Another Baby Quilt

Recently our nephew and his partner welcomed their second child into the family; a little girl this time. Since I made a quilt for their first child of course I made one for this one as well. You might remember this quilt I made for their little boy.

I started with making Gingham for the background as that's something I always wanted to try. But I didn't want to leave it as that, as a baby quilt needs colour, at least in my book.  

The idea was to just randomly place flowers and butterflies all over but then I decided to go the "Kellie of Don't Look Now fame" way and make it into a tree. I've made Kellie's tree before, you can see it here and it's still one of my all time favourites.  I didn't use a pattern this time though, just cut out flowers, leaves, bugs and butterflies and fused them to the background. 

The shapes were then raw edge appliquéd onto the background and the batting and I added the backing before I started the free motion quilting. 

I'm happy with how the quilt turned out but my blasted machine gave me grief again. I must think of other options, otherwise I'll end up throwing this machine out of the window one of these days ;)!!! 

Last week we delivered the quilt in person (in the Netherlands) and we got to meet the newest member of the family as well as her little brother, who was born when we were still living in Singapore. 

Vreni x

A finish and some progress

The daughter of one of my good friends in Australia had a baby boy last year and of course I had to make a quilt for the little bundle of joy. As the nursery's colour scheme is kept in grey, yellow and white naturally the quilt had to be in those colours too. We haven't had good weather lately, so the pictures are a bit dull. 

I've included some prairie points as little fingers love to play with something. The animals and circles are raw edge appliquéd and I have added a layer of batting to the back. After the applique was done, I carefully cut the excess batting away, which resulted in a sort of trapunto effect. 

I've also finally finished the last block for The Aunt's quilt. 

and here are all the blocks together, only the border triangles to do now. As I've mentioned before I'm using wash away paper for the applique but I decided that I don't like it. I think I will stick with the old needle turn method from now on.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cheers
Vreni x

My crafty week in pictures

I have enjoyed a lot of sewing and crafting time this week. On Monday I finished the "Peak Hour" top. When I say finished, I mean I cut out all the vehicles and ironed them onto the background. Not one stitch has been made at this point.  The next step is to sandwich the quilt and then I will sew through all the layers around each shape a couple of times with a  free motion straight stitch to secure them.

On Tuesday and Thursday I worked on my Camelot blocks. Here are block 12 and 13, only three more to go.

On Wednesday I finished another baby quilt top. I will probably quilt this one first, as the baby has already been born and I'm eager to send it off to the proud new parents. 

And on Friday I got together with my good friend Heather - as we often do on  Fridays - to do a bit of box making. She wanted to show me her way of making a sewing box, something she's been experimenting with lately. You can read about it here. I used my  "Keep Calm" fabric and I'm really pleased how the box came together. 

To close the box tightly, I used a piece of elastic cord and two buttons, so nothing will fall out while transporting it to and from the quilt group/class.

There's a little cutting mat hidden in the lid as well as a piece of sand paper (which is very useful when drawing on fabric around templates). Then there are different compartments, one with a lid,  for all the sewing utensils. Clever, n'est-ce pas?

Of course the fabric lends itself perfectly for a small pin cushion and I also made a teeny tiny "flannel design board".

After all this crafting, the sewing room needed a good clean up, which I did yesterday.

And today I woke to this: rain, glorious rain. It has been so very dry here the last few month that one could almost hear nature sigh with relieve. 

By all accounts, an excellent week. I hope yours was equally great, whatever you did. 

Cheers

Vreni x

One done, five more to go!

OK I've started with the baby quilt, but I thought it's a good way to get into the free motion quilting rhythm again.  

After initially playing up, the machine behaved itself after changing the thread, the needle, the tension several times!

Now that baby can arrive!

This month's bee blocks have already been sent and also received.

It's the first time I've made granny squares and I really enjoyed it. There might be a granny square  quilt in my future! 

I also did a bit more crafting and sewing for the charity bazaar in November.

 Of course I'm hoping that we'll be able to sell lots, but whatever doesn't, will be "recycled" as Christmas presents. So either way, everything will be useful, one way or other. 

Enjoy the weekend and the Olympics!

Cheers

Vreni x

It's been a while!

Somehow June is slipping though my fingers! Not that I've been idle, but I don't really have anything finished to show for it. Instead I'm showing you a little preview of my "works in progress".

 A baby quilt for a friend who is expecting a little boy soon. I made it with a layer cake of "Lil'Rascals" by Chloe's Closet from Moda.  I'm thinking of making a small bunting with the leftovers for the baby's room. 

I also tried out my new Dresden Plate template. I don't know why, but instead of 20 segments, as indicated in the instructions, I needed 22 to make a plate. Probably to do with my seam allowance; I clearly need more practice with this. 

I've also started to make things for a Christmas bazaar, my quilt group is planning to attend later in the year. So far I've made these two table runner, a few place mats, some coasters as well as some boxes.  

I'll be back soon, hopefully with some finished projects to show. Have a wonderful weekend. 

Cheers

Vreni x