Hedgehogs and squirrels and owls, oh my!

At a very enjoyable baby sprinkle (apparently this is name du jour for baby showers for second babies...) I finally gave my friend the quilted wall hanging she had requested for her baby boy's nursery.

There had been some guidelines (most of which I listened to :)) which included - "greens and browns please...and woodland animals, no, jungle animals...no...woodland animals.  Definitely woodland animals."  So I started making it before she could change her mind.  Fortunately she had ordered a decal with woodland creatures so it now seemed unlikely...

Green and brown can be very chic but also a little muted for this colour obsessed quilter so I took a lead from the aforementioned decal and threw in a bit of orange and blue too.   Just to liven things up a bit.

The main "picture" fabrics I chose were from the "Bluebell Park " line by Kate and Birdie.  I love them so much!

I had bought some of the beige park themed fabric along with all the supporting fabrics while I was in Melbourne in anticipation of this project but discovered that I wanted more colour and cute stuff so broke up my charm squares from the range and used all the cute and colourful ones from that too.  The green background fabrics are both Riley Blake pirate fabrics and I just love the Japanese apples!  Such a zing of orange.

This photo was taken when I thought it was finished.  More of that anon...I quilted it simply in the ditch and used a fusible, lightweight batting as it is going to be hung on a wall rather than used as a cot quilt, so the lightness and slight stiffness of that sort of material was perfect for this project.  I also added a hanging sleeve.

I sat around admiring my handiwork for a while (as you do) and came to the conclusion that a) it needed something else and b) I was bored and wanted a hand sewing project.  So lead by the naive charm and texture of the prints I embarked on some hand quilting detail. 

This was the result, not particularly clear and unfortunately with me in it because I forgot to take a photo at home!

Basically I hand stitched in orange embroidery floss around each of the orange diamonds, which really lifted the look.  Overall I was really pleased with this little item, it was a lot of fun to make!

Memory Quilt

Other projects seem to be pulling me away from the next border of my medallion quilt at the moment, in a good way of course and this baby quilt is one of them.

I was asked to make a memory quilt for a little boy's first birthday - he's a second child and the poor chap had missed out on receiving a quilt when he was born while his big brother had been made two!  His mum wanted it to be made out of his baby clothes from his first year to make it extra special and fortunately she was wide open to the idea of a raggy quilt, which saved a lot of time and tears trying to stabilise the various fabrics.  She requested green flannel for the back which was a lovely choice I think as it really pops through in the front and unites all of the squares.  It also works well with the (more numerous) spotted muslin squares which filled the gaps when I ran out of clothes...You don't get much fabric from size 000 onesies!

Where possible I fussy cut motifs or included cute details like pockets to make it a bit more interesting...

Pretty much every item was sentimental to his mum and being a mother myself I can really relate to this!  I even had a bit of a tear in my eye when I cut into that first bonds suit and couldn't imagine going through the process of making one for my own little boy...even though I think it is a fabulous idea.

I think the hardest but most rewarding square to make was this car one.  The car is a multi layered applique which was located on the baby suit's bottom - so I had to remove the elastic from it before cutting.  She was adamant that this one had to be saved though so I found a way. :)

I hope I am given the honour of making more memory quilts for people in the future.  They aren't the most "beautiful" or modern quilts but they are just so meaningful and full of love.  Which is at the heart of quilting really, isn't it?

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. :)

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.

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...

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. :)