Lace and Paper Flowers (Gypsy)

I made this a couple of years ago from a Kate Spain 'Fandango' charm pack 

but have only got around to quilting it this year. 

It is a lap quilt measuring 44" x 46" - I love the colours.

I used the pattern 'Jumping Jack' by Sue Pfau from her book 'Quilts From Sweet Jane' - it is an easy pattern and an effective way to use charm packs.

I machine quilted with free-motioned large and small loops in the sashings 

and freehand straight lines (so some are maybe not quite so straight!)

I have named it 'Lace and Paper Flowers (Gypsy)' because I love listening to Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks, and the designs on this reminded me of the lyrics in their 'Gypsy' song. 

The binding is a light aqua tone-on-tone print and the backing is a very pale mustard print 

- all from my stash! #stashbuster2018

This is one of my goals for the third quarter of the 2018 Finish Along.

In 2019 I gifted it to my sister-in-law Brenda on the occasion of her 60th birthday.

Sharing the success: joining in with...

 Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party

Myra's Finished or Not Friday

and Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday - hi everyone!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - small quilt

Linking up with the 2016 Bloggers' Quilt Festival small quilt category...

Easy As (Summer) is a cot quilt made from a My Sister and Me quilt pattern, with Kate Spain Terrain fabrics...

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!

Easy As (Summer) cot quilt

Using some of my 'textile preservation collection', I grabbed these Kate Spain charm squares and some yardage that I also had in the stash to create a pattern from 'Me and My Sister Designs' book ('Simple Quilts - Easy As 1, 2, 3', publisher That Patchwork Place/Martingale, authors Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobsen).

I used the pattern 'Easy as 10' (which, coincidentally, was also made in the same Kate Spain for Moda 'Terrain' fabrics!).  I had two charm packs so split the fabrics into a pinks/oranges/greens pile and a blues/purples pile - the second quilt top is waiting for me to quilt it up.

The backing fabric was in my stash and had exactly the right mix of colours for this quilt! And the binding was a nice bright teal solid, with the quilt finishing at 37" x 47".

I really liked the way that the pattern quilt was quilted, so followed the same design as used in the book, of a circle around each square and a flower inside each square - good free motion quilting practice!

For the wide strips I did a kind of 'hour-glass' loopy design to keep some curves without having too much going on over top of such a busy print background.

A finish for my goals for the 2nd Quarter of the Finish Along challenge and I am linking up to share with Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish It Friday linky party!

And I am sure I had snuck outside while the cat was inside but he takes his 'quilt inspector' role very seriously and managed to find me out there...

Raspberry Delight for Charlotte

A single bed quilt (69" x 87") made from the Fat Quarter Shop's 2012 Moda Designer Mystery Block of the Month that I took part in. Finally, in January I was able to put the blocks together and at Easter I finished the quilting (just in time for the first quarter of the 2016 FinishAlong challenge).

The fabric range is 'Vintage Modern' by Bonnie and Camille - I adore the combo of cream, raspberry, pink and teal! That is one of the things that drew me to sign up for the BOM.

'Laundry Days' designed by Anne Sutton

'Mint Julep' designed by Lisa Bongean

'Weather Vane' designed by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobsen

'Town Square' designed by Kate Spain

'Cherry Sundae' designed by Barb Adams and Alma Allen

'Breezy Afternoon' designed by Aneela Hoey

'Moonlight Serenade' designed by Sandy Gervais

'Lime Sherbert' designed by Bonnie Olaveson and Camille Roskelley

'Lakeside Retreat' designed by Joanna Figueroa

'April Showers' designed by Sweetwater

'County Fair' designed by Julie Comstock

'Sunday Drive' designed by Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson

It's hard to see (and was hard to photograph) but each block has a slightly different free motion flower design quilted over it - eleven are pointy petals and one has rounded petals - I had fun trying to think of how to quilt different flowers to complement the patterns each block.

I quilted vines with leaves in the narrow strips of cream-colored sashing, did loopy stipple with flowers in the wide border sashing, and a side to side loopy 'snake' in the thin red border, and some fans in the corner triangles - it was a great chance to use a few different FMQ designs.

The backing is a flower print from the Vintage Modern range as well.

And as per usual, it seems the whole 'family' had to be involved in the photo shoot...

And on January 22nd Charlotte finally received her quilt - a belated birthday present for December - she lives about a three hour drive away from here so it can be a bit tricky to 'drop by' but her family were passing on their way home from a quick holiday at Riverton.

Charlotte had been asking her mum for quite a while about when she might be getting a quilt from me (her older brother got one a couple of years ago), and she didn't realise I had already made one for her but just hadn't delivered it yet, so she was quite thrilled to be presented with this when they called in!