Thursday 26 May 2016

Baby Boy Cot Quilt

If you are anything like me you have tonnes of beautiful scraps fabrics from previous projects that are just sitting in the cupboard begging to be used. Recently I decided it was time to put them to good use and I made a simple cot quilt with blues and greys in a basic square design. I raided my fabrics and found some gorgeous prints I knew would work great together.

I found a pretty blue with white spot fabric for the backing. Squares were cut at 5.5 inches and I used a total of 80 squares.


By chain piecing I find that these quilts come together nice and quick and although 80 squares seems like a lot it is quick to get through. For me I like to iron my seams to the side and alternate sides each row so when I go to sew the rows together I can simply nest the seams for a perfect finish.


I quilted this one on my domestic machine using a beautiful grey aurifil 40wt thread called "Dove" just a quarter of an inch either side of the seams. This is my go to thread now and blends so well even with bright coloured fabrics.


I've also just started using quilting gloves as it gives me better grip on my quilts and I find I can guide the quilt through the machine and have a lot more control than without.


Not the best day for taking quilt photos (a little overcast in Sydney) but that wasn't going to stop me sharing this beautiful quilt. I finished the quilt off with a dark blue binding and I love the blue and white polka dot backing.


Such a sweet quilt now available in my etsy store here .....


Till next time...happy sewing
Jenny xxx

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Memory Quilt - it's all heart !!

Following on from my previous post about the story behind my first memory quilt which you can read here, this is the second quilt made with the same clothes.

Having male coloured clothes and needing to make a quilt for a little girl, and a customer who wanted a lot of pink, to make it all work I knew I needed to reduce the size of the clothes into smaller areas. I decided that various sized hearts, machine appliqued onto a pink top would work perfectly.

I set about hand drawing various sized hearts onto heat and bond lite (I like to use lite when quilting to keep the quilt soft). I then cut out all these cute little hearts, fused them onto the various shirts, jumpers and shorts, and cut them out ready for the design process.


I decided to create a large heart out of all the little heart shapes in the centre of the quilt as this quilt was for a special little girl who's uncle was no longer with us. It really was a quilt from the heart.


After fusing them on machined stitched around each heart using a blanket stitch to secure in place.


This was probably the most tedious process of the whole quilt and did take a considerable amount of time. I find that with quilts like this I often work on projects in between so as to keep enjoying each process otherwise I may go insane !!!


Once finished I quilted with straight lines approx. 1.5 inches apart. This quilt was backed in a gorgeous grey flannel for warmth and softness and the same grey was used for binding.


I was so happy with how this turned out and the very special story behind this quilt. It's not very often (due to time restrictions on current deadlines) that I take on custom quilts these days but once in a while a special person comes into your life with a story and you know the two of you were meant to work together to create a dream come true. I feel completely blessed I could be apart of this and Lisa - thank you for putting your trust in me. I hope this gives you some warmth during this difficult time.


Till next time...happy sewing
Jenny xxx