You Crazy Cat quilt and tote bag

 

Another finish from 2024 - this time a lap quilt for my cousin, Julie Blackler, on the occasion of her 60th birthday.  Julie is a big fan of cats, so I thought this was a good chance to use up some cat fabrics from my stash.

I used some pinks from  a fat quarter pack of 'Darling Heart Garden' by Robin Zingone for Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

The pattern was 'Garden Bloom' from the book 'Quilts From Sweet Jane' by Sue Pfau - I added some extra side borders to make the quilt bigger.

The quilt measures 43" x 45" and I used some leftover fabrics for the backing.

For quilting, I used my Bernina Q20 longarm and did some large free-motion stipple.

I then used the leftovers to also make a matching tote bag to carry the quilt:

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).