really appreciate those of you who have stopped by for a peek or left a message at times too. Thank you!

So I thought since Christmas will be here before we know it,  it might be fun to give away a charm pack of Aneela Hoey's newest fabric line Cherry Christmas.

Look at all of the fun Christmasy prints .....

All you have to do to enter is leave me a message telling me what your Christmas crafting aspirations are. That might include Christmas themed sewing/crafting projects or might be gifts that you are planning on creating.

Giveaway closes on Wednesday the 24th of October 2012 at 8pm (Australian Central Daylight Savings Time). The winner will be picked randomly using random.org. The giveaway is open internationally.

I'm looking forward to getting some inspiration from your Christmas crafting ideas!

Giant Swoon Baby Quilt

I've loved Camille's Swoon quilt pattern ever since I first saw it.

I have started (but not finished) a full sized quilt. The original block size is a large 24 inches square. I have also made a cushion for my Nana - I made that one a little smaller at 20 inches square. But for this baby quilt I only wanted one supersized block and made it a whopping 36 inches plus small border.

I used a yellow Sketch fabric for the background and some of my favourite Prints Charming prints for the scrappy block.

I used a Prints Charming check for the back, but it wasn't quite wide enough so I pieced in some matching bright pink and aqua Sketch fabrics.

Jeannette longarm quilted it for me in a cute all-over star and swirl pattern.

I hadn't planned on rounding the corners originally but somehow they ended up rounded (I got a bit addicted to using bias binding there for a bit :). I used a precut Kona robins egg bias binding.

So there you have it - one bright, fun and very girly giant scrappy Swoon baby quilt!

Welcome Hunter!!

I love being a part of a big and wonderful family and am always excited for any new additions!

Last weekend was very special :)

 The very day that my parents returned from their mission in Finland, this precious little boy was born to my sister Erin and her husband Rory. He is such a sweet little thing and I'm looking forward to many more cuddles.

(Hunter a few hours old).

Welcome to the family Hunter!!

Delicious Baby Wraps

... no you can't eat them, but they are delicious all the same ;)

These two are made of super soft double gauze Heather Ross Far Far Away unicorn prints on one side and silky soft Anna Maria Horner voile on the other. I used quiltlite instead of normal batting to keep it so soft and light.

Once again, Jeannette from The Quilting Platypus quilted these babies up for me and did a fantastic job.

I couldn't help but try the rounded corners again (I told you I was addicted) and this time I used Jennifer's wonderful tutorial, which was so easy to make. I used a coral Sketch print for the green wrap and a silky cotton sateen for the blue binding.

This one was quilted like a puzzle.

I loved unicorns as a little girl, so I must admit that I have a soft spot for these wraps :)

There's a Square in There: Big Girl Edition

Whilst I was making the baby girl "There's a Square in There" quilts, I decided that I wanted to make one a little larger (for a big girl) but not as large as the full size quilt, so I made it 3x3 blocks and left out the sashing. I used the same Erin McMorris fabrics for this quilt as I did the 2 baby quilts, but used an aqua background fabric instead.

Jeannette quilted this one with a fairly dense modern fan pattern and I love the texture it gives. 

I wanted to keep the back fairly simple, so I used the same aqua solid fabric for the back but added in 3 more blocks to add a little interest. It's very minimalist but I like how this quilt can be used on either side :)

 

I can't remember who the binding fabric is made by, but I love the pink, orange, green and aqua stripes that tie in so well with the rest of the quilt.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a wonderful day!!

There's a Square in There: Baby Girl's Edition

These super girly "There's a Square in There" baby quilts were really fun to make. I love how the pink, orange, yellow and lime Erin McMorris fabrics pop against the white. I haven't seen a quilt yet using Kate's pattern that doesn't look good. I love the modern boldness of the squares and the border at the top and bottom of the quilt adds some extra length and fun!

One of the quilts was quilted in a figure of 8 pattern (by none other than Jeannette from The Quilting Platypus). I think this all-over quilting pattern looks great on all sorts of quilts.

 

It was backed in another floral co-ordinating Erin McMorris print and a pink and yellow binding.

