Celebrating my baby!!

Today my baby went pooh poohs on the big toilet for the first time. He has decided to skip the potty stage and go straight to balancing on the big boy toilet just like his brother. Its just amazing how quickly my babies are turning into real little people, talking and going toilet.

So to celebrate this amazing feat by my lil man Jacob, while hes napping away I thought Id share this single bed size quilt I made for him last March for his 1st birthday. 

This was one of the most simple quilt tops to put together.  I simply cut the half yard pieces of fabric into strips of random thickness and pieced them together.  Then laying the quilt on a single bed I measured and cut down the entire length were I wanted the appliqued panel to go so that when laid out nicely on a bed and not just thrown over a napping child the panel would sit on the edge of the bed with the rest of the pieced strips hanging down the side. 

The applique was simply made of the little white strips for the "road markings" and fussy cut vehicles from the left over fabrics.  

Then after sewing the 3 strips (2 pieced strips of mixed fabrics and the applique strip) together walla boom just like that I had my quilt top!!

To finish this ohh soo snugly quilt off, I simply shadowed around the applique on the blue panel, and meanderd over the the rest. 

 While the top of this quilt is flannel, I used 100% wool batting and blue spotty polar fleece on the back.  It is soo snugly, and kept my baby warm all winter.  As it was not long after his 1st birthday that he insisted on having a big bed just like his brother!! don't you just love it how second children do that, Im going to feed myself like my brother go toilet like my brother, have a big bed like my brother. 

Pretty in pink

So over the short year or so that I have been making quilts I have seen a lot with hand stitched panels included in them, and I just love the effect of so many of these.  So one afternoon while my boys were napping I jumped on the wonderful You Tube and learnt how to do back stitch, by the way it is one of the most simplest things to do ever. So grabbing my wash off fabric marker and some plain fabric I was back on the internet again, this time to google images to find a nice line drawing that I could trace with the use of my computer screen as a light box.  

Once I had completed the first panel I had the bug, much to husbands amusement I sat there at night watching tv and stitching away.  After I had completed several blocks, I still had no idea what I was going to do with these rather pretty blocks, so away they went into my draw of "the un-finished" to await inspiration.   

And sure enough several weeks later when looking through the draw and thus over these lovely stitched blocks, I thought of a Great Aunt, who in many ways is a Nana to me.  Now when you think of this Aunt, you think pretty pinks, floral lounge suites and embroidered table cloths.  And so I started to grow my collection of pretty floral fabrics, and over the winter while I like so many other mums out there spent days snuggled up on the couch watching toy story on repeat with sick toddlers continued to stitch.  And before long this quilt was really coming along.  

Now normal I get more excited about the more modern fabrics, but these pretty vintage floral's, and the soft blue have really done something to me.  And mixed with another quilt Im working on at the moment, I gotta say I am really getting inspired by these more vintage prints.  I think that's the real beauty of making quilts for others, by thinking of what fabric best suits that individual and there tastes and preferences it pushes you out of your normal zone and creates a hole other passion for fabric. 

Finished off with another very pretty floral boarder fabric and my first attempt at mitered corners I think it is just beautiful, and almost just wanna keep it for myself . 

It didnt quiet take a year!!

In December last year I just fell in love with this amazing range of fabric from my local quilt store. 

Its just so crazy and fun. And I just love the contrast of the green and black.

Not knowing if I could justify yet another fabric purchase, cos though I love the fabric but the lime green doesn't exactly match anything in my house.  My wonderful mother brought me a bunch of the fat quarters for Christmas last year, and I teamed then with this solid lime green and away we went, I totally fell in love with the fabric and how it was coming together that I got the 25 10" blocks done in record time. 

Once I got to the boarders however I got a bit stumped, and so in the draw it went for me to mull over and start another project or two. A month or so latter I pulled it out and took into the local quilt shop and on when the first two boarders. They didn't have anything though that would suit the last big boarder, and so back it went into the drawer while I kept an eye out in quilt shops across the north island and online (though the problem I have buying boarder fabric online is that you cant actually see how the colours and patterns work with the quilt)

Until last month I walked into the local again looking for boarder fabric for yet another completely different quilt, to find a new green and black fabric range available, and I think it works quiet nicely if I do say so myself!!

I don't know about other quilters out there but I am cronic with binding.  Quilted quilts with the top side of the binding machine sewing on sit folded over the back of my couch for weeks on end with the cotton and  needle  laid out nicely trying to invite me to actually hand sew the back on before I even start, and then its only 10min here and there, so that with my quilt snuggling family my quilts are usually well used before they are even 100% finished. But I am still on the 2011 side of Christmas so I have completed this in under a year!!

An attempt to make a not so good situation just that little better

So a few months ago while having coffee with a friend she told me some news that just stopped me.  And other than going "ohh man that sucks" I had no idea what to say, do, or how to relate in anyway.

So I did the best I could with my dumbfounded face and then headed home.  And because I just have to keep my hands busy while my heads raceing to stop me going nuts.  As soon as I waked in the door I sat down at my sewing machine.

It wasnt long untill I had to head back out for more supplies, and while out fabric shopping I came across this amazing jellyroll and the blueberry picnic pattern from Donnas Quilt Studio and walla boom I had my way to help make a friends not so good situation a little better.

So 2 weeks and a few more trips to fabric shops I gotta say I am pretty happy with the effect of the final quilt, though the photo isn't the clearest.
P.S I still havnt got the hang of this blog lay out thing.