Spring on the building plot

I know I have mentioned it before, but I am so lucky to have an excellent local sewing shop- Aberdashery.  It's not a very big shop, but it is choc-a-bloc full, and almost always has what I've been looking for.  Many a quilting emergency has been saved by the lovely Jane.

Until recently, my 2016 challenge to finish more things than I started was going quite well.  Then the fabric started calling me again!  This gorgeous little Construction strip roll by Fabric Freedom just begged to be bought. I try to resist the ubiquitous pink and blue gender stereotyping in children's products, and originally thought that the little vehicles were tractors, so planned to give it to my farming niece.  However, when I unrolled the fabric I saw that they were diggers. I forgot that machinery is also subject to the colour police - tractors are red, diggers are yellow! Fortunately my little nephew is a huge Bob the builder fan, so I didn't need to look far for a new recipient.

There are just five fabrics in the roll, each repeated four times.  I felt that another yellow fabric was needed to balance it out, so bought this gingham to co-ordinate. 

I wanted the quilt to feel fresh and modern, and toyed with the idea of solid white.  I think it would have looked gorgeous, but not very practical for a gift for a toddler.  I settled on this pale blue instead, and now I can't imagine any other choice.


I followed the Summer in the Park tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt company to make the blocks.  Having never used a pre-cut before, I was so impressed how zippy-quick it went together.  In a couple of afternoons I made 42 blocks, which are 8" squares (7 1/2" finished).

A 6x7 layout would measure 45 x 52.5", which is a generous cuddle quilt, but not quite big enough for a single bed.  As my nephew is only three, I felt that a smaller size would be better, so have two quilts - 5x6 blocks, measuring 37.5" x 45" and a 9x9 layout measuring 67.5" square. I laid the blocks out differently in the two quilt tops.

The smaller quilt top is not finished, and I might add a border.

I wanted the fabrics to be the star of the show (and also wanted it finished quickly), so I chose to stitch in the ditch with my walking foot.  I quilted all the horizontal and vertical seams as well as the main diagonals.  It isn't a lot of quilting, so I hope it's robust enough to withstand toddler use.

There wasn't a suitable green fabric in the shop for binding, so I bought bias binding off the roll.  I won't use it again.  It's too narrow for a quilt, so was a battle to get it on neatly.  I do love the colour though.

I really love the bright cheery spring colours.  I don't think adding in the extra yellow was necessary, but it wasn't a bad choice either. Perhaps because making this quilt tied in with some gorgeous sunny weather, I really love this.

Here is the total list of materials used.
1 Fabric freedom strippers roll (1.25m of fabric)
25cm of yellow gingham
2m of solid blue (there is some left over)
4.5m of pre-made bias binding
1.5m of fleece
A whole 250m reel of thread!

The Jellyfish quilt

In this post I'll explain how I made the starburst side of C &R's wedding quilt. Because of the somewhat squiffy nature of these stars, this quilt was nicknamed "The jellyfish quilt" in our household.

Good old google came up with this free pattern Rainbow stars from mccalls. The instructions were very clear and easy to follow. The sewing however was very difficult.

Each of the stars I made used the same combination of fabrics, but in different positions. This process needs a little bit of organisation, in order to keep the fabric sets from getting mixed up.

I used zip lock sandwich bags to organise my fabrics. Each star in progress was kept in its own zippy bag, and I wrote a key on a scrap of paper which I kept in the bag.

As each step of the process was done, I took the pieces out of the labelled bag, and then put them straight back in when done.  I even carried the sewing from the machine to the iron and back in the bag. 

This system worked really well for me, and amazingly I didn't get any mix ups in the whole quilt.

Where I did fall short though was accuracy. Accurate seams and cutting are essential to prevent your stars from looking like jellyfish.  When my stars were finished they were mostly a bit squiffy in the middle and didn't lay flat at all. There was no way that I could have inset squares neatly between them to make a quilt top.

What I did instead was applique the stars onto a plain brown background.  Because the tips of the stars were also dark brown, I outlined the stars with strips of shot gold fabric. To fill in the huge amount of empty space between them, I made smaller stars and appliqued these on too. What is now glaringly obvious, but I didn't notice at the time, was that I accidentally used a different background brown for some of the stars.

Because of my difficulties with accuracy, and the mix ups with the browns, I wasn't happy with the quilt top. I believe that when something looks "handmade" this should mean that it looks like it was individually made, not that it looks a little bit crummy.  In my opinion this quilt top fell short of the mark. I didn't feel that it was of high enough quality to give as a gift.  However, I didn't want to waste the years of work, or the yards of fabric that had gone into it.  The compromise I made was to use this as the back of the quilt, and to start again with a new and improved top...

C and R's wedding quilt.

In 2007 my good friend C married the love of her life, R.  They didn't have a wedding list, so I offered to make them a quilt. "It might take a year or two" I said.


Seven years later, they are happily still very much in love, and last week I finally delivered their wedding present.

The full story of why and how this took so long will go in another post, but for now I think I will just show the finished product.

The quilt is an enormous king size, and because of the horrible rainy weather I couldn't take it outside to photograph. It covers the whole of my living room floor, and even holding my camera up at the ceiling I couldn't capture the whole thing.

I love this gold binding, and here you get another hint why I was so slow. Yes, it is double sided.

And yes, it is hand quilted.

After so many years in the making I was so very, very anxious when I finally gave it to its intended recipients. To my huge relief, they loved it.

Summer bed quilt

Not one to be put off by the technical difficulties I experienced with the cushion cover, the next sewing project I started was a double bed quilt. It is made of 9-patch squares set on point, with wide sashing in between. I think it shows very well how a simple pattern can show off the fabrics.

The pattern came from a library book. The quilt is called 9 patch strippy, I didn't write down the name of the book but it was something like "Easy quilts to make in a weekend". I took about two years.

The 9-patches were hand sewn, but by the time I reached the triangles and sashing I had a sewing machine.

The 9-patches and sashing are made of cotton batiks from John Lewis' summer collection (2004).  They were very good value. The setting triangles and the back are made of quilting cottons, and cost significantly more.

I quilted it on my little domestic sewing machine without a walking foot. It was a beast of a job. My squares weren't exactly square in the first place, and my quilting emphasises this.

Despite the many technical failures in this quilt I love it. I love the jewelly colours that cheer me up every time the sun shines on them. I love that it keeps me warm, I love that it makes making the bed less of a chore, but mostly I love that I made it.