Quilts completed!

I finished my big and little quilts a couple of weeks ago, a satisfying end to a fun project.

 They both have the same striped backing material and edges bound in black.

I've made 4 pockets on the back  for Barney to put his favourite little toys in.

This quilt is a little premature, as Barney is still  in his cot, so it will live at my house for a while.

Below is the little one I made for Barney's soft  toy doll, Max, who has a little wooden bed  shared with various other toys; I've used some of the same fabrics, again with a little pocket.

My first attempt at free machining on anything that mattered!

I had to look in my old school needlework folder to remind myself how to work blanket stitch....a long time since I did any embroidery!



I've been ill for over a week with a lousy cold, but yesterday felt a little better and did some screenprinting. Thinking about a small piece with a trees/ wood theme... in black and yellow, not sure why...maybe because of the lack of sun outside...

over printed in grey....

first playing around....more fun ahead.



Quilt crisis!

Could I first say welcome to a few new followers!
I had fun moving the completed squares of my quilt around to get a balance of light/dark  and the different patterns.

Of course I could plan my quilts carefully beforehand but I don't work like that; I like them evolving as I sew. However, this stage did involve many different options, a few of which are here. 

Pepper was a great help! and Barney as well! 

 He was fascinated by my sewing machine so I sat him on my knee while I joined the rows together. I started machining and when I got to a pin Barney took it out for me. The final arrangement is below and that's when I had my first crisis! I thought it was too busy and was close to unpicking the whole quilt, so left it for a few days!

Coming back to it, I decided I did like it (thank goodness) so planned the border and bought the cotton wadding and a striped fabric for the backing.

Tacking the 3 layers together is never my favourite job.

Then I starting quilting and did  a lot of wavy lines (about 35!) along the length of the quilt before I had the 2nd crisis....

which resulted in this becoming my favourite tool....

I spent 2 whole evenings unpicking the quilting as I realised it was far too busy and was going to be too stiff for a bed quilt. A lesson learnt; think more carefully about the quilting!!

I decided to echo the large squares with black quilting lines one way and red lines in  the other direction and

to stitch inside the small squares. Nice and simple.

I like the simple effect of the quilting on the stripes.

Barney has a 'baby' doll called Max and I thought I'd make him a little quilt with the same fabrics but a different pattern.

It's fun to make something small - very quick! Both nearly finished.

Creative juices flowing

Barney's quilt is well under way, I decided on modern log cabin squares, making up 2 squares of the same fabrics. It was going to be 18 squares but I had so many lovely fabrics that I ended up with 28! I've chosen picture fabrics for the middles; animals, birds, letters, numbers and boats plus plain black and red and black and red 'graphic' fabrics (lines and spots). At this stage I just made up squares I liked with no definite plan for the finished quilt. Machining the pieces in strips makes it quite a speedy process.

lots of lovely squares to play with!

One day when I needed a break from the quilt I played with some screen printed fabics to make a couple of sketch book covers. I cut out and fused the birds and suns onto the tree fabric and then quilted it....

  

....and made it into a cover, quilted in black and yellow; here's the front...

...and the back. A bit of fun.

While on a roll, I'd wondered what to do with a piece of linen I'd printed with  my modern trees. I made it into a simply quilted cover for my new small sketchbook that goes with me in my handbag.

With the small piece left over I made a needle case, again edged with black shiny bias binding.