Quilts for Weddings and Babies..

A long time ago, before we were even dating, my husband and I moved into a share house with another one of our really good friends, Bryden. He has been friends with both of us, independently, for a long time (I met the boys when I was 15) but I generally think of him as my husband's best friend (although sometimes I refer to him as "our" best friend). Bryden has been like a brother to us over the years, with both of our families considering him part of the family too. He was there in the waiting room when we had baby #1, and before he met Carley, I spent many a night making sure he ate "real food" (because an iced coffee and a Mars bar is not really my idea of an acceptable daily meal!).

After dating a number of ladies that weren't quite the right fit, he met the lovely Carley. It wasn't long before they moved in together, and over the next 5 years they adopted a lorikeet and an eclectus parrot, bought a house, adopted another lorikeet and finally got engaged at our wedding. (Naturally Bryden was our Best Man.. and with our blessing he surprised Carley with a proposal at the end of his speech!) For their wedding present I decided to make them a quilt, and I asked Carley to choose some fabric that she liked. Being a girl after my own heart, she fell in love with Kate Spain's Cuzco line (it's those peacocks!) and chose the Hidden Stars pattern from my copy of Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott. 

The completed quilt top, ready to baste.

 Carley's favourite colour is orange, and I found the perfect homespun at my local Spotlight store in their Organic Cottons section. There's nothing shy or quiet about this quilt!

I decided to emphasise the stars by hand quilting (also my first time hand quilting..) them using a variegated 12wt Aurifil thread #4648. I also machine quilted in a large cross hatch between the stars using 28wt Aurifil #2150 on the front, and 50wt Aurifil #2130 on the back. The stitching is virtually invisible, but you can see the outline on the back.

 The quilt in backed with a smooth lemon yellow minkee with white spots. It's super snuggly and warm. I did learn a few things about working with minkee though.. 1. Pin basting didn't work for me. I had to unpick all of the quilting I'd done (and I thought I was nearly finished the machine quilting part too.. I was devastated!). 2. Spray basting plus pin basting works a treat.. that sucker didn't move or pucker or pleat again!

I bound the quilt with the same orange homespun, and machine bound it using Aurifil 50wt #1133. I machine embroidered a label and then hand stitched it to the back of the quilt using the 12wt variegated thread. I them popped it in the wash with a couple of colour catchers just to make sure the colours didn't run, and it was good to go!

If you look closely you can see the stars on the back

Ready for wrapping!

The bride and groom

The wedding was beautiful. Bryden's mum was the celebrant who officiated the wedding, and it was held in her gorgeous garden. The weather was perfect for the ceremony, although it rained all through the reception! Thank goodness for portable gazebos and carports! I'm very pleased to say that they were thrilled with their quilt, and took it on their honeymoon with them. I hope it brings them many years of warmth and comfort.

I was also asked by one of my good friends, Linda to make a baby quilt for a friend of hers who was expecting her first baby. Linda is very crafty, but has never jumped into the quilting pool (yet!). I happened to have a charm pack of Deb Strain's "Meadow Friends" that was perfect for whipping up a quick baby quilt. We kept it simple with white sashing and binding. I backed it with a Denyse Schmidt print I had in my stash, and then straight line quilted it 1/4" out from the charm squares.

It was very well received at the baby shower, and I've since received photos of the beautiful baby enjoying her first sleep at home, wrapped in the quilt. It warms my heart to see these quilts being put to good use :) I'm also ready and waiting for my husband to gift the blue and white quilt from my previous post (well, 2 posts ago) to his friend, and then my quilty heart will be full of joy ;) I think those will be my 3 final 2012 quilt finishes, but I've got a couple more lined up for early 2013 :)

Aurifil Aurifloss Review {& Quilting Gallery Blog Hop GIVEAWAY}

The Quilting Gallery is turning 5, and to celebrate they're hosting another Blog Hop Party with Giveaways! Last time there were over 200 blogs participating, with some incredibly cool giveaway items on offer.. make sure you don't miss out this time!

I recently completed a quilt for one of my husband's friends as a thank you for helping us when we moved house. He spent a few days welding framework together for some custom desks that my husband installed in his office, and my husband asked me if I could make him a quilt as a thank you gift (Sure, no worries love! Let me just whip that up for you!).

I'd been dying to try out the "Raspberry Ripple" pattern out of Pam & Nicky Lintott's "Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts" book, which I'd received as a Mothers' day gift. This is the third pattern I've made from the book (and I've now made 4 quilts using patterns from the book, but that's another post!).. anyway, considering the book was an incidental purchase I'm very impressed with it!

