Daisies quillow for Abby

My lovely young colleague, Abby de Groot, is leaving us to head to New York to be an au pair and follow her dream of living in the Big Apple; I have loved working with Abby as she began her teaching career and we have had a lot of laughs together and she will be missed by all of us!


Abby with her quillow, signed by staff members of Edendale Primary School.

So when looking to make a farewell gift for her I just HAD to make something out of this very cool raspberry pink daisy fabric when I saw it at Kits'n'things in Invercargill!  Decided to make a quillow (a quilt that can fold into a pillow/pillow that opens into a quilt!)  Used a tutorial from A cuppa and a catch-up and it was quite a lot of fun.

Is a very busy mix of fabrics but that is okay...

A glorious Southland spring day!

The pocket at the bottom can be used as a foot-warmer.
(Everyone has written a message for Abby on the panel.)
Quilt is approx 48" by 64".
Pillow is 16'sq.

The 'front' of the pillow - daisy was fused
and then machine-appliqued. 

'Back' (can of course be used as the front).



Close up showing the backing - a mini daisy b + w print.

I stitched in the ditch for the main quilt panel, but the pillow front
is done separately so I used a free-motion daisy pattern
that I have learnt in the FM quilting challenge.

Am trying to finish something!!

Working in snatched moments to get some of these projects completed...or started!! So much for not starting new projects until I got rid of some of the WIPs!

Have batted and backed this and am having a go at quilting it on my trusty little machine.
Am going with straight lines to keep it simple. Looks great so far!

Have fallen in love with this daisy fabric so plan to try making a quillow.
Will do some cutting tonight while we all watch a movie.

At some stage I need to put together these giraffes!

And last weekend I picked this back up from my long-arm quilter - (this is the before photo)
so I am keen to get the binding on!



New bag

Another bag creation - this time a gift for the awesome Glenys Macbeth (my ex-neighbour) who has a heart of gold and is also quite an absolute inspiration! 

Front - was based on a pattern called 'Cappucino Tote' by Marilyn Bell,
as printed in Australian Patchwork and Stitching magazine Vol 11 No 5.

Back - fabrics were from Spotlight

Craftsy BOM project

Finally had a chance to catch up with the July blocks and the August blocks for this Craftsy class; need to print out the instructions for the Sept blocks and Oct blocks and will try to get them done before the end of the school holidays.

Traditional dresden plate

Modern dresden wheel

Ohio Star

Double Star