"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 !!

UFO's - not the flying ones!

"I've been put on this earth to sew and finish a certain number of things. 

I am so far behind right now…I will never die!"

~author unknown

Ok so before I started quilting I thought UFO's where those things that fly in the sky. In the quilting world UFO's are "unfinished objects" those quilts we start to make but never seem to finish.

Unfortunately I have a very short attention span so if a quilt top takes me too long to put together or doesn't quite look how I had planned it ends up in a box or basket. And please don't get me started about quilts needing binding... If it's a customer order it gets done as a matter of priority but if it's a project for me (in most cases) it will never see the light of day.

So today I am sharing my UFO's which comprise mostly of blocks that are ready to be sewn together to make a beautiful quilt that I just haven't got around to yet. You know when that thing called life gets in the way.

Here they are (in no particular order):

This one just waiting for binding

This one has now been quilted and too is waiting for binding

My first Chevron quilt still in pieces..lots of them arghh
 

Another one still in pieces just couldn't quite get it to work



Yep this one is in pieces too



and finally this one....

Wow after looking through these pictures I didn't realised I had so many unfinished quilts. To make matters worse I have two more that I just don't have pictures of in various boxes..... Given it's a new year tomorrow perhaps I could at least promise to finish one of them - maybe..

So tell me - do you have a room full of UFO's like me - and I don't mean the flying ones !!

Simple Jelly Roll Quilts

Well by now you know about my pre cut obsession (yes I admit it!) so when I was asked to make a cot quilt for a baby shower gift for a little girl at short notice what better way than to make a simple jelly roll quilt - so I made two !!

The first one went off to her new home and was made with Sweetcakes by Doodlebug Designs for Riley Blake Designs. As I have 3 boys I absolutely love making anything girly and this one was just so pretty I didn't want to part with it.

The next jelly roll quilt was made with Little Red Riding Hood by Tasha Noel for Riley Blake Designs. I'm thinking that I'm a little obsessed with Riley Blake fabric at the moment don't you ??

This one is available for sale on my Facebook page here.

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.

The Minky Revolution

Have you noticed that this last winter there seemed to be an obsession with minky. That beautiful soft and cuddly fabric that everyone likes to touch? Well I had an influx of orders for minky backed blankets. Some were made with a plain cotton print on the front whilst others had a patchwork finish with 5" squares. Here are a few of my favourites.

For those of you that have ever sewn with minky you'll know what I mean when I cringe when the word sewing and minky are used in the same sentence. Yes the fabric is beautiful and soft but it has a mind of it's own and tends to move a lot when sewing so pins become your best friend - I use a whole box on one pram sized blanket!! So if you are thinking of making a minky blanket pins, pins and more pins is all I can say. Oh and the dotted one is easier to work with than the plain in case you are wondering.

I couldn't show you my blankets without showing you a picture of my little man enjoying his own special one too !!

"Peak Hour" quilt

When Peak Hour Fabric by Kelly Wulfsohn for Riley Blake came out I was first in line to get myself a layer cake and a couple of yards of the Peak Hour traffic main fabric and I'm so glad I did. How cool is this fabric!

I was asked by a friend to make her little boy a single bed quilt and he loves anything car related - so this fabric hit the nail on the head. I really wanted to highlight the main fabric so that's exactly what I did. I decided to simply put a large piece of the main fabric in the centre and border with the layer cake blocks and I couldn't have been more happy with the result.

 

This quilt came together nice and quick I just had to be very careful with the measurements (which I'm not always that precise with - if truth be told...) to be sure the layer cakes stayed complete around the edges.

So what do you think?

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!!

It's time to start blogging ....

Well I have been procrastinating for a while about starting up a blog and I must say I am quite nervous about my first post.

What do I say, who will read this, will anyone want to know about little ole me??

Let me start by saying my name is Jenny and my passion is quilting - sounds like I have some sort of problem hey.. I started my first quilt for my son from a quilt kit bought on special from the local Hobbysew and here is the result.

It's not perfect but for a first attempt I was pretty pleased and so was my son Benjamin !!

Then a friend had a baby so back to Hobbysew for another quilt kit - I was still too nervous to make anything where fabric wasn't already chosen and a pattern picked out to match.

And the result was this single bed quilt for Sophie who I'm told by her mum cuddles up under it every night. There is real satisfaction in making something for someone and hearing their joy about it - especially children. Here is a picture of it on her bed.

So as a result I began to make and sell custom made quilts for babies and children and yes I did eventually get the confidence to choose my own fabric and design my own quilt tops.

So this blog is about my journey with quilting and sewing. The highs, the lows and everything in between.

I hope you enjoy it !!