My husband's only directive was that "Fritz likes blue".. so straight away I knew that Deb Strain's "Spa" range would be perfect. Not my personal style, but I am SO pleased with how the quilt top turned out. Having said that, I'm not sure that I'd make this pattern again because it felt like I was piecing FOREVER and it wasn't until the very end that I had blocks that were larger than 6.5". It was enormously satisfying to complete, but it seemed to drag on and I think next time (if ever!) I wouldn't bother making all the 9-patch blocks first and I'd just make large HSTs instead. (The effect of the 9-patch blocks is stunning, don't get me wrong.. I just prefer to see tangible progress within a few of hours of piecing, not what took me DAYS over WEEKS of piecing.)

But enough whinging, I really love this quilt and I'm a bit sad to be giving it away.. luckily I know it's going to a good home that will appreciate all the time, effort and love I've put into making it!

Once I completed the quilt top it was time to move onto the larger issue of how to quilt it? My domestic machine has a very small throat space, so the thought of anything other than SLQ was far too daunting, and even that would have been struggle town. I decided to think outside the square and try something I'd never done before.... hand tying!

Being an Aurifil convert (this quilt was pieced with Aurifil 50wt #2024) I contacted the rather debonair face of Aurifil, Signor Alex Veronelli to see if I could try out some of his new Aurifloss stranded cotton.

Aurifloss is a 6 strand embroidery floss made from long staple cotton that is gorgeously presented on a wooden spool. It's suited to all types of needlecraft including cross stitching, embroidery, crochet and applique as well as scrapbooking and hand tying quilts (and many other things I'm sure!).

Alex very generously sent me three spools, and despite this quilt being 64" x 80" I didn't even use a whole spool! So I'm giving one away for one of you to try out :)

Pinned, basted and ready to go!

Having never hand tied a quilt before, I watched a number of youtube videos, googled a few blogs and referred to a couple of books to get a general idea. From there I went with the method where you take a small "bite" of fabric approx 1/4" apart with your needle (I recommend using a wool needle), and then do a little back stitch move where you take a second "bite" (as shown above).

I left "tails" of approx 2-3 inches, which I then tied using a surgeon's knot (which my research suggested was more secure than a square knot). The Aurifloss was a delight to work with. It didn't twist and knot itself while I was trying to feed it through the fabric. It was easy to knot and none of my knots have magically undone themselves - always a good start! I look forward to trying out Aurifloss in my cross stitch and embroidery projects (I just need to stop quilting for long enough to get back to them!).

A close up of my (untrimmed) hand tied knots.

And a closeup of the trimmed, completed ties.

This quilt exceeded my expectations - it turned out exactly how I envisioned it would. I love the clean crispness of the blue and white, it makes me think of Wedgwood china! I think the hand tying was the perfect way to "quilt" it so as not to detract from the overall design, while still keeping the layers secure. As an added bonus, hand tied quilts are supposed to get softer and snugglier as they're washed so it's sure to keep Fritz and Margot warm and cosy on these cold Summer nights (oh wait, you mean it's meant to be warm in Summer? hmm.. I don't think Perth got the memo this year!).

Finished just in time for Christmas...

Now that you've made it to the end of my post, I think you deserve the chance to be rewarded, don't you? I'm offering up a charm pack of Summersville by Lucie Summers and a spool of Aurifloss so that you can try it out for yourself. The giveaway is open from the 10th December until the 17th December (Perth time). The giveaway is open internationally, although I can't guarantee that you'll receive it before Christmas!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Harry Potter Quilt, complete!

It just occurred to me that I never posted about the Harry Potter quilt once it was completed! I managed to get it done in time to present it to Bean on his birthday - yay! He was very pleased with it, and it has been on his bed ever since. He then promptly requested a Pirates of the Caribbean quilt for his next quilt, to which I replied that his next quilt is quite a way down my list!

Using painter's tape to baste the backing fabric to the floor  

And some more painter's tape to secure the batting

Quilt top in place, and ready to pin

Pinning, pinning and more pinning.

 I must have spent 2 hours pin basting this quilt.. I pinned every tumbler block, which was like 132 pins.. and then there were the Split Drunkard's Path Stars and the owls etc. My knees and my back were killing me by the end of it, I was walking like a little old lady! Even my fingers and palms took a beating. Next time it will be spray basting for a project this large!

