Gypsy Mama for My Mum

This is a pattern by Judi Madsen which is called 'Mama Gypsy' (I got it the wrong way around when I wrote my label, sigh) and Judi ran a quilt-along during 2019 for people to join in with, so I thought I would join in as I bought the pattern a year or two ago and this was good motivation to use it.

An inside photo  - I only got this finished on Sunday 22nd Dec, which was cutting it extremely fine
as I needed it washed, dried and wrapped up before Mum came to stay on Christmas Eve evening!

I decided to make this 81" square quilt for my mum to have on her bed as hadn't yet made a large quilt for her. She is a fan of purple, and when I found the purple/teal batik, I decided to run with those two colours and a white background - so that all took a bit of working out as the pattern is designed for using with a larger range of colours.

As mentioned in my previous post, the weather here has been terrible (not summer-like at all) and I was lucky that the 23rd of Dec was not raining and I was able to hang it up on the line for a couple of hours to help dry it out.

The photo doesn't do it justice, but every time I walked past the back door, 

the colours of the quilt looked simply stunning in the light of the overcast sky.

For the quilting, I used a range of different free motion designs - simple 1 1/2" cross-hatching inside the outer ring of batik sections, wiggly straight lines on the centre batik blocks (using a set stitch on the machine), some FMQ side to side lines inside the purple or teal borders of the small white squares, some FMQ squiggly line 'stars' inside the small white squares, straight lines inside the large solid squares, an FMQ pebbled-leaf motif inside the large white centre border and then an FMQ double-bubble style of motif in the outer white triangles. 

Phew! It was a big job on a domestic machine!

The backing is a purple minky (for which I just use flannel as the 'batting' as the quilt is massive and was heavy enough just with the minky backing).

Merry Christmas!

The great thing about Judi's pattern, is that it also gives you a smaller pattern to use up the off-cuts from making this quilt. I didn't follow that but have got two small lap quilt tops made from the off-cuts, waiting to be quilted...adding to the to-do list!

Great to be sharing with my quilting friends via Wendy's Peacock Party , Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday and Michelle's Beauties Pageant - make sure you check out the great work everyone 

has been doing by visiting those links too!

Here is a photo of the quilt on mum's bed - a king single:

Sing in the Sun

'Sing in the Sun' is a 41" square lap quilt that I made in November/December of 2019 

as a good luck gift for one of my work-mates who is leaving us as (an awesome) Teacher Aide and heading off to teacher training in 2020.

(Yes, I am wearing a xmas-present headband - this photo was taken in the last week of school)

Belinda Knapp (on the left, me on the right) has such a beautiful, bubbly personality and has been teacher aiding for our school for the past few years. I first met Belinda through playgroup and netball club (our eldest children are the same age) and she has a heart of gold; I am sure she will be a brilliant teacher.

Because of her sunny personality, I thought a charm pack of 'Sing Your Song' by Annie Rowan, that had been in my stash for a few years, would be an ideal match as it has a range of pretty colours and floral or insect-themed prints.

I wanted to make a small lap quilt that Belinda can put over her legs when sitting up late at night doing her assignments, ha ha! The pattern is the same one that I used for the Hi There cot quilt (and when I find out what pattern it is, I will update the post!)

I used a rich blue marbled fabric for the border and a soft blue flannel on the backing, with a lemon yellow pinstripe for the binding... #smashthatstash 

I kept the quilting nice and simple through the centre blocks, just using in the ditch, but for the border I free-motioned some large flowers and echoed around them to fill the space.

The weather down here has been terrible for getting out for photos...it is supposed to be summer but I think since the start of November we've only had a handful of sunny, hot days (good excuse to be inside sewing though!)

Great to be sharing with my quilting friends via Wendy's Peacock Party , Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday and Michelle's Beauties Pageant - make sure you check out the great work everyone 

has been doing by visiting those links too!

Cheeky Monkey baby quilt

Following my 'rule' of making small baby quilts with leftovers from larger projects, 

here is 'Cheeky Monkey' which is the 'baby' of a larger baby quilt called 'Hi There!'

I used some walking foot straight line quilting, as well as the wavy zigzag stitch on my 

machine to quilt and decorate it, before adding a black and white spotty binding.

I plan to donate this quilt to the neo-natal unit at Southland Hospital.

It measures 24.5" square.

The backing is made from leftovers as well.

And welcome to quilting visitors via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday - thanks for visiting!

Hi There! baby quilt

My husband asked me to make a baby quilt for one of his workers who was about to 

take maternity leave; again, with my goal to use as much stash fabric as possible in 

new projects, I chose this fun animal/ABC print to use and picked some colourful coordinates. 

With all the end-of-year-at-school-madness affecting my brain I can't remember where I got the pattern from, so will have another hunt and update the post if I find it.

The quilt measures at 36" square and I chose a wiggly black and white stripe for the binding, after using some FMQ ideas from Angela Walters' various books for the quilting:

The backing is another fabric that has been in my 'fabric preservation collection' for a number of years - it has 'Hello' in many different languages and is as colourful as the front.

Hi to my quilting companions via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday - I love being able to share with others from around the world (and seeing what you've all been creating too!)