My Workroom

"Workroom" is a bit of a grand name for where I do my quilting.  It is in fact the spare room/young man's change room/storage space/book room/access to the cat run.  It is the converted garage of our house and is rather tastefully decked out in a lot of pine so it has the nickname "sauna room".  For a couple of years though it has been my sewing room too and I have been fortunate enough to have the support of a loving husband who has helped me to equip it with my beloved Bernina and way too much Ikea furniture.  First came the bookcases which are hidden behind a white flannel covering to create my design wall, then the sewing table and lamp and now my storage system complete with patchwork boxes!

That gigantic storage system is now holding all of my fabric stash organised into colour families and themes, boxes of scraps (which still need proper sorting) and WIPs (of which I have more than I realised - still, you can never be without a half finished quilt can you?) 
There are still bags of baby clothes and other baby paraphernalia to go to loving homes or the shed but for now it is a huge improvement on what it was like before.  I should have taken a before picture to show how much better this is but that would have been embarrassing :). 
I can see much washing of fabric I had no room to store, reviving of semi completed projects and hours of playing with my stash...now that I have the breathing space in there.

Spot

It has been quite some time since my last post as it has been a bit of a slow start to the year when it comes to finishing off projects.  I am guessing now the chill of Autumn is in the air that might change!  Currently I have a number of quilts in progress on the go at various stages of completion and of course hundreds of ideas floating in my head!  Not to mention the piles of fat quarters, scraps and yardage gathering in my workspace with ideas of their own....

However for now there is one more completed quilt, finished because of said chill in the air and also because it is a project close to my heart.  My little boy moved into his big boy bed and a while ago I promised a larger big boy bed topper to mark the occasion.  Also it will hopefully make a perfect snuggle quilt for the sofa when it gets really chilly while watching playschool. :)

There was a slight sense of urgency for me because I feel he is growing up just so quickly and I am not sure how long his interest in Spot the dog will last!  Fortunately he seems to like his new quilt so he is still my little boy and not outgrown it before it was even finished....

The centre is a panel, which I managed to pick up on sale, along with the Spot border material.  As they were end of line I didn't have quite as much of the border as I would have liked so had to, as Tim Gunn would say, "make it work".  Also while I do like using coordinates from the same range, you can have too much of a good thing, leading to a quilt design which is potentially a bit flat, so of course I had to have a rummage in my boxes.  I was particularly excited to excavate the red 1930's retro bone material!  It made the perfect foil to the green.  The corner blocks helped make the Spot border material make it around the quilt.

 Piecing this quilt was fairly straightforward - centre panel, two borders and corner blocks.  Quilting however left me a little unsure this time due to the large expanse of the centre piece so it sat for some time sandwiched, with the borders ditch stitched, in my workspace.  I didn't want to quilt over the images but also needed to ensure the quilting was dense enough for regular washing and toddler wear and tear.  I finally bit the bullet and tried my first free motion quilting...

I like the zen and regularity of straight line quilting and am really getting into trying different straight line techniques but free motion has always left me feeling a bit lost.  Stippling certainly makes me freeze up.  However, I wanted to experiment and try something new and as this was a project for my little boy I felt I could.  I chose to repeat the start motif and keep it fairly free in design, making the stars the size required to pretty much fill the negative space behind the pictures.  After a bit of warming up on some scraps and some more stalled attempts with just the darning foot I admitted I needed my flashy little stitch regulator that came with my Bernina.  I was a bit skeptical about how useful it would be but I ate my words.  Perfect stitch tension and length if not perfect star shapes!  I have included the close up here as they are fairly hard to see from a distance, which probably isn't a bad thing and certainly knowing this gave me the confidence to press on and not worry so much about perfection. :)  By the end I was enjoying myself enough to add a star to each corner block too!

The backing is a single piece of spotty quilting flannel, which is beautifully soft and has great flop.  The binding is a simple yellow and white spot. 

That was quite a post for such a simple, fun little quilt - I must be missing blogging! 

Little ladybirds for a little lady

The story of this little quilt began online some time ago when I was looking for some other material...which is what quite often happens!  I came across Robert Kaufman's adorable "Picnic Party Ladybugs" and had to get some.  The picnic part of the name made me think of a picnic rug idea, or maybe looking at the ladybirds on the ground through a blanket...or something.  Anyway, as soon as I saw the material I knew I wanted to make it green and purple and a little bit crazy but still really cute.

I love doing freestyle blocks and using tonal purple material (all from my stash - yes, I have a lot of purple fabric!) I made some cut loose log cabin blocks.  I had played with this technique before but after a chat with my friend and mentor Trish, I was guided back to Jan Mullen's pattern for a wonky log cabin quilt in order to get the finishing touches right and I am very glad I did.  The small border of green (in this case Michael Miller Fairy Dust so it has some sparkle) was inspired by her design as was binding it in the ladybird fabric...

