K's quilt

Another gift given and received and so another quilt to blog about. :)

 This is a "string" quilt of lap quilt proportions (48" x 56") made for my sister in law for her 40th birthday.  She loves pink and green together so I took the pinks and greens from the "Ruby" line of fabric plus a pop of aqua and a fresh Kona white and put them together using this as inspiration.  I didn't paper piece it however as I don't do paper piecing, stubborn person that I am.  Instead I centred the string strips either side of the white to create 8" finished blocks and set them to create this lattice effect.  All that pink and green reminded me of a climbing rose so the lattice seemed to fit nicely.

I bound it with a pink on pink hummingbird print that can also be seen on the back and which went perfectly with the pink on the front.  Most of the back is the green gingham.
So that's my first ever string quilt.  It isn't my last, there is already a finished small quilt top using the aqua and grey from the same ruby line waiting to be basted and quilted.  More of that anon hopefully. :)

A new year

Which will hopefully bring more sewing and more projects to write about!  So many of my 2011 projects have been gifts so there has been a bit of a time delay in blogging about them.  Hopefully there will be more creations which aren't secrets this year so I can put them up sooner.  Anyhoo, here are some small scale projects I made as Christmas presents for the in laws this year.  Each one involves a part of a layer cake cut into 5" finished squares.  Nothing too technical but pretty sweet I think.  I bound them all in the same yellow and white dot material, which gave them an interesting harmony together.
Not the best photos as they were taken inside but here is the table runner/chair throw:

 It was backed in a dusty pink cotton, nice and simple and quilted in the ditch longways and with double lines shortways.
This is the small square quilt - good for a baby, a small tablecloth, for the park...

 It's from the same layercake as the first one but as you can see I have separated out the pinks, blues and greens from the yellows, reds and teals.  This one is backed with a bright teal polycotton for harder wear and washing.  It is quilted more heavily too with a not quite random double track pattern in both directions.  I'm really enjoying experimenting with straight line quilting.

Finally the set of six placemats (clashing beautifully with our doona cover).  Different layercake from which I chose the blues and yellows (there is only the brown slices left now as I used the pink ones in this quilt.  These are backed with an apple green and white spot material.  I quilted these on the diagonal so each little square is marked with a cross.

It's been a while.

I have been neglecting this blog recently.  Oops.  Maybe that would be a good new year's resolution - keep up to date and keep quilting!
So some photos and descriptions of recent creations:

This is a 60" square sofa throw for my mother.  She requested something with deep green in it and being a fan of Australiana I decided to largely use material from the Robert Kaufmann range "Under the Australian Sun".  I love the pink and turquoise line within it and think it really gives, what could have been a bit of a cliche, a real twist.  The pattern is adapted from one I found for jelly rolls. 

 The back is a sage broadcloth with a couple of accents added.

 The following three items are part of a Christmas order for my first proper word of mouth client!  She was fortunately very happy with the results. :)
First up is a table runner using a mixture of great materials sourced from the US (gee those guys know how to do Christmas!)  The tartan gives it a real Scottish Christmas feel and the little red birds are so cute.  The pattern is this one.

 The next item I made for her was a baby girl quilt.  It is quite a generous size, about 40" x 48" so it should last a while.  I started with the colourful daisy print and picked out colours from there. I love the baby animal print too - There is nothing too saccharin about this quilt, which I am very pleased about. :)  It is a square in square design, which always looks lovely and fresh and modern.

 Finally another table runner.  This time using real Americana Christmas materials, mostly (or maybe even entirely) from the "Jingle all the Way" series.  I adore this range because it is really understated in its Christmas motifs and yet when put together it shouts festive season.  It is a runner for a 6 seater table so ended up about 2m long (yes, I do sometimes use metric!)  The design is my own using traditional sawtooth and Ohio star blocks.  I had an image in my mind it came to fruition almost exactly, which was very exciting.  It is backed with the same gold check used in the sashing.

The production line is starting....

Here is the first cab off the rank so to speak:

It is a disappearing 9 patch design, which looks a lot harder than it actually is. :)  I had had the blocks done for a while but not sized or sorted, I had had a number of intentions for them but they just kept being put to the back of the queue.  Until now.  I love the pink and green combination - I think I have managed to include pretty much all my favourites here although I do love the guitars on the white background!  As my mother in law said to me today - although this is a baby girl's quilt it will still be relevant when she is a child or a teenager.  The prints are unashamedly girly but not too juvenile.  I love the backing material too and the colours work perfectly with the front.

New pretties!

This beautiful bundle of fabric is winging its way to me.  As is this and this.  And maybe a few other things too...but I needed them! Honest. :)

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

I love the idea of versatile quilts but for some reason haven't really managed to make one until now.  I think because the baby quilts I have been making are very much baby quilts - novelty fabric and the like, which means no self respecting adult would want to adorn a chair or their knees or a picnic with it down the track. :) 
However, with this latest (completed) project, which I think got finished within a 24hour time period (a record for me!) I started with the challenge of making a gender neutral baby quilt.  This is because it is going to be sold to raise funds for family who are going to Cambodia to do charitable work and I wanted it to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.  So then I thought why not go further and make it appeal beyond the baby market?  The result was this:

It is made from a range of coordinating woven fabrics, which lend an amazing texture and softness to the quilt.  When I first received the bundle of material in the post a couple of years ago I wasn't sure what to do with them as I was only used to using printed quilting cottons and hadn't realised that these were woven.  So it has taken a while to get the confidence to use them as they are quite dense and stretchy.  Here is a detail:


 
Mmmm!  Raspberry and lemon sorbet! The materials and pattern, which make for a bright and cosy baby quilt for either a boy or girl, also put me in mind of picnics in the early Summer and I think it would be just as nice for that purpose as for a baby.  It really made me think - there is no reason that a baby quilt should be put away in mothballs once the little one is toddling, if the quilt doesn't scream baby then there is no reason it can't be used, enjoyed and loved for years to come...

Not waving, drowning

I have a crazy number of projects underway at the moment, which all have a November/December deadline.  There are table runners, quilts and baby quilts quite literally coming out of my ears.  Still, good news is that I will have lots of photos soon as they come off the production line...
Not much time this week for sewing during the day as I have been busy baking and cooking up a storm for my little one's first birthday party this weekend.  I can't believe he is one already.  Happy birthday for tomorrow sweetheart.