My Home Is With You lap quilt

 Before we know it, it will be 2027, and I haven't shared my 2026 creations!! Life this year has been busy as I settle into my new single-girl lifestyle, working out my work-life routines and getting comfortable in my new house, but I have been able to find some moments of free-time to sit down and create.

Near the end of 2025, before shifting house, I was able to patch and quilt this lap quilt, as a 50th wedding anniversary gift for my dear Uncle Jack and Aunty Mary; it was the last project I quilted on my Bernina Q20 longarm frame before it was dismantled.

However, then I wasn't able to bind it until the school holidays at Christmas time after I had moved into my new place here in Gore. Then, it took me until April or May to get photos and finally send it to them in Christchurch (hence the autumn leaves, but they match the colours of the quilt so well!) 

I used a fat quarter pack of 'Kismet' by Sharon Holland from my stash, and the pattern is 'O Canada' by Amy Gibson.

My mind was quite-rightly distracted last August-September by personal issues, so I miscalculated in my head how big the quilt would be when finished, and will admit it ended up a bit smaller than what I was expecting - it measures 50" x 52".

I used a large, all-over rose motif for the quilting:

Extra blocks were used for the backing, along with a honeybee print from my stash.

And, it is the first project I've completed under my maiden name again, in a new home town (well, actually an old home town as I've come back to where we lived 30 years ago, which is the town I went to high school in and taught at a school here, and have many family members living here).

Flashback: 23 August 1975 (I was three) and presented Mary with a wedding horseshoe (which I seem to have a memory of not being very happy about having to hand it over to her as I quite liked it!)

Freddie's Elephant

 

I made this little stuffed elephant for Freddie Norman (son of a past workmate of mine) who was born in January 2025.  His older brother and sister had each received an elephant so it was compulsory for me to make one for him too!

I love the elephant fabric!

It is the 'Eleni the Elephant' pattern that I ripped out from magazine 'Patchwork & Stitching Vol.17 No. 4 2011'.

Fox in a Twist

 

This cot quilt (measures 37.5" x 44") was a new baby gift for my cousin's new grandson, Jack Burgess, who was born in 2025.

The pattern is 'Jelly Roll Twist', a freebie from the Fat Quarter Shop, though I made it as 8" blocks not 9" as in the pattern.  The fabric was a woodlands themed jellyroll in my stash from Spotlight, and I added some other solids and prints from my stash.

I did an allover stipple on my Bernina Q20 longarm for the quilting, and it has a fox flannel backing.

Minnie's Delight

This neonatal bassinet quilt was made in 2025 with leftovers from the larger cot quilt 'Minnie For Meadow' and measures 18" x 20".

It was quilted with straight lines and loops using my domestic Elna 720, and it has a flannel backing.

It was donated to the Southland Hospital Neonatal Unit at Christmas.