'Jenny' doll

My sixth finish for this year is a rag doll for my wee cousin, Florence McGowan.

Her big sister, Lucia, received this version in 2020, so it was only fitting that I make one for Florence too.

I've insisted that this one is called Jenny, due to the first one being named Dana (my sister-in-law's name -see the post for the first version) - so I think it is only fair that we have one doll each!

I used a pattern called 'Pip', ripped out from Australian Patchwork and Stitching magazine, Vol 11 No 1 2010, and she is about 21" tall.

Sharing with my quilting and crafting friends via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party!

Home 'twin-set' lap quilts

 Finished projects #4 and #5 for 2024 were made from the same pattern and the same layer cake, with a variation in the colour layout, to create a 'twin' or 'sister' set of lap quilts for my cousin's two young grand-daughters.

Both quilts finished at 45"sq, and I used this Riley Blake layer cake 'A Little Sweetness' by Tasha Noel that has been waiting in my stash for just the right people to make quilts for - two sisters seemed ideal! 

The quilts were made with the 'No Place Like Home' pattern by Sue Pfau (aka Sweet Jane) in her book 'Quilts from Sweet Jane' (one of my favourite pattern books for using precuts, I think I've made nearly every pattern in it!)

With the two little girls relocating with their parents from NZ to Australia this month (we will miss them so much, but at least they are only 'over the ditch'), I thought the pattern name was very apt. 

I also liked the block design and could easily see how to switch it around to make two variations of the same design.

For Florence's quilt, 'No Place Like Home', I used the pattern as laid out in the book:

For the quilting I used Heidi (my Bernina Q20 longarm), and did a meandering loopy daisy chain:

This quilt has a backing of mostly aqua polka dots, with a strip of pink polka dots:

You know I LOVE a stripy or spotty binding!

For her big sister Lucia's quilt, 'Home is Where the Heart Is', I swapped the placement of the white sashing:

I quilted it on the longarm, this time using a loopy string of hearts design:

And the backing on this one is mostly pink polka dots, with a strip of the aqua polka dots:

The quilts were gifted last weekend, and winged their way to Queensland with the girls and their mum during the week.

Here's how they looked while waiting to be taken to their new owners...

Kia ora to all my quilting and crafting friends at Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party!

Scrappy Birthday Cards

 At my school, our senior leadership team (I am the Deputy Principal) likes to acknowledge staff on their birthdays, and I am in charge of organising the cards.

I saw this style of card on a social media post and wanted to make them for our staff.

Round Trip V.1 quilt

 In January I was very keen to join in with Emma Jean Jansen's sewalong for her Round Trip quilt pattern and I decided to create a quilt to donate for auction at the Clash For Cancer charity bowls tournament being held by my lawn-bowls club at Easter.

I had this Serendipity (by Artisan Batiks by Lunn for Robert Kaufman) fat quarter bundle that had been in my stash for a while and decided to make the large throw, using the 6" blocks for Version A (coloured fabrics in centre strip and corners, with the sashing being the two inner panels of each block).

I used a blue batik (from Spotlight) for the background/sashing fabric.

With 110 blocks to create, there was a LOT of cutting to do first!

When it came to quilting it, I was able to make use of the new channel locks that I had purchased from Bernina (the Sewing With Passion girls in Invercargill) which meant I could do straight lines on my Bernina Q20 longarm - so it only took me about 90 minutes to do.

I used the same dark blue batik for the binding.

Finished at 56" x 64.5"

Emma Jean's pattern has variations for all sizes of quilts, and for variations of colour placement/layout, so I can see myself using the pattern again in the future (hence the title, V.1)

PS: Was sold at auction for $255 to one of our bowling club members, Beth Campbell - overall the entire tournament raised almost $15,500 for breast cancer support in Southland - a fantastic result for the organising team that put it all together.

Rachael's French General Sampler Quilt

At the start of this year I had the privilege of quilting this 56"x78" twin bed sampler quilt for one of my most long-time friends, Rachael Chalmers (from Dunedin), who gave me free-range to do whatever I liked!

Although I've had my Bernina Q20 longarm since late 2022, I had only re-erected it a couple of months before Christmas (after having moved house in June), so have not completed a lot of projects on it yet.

With this quilt I was able to do a mixture of free-motion quilting and ruler-work, trying out different designs in the different blocks - gosh, I had so much fun!  The blocks are a mix of pieced and appliqued patterns, so it was fun coming up with quilting designs that would enhance those patterns.

Altogether it took about 12 hours of quilting time, and used x6 250m reels of thread (and x7 bobbins).