Friday 16 November 2012

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. :)

Sunday 11 November 2012

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...

Wednesday 7 November 2012

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!