 

...and most effectively I think, she made little black frames around the focus material in the centre of each block.  I used 3 different lime greens instead to add a bit of variety and texture.

I backed it with a piece of green with white spot which almost matched the ladybird print exactly and which I just happened to have already *ahem*.   Finally I quilted it crazy style too - highlighting the centre blocks and frames and then quilting some wonky tramlines through the background.

Ready to give to the new baby, which is an interesting story in itself...I had chosen the ladybirds for her largely because she has a German mother and in Germany ladybirds are considered lucky, especially around New Year's, which is when she was due.  I had to keep the colours suitable for a boy or girl as it was going to be a surprise but as you can see, she was a bit early and is hopefully now enjoying it.  An even nicer coincidence?  She has been named Marie and in German a ladybird is a Marienkaefer (Marie's or Mary's beetle).  How about that?

Sherbet Stripes

Finally "Sherbet Stripes" has been gifted so it can be shared!

 This is another string quilt, which I really enjoy making.  They are a surprise which comes together at the end and are the perfect mix of traditional and modern.  Plus they use lots of little bits of material - perfect for scraps, jelly rolls or making the most of whole lines of fabric.  What more could you want?  This baby quilt was another commission and it needed to suit either a boy or girl...

 I had a jelly roll of "Sherbet Pips" by Aneela Hoey who does the cutest little whimsical retro patterns and figures.  Her designs and colours are very distinctive.  This particular line includes children skating in the Wintertime, scarves, little squares (which makes a nice variant on the polka dots you often see and which I also love) and cutest of all, little dogs!  This was the selling point for my client, the recipient has a doggy not dissimilar to the curious little dog on the fabric.

I tried something a bit different with strips and the white trellis effect this time.  As the quilt was small scale I made the strips and the white sashing a bit narrower so there was more variety and colour.  I also kept the strips the same width rather than having a random effect as in previous string quilts I have made.  I also experimented with the white centre squares which worked relatively well and echoed the little squares in the fabrics.

To finish it off I used a grey and white dot fabric, punctuated by a strip of playful puppies on red from the "Sherbet Pips" line.  The quilt is self bound using the backing and the little highlights of the red come through in that too.

Baby Elephant Walk

 This is Baby Elephant Walk - another quilt using the "Fresh Beginnings" pattern, with slight adaptions.  It is amazing how the same pattern can look so different in alternative colour lines!  This was the same pattern as I used in Pink! for example...
The brief was "novelty animal/jungle prints in blues and browns".  My client chose a few of the jungle prints to start with including the cute little elephants and I took it from there.  To save it from becoming too brown or dark I added the lime inner border.

Here is a detail showing my favourite addition - the Aboriginal walkabout footprints and the inspiration for the quilt's name.  It ended up a bit "Australia meets Africa", what with the Aboriginal print, the dogs in utes, the elephants, tigers and lions.  Somehow it works though.
As much as I liked the brown/blue combination, I was a bit over it by the time I made the backing and so I took my lead from the lime green and made it blue and green instead.

 This was a really fun quilt to make.  I hope the baby who belongs to it has sweet and exotic dreams on or under it. :)

Baby Seuss!

Not the most original of names for this cute baby quilt but it seems to suit it. :)  Made from the "Celebrate Seuss" by Michael Kaufman line - I chose a panel for the blocks and the adorable dotted material for the backing and binding.  I then discovered, having found that it needed something bold for the sashing, that some turquoise from my stash was the perfect addition.
It is simply machine quilted in the sashing with straight lines and is self bound using the backing - a style I am really loving to use when the backing is just right.
It is now with a current Dr Seuss fan, awaiting the arrival of a new Dr Seuss fanlet.  I am guessing there will be much snuggling underneath it reading the Dr Seuss classics...

Giving Hands

I am a member of Giving Hands, a charity quilting group who meet once a month to hone skills, learn new ones, have a cuppa and a chat all while producing beautiful quilts for charity made from donated and upcycled materials.  How good is that?
I have loved our first year together, the wisdom and friendships I have found in these women is incomparable.  As I am often encumbered (in the sweetest possible way) by my wee man, who likes to sort out bottle tops, check out the garden and chat with the chooks while we are there, I sometimes don't get as much done as I would like.  I have therefore only managed to fully complete one quilt this year.  As a group we have made about 20, which is a wonderful effort.  You can read more about it all here.
This one is my quilt:

As you can see if you follow the link, they are all based on the red family colour group and use this same "Fresh Beginnings" pattern by Jan Mullen but it is amazing to see how diverse the results are.  Next year we are making a foray into juvenile fabrics and a different pattern.  Can't wait for those!