Colours and Critters (In The Garden)

This is an FPP (foundation paper-pieced) double/queen quilt that I began in 2022 and finally completed in 2024. 

It was a block of the month quiltalong called In the Garden, with patterns by Kirsty Lea @QuietPlay - and I sewed the blocks on my Elna 720 domestic machine. I have done a sample block of FPP before, and have got a pattern for a gorgeous zebra that I intend to create one day, so felt that this project would be a good chance to build my skills with a technique I have not really used.

All of the fabrics were pulled from my stash and scraps bins, with yardage of a white organic cotton from Spotlight, and then I started in 2022 with the lily blocks:

They were super easy, and I'm keen to one day make a quilt just using this block, using up scraps.

Then I began the large blocks; I chose to do the 15" size (the other option was 12" but I felt that they would be too fiddly for me as I am not always the most patient of sewers!)

I love this little bug!

October 2023 - finally all done, ready to assemble and quilt!

Measures at 67" square

I quilted it on my Bernina Q20 longarm frame, free-motion quilting using an allover motif that I had seen as a panto online (but I don't have a panto so practised freeehand drawing it first until I felt ready to do that with the machine).

I used a wide-back gingham for the backing, a practice lily as the label, and a polka dot binding.

This one is definitely staying with me - it gives our bed a lovely, fresh look!

And while it was laying on the floor to dry, Bess decided she had the right to test it out!

All Out of Allsorts

 

Another of my 2024 creations using the licorice allsorts-inspired fabric strips - you can see the other creations by clicking on the 'allsorts' label in the side-bar.

I used my longarm to do straight-line ruler quilting using a variegated Wonderfil thread - Fabulux trilobal 40wt polyester 'Ocean Breeze', which ran so beautifully through my Bernina Q20 longarm - and I love the way the colours show up in the white areas (where I simply followed the same lines of the black sashings).

It is 46" x 54" in size.

This one is staying at home on our sofa as I love the bright colours.

Licorice Allsorts and Rainbow Bars

Love a striped binding!  And made use of some prints from my stash for the backing.

This was the final quilt made with the colourful strips, so I am now officially all out of allsorts!

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!