Quilts for Siblings

Lynne is co-ordinating the Quilts for Siblings venture over on her blog - I'm sure that you have heard all about it.  A worthy cause, stitchers and quilters working on producing quilts for children (siblings) who have been separated for what ever reason by the care system here in the UK.  I am planning on making a quilt from my stash in the very near future.

This got me thinking about the first quilts I made for my two girls.  A fairly novice sewer and definitely new to quilting 2 years ago I ventured into the world of quilting after coming across a couple of blogs online.

I had no fabric and very little knowledge of quilting but I still managed to whip up a couple of quilts that have been used daily ever since. 

Both were made using a tutorial for a stash busting quilt - using only 9 FQs (I think it was a Buttonberry tutorial - do a search and see if it comes up!)  I've turned to this block just recently for my SIL quilt and I'll probably use it for the Siblings together quilt.  Finished it measures 48"x48" - perfect for little ones and bigger ones too.  My daughters use them when they are watching TV, having picnics in the garden and for playmats too.  Well loved and at the moment - very dirty!!

Over on Flickr there are photos galore of quilts that have already been made - watch this space for mine!

In progress

Two new things on the go this week! I love having time to cut and sew and the school holidays give me a bit more me time for this. So project 1 - Little Apples quilt for Digby, promised ages ago and now almost complete.





A spot of bravery by me - cutting into a layer cake for the very first time! I kept it simple and followed a pattern that I found online, somewhere that I now can't remember. The blocks ended up about 9" square once trimmed. Easter Sunday late afternoon was used to play with the layout. All of the blocks have been pieced together into rows and these will be sewn together tonight once the children have gone to bed!!!




I'm liking it so far. Just waiting on a couple of parcels so that I can have it finished off soon.


Project 2 - The Delilah quilt, my SIL's wedding gift from us. I knew that this one needed to be a bigger quilt than I usually make but then I found out that she has a Super King sized bed. Once I worked out the size and then cost of fabric to make a quilt that big I revised my plans. Instead of being a full on quilt I am now thinking of a large runner which will cover most of the bed - similar to a Pat Bravo Dreaming in French quilt I made for our bed last year (photos to follow).

A set of half yards were purchased from an Etsy seller, some different vintage style prints from UK sellers and a few pieces of Delilah that I just happened to have in a scrap bag that I bought a while back and I now have 15 blocks made. I've gone with a rather hotchpotch style for the blocks and it seems to be working well with the mix of fabrics and the style of quilt - 'vintage'.

A little bit of trimming and squaring up to do to make all the blocks 19" x 19", again later tonight. Then I should be able to work on a final layout and begin to piece them altogether. So far I've been working on the basis of 5 block x 3 block, making the quilt about 93" x 58". Hopefully this size would work on a Super King bed if not I'll probably have to make an extra 3 blocks to increase the width. But I have plenty of time as the wedding isn't until August!

Hoot 2 - complete

Another quilt completed at the weekend and now safe in my niece's hands, I did manage to part with it yesterday, just.



This fabric collection has to be one of my all time favourites and I still have managed to keep quite a stash of it. In fact, I might just add some more to it as I know a couple of online shops have it on sale right now. I love the mix of colours and prints. Have I mentioned that I love this fabric?? ;o)

I backed it in a plain cotton in a turquoise and quilted some simple straight lines either side of the seams. I was going to go full on and quilt either side of each and every seam but in the end I didn't (have time!).

The final size was 54x 76 inches or there abouts. Perfect for a snuggle on the sofa and for chucking on the bed as an extra layer when it gets nippy - just like this week.

1 more project on the go at the moment - yet another quilt for one of my girlies. Plus I have to make a huge quilt as a wedding pressie for my SIL using Tanya Whelan's 'Delilah'. I've got the fabric and a few ideas as my SIL has specified a pink and green and vintage theme, not my ususal style or choice so it should be interesting over the next couple of months. Watch this space!

Kind(le) of in love

A spot of Saturday sewing and one Kindle case complete. I bought a couple of half yards of Echo by Lotta Jansdotter a while back when they were on offer from Mandy at Simply Solids. I wanted more but unfortunately they had sold out but, very kindly, Mandy threw in an extra piece of the scattered pods in the green colourway. I used a bit of this with the grey pods to add more detail to the case. Inside I went with the brown colourway of the sketchy lines.

The Kindle was a pressie for Mother's day last month - I'm a big reader and get through loads of books, far too many to count. In fact when we moved last October I had a very hard decision to make which resulted in me taking approx 250 books to the charity shop, not to mention the many bags of books that made their way onto my colleague's bookshelves. With this Kindle I now won't have to make that sacrifice again!

I totally winged making the case based on a phone case I made a while back. I know that there are many tutorials out there but I sort of went with the flow and to my amazement the Kindle fits in there perfectly.

Happy days!

Hoot #2

So a while back I offered to make my 11 year old niece a quilt. Go upstairs I told her. Have a look at the fabric. Pick your favourite. 10 minutes later she came down with my Hoot stash. Mild heart attack followed. Well my own fault really, I did say pick your favourite........I should have said but not the Hoot!!!


Keeping it simple. 5" squares using various prints from Moda's 'It's a hoot' range. I love this fabric so much, it may be hard to part with.

Any one there?

Well I've been AWOL again but I do come bearing gifts....well photos of a couple of bits that I have been working on.

Firstly the Pips quilt is complete. Stingo loves it and it is in use daily. I managed to quilt it in a day with lots of straight-ish lines using various stitches on the machine. Some worked better than others and if I am being honest there is one that I wish I hadn't used at all. But saying that it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things.

Secondly another quilt that I have just put the finishing touches to this very day - it's for a colleague who is due to have a baby boy in a few weeks. I own up to not owning much fabric suitable for boy things but I did have a charm pack and a couple of half yards of Max and Whiskers.

Whilst I love the white background for some of the prints I am not really so keen on some of the darker prints so I put those to one side and decided not to use them at all. In the end the charm pack was reduced even further to the 25 squares used for the center, a bit disappointing really but ho hum. I just hope that my colleague likes it enough to at least using it as a play mat for her little one.

I'm also in the middle of a new 'It's a hoot' quilt for my niece - same size and set up as the 'Ginger blossom' quilt that I made last summer and sent to my friend in NZ for christmas. Big enough for her bed in her new bedroom in a new house in a couple of weeks or so. But more on that one next time.

* All pics have been taken on my phone. The charger wire thingy turned up for the camera eventually but the camera is full!

Pips at last!

Firstly I will apologise for the picture, it was taken on my phone as the charger for the 'proper' camera seems to have hidden itself away during the house move. One of my resolutions is to find it, pronto.

Another resolution was to get back on the sewing horse so to speak and so over the past couple of weekends whilst the children were playing I managed to piece, quilt and bind the pips quilt I've been dreaming of since last May. The top came together pretty quickly, just a couple of hours from start to finish with a few interruptions inbetween.

I've never used a jelly roll before but I absolutely love the ease of them having done this simple strip quilt. I think it might be the way forward for the few baby quilts I need to make this year for various friends. So much quicker than having to cut the strips like I have done for sashing and the like previously.

I used Kona Ash for the backing, just a solid piece without any scrappy border, and a piece of Sherbet Pips was used for the binding - pictures to follow!

The 'doggy' quilt as it has been named by Stingo was well received and a little girl is very happy with it, in fact she is fast asleep under it right now.

Plus it must be OK as both my husband and Mum have said they like it! Praise indeed :o)