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

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

Friday Finish: Baby Love Quilt Set

Today I wanted to share with you my completed Baby Love quilt set. I bought some  Littlest by Art Gallery Fabrics a while back and was just waiting for inspiration. The fabric features large bunny rabbits and I wanted to make sure I chose a quilt design that would make them shine. The design suited them perfectly with the large panel top and bottom that allowed all the details of this cute fabric to show.

 

 

I also had some beautiful and soft grey shot cotton that matched up with the peach hues in this fabric creating a lovely soft feel to the quilt.

I had bought half yards so with the left over fabric decided to make a nursery set including two fabric wall canvases and some matching bunting.

 

The pattern would also suit other fabric ranges that have a large print included. I have some gorgeous Marine Too fabric by Dan Styles for Birch fabrics that I think would look perfect for a boy. Check out the prints here.

 

The set is currently available for sale on my website at www.jacksroom.com.au. If you would like to make this yourself my PDF pattern is available here.

 

I'm linking up with these fun places today Crazy Mum Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

 

Till next time....happy sewing....

 

xx Jenny

Giggles Cot Quilt - Work in Progress

 

Armed with a left over jelly roll from Giggles by Me & My Sister Designs for Moda Fabrics and a few white jelly rolls strips I decided it was time for a quick quilt. I stumbled across the Strip and Flip Quilt pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew and decided this would be a good day project for me.

 

 

The finished size is approximately 36" x 41" and used 27 coloured strips and 2 white strips. In the tutorial she used 1.5" white strips but I had some left over from a jelly roll so mine are 2.5".

 

 

I love the way the white just add that extra interest from a straight jelly roll quilt and it is super easy to put together too.

 

 

As this only uses 27 strips I had extra from my jelly roll so decided to do a little bit of piecing on the back.

 

 

This one is now off to the quilters to be quilted and I haven't decided what binding I will use on this yet - maybe a pink and white stripe???

 

  

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday! 

Till next time.....happy sewing.

 



"Frolic in the Woods" - A Single Bed Quilt

 

This is my latest finish, a commissioned single bed quilt for a beautiful 5 year old girl who loves pink, the outdoors and anything with horses.

Fabric is Sarah Jane's Wee Wander range and features children playing and horses and deer's frolicking in the woods. With such intricate detail in the fabric and a request to keep the quilt simple from the customer I decided to frame a large panel and then add an additional border. For more information on the design you can read my previous post here.

I do warn you I'm absolutely in love with this fabric so this is a picture heavy post !!

The completed quilt is shown here on a King Single bed - it is actually single sized at 57.5 inches x 87 inches.

This is the quilt back and utilises another large Wee Wander print "Summer Ride in White". To link the front and back of the quilt I added a 2 1/2 inch strip from the first border and a large strip of the outer border. You could actually display either side as the front as both prints are equally as beautiful.

 

 

The quilt was then bound with "Nature Walk in Magenta" and frames the quilt beautifully. I prefer to hand bind my quilts as I like the finish and I'm not as confident with machine stitching.

 

 

And of course I couldn't post a finished quilt with out it all rolled up - looks so snuggly.

 

 

This beautiful quilt is off to it's new home next week with a matching pillowcase to one very excited little girl.

 

 

Till next time.......happy sewing !!

A Raggy Quilt

I've seen so many of these cute rag quilts around for babies that I couldn't help myself I just had to make one. As the weather is getting cooler these snuggly quilts are perfect. I have seen them made with cotton or flannel and inside made with flannel or cotton batting. Minky is not a good choice as it doesn't fray so you don't get the raggy look.

For me I decided to go with cotton front and back and batting all over which I already had in my stash. I had some left over stackers from the Riley Blake collection "Alphabet Soup" so decided they would be the perfect size at 10 inches square. I used 40 squares in total - 20 on the front and 20 on the back. I cut my cotton batting pieces at 9 inches.

It was simple just take one square, a piece of batting and another square to make a quilt sandwich and sew an "X" across to hold in place. Stitch all completed squares together in rows using a 1/2 inch seam allowance and stitch all the way around the completed quilt with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Then I snipped 1/4 inch along the seams, popped it in the wash and it ragged up nicely. So nice in fact I'm making more !!! I love these and so do my customers. This rag quilt is available for sale in my Madeit store here.

Till next time - happy sewing ...

Another day at the markets

I like to attend our local Babies and Kids market. It is only on every 3 months and it gives me a chance to talk to my customers and get a feel for what they like and what they think of my products. It also gives them a chance to check out my items in the flesh - to touch and feel the quality and to tell you the truth it's a bit of an ego boost too when complete strangers come over to tell you how amazing they think your products are.

So to everyone that I saw, thank you and for those of you who have ordered something thank you again. I am passionate about sewing and quilting and you allow me to fuel that passion and for that I am truly grateful.

In preparation for the market I whipped up a quick cot quilt using the Oh Fransson Charm Squares Baby Quilt Tutorial which you can find here. I used a charm pack from Oink-a-Doodle-Moo by Jenn Ski for Moda Fabrics which is so bright and colourful and finished it off with straight line quilting. This is available for sale in my Madeit store here.

I also couldn't resist some beautiful fabric with these cute little foxes with a blue gingham background. I teamed it up with some red and white spots for beautiful playmat that would suit either a boy or girl. This is also available in my Madeit store here.

Till next time - happy sewing ...

Markets and more quilts

I have been toying with the idea of attending a few markets to lift the profile of my business a little but having a young baby and not a lot of time to spare I didn't want to be out all day. So I ended up attending a local babies and kids market which only goes for half a day so was perfect for me. I must say I had a blast especially meeting other stallholders and I loved people coming up to me complementing me on my quilts.

As most quilters know quilting is a passion and not really a basis for making a living by so my business fuels my passion for quilts (there are only so many friends and family you can make quilts for) and my other products support my quilt making obsession. I only wish I had more hours in the day to quilt !!

Here is me at the local markets - proud as punch showing off all my goodies.


What else have I been up to making more quilts of course!! I whipped up these 2 over the weekend just because I could. These are both available on my Facebook page here.

The quilting on this one is simply just straight lines approximately 10cm apart. I did however try something different by machine sewing the binding on with a decorative stitch. I must say I like to hand bind my quilts but for the cot sized ones machined binding just adds that extra durability especially with the more frequent washing. Here is a close up of the binding.

This next quilt was made with Sasparilla by October Afternoon for Riley Blake designs and was just made from one Rolie Polie of 22 x 2.5" strips. The pattern I used was called "Jelly Roll Jam" which is a free pattern from the Fat Quarter shop and also has a You Tube video you can watch too.

You can get two quilts from a jelly roll of 42 strips or one quilt like mine from a Rolie Polie. Finished size of the quilt is 36.5" x 36.5" and went together so fast so is a great pattern to use when in a hurry.

Robot Cot Quilt

My little man's room is set up in a robot theme so I thought I should really make something for him rather than always for everyone else. In saying that he is now 4 months old and still in his bassinette in my room but no matter I often pull the quilt out of the cot and use it as a play mat and it is big enough that both my boys lie on it together!

I wanted something quick and easy so ended up buying a piece of robot fabric and just adding a simple grey border.

So here is Matthew's robot quilt. It was slightly larger than the standard WOF so I added a pieced back with the left over off cuts.

I'm not too keen on wide backing fabrics as in my opinion they tend to be a little boring so I often now piece the backs with some matching backing fabric and left over fabrics from my quilt tops. It also ties the front and back of the quilt together nicely.

I think he likes it !!

And being me I also made a matching blanket, pillow and bunting and hey presto a new nursery set!!