Pretty

After my mammoth quilt finish last week, I needed a couple of smaller projects to finish up this week. 

 

First up was this drawstring playmat for a precious friend who just had a baby girl (finally there are some baby girls in my life - it seemed for a while there that everyone I knew was having boys!).  I used Jodi's pattern for this and it was brilliant - really easy to follow with lots of photos. The great thing about it is that when you are ready to go you can just pull the strings and it becomes a bag to carry around all that baby/toddler stuff!

 

Secondly I needed to whip up a quick birthday present and decided to try my hand at making a boxy pouch.

Another great pattern, although I probably should have used some interfacing. I love that this fabric needed no embellishments or patchwork to make it look fantastic - I am finally appreciating the Tula hype!

Linking up with TGIFF and Finish it up Friday.

The playmat is my third finish for the 2014 Finish Along Quarter 4. 

Bright Sky

What a journey I have been on with this quilt! I feel like it has consumed me over this past month, as it has been a path of intense learning, some frustration and a lot of joy! I am so thrilled to be able to share with you the progress I have made with my Free Motion Quilting especially.

As soon as Alyce announced that she was going to run a QAL of her Bright Sky pattern I knew I wanted to join in. I love this pattern, and I thought it would be a perfect quilt for me to really get going with my FMQ. At the same time Jess (another of my favourite Aussie bloggers) was making video tutorials showing different FMQ designs - the timing was perfect!

I started with flowers in the central square - these were very wobbly and quite sketchy, but after agonizing for a while I decided to just keep going. There were long meanders in the points of the central star, followed by curves and then branches of leaves. For the outer star I tried pebbles, spirals, more branches and a spider web design!

I definitely made lots of mistakes, but I also improved so much as I progressed from section to section, and I have to say it was a lot of fun! I used very thin batting/wadding which made my life a lot easier too.

I love the overall texture of the quilt.

As for the colour scheme, I had a specific friend in mind who loves green so I was immediately out of my comfort zone! I started with the central square fabric and worked outwards from there. I decided to go for a yellow binding because it brightens the whole quilt up and makes it feel a little more 'happy'!

Linking up with the Bright Sky QAL, I Quilt Thursdays,  TGIFF and Finish it up Friday. 

Also linking up with New to Me in 2014

This is my 2nd finish for the 2014 Finish Along Quarter 4.