Scrappy Skyline

When I saw that Shannon Brinkley was doing a quilt-a-long for her scrappy skyline patterns I jumped at the chance. I have loved her world map quilts for a while now, and the quilt-a-long was a good opportunity to give her Scrappy Appliqué technique a go.

It is a fun and pretty easy technique for the most part. I loved pulling fabrics from my scraps and then cutting out the London skyline. My biggest difficulty came when I needed to appliqué the skyline to the quilt top. I didn't have any stabiliser, and so trying to satin stitch or even zig-zag stitch around the outline made everything pull out of place. In the end I just did raw edge appliqué and used some Fray Check so that hopefully all the little details won't disappear over time. I also quilted over the skyline with matchstick quilting, using three different colours of Aurifil thread. 

The quilt was still looking a bit plain so I enjoyed practicing some FMQ swirls, and then went back to straight lines in the green section to try to draw the eye towards the skyline! 

I used a long hoarded fabric for the back, and resorted to stripy binding - always one of my favourites!

This quilt has been gifted to my new little nephew who was born in London - perfect!

Little Blue Wren

I'm not doing as well as I hoped on getting back into blog writing ... but better late than never!

My latest finish is this cushion, designed by Jess Frost and Briony Alderslade. When I was in Melbourne I had the privilege of attending the Australian Quilt Convention with Susan. We decided to attend a short class by Jess, where she was teaching English Paper Piecing, as we were both keen to meet her! The photo below is of the three of us, Jess on the left and Susan on the right with myself in the middle (holding Jess' cushion)! 

This was a really fun make. It took me a while, but I enjoyed having some EPP at hand, especially to sew in the evenings. The fabric kit and pattern was put together by Frangipani Fabrics, and I think they still sell it. I used some brown felt for the foot, a little black button for the eye and a local batik fabric for the back.

I gifted the cushion to a friend who was leaving my part of the world, who loves the colour blue!

Starlight

I am a huge fan of Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts. I have followed her blog since I first started sewing and have learnt so much from her great tutorials and general advice.

So when she put out the call for pattern testers for her latest pattern, Starlight, I jumped straight in, especially as making a baby quilt was on the top of my to-do list!

The pattern gives instructions for five different sizes of quilt from a mini quilt to the size that I made, 36" square. I especially loved that I could make this quilt from a selection of fat quarters, and was able to choose some really fun fabrics from my stash that I have been hoarding for a while!

I added some borders to make the quilt a little larger.

For the back I found half a meter of a baby fabric that I bought years ago in Spotlight, that amazingly matched perfectly with the colours I had chosen for the front!

If you would like to see the blocks that the other pattern testers made then check them out here!

Thanks Alyce for another great pattern!

I'm back!

I hadn't intended to take a break from blogging while we were back in Australia for six months, but there were just so many other things to do and enjoy, that sewing and blogging got put aside for a while. 

So I have a bit of catching up to do! I did manage to make three quilts during that time.

First up, were two identical baby quilts for friends who had baby boys within a month of each other. 

I always struggle to find good fabric colours for boys, apart from turquoise and orange, so was rather pleased with how these turned out. 

I even managed to find some bargain fabric for the backing and binding which matched so nicely, and since I was in Australia I gave spray basting a go. Oh my goodness, it was so easy. How I wish I could have brought some of the spray back on the aeroplane with me, but unfortunately it is highly flammable! 

I tied the quilts up with string and included instructions for washing them, so that they do actually get used. Thanks to Serena for the awesome printable labels. 

I did really struggle with the third quilt. It was for a very special friend who had quite particular ideas about what she wanted. It needed to be blue, not too girly, and symmetrical (out the window with all my modern improvised ideas!) It also needed to include a beautiful fabric which had embroidered flowers in blue all over it.

In the end I do love it, and it looks fantastic on the bed it was intended for. I think the best moment for me was finding the beautiful Sarah Jane fabric for the outside border, it tied it all together so nicely (and was a fun shopping trip with Susan). And I needed to add something to the quilt that was 'me' so I went with a polka dot binding.

As the quilt was so large I had it long-arm quilted by the lovely Carol at Sewn and Quilted in Melbourne. 

It is fun to be back, and I am gradually getting back into reading all your amazing blogs again and reconnecting with with you all.