On the upside, none of the pins were "in my way" when it came to the quilting, and it was quite therapeutic when I got to remove them finally!

Centre section basted and ready to go!

Gosh I love how the stars turned out - they're seriously my favourite part of the quilt!

Simple ditch quilting

 I decided that the quilt really wouldn't suit an all over quilting design due to all the different elements, and the good old "stitch in the ditch" was really the perfect option. I bought two different threads, a mid-dark grey for the back of the quilt and a mid grey-blue for the quilt top. They ended up blending so perfectly that you almost can't see the thread.. and the back of the quilt looks amazing because the quilting really makes the design stand out even though the backing fabric is charcoal grey.

I did some free motion quilting at the top and the bottom of the quilt where the blue fabric sections are - I attempted a spirally wave type of design that turned out better than I expected (but certainly not pro by any means!). I think it adds some movement in a subtle kind of way.

On the bed, ready to go!

I know I've said that if I'd had any idea how much time, effort and thought/planning/quilt math would be needed to complete this quilt I probably would have sucked it up and paid $90 for a Harry Potter quilt panel on eBay.... but really, it turned out so much better than I could have hoped for and I'm really rather pleased with myself. It's definitely the biggest, most ambitious and intricate project I have ever taken on (it really makes their "baby quilts" look tiny and insignificant) and it's nice to know that I can pull off something more than a lap sized quilt.

Now I just need to do some work on that king sized quilt I'm going to make for the husband and myself! (Don't hold your breath for that to be finished any time soon - I've only made one Swoon block so far!) And before I do that I have some BOM blocks to catch up on and a couple of swap projects to complete.. it's kind of nice to not have a major project with a deadline looming!

Incase anyone is interested to note, almost all the pieces of this quilt were cut using my Accuquilt GO! fabric cutter, using the 3.5" Drunkard's Path, the small Tumbler and the 2.5" Strip Dies. That includes all the sashing and the binding (LOOOOVE my 2.5" strip die!).

March Bee & BOM Blocks..

I've been a bit busy making my sister-in-law's baby quilt so I've only managed to complete one of the March Craftsy BOM blocks so far - but it's only halfway through the month, so I shouldn't be too concerned yet, right? So far I've managed to complete the foundation pieced string block, which was an interesting experience after having recently made paper pieced string blocks for the QCA bee last month. I really liked how the seams are hidden so it's nice and tidy at the back.. but the blocks did suffer a bit from shrinkage because of the seams, so I definitely think if I was doing a whole quilt like this I'd want to use a thread like the 50wt Aurifil so that it sits flat and doesn't take up as much room. (ie my 6.5" blocks ended up perhaps 6.25" using my generic white thread)

Craftsy BOM Block #5 - Foundation Pieced String Block

 I can't wait to finish the baby quilt so that I can move on to the second Craftsy BOM block, the Broken Spiderweb.. I'm really looking forward to making that block - I've seen it floating around blogland/flickr and I think it's most effective. I'm going to use the blue/green fabrics from the Delighted range for the Broken Spiderweb, having used the red/yellow fabrics for the String Block.

I also managed to complete my March block for the QCA bee - although it wasn't exactly a block! Jane from Quiltjane is the block leader this month and she wanted some strippy Dresden plates. She was even so good as to put together a tutorial and templates for us all to print, making Dresden plates look super simple! Jane asked us to alternate between horizontal stripes and vertical stripes for the wedges.

Horizontal strippy wedge

Vertical strippy wedge

 The wedges went together really quickly, especially once I had a bit of a chain production line going on! I thought these looked so effective once they'd been put together - I'm completely in awe of Jane's brain - I'd never have thought of making the wedges strippy (and then alternating the stripes).. I guess it's a good thing I can follow instructions at least!

Laying out wedges for fun, halfway through.

My block (left) and Phillipa's block (right)

 Phillipa and I ended up finishing our blocks off together at one of our regular sewing playdates (seriously, it's so awesome having 2 full days to myself now that Blossom is in Kindy.. I get to hang out with my girlfriends and sew! What more could a girl want??) The colours didn't come out quite as vibrant in the photos - they're both bright with homespuns like teal, lavender, peacock, coral, stone etc. It was so much fun going shopping for solids - for a start, they were on sale! But it was a pleasure to grab bolts and stack them up in these vibrant jewel tones.. it made me want to sit there and stroke them (which is a loony idea I seem to have picked up from someone on twitter I think! I mean seriously, who stroked fabric?? Apparently crazy people, like me.)

