COCKATOO'S GALORE

 I just love quilting baby quilts on my HQ Simply Sixteen as they give me a chance to try new patterns on a small scale.

My girlfriend, Donna, made this beautiful cot quilt (based on a Meags and Me pattern) with Australian Cockatoos as the main feature, and I offered to quilt it for her.

I chose a pounce pad pattern with hearts to use on the top and bottom sections and used a HQ ruler for the dark blue section.

I free-motioned around the cockatoos and then did a paisley pattern to fill in the background.  

Isnt he just the cutiest !

The reverse was a plain pale blue colour and it really highlighted the quilting/

I'm sure once its bound, there's going to be one happy little grandson.

DINOSAURS GALORE

 Its been quite a while since my last post but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy!!

I discovered a lovely pattern by Elizabeth Hartman called Dinosaurs and as the large full size quilt was a bit big for me, I chose to make the smaller version which is only 48" x 48"

I selected an array of colourful batiks which I arranged against a Navy Blue background.  Perfect for either a boy or girl as a play quilt.

The pattern was not a complicated one but it did require organisation.  The first step was to cut all the strips of both the background Navy and the colourful batiks for each type of dinosaur and sort them into plastic bags.  I needed two different colours of each dinosaur, of which there were 4 types:  Brachiosaurs, T-Rex, Triceratops and Stegosaurus. There were also 3 different type of plants:  Fern, Vine and Cycad

T-Rex, cycad and fern

Stegosaurus, fern and cycad

Triceratops, fern and vine

The assembly was easy as the whole quilt top is straight line sewing.  Very clever how the dinosaurs take shape and they come together quite quickly.  Once each dinosaur block is assembled, you then piece the quilt top together and then onto the quilting.

I had fun deciding on the quilting patterns for each dinosaur and of course, the background. I changed thread colours for each dinosaur and background.

Background:  Free motion swirls and pebbles

T-Rex:  Free motion Baptist Fan

Stegosaurus:   Wavy Ruler work

Triceratops: Clamshell Ruler work both horizontal and vertical

Brachiosaur:  Free motion Cobblestones

Plants:  Straight line Ruler work

Border:  Angle Striped Ruler work

 Clamshell quilting

Cobblestone quilting

Wavy Ruler work

Angle Strip Border

I used a multi-coloured backing which hid any mistakes or irregularities in my free motion quilting and also changed thread to match each colour change.  

The border was quilted in an angular strip pattern (courtesy of Natalia Bonner video)

I have another Elizabeth Hartman pattern which is now on my bucket list to do :)

See you soon, keep sewing

BABY QUILTS

A friend is expecting twin granddaughters at the end of the year, and has ordered both cot quilts and a floor quilt.  She's been very easy to please and had no particular requirements for the design or colour.

I found a lovely easy cot quilt pattern through Etsy called Leafy Treetops by meags & me.  I made two with the same material but I quilted different designs on each.

For the floor quilt, I chose an Elephant design that I found on Pinterest by  Susan Lawson.   I decided to use  a mix of cotton fabric and a soft Minky fabric.  

I played around with the layout until I was happy with this design.

Lucky for me, I have just purchased a Brother Scan N Cut so this made the elephant applique even easier to do.

Plenty of ruler work on the squares and lots of free motion on the elephant blocks.

Finally the finished quilt off the longarm, only needs to be bound with a yellow binding.

STILL FELTING - TWAS THE NIGHT SERIES

 I've been totally captivated by the beautiful Christmas ornaments that mmmcrafts have designed.  As well as the Twelve Days of Christmas series (see previous post),  I have now jumped across to the Twas the night series.  At the moment there are only two characters:- Santa and Mrs Claus (there are more designs to come)

I have made a Santa and Mrs Claus for each grandchild and they all have their names and year embroidered on the back . 

I'll keep making them whilst I'm in the mood and before something else grabs me and leads me astray.  

Enjoy your sewing, it keeps you young at heart 

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS - FELT ORNAMENTS

 Now that I have finished Round The Garden and finding myself with lots of beautifully coloured felt left over, I went looking for something to make in felt.

Searching through Pinterest and then Etsy, I came across mmmcrafts.  Larissa designs patterns for some intricate felt pieces and the one series I chose to do was The Twelve Days of Christmas.

I selected a range of colours that I would use, and bought all the trimmings that I would need from Winterwood Toys in Croydon.

The first four ornaments:- 1) Partridge in a pear tree, 2) Turtle Dove 3) French Hen 4) Calling Bird

Each ornament has the number embroidered on the reverse.

Number 7) -Swans a swimming

Number 8) - Maids a Milking

Number 9-Drummers Drumming

Number 10) - Pipers Piping

Number 11) - Ladies Dancing

Number 12 - Lords a Leaping

ROUND THE GARDEN

Finally, its finished!  Round the Garden designed by Wendy Williams was started January 2019 and whilst its been and on/off project, I have really enjoyed this quilt.

The quilt is all hand stitched with felt and embroidery.  I learnt so many new embroidery stitches and utilized the instruction of Sue Spargo on many of the designs.

Felt is such a forgiving medium to work and the beautiful bright colours always bring a pop to the quilt.  I've seen many versions of the quilt in the light background, but I always wanted to try a dark background and the Navy Linen that I used certainly did the trick.

The only difficult part of the job was the fact that it is worked as a whole quilt and the size of the top did cause a few problem is trying to balance everything on my lap at night.

I decided not to put a border around the quilt top and just finished the edge with a multi-coloured binding.  This kept the size down so that I can hang on my wall at home.

I didn't have to do alot for the quilting, as the work itself was the feature.  A stipple background on most of the areas did the trick.

For the water area, I did quilt wavy lines to create the feeling of water.

Love my little Rooster with the pistil stitch feathers on his back.  Also my favorite tree would have to be the Boab Tree underneath my rooster.

Colourful batik rainbow binding on the edge of the quilt.

I wouldn't want to count just how many French knots went into this quilt top!!

Have already started my next project, using up all the excess felt.....stay tuned.

Bye for now and happy sewing

  

CUSHIONS GALORE

I just love making these cute Monster cushions.  The pattern is by Kelly from  Cutting Cloth and although the pattern is for the quilt, there is also a cushion pattern included with it.

I decided to alter my colour palette for this one, and use pinks and purples for my granddaughters cushion.  Surprisingly once I posted on my Facebook page, I received a few requests for more cushions.  

New colour combination for my grand daughter.

Original colour combination 

One of each for a friends grandchildren.

GROUP BIRTHDAY QUILT

Well I can finally show you the beautiful quilt that my sewing group, Bobbins, made for one of our members, Kate.  

When one of our ladies celebrate a major birthday, or even something else memorable, the girls all get together, behind her back, and make blocks that we feel represent her interests, and then put them together in a quilt which we then surprise her with.

Kate runs a sewing studio as well as being our gorgeous motivator and friend.  It was her 60th birthday and we all know she loves pinks and shabby chic.  We decided to use a quilt template and here is the finished quilt and  a few of the blocks the girls made: 

The centre block was a heart with all her family names embroidered around it.  We do a quilt label on the back with all our names and date so she can have happy memories.

 

Finished quilt

A 60th birthday celebration quilt

Quilted on my Simply Sixteen, my first custom quilt

Kate loves her caravan getaways

She also loves a wine or cocktail

Tulips are her favorite

Dressmaker is her profession