A significant birthday

Our oldest brother had a significant '0' birthday today so Linda and I have been busy stitching in order to get this quilt delivered to him on time.

No shortage of quilt tops to choose from.  We had discussed that one of our scrappy quilt tops might be appropriate and so we chose one of the ones I had made from 2.5" squares collected during 1999 in a worldwide Y2K swap.  I have four of these in hand and what a great feeling to have one completed, despatched and arriving at its destination on the day of our brother's birthday.

Linda decided on an overall scrolling design and it suited the quilt well.  Looks great on the back too.  No quilt would be complete without having a cat scan and so CiCi obliged for us.

I had not envisaged putting magic binding on this particular quilt but in the end it was the expedient thing to do as it aided in getting the quilt finished in time.  I was pleased with the choice.  This image provides a nice close up on Linda's lovely stitching.

We had some wool batting that needed to be used up and so we put two layers in this quilt.  The quilt's home will be Christchurch and so the double layer of wool will provide extra warmth for those cold winter nights.

Enjoy, Norman, we hope you have many more happy birthdays to come.

Quilt for Anna-Clara

It was a very satisfying experience this week to finish this small quilt for my granddaughter, Anna-Clara.

Even though I keep saying that Magic Binding is not appropriate for all quilts I still keep finding quilts to use it on and this one was no exception.

I have had some pink minky fabric in my stash for some time.  I have always felt it should be appropriate for a young child's quilt.  With wanting to make this one as tactile as possible I was pleased to be able to incorporate the minky fabric into the back of the quilt.

When I was half way through putting the binding on I realised I had not made a label for the quilt so just for fun I made a small label and put it on the front on the bottom right.  I pinked the edges - just another bit of texture for small hands to discover.

Every quilter 'needs' a stash

 

Now, if I didn't have a stash this current project probably never would have happened.

The nursery panel in the middle I picked up in a remnant bin in a quilt store in Sydney whilst there on holiday.

The pink stripey fabric I have used as a border is the remainder of some bargain priced yardage I bought last time I visited Seattle WA.

If didn't have a stash I would not have been able to add some silk and ribbon tags within the seam lines.  My stash provided variety for the other tags as well.

I have been pondering making a 'tactile' quilt for a while.  In the meantime my granddaughter, Anna-Clara is growing up very quickly.  Now 9 months, sitting up and on the move, all too soon her need for such a thing may be gone.

I well remember all of my boys liking to hold fabric, especially when breast or bottle feeding and I think Anna-Clara is no exception so the plan is to complete for her and get this quilt on the way.

As well as the tags around the nursery panel I have some lovely soft Minky fabric (another something in my stash) to put on the back. I hope it will be a totally tactile experience for this little girl.

Another search in my stash should reveal some fabric suitable for a magic binding - yes every quilter needs to have a stash for projects such as these.

Then there were three

In keeping with my love of hexagons, I have now made three quilt tops and now it is time to say goodbye to this theme for a while.

The one on the left is the original one I made from the pattern, Science Fair. The middle one was made with hexagons by the same methodology but with more of a scrappy theme.

Upon completion of the middle quilt top I found I still had the makings of more floral hexagons and decided to make another one based on the Science Fair but this time with a cream background.  Whilst I favour the Science Fair on the left I feel sure I will be pleased with the outcome once the one on the right is quilted as well.

I have a few in between projects that I need to look at for the moment but then I plan to be making another curved piecing quilt top and am looking forward to that project.

Hearts transformed

About a year ago I found this heart quilt wall hanging in an opportunity shop.

You can see some before and after photos of this quilt from when Linda decided to give it more texture here.

Even with with added texture we felt the quilt still needed an extra touch so Linda removed the binding and this week I replaced it with our standby favourite,

Magic Binding.  That extra little touch just seems to give the quilt the finish it needed and we will get much pleasure from it when it next has a turn hanging on the wall in our sun room.