My completed Dresden plate block

Phillipa's completed Dresden plate block

So I'm linking up with TGIFF (Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday) because I'm glad that I've finished those blocks - the Dresden plates are in the mail, winging their way to Jane as we speak!

Trying new things - Quilting circles..

My brother-in-law and his wife are expecting their first baby in 3 weeks, which is super exciting for me as it will finally make me an Aunty for the very first time! They decided not to find out whether they were having a boy or a girl, so they wanted a gender neutral theme for the nursery. My sister-in-law found some gorgeous jungle themed things for their nursery, so when I found this fabric:

I knew it would be perfect for the quilt that I wanted to make for her as a baby shower gift! I've had this fabric since before Christmas, but of course I hadn't done anything with it because I had *AGES* until the baby was due... but I figured that this week I'd better do something about it as I'm hosting the baby shower next weekend!

So Monday saw me with my rotary cutter and my sewing machine, cutting the blocks to size and working out how to lay them out. I ended up deciding to make 2 panels exactly the same so that the quilt could be completely reversible - this also gave me a few extra challenges later, but I won't get ahead of myself!

I sashed the blocks with a lime green homespun - 2.5" strips (cut with my Accuquilt GO! - gosh I love that thing!) and then on Tuesday I added 4.5" strips to border it. I was a bit stumped when it came time to work out how to quilt it because having decided to make it reversible I couldn't really chance stitching in the ditch incase I hadn't lined it up properly on both sides. I did a quick survey on twitter amongst some of my crafty girlfriends and the lovely Quiltjane suggested concentric circles. Initially I was intimidated by the idea of doing circles as I've only ever straight line quilted or free motion stippled (I've only been FMQing for a few weeks).. but the idea grew on me as the day progressed.

 In the end I grabbed a dinner plate, a bread & butter plate and a demitasse coffee saucer and drew asymmetrically nested circles all over the quilt. It was surprisingly less daunting than I'd anticipated, although it seemed like it was going to take forever when I started. But I spent most of Wednesday quilting and managed to finish it off, thank goodness!

Today I trimmed it back ready for binding (I didn't get much sewing time in as I had other things on through the day), so at tomorrow morning's craft playdate I'll cut and sew the binding on... and then it will be finished..

Well, except for the million threads that need to be tied off!

I think it turned out pretty awesome, and I was impressed by how quickly I managed to get it pieced and quilted.. it's not often that I make a baby quilt from start to finish in less than a week.. and with a week to spare until the baby shower! I guess I'll have time to applique some of the spare animals onto those face washers I bought.....

I also decided to link up with T(ry)N(ew)T(hings) Thursdays at Happy Quilting because I've never tried quilting circles before.. but it turned out so nicely that I'll definitely do it again :)






And I'm also linking up with Sunni's "This Week" linky party :)

This week...

...I completed my February blocks for the Craftsy Block of the Month.. this month's theme was half square triangles.

Block #3 - Balkan Puzzle

Block #4 - Chunky Chevron

My completed Jan & Feb blocks

And I ordered my backing fabric for this quilt... Julie from The Intrepid Thread has her Delighted fabrics on clearance at the moment so I ordered the Blue Mosaic & Blue Main for the backing and the Pink Daisy to bind it. I love knowing there's fabric in the mail!

I've also been working on my mini quilt for The Name Game Swap - it's nearly ready to post, I just have to do up a quilt label for it (trust me to forget to do it until after I've quilted and bound it!).. I won't show you the finished quilt because I'd hate to ruin the surprise for my swap partner, but here's a little sneak peek of the quilt top (before I did the name part!)

I've also been helping organise a second hive for the Quilt Club Australia skill building bee.. I'm pretty excited - it's my first bee! This month Waverlee's chosen a string block in gorgeous red and aqua. Phillipa and I spent part of the morning raiding our stashes and auditioning fabrics for our bee blocks. Just need to sew them up now (I could have done them tonight, but I decided to blog instead!).. My month will be later in the year because I'm thinking of doing a paper pieced block and as it's a skill builder it's better to do "harder" blocks later on so you don't scare people off, right?

While I was at Phillipa's I spent some time working on my project for the "Go! Ahead and Show a Little Love" blog hop that starts in.... 4 days! Stay tuned, people... there might be a giveaway right here on this little old blog!