Past Patchwork Projects...

So following in the same theme as the Furry Things, here are my previous patchwork projects. I'll try and keep them in order of when they were done, and hopefully you can see some improvement!

I tend to like colour, and am not a huge fan of the floral pattern - but that's just MY personal taste lol and I'm sure not everyone will like it. There's also a lot of baby quilts, as lots of my friends are having babies - and to be honest I love the colours, novelties, size and general themes so why not!

My first attempt at Piecing, Christmas runner 2008

This is the only time I've ever used someone elses pattern (it can be found at Christmas runner), of course I've done things that many have done before me but I always draw up the quilt layout and draft out the block template myself - I enjoy that part too! This particular pattern was meant to be foundation pieced, which would have made it easier... However I really wanted to start with the basics so I cut all the pieces to shape and then joined them up, no lines to mark the seam allowance and no freezer paper to stiffen those bias sides, it took a little while (about 10 hours per block - which seemed like forever) and I had to resew a few seams but the overall accuracy is quite good considering it was my first.

Quilt 2 Yuna's playmat

My second quilt was a baby quilt for a Japanese friend Rieko and her daughter Yuna, I wanted it to be more of a play mat so went with double thick batting for extra protection against the floor.

The outsides of the squares are bright corduroy fabrics that I found with quite a narrow rib through them - they matched these animal prints and seemed just right.

Third quilt Maxie's playmat

 

The third Quilt I completed was for Vicki's second baby Maxwell, I still loved the idea of the playmat - especially for Vicki because she comes from a line of Quilters and her mother in law has a long arm business! (her name is Faye Hitch ) So as you can guess there were already a few people stitching away... I also loved the cat, dog and insect fabrics, but I really wanted to make this one a bit more exciting than the last one and progress my skills.

So I went with what is essentially a snowball block with a square within a square next to it - just the way that you arrange it makes it move like this.

Project four; experimental Japanese flower cushion

In between I messed around with this variation on a log cabin to make some cushion fronts - they are now finished but this photo best shows the quilting fun I had.

I did the feature two ways, the first I attached each feature piece to a navy strip and pieced the whole thing. The second I just pieced the feature and then appliqued it to the front of a navy panel - although the quilting hid the piecing in the navy I preferred the second way as I could add a layer of trapunto wadding to the feature for extra effect ( I did to the other to make it match but it took effort :) )

Project five and six; Ruby and Lily

These two quilts were made in the same format from the same base fabrics and were in no way the same... but I can only find the photo from one. These were for two of the Burstyner girls Ruby and Lily whose parents and in fact family are great friends of ours, David and Mihal are living in the Hague at the moment and I just wanted to send the girls something personal.

The quilts are made up of a repetition of the same block - the block is three squares of varying sizes, sewn so the edges fray, and in this case its nice and girly.

I had to quickly show you the backing to Ruby's quilt - I'm not into florals but this funky pattern I loved. Well they say there's no accounting for taste :) and I love it.

This is the quilt I made for baby Freya Burstyner who was born over in the Hague, I found some sweet asian panels that I felt compelled to play with...

Its a simple square and sashing construction, with a matching feature fabric in the square between.

Project eight; grandma's quilt

This quilt was a notion that popped into my head, I'd been wanting to do some quilts for charity and thought to myself before I do that how about I make one for my grandma, just a small one to throw over her lap. We don't have a close relationship, there's no offense just they were always too busy with their own lives to really worry about us, but I did think she might like it.

I'd ordered a jelly roll and a layer cake of what I'd call a 'tizzy' fabric that I was sure she'd like - it almost hurt my eyes to look at it lol. I went with simple hour glass block alternated with the plain busy fabric, thin sashing and then I managed to eek out enough of the plain colours to squeeze some flying geese into the border.

Mum sent it over with some other bits, and it was a hit - they live in Northern England, she's over ninety and loves a bit of tizz!

Project nine; a quilt top for us!

Woohoo - this is the first quilt top (aside from the japanese cushions) that's for us lol... isn't that always the way!

This was an experimental play with some gorgeous rainbow hand dye from Cotton Patch, it took a little calculation to get the sashing to just how I wanted, I then machine appliqued the insects and flowers on and then made some chenille with the same fabric and featured the relevant parts. Its not at its full glory yet as its not finished, and the chenille has not been brushed up. A note to anyone using these fabrics for chenille - they are a very tight weave so instead of  the standard 1/4" for fraying I've been advised to use 3/8".

I've included this quilt top because I loved it so much I did a variation below...

Project ten; Lucy's quilt

This quilt is for my mate Jen's baby Lucy down in Melbourne, I did a few things differently mainly by keeping the feature work down to the chenille - and there was a lot more of that!

This one moreover is free motion stippled all over, this was my first attempt and I didn't mark it with chalk. I think my biggest issue was that my machine was not the biggest fan...

However eventually we get through it and after a wash and tumble dry I'm really happy with the result. It now hangs on Lucy's bedroom wall :)

Lucy's room

Project eleven; Calea's quilt

This quilt is designed specifically for a little girl in Ulverstone, who my parents are friends with... (her mother is their personal trainer and works them hard lol).

