Raspberry Delight for Charlotte

A single bed quilt (69" x 87") made from the Fat Quarter Shop's 2012 Moda Designer Mystery Block of the Month that I took part in. Finally, in January I was able to put the blocks together and at Easter I finished the quilting (just in time for the first quarter of the 2016 FinishAlong challenge).

The fabric range is 'Vintage Modern' by Bonnie and Camille - I adore the combo of cream, raspberry, pink and teal! That is one of the things that drew me to sign up for the BOM.

'Laundry Days' designed by Anne Sutton

'Mint Julep' designed by Lisa Bongean

'Weather Vane' designed by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobsen

'Town Square' designed by Kate Spain

'Cherry Sundae' designed by Barb Adams and Alma Allen

'Breezy Afternoon' designed by Aneela Hoey

'Moonlight Serenade' designed by Sandy Gervais

'Lime Sherbert' designed by Bonnie Olaveson and Camille Roskelley

'Lakeside Retreat' designed by Joanna Figueroa

'April Showers' designed by Sweetwater

'County Fair' designed by Julie Comstock

'Sunday Drive' designed by Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson

It's hard to see (and was hard to photograph) but each block has a slightly different free motion flower design quilted over it - eleven are pointy petals and one has rounded petals - I had fun trying to think of how to quilt different flowers to complement the patterns each block.

I quilted vines with leaves in the narrow strips of cream-colored sashing, did loopy stipple with flowers in the wide border sashing, and a side to side loopy 'snake' in the thin red border, and some fans in the corner triangles - it was a great chance to use a few different FMQ designs.

The backing is a flower print from the Vintage Modern range as well.

And as per usual, it seems the whole 'family' had to be involved in the photo shoot...

And on January 22nd Charlotte finally received her quilt - a belated birthday present for December - she lives about a three hour drive away from here so it can be a bit tricky to 'drop by' but her family were passing on their way home from a quick holiday at Riverton.

Charlotte had been asking her mum for quite a while about when she might be getting a quilt from me (her older brother got one a couple of years ago), and she didn't realise I had already made one for her but just hadn't delivered it yet, so she was quite thrilled to be presented with this when they called in!

Pretty Kitty pillow cases

Made these two pillowcases earlier this month...using a very cool Hello Kitty ABC fabric and a pink print...

... I used the APQ Roll It Up method for hidden French seams.

May 2016 - sent these as gifts to our great-nieces, new big sisters Lilly and Kora, on the arrival of their baby sister Poppy May.

Jan's Flower Patch

Oh I do love my awesome cousin Jan! She is like a big sister to me and I love her to bits!! 

It was my pleasure to select fabrics and put this together in honour of her recent 50th birthday (suitably celebrated last weekend with family and friends in a gathering in her garage in up in Gore).

A white background, with flowers made from lots of greys (some metallics) 

and some soft teals, with a lovely orange print thrown in for a bit of pizzazz!

Pattern inspiration story here

The backing was a dove grey print with leftover blocks in a strip across the back, 

and one block as the label block near the bottom. I quilted it in a large/wide all-over stipple 

and bound it with the multi-colour print.

 And here is the birthday girl herself!

Finished quilt measured 62" x 62".

This is one of my first quarter goals for the 2016 Finish Along challenge!

And a big Kiwi "kia ora!" (hi there!) to visitors from Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday 
link party and Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday!

Flower Patch

In the January holidays I was looking for a new design to try out and found this picture on one of my Pinterest boards and was really keen to give these 'flowers' a go...after scribbling out some drawings and calculations, I grabbed the leftovers of Merry Little Girls Stonehenge fabric 

and made up this baby quilt. It came together really easily.

Measures about 37" square. I used leftover strips to make the borders and found a nice teal fabric in my stash - I mean, textile preservation collection (ha ha!) for the binding.

When I quilted it I used an all over loopy stipple, sewing some butterflies every now and then...

...and the occasional bee on some flowers (can you spot it?)

The backing is a pale lavender butterfly print that was also in my stash - so pleased I have all those fabrics in my 'collection' to make use of (when the project is right of course!).

Hi to all my quilting friends at Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday!! 

And a big Kiwi 'Kia ora" to all my friends visiting via Crazy Mom's Finish It Up Friday!!

Aren't camera angles funny? It looks really rectangular here but is definitely a square shape!

May 2016 - sent as a baby gift to our newest great-niece, Poppy May, daughter of our flower-girl Katie and her husband John. Here she is, now two months old...