Here's the 2nd quilt.

This one was quilted with an overall swirl pattern which is less dense than the figure of 8 pattern.

And was also backed and bound in coordinating Erin McMorris prints.

Aren't they cute hanging out together? :)

Retro Mendocino Zig Zag Baby Quilt

In August, Kate and I participated in a Penny Lane Market together and we had fun (who wouldn't have fun when you hang out with your sister and talk quilting ;)

Anyway, I haven't shown any of the quilts that I brought to the market yet. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of us in our stall together, but here is a photo of some of the quilts hanging on the rack the night before.

(I knicked the photo from Kate, thanks Katie :)

So over the next week or two, I'll show you all of the quilts.

Here's my Mendocino zig zag baby quilt.

For some people the colours might be a little too retro but I really love it, especially as it uses some of my precious Heather Ross Mendocino and other fabrics. I used a technique very similar to Crazy Mom Quilts fantastic tutorial.

It's the first time that I've tried curved corners on a quilt and I enjoyed the process so much I've used it a few times since. The bias binding I used for this was a pre-made Kona robin's egg bias binding, which made it incredibly easy.

Here's a close up of some of the amazing quilting done by Jeannette of The Quilting Platypus. I love the quilting design - it reminds me of waves in the sea, which goes so well with the sea themed prints in the quilt. As I had a tight deadline I knew I couldn't quilt them all myself (I found it difficult to even bind them all in time) and Jeannette does such a wonderful job at a really reasonable price too.

I used my favourite Mendocino print on the back - Giant Octopi in aqua.

It's only a little quilt, but has so much personality!

One quilt down .....12 more to go  .......

FLiQS 2

Because it's been so long, I've got so many quilts to share, but I thought I'd start with this beautiful little quilt that I received the other day from Denise as part of the Fab Little Quilt Swap #2.

It's so bright and cheery. I love the hexi's and the embroidery is fantastic - something I definately couldn't do. Thank you so much Denise!!

Here it is a little closer ....

The quilt below is the one that I made for Louise (aka lululollylegs). The information I received was that Louise loves colour, hand pieced old fashioned blocks done in a modern style, applique, embroidery and grey or linen backgrounds. So this was my interpretation....

Closer ....

Closer ... :)

And here's the back ....

It was my first time hand piecing hexagons, and I pieced most of them on the plane or in Finland while I was away on a recent holiday. It was my first time doing beading on a quilt too, and I love how sweet the multi-colour flower looks. It also included machine quilting, hand stitching, applique and embroidery. I loved making it and am so happy that Louise loves it too :)

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Rainbow Star Mini Quilt

It's been a bit too long since I last posted, but I thought there's no better way to get back into blogging than through participating in Blogger's Quilt Festival!

I love looking at the hundreds of inspiring quilts!!

Today I'd like to show the mini quilt I completed for Leah as part of the Fab Little Quilt Swap through Flickr.

My swap partner said that she liked bright colours, rainbows and stars among other things. I came across this tutorial to paper piece 'Aunt Rachel's Star' block and auditioned a few different colour/rainbow variations:

And finally settled on this one:

Then the paper piecing began .... Each half square triangle block is less than 1 inch square.

Here's the star block all completed.

Prior to completing the block I had been weighing up whether I wanted to make
4 stars in different rainbow variations, but once I completed one block
I knew I wanted it to be the "star" of the quilt (pun intended ;-)
so I decided on a 3D rainbow pinwheel border to finish it off.

A close-up of one of the 3D pinwheels .....

I did a little bit of machine quilting in the ditch around the centre pinwheel, star and border. I then hand quilted it using DMC perle cotton size 8 in white. I echo quilted all of white half square triangles and then around the star and finally around each of the pinwheels. The hand quilting is nearly my favourite thing about this quilt - it gives it so much texture and I really love it!!

So here is a photo of it all finished, hanging out in my local park. It ended up being 20 inches square.

It was hard to give away because it was very much my style too, but I hope Leah is enjoying looking at it on her wall :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

I hope you go and check out more of the wonderful quilts linked up to Blogger's Quilt Festival.

A big thanks to Amy for putting it on again!!