Experimenting

I love colour and I love contemporary fabrics but I haven't really explored the possibility of Australian Aboriginal fabrics until recently.  I am not entirely sure how I am going to use them, whether they will be integrated into a quilt via their colour scheme or if they will feature on their own.  Anyway, time will tell.  Here is what I spent my pennies on:
Desert flowers
On walkabout
I also couldn't resist these batiks, I am much more familiar with batiks and the colours of these ones were eye popping. :)
Orange! Purple!

Flannel Zigzag

Another quilt finished!  This is a quilt made on commission for a friend's nephew.  I don't often work in flannels and this quilt suggested why - despite being a single bed topper it was very heavy by the end when I was binding it.  Flannel also has a bit more give in it than cotton, which also proved challenging.  I actually had all good intentions of completing this quilt for her nephew when he was a *baby*, ahem, last year but then I fell pregnant and had my own baby to distract me...so the baby quilt became a little boy quilt instead - increasing in size to fit a "big boy bed" and benefiting (I feel) from the addition of a bit of red and dark blue to de-baby the the overall feel.

Here it is flapping in the breeze on a windy, overcast day...

 I really like the accents of red in the front, picked up by the stitching and the binding...

A detail of the zigzags sowing the different materials (the seals are my favourite, so much so that I made my label out of the seal print too!  It is visible in the 2nd picture) and the red quilting stitches.  I am really working on making my quilting more interesting and getting away from just doing it in the ditch to be practical...

Project Peanut

I am now at liberty to write about my latest completed baby quilt as it was given to the mother to be today. :)

Here are some pictures of it:

 The design is based on Cluck, Cluck, Sew's Wonky block quilt, which I think has great movement to it.  The centres are fussy cut jungle animals from Hoffman fabric's "It's a jungle out there"  range.  I contemplated using the same range's stripes or circles or something but in the end selected various bright spots and tonals from my stash.  To pleasing effect I think. :)  Finding the blue on blue dot for the sashing, which was *the* perfect match to the blue in the blocks, took some doing but was worth the effort.  It really brings the quilt to life.  So as not to distract from the main appeal of the blocks themselves I bound it in the blue too.

 Here is a close up of one of the blocks showing the quilting I did.  I am getting into the whole double lines design and rather like it, especially for children's quilts and bold designs.  I echoed the double lines within each block as they are quite large blocks which needed something to break up the space...

 The backing isn't pieced as with many of my larger quilts.  Instead I backed it with an orange striped flannel, which will hopefully be hard wearing and cosy for the little man. 

Watch this space...

I have three baby quilts in various stages of completion.  One has a finished top and is waiting to be quilted and bound, one is laid out in blocks waiting to be sewn and the final one is finished!  I have taken photos but don't know if the recipient lurks here at all so until it has been given as a gift, it will just have to remain secret...:)  I promise to post it as soon as it has been gifted though!

Raggy baby quilt

This is a baby quilt I did last year but forgot to photograph.  It is just a cute little flannel raggy quilt but the memorable thing about it for me is that it was really my first commissioned baby quilt.  (I had made a wedding quilt made to the recipient's design specs earlier in the year but that was a gift from me).  So anyway, thanks Deb for believing in my quilting enough to purchase this quilt for your friend's baby.  I believe it has had much use and love, just as a quilt should. :)

Memory game

Thanks Amanda for pointing me towards this memory game.  Looks absolutely gorgeous!  Can't wait until my little man is old enough to appreciate something like this although maybe I had better make a start on one soon considering how long projects are currently taking me...:)

A package in the post...

I love receiving packages in the mail, especially ones containing...fabric. :)
Today I got a box from fabric.com -  not a site I have used before but they proved to be very efficient, reasonably priced and had a great selection of unusual fabrics.  Some of my favourites in the box were some Kaffe Fassett materials and a "Sherbet Pips" jelly roll.  No immediate plans for using them but plenty of ideas...