Take a Positive Direction

 

This is a 53"sq lap quilt, made from the Positive Direction pattern by Christa Watson at Christa Quilts.

I made it as a gift for a teaching work-mate, Kim Nicol, with the initial plan to make it at the end of  2021 to celebrate her success in being awarded a permanent position at our school; however, a few life circumstances meant I did not get around to making it until November, and it then has also become a farewell gift as Kim has moved on from our school.

Last year I heard Kim say how much she loves orange, so I made a note of it, and when I found this pattern in my collection, I grabbed what I could from my stash to create it.

When it came time to quilt it, I followed Christa's suggestion to do diagonal lines in the feature pluses, with pebbles in the grey background pluses...as I usually quickly regret deciding to do pebbles, I made sure to create quite large ones to fill the spaces more quickly.

The backing is made from leftovers of the front fabrics:

How is it that cats can sense when you have just laid out a quilt for basting?!?  Gizmo was nowhere to be seen when I first put this down, and then she turned up within seconds...

Leo's African Safari

Now that it has finally been gifted, I can share one of my finishes from a couple of months ago...

Leo's African Safari is a large cot quilt/small lap quilt for Leoden, the newborn son of our nephew Louis and his partner Ren.

The pattern is 'Looking Glass' by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs and the quilt finishes at about 36" x 40".

I used an 'In the Wild' charm pack that I had purchased recently from Quilter's Lane, along with a beige linen-look background fabric from my stash.

For the quilting I did loops across the horizontal strips.

New Adventures

This is a baby quilt created for the new baby son of my hairdresser, Rochelle Finnegan and her partner Rangi. (Raiden was born in September - I finally got time to gift it last weekend!)

It was made with my own design from leftovers from my Little Critters baby quilt; I really wanted to make use of the last bits of the camping/woodland creatures prints, and had to come up with a design that would allow for a mix of large blocks, strips and squares to make the most of the pieces of fabric that I had.

I used simple echo straight line quilting around the shapes.

Measures 27.5"sq and has a foxy fleece backing, with a black and white print binding.

Megabytes for Meg

A young lady who we have known since she was born, Miss Meg Kenny (nicknamed 'Megabyte' by my hubby when she was a baby) turned 21 in August this year - the lockdown NZ was in at the time meant she couldn't have the 21st celebration that she had planned, and then it has taken me and her mum this long to coordinate ourselves to get my gift delivered to her (all three of us live in different towns).

I used a jelly roll that I had purchased from Donna's Quilt Studio here in NZ and I used Michelle Cain's 'Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt' pattern from her Bolt to Beauty website.

And yes, it was a super-easy quilt to put together (I actually made this in February and finished it April, before realising Meg's birthday wasn't until August, so I was well ahead of myself for once!)

For quilting (it measures 57" x 68") I did straight line echos of the coloured strip blocks, and free-motioned simple up and down loops across the white background strips.

The backing is a blue print that has been in my stash for a while too, so it is good to be using some of that up!

Meg Kenny, we wish you all the very best for your next 21 years!  xx Jenny, Brian and Kieran

And, how coincidental, I am linking up with Michelle's Beauties Pageant linky party, with one of her own designs (wonder if she'll notice LOL!?!)

Also linking up with Wendy's Peacock Party - so great to finally be able to share this one!