Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Happy Campers

 



This was a panel quilt kit that created a lap quilt of 41" x 59.5".  The kit had the panel and the fabric for the borders and binding.  It was quick to piece together and then I was able to use it as a practice piece for some free-motion and ruler work quilting on my Bernina Q20 longarm machine (aka Heidi, my Swiss Miss!)




I used same-colour threads to do echo quilting, or stippling inside the picture and word panels, and black thread to do thread sketching on some of the motifs, and as outlines on the picture panels and word panels.






A family friend, Joanne Shanks, asked me to create the quilt for her to send to a friend who is overseas and has recently bought a caravan. As a teen/young adult I was a tenor drummer in the Mataura Kilties Pipe Band with Joanne and her husband Jeff. 

After I left the band, a lovely young Canadian woman, Janet, joined the band and became firm friends with Jo and Jeff (and also had a lot to do with my late mum, who was a committee member and supporter of the band).  Janet now lives in Scotland.

The band has since amalgamated with the Gore Pipe Band to become the Hokonui Celtic Pipe Band, and so we are all ex-Kilties now).


The backing was from my stash and is a print with drawings of insects and flowers all over it - including dragonflies to match the ones on the front - so I thought it was an appropriate choice (and a chance to use up some stash fabric).



Sharing with Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party - hi everyone! Happy 2024!

Monday, January 1, 2024

Sunny NNU quilts

 The final four bassinet quilts created in 2023 for Southland Hospital's Neonatal Unit were these four. I wanted to use the animal print from my stash, along with a jungle animals flannel that was there too. The yellow is so cheerful and hopefully it gives people a smile when they see it.

Sunny Days and Friends 19" x 23"




I kept the quilting simple as usual...some straight lines and the occasional loopy free-motion quilting, using my table-top domestic Elna 720.

Friends and Sunny Days 17.5" x 22.5"






Sunshine and Friends 20" x 24"





Friends and Sunshine 19" x 24"





Christmas Stocking for Harrison


 

Made this a couple of days before Christmas to gift to my cousin's new wee grandson, Harrison McGowan.

Went with my tried and true pattern for a stocking, as used for all the previous ones I have made (click on 'stocking' or 'Christmas' in the labels on the right of this page to see the others).

Hand-stitched felt, with added embellishments as pictured. Rudolph has a little bit of stuffing to make him more 3d. The ears and antlers also stick out a little. So much fun to make!







Cherish EPP quilt progress blocks 11-20

 Some more of the blocks I've created so far in another long-term project: an EPP quilt, 'Cherish', using a pattern, papers and acrylic templates kit that I purchased in late 2020 from Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth in Australia, and started in 2021.

Here are the rest of the twenty full-hexagon blocks I've made so far (see previous post for the first ten blocks), with some close-ups of the cute drawings in the fabrics:

 


 

 

 

 
 

 


 

  

My aim in 2024 is to complete the quilt and piece all the blocks together, and I want to hand quilt it...so this may become a 2025 finish...good things take time!