Three French Hens tote bag

This was a really quick and easy project from my Finish Along 3rd Quarter goals, perfect for a snowy winter late afternoon/evening inside by the fire.

I adapted the free Pocket Tote pattern from Make It Coats - I used five fat quarters and some yardage of a blue gingham and a red solid - it took a little bit of extra maths but still came together quickly.

The feature fabric is a mash-up of lovely illustrations and graphics based on the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' and I love the three French hens that are shown (perhaps due to having a little collection of hens out in the backyard!)

The outside of the bag has pockets and it measures about 10" x 12" so is a nice size without being too bulky. I used dark aqua for the inner lining, and an aqua gingham for the pocket linings. The contrast fabric on the exterior is a deep grey colour that looks almost like a dark chocolate from some angles.

My dear Aunty Blanche had asked me to make a bag for her friend, so I have actually made nine bags for her to choose from (see the next posts to see the other bags) - my Aunt chose this bag for herself after Isabelle chose the one she wanted.

Huge "hello" to my quilting friends visiting via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday!

Easy As Summer (v2)

Another cot-sized quilt, the 'partner' to Version 1, both made from a charm pack of Kate Spain 'Terrain', using the 'Easy As 10' pattern by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobsen (aka Me and My Sister Designs).  I got the pattern from their book ' Simple Quilts, Easy As 1, 2, 3').

Measures 37" x 45"

The back is made from yardage of a lovely soft lavender paisley.

I used one of the built-in embroidery stitches on my machine, a line of loops, along the edges of the white sashing (just to try something different).

And in the charm squares I FMQ'd whatever motif I felt like - a flower, criss-cross, wonky lines etc - to 'match' the design in the fabric. The purple sashing strips have been quilted with a loopy stipple.

This is another goal completed from my 3rd Quarter list for the 2016 Finish Along!

A happy wintery "Hello!" from Southland to all my quilting friends visiting via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday (where I am excited to see she has selected my Mermaids quilt as a highlight from last week's linky party!!) and also to those visiting from Amanda Jean/Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday!

Merry Mermaids #2

I hadn't put away the leftovers from my first Merry Mermaids quilt and got the chance last week to do one of my Finish Along goals, whipping up a cot quilt (and there are still more leftovers to go!) I think the white sashings help enhance the lovely colours of aqua and apricot.

I returned to a Sue Pfau 'Quilts from Sweet Jane' design that I have used before (still a WIP) - called 'Jumping Jacks', with a slight adjustment to make it a shorter, more squared quilt cot.

For quilting, I did some FMQ of a wave motif in the half-square rows, and large wavy lines over the rows in between.

I love these little mermaids!

The backing is made from some strips of yardage, random widths. The quilt finished at 37"x 39".

Close-up of the fishy fabric...and the stars, and the stripes too.

I don't have a recipient in mind for this yet, someone will come along at the right time! It may well end up in a pile of donated cot quilts that I plan to take along to the Southland Hospital neo-natal unit (once I've got about eight or nine made up) if no-one else comes along to 'claim' it first.

December 2016: gifted to my lovely friend Donna's new ten-month old foster daughter, Riki.

Merry Mermaids #1

The mid-winter sunshine was really bright, so it is a little washed out unfortunately, but as you'll read below, I had waited a long time to get photos of this finish, so wasn't going to wait any longer! (And the waterfront was busy with 'Pokemon' hunters everywhere so we felt a little out of place LOL!)

It is made from a lovely collection of 'Merry Mermaid' fabrics, picked up at the start of the year from a sale at Spotlight...couldn't resist!

Measures approx. 60" square.

I made the block-pattern myself, just using a 20.5" square block with different sized pieces of fabric, and making some similar-yet-slightly-different blocks by rotating blocks and alternating fabric selections (colour/designs etc).

I quilted all-over with a large stipple to help keep it soft. The binding is a solid dark aqua, and the backing is made from the whiter version of the starfish, fish & sea-horses fabric.

I finished this back in April, but didn't get a chance to take some nice photos of it as I wanted to put the quilt next to water of some sort but just haven't been near any nice stretches of water.  I knew the waterfront in Wellington would be easy access during our little holiday there last weekend and so took the quilt and camera with me!

One of my Napier sisters-in-law, Julia, was visiting us when down this way for the Southland Oyster Festival and bought it for her new grand-daughter (in Canada I think?) She didn't mind waiting until I had a chance to get some nice shots and I posted it off to her this week. 

We were so lucky...the weather in Wellington was more like Spring than Winter!

A big southern welcome to my blog visitors from Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday or from Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday - have a great weekend.

FAL 3rd Quarter Goals

Am feeling quite satisfied with my 2nd Quarter goals, having achieved three out of six of them! I think a 50% success rate is pretty good considering how busy and manic Term Two was at school!

Joining up with the 3rd Quarter Finish Along, we'll see how successful I can be with this quarter:

This purple Kate Spain cot quilt needs finished:  15th July - all done!

And I am still aiming to get this Patchwork Blues finished before winter is over!

I have this Amy Schimler panel to make up:

I have a set of racing fabrics to work together:

I'd quite like to get this Christmas quilt done too...BEFORE Christmas!

I need to get this French General UFO quilted up before September:

I would like to turn these into a bag using this new pattern I downloaded from Coates: DONE! 30th July

And I have this set of squares (cut from leftover Merry Mermaids fabric) to use on a Jumping Jacks baby quilt too...14th July - all done (man, I love chill-out time during school holidays!)

I have a heap of children's fabrics that I want to turn into baby quilts for the Southland Neo-Natal unit or eye spy quilts (for whatever) but just cutting them will be a long-term project!