Calea loves princesses, so I looked around and found some nice fairy fabric (Dance with the fairies by Elinor Peace Bailey) from one of my favourite online shops Fabric Shack. The plan was that these would form the basic structure and that the feature would be some hand traced 'princess' figures in black that Calea could then colour in on the finished quilt giving it that personalized touch and making it a project that was less about me and more about her and mum having fun together. You can see the photo above is the finished quilt face with the black and white princesses (I did make the white blocks double thickness to allow for any excess paint).

Regarding the fabric paint, Calea is 5 or she was at the time (Christmas) so I wanted a means of delivering the colour that allowed her as much control as possible while keeping it fun, so I did a search around fabric paints but didn't find much outside the all over dies and paints to be applied by brush. I then remembered the Hobbytex that most of us used as kids - it was easy to stay in the lines, and fun! So I checked its still around and going strong, and while the applications they advertise it for are possibly a bit dated for most of us I really think its a great product and should be explored... so that's what I bought.

I then bundled the finished quilt, a needlwork frame (to hold each picture firm) and the Hobbytex down to Tas and left it to mum...

Calea's finished quilt - didn't she do a beautiful job!

My next project was for the first of three babies that were being born early this year (the same that I am still trying to finish off projects for...), this is one that I have already finished. I wanted to make something special for Ursula's baby, we've been good friends for a long time and Ben was a really special little boy. Also Ursh is an ex-design student lol so we chatted and I sent her to Darcy Ashton website, where she found something completely different to what I was thinking (cats, bunnies etc) and told me she loved the sunflower babies.

So that's what we did, I went from the pic on the website and then made it my own - I used hand dyed and batik fabrics because I love really bright fabrics for babies. Construction is simple dresdens, on pieced blocks... I added ladybugs for fun and I love them, the quilting was again free motion stipple but this time I did draw on the line with chalk first to make sure it was equidistant and continuous (except when the machine was unhappy :( ) All in all I am really happy with my first dresdens, and Ursula loved it.

Project twelve; Ben's Sunflower Baby Quilt

Furry Things...

Well I've been thinking of the best way to upload information about past or pre-blog projects and so they are going into categories... this one is for the 'furry things' or soft toys - this has become a bit of a recent diversion from the world of patchwork, and I have to add its sooo much fun! All because a local online store was selling the book 'The art of making Teddy Bears' off cheaply... then since I had the book... I will add that to date I have done 4 bunnies and only one Teddy, but the next is on my list

If you are interested Beary Cheap have heaps of stuff for the online shopper.

The latest addition is soft and fluffy and unnamed,
 she has soft gray and white fur, white ear insets
and soft blue eyes.

Number Two is Rodney - Owen's
He has sparse baby blue fur, white ear insets,
 and big brown eyes.

First Teddy, Teddy Danielle's
He has soft gray and white fur left uncut around
 the muzzle cos he's a scrappy bear, soft gray pads
a shaped oval black nose and amber eyes.

Number Three is Lucy's
 She's a bold white bunny, knows what she wants
 with the gray and white fur in her ears and big
 brown eyes.

There is one more Bunny that I can't find the photos of - the first one Rory, I'll add that later they are all individual and have safe eyes for child friendly play lol - cos you never know! There's one last ingredient to make the perfect soft toy, some quality time and soul imparted with the toy to make sure they arrive full of love and ready to go, and that's Georges department! For any who don't know George is my husband, best friend, and extra opinion when required.

Danielle's Bag

Like most people I have a long list of things that I am working through, at the moment I am desperately trying to finish off one baby present that is already three months late, and another that I've yet to really get onto for a baby that was born first!

Anyhow, this is another of the long list of projects that I have been trying to get to for over 6 months and since last week my sister was up in Brisbane with us for work I thought it was time I made her a replacement bag... Especially since this distraction was not a hard one :)

This is her old bag, or I should say original as until it dies it will be in service! Its a raw edge satchel with a hanging mesh internal pocket, its around the same size as a briefcase.

So I talked to her and we decided to go with a black canvas outside and some sort of funky novelty inside - she had to work when I went shopping so darn it I had to buy ALL the possible choices! (Got some lovely Matryoshka fabric too) she went with the Japanese red with owls... The construction is really simple because of the raw edges, I got some vliesofix and made one fabric out of the two, made a calico template from the old bag and cut away... 

The other thing that made the construction easier was the addition of a twin needle, I got a size 100 denim strength, with a 6mm gap between the needles (and a spare just in case) so when I sewed around the double stitch was neat - it worked a treat, although for added strength I went over the internal side with a single straight stitch.

I then decided to add some extra pockets - some black faced slip on the inside and two small owl fabric ones on the outside under the flap... A small feature piece of owl fabric to the flap and the velcro fastners later and I was ready to attach the strap... I bought a 100 yard roll 2" of polypropylene webbing from USA that I've used on several projects, it cost $77.25US including shipping (just the roll was $23.00US), the website is perfectfit if anyone is interested.

So this is the outside of the finished product.

With the front flap open; you can see the feature small pockets - also raw edged

Sorry about the angle on this one, the fabric is stiff and wouldn't stay open. The inside, with the mesh picket attached only at the top, and the large slip pockets on the other side.

 Now that I've taken photos It'll be going in the mail on Monday - hopefully Dan enjoy's it half as much as the old one!