Little quilts for little people….

Posted in Finished Quilts, Sewing by Marie

It’s Friday and I love when I have a finish to share with you! I have made a baby Star Quilt using Jeni Baker’s In Color Order Vintage Star tutorial which I love! I have modified the pattern to reduce the block to 11″ and the quilt 44″ square. It is a good size for a baby quilt and I am very delighted with the result!!!

I chose to make the eight point star using solids which is not my normal go to fabric. The solids are “A Day in the Country” and background is “Nani Iro” double gauze cotton! It is two thin cotton layers of material. It is very soft to touch and beautiful to use! Prior to using the gauze, I did a little research on its suitability for quilting. There were positive views and I decided to have a go. I also machine washed the quilt on a gentle cycle, to test the durability of the gauze and it came up beautifully!

For the backing I chose the ever faithful IKEA 100% cotton fabric. It is bright and cheery with lots of colour to keep a little person happy.

The quilt was long arm quilted using hearts and circles and I was absolutely delighted. My longarm quilting friend Kylie did a wonderful job! Kylie said” that double guaze was fabulous to quilt with.”

I absolutely love black and white bindings. It makes colours dance whilst giving a modern edge! One more quilt finished and I am very happy!

I am linking this post up with NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation, TGIFF @ Quokka Quilts, Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts. Stop by these wonderful blogs to see the amazing projects and support the linky parties!

As always, thank you for stopping by and wherever you are in the world have a fabulous weekend.

Sew Happy………….Marie xxx

21Mar2014

Stars and Inspiration!

Posted in Finished Quilts, Sewing by Marie

I absolutely love Stars and they just keep reappearing in my quilting! A very special and dear friend had a big birthday recently and I wanted to make her a quilt! I settled on the Giant Star using the fabulous tutorial provided by Jenni Baker @ In Color Order. I absolutely love this quilt and the softness of the colours!

I ask my friend to give me a little colour inspiration to help me select the fabrics! So she supplied me with the following photo of a hand painted ceiling of a Gaudi Building in Barcelona, Spain where she had visited earlier this year.

This photo was the bases of the colour/fabric selection for this quilt! I settled for a little blue Liberty with a few modern prints such as a yellow Sketch, grey/coral Minimalista and a few spots! The background fabric was a very light Beige cotton/linen blend! As for the binding it has to be one of my all time favorite fabrics. The colours in the binding are awesome – Black, Blue, Grey, Lime Green and White. Who would have thought that such a small print could hold all these colours and it fits beautifully with the fabrics in the Star and the green numerical backing fabric.

I had the quilt longarm quilted with swirls on the background fabric and straight lines to emphasize the Star points! I am absolutely delighted with the quilting and I think my longarm quilting friend did an amazing job!! For the backing fabric I chose a beautiful numerical print in a lime green! The numbers are outlined with a deep blue which fits nicely with the colour scheme!

I really hope my beautiful friend likes it. I just want to wrap her up in Love!!!

I am supporting the linky parties and I am linking this post to NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation, TGIFF @ Sew Fresh Quilts and Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Stop by these wonderful blogs to check out all the lovely projects and/or link up and support them!!

As always, many thanks for stopping by and wherever you are in the world have a fabulous weekend.

Marie xxx

As the New Year Begins…………….

This is my first post for the New Year and I would like to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year, may it be filled with fun, love, laughter and the good health to enjoy it! It is holiday time here in Australia and things are relatively quiet. I have been sewing a little bit of this and that and my love of the needle and thread has not waivered! I am delighted to share my first finish of 2014 – Winding Ways! The binding is finally on!! I can now tick this of the Quarter 4 2013 Finish – A – Long hosted by Leanne @ She Can Quilt! I originally posted about my quarter 4 projects here!

This quilt has been a long time in the making! I have been hand piecing on and off for the better part of 2.5 years. The quilt was long arm quilted with circles just before the holidays commenced and it has been patiently waiting the binding. I always find sewing bindings a struggle. I will certainly be trying to perfect my skill on sewing bindings by machine in 2014. It is my only finish from my Work in Progress (WIP) projects for quarter 4 2013.

I love the backing fabric on this quilt! It is a French text print and I think it works very well with the red gingham check !

One final pic of the binding. It is hard to go past a striped binding. There is just something wonderful about red and white quilts. I don’t normally work with two colours. I usually prefer scrappy quilts, however, in this instance it is very effective!

Leanne I would like to say a huge thank you for all your efforts in co-ordinating this QAL. It is an enormous amount of work and it has been lovely looking at all the projects and tutorials for 2013! You have done an amazing job!!! I will certainly continue to participate in the 2014 Quilt A Long which is being hosted this year by Katy @ The Littlest Thistle! It is a great way to focus on those projects that need to be finished throughout the year.

I am linking up with Leanne @ She Can Quilt to register my finish. I am also linking up with WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced, NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation, Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict , TGIFF @ Quilt Matters and Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts!

As always, thank you for stopping by and may your week be filled with lots of sewing………………………Marie xxx

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and A Fabulous New Year

As the year comes to a close, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Fabulous New Year. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog, sharing your comments and kindness along the way. It is a an absolute joy to see the random acts of kindness that occur amongst the world wide quilting community! Thank you for allowing me to be part of the community

I can finish up the year with the completion of my baby quilt for a beautiful baby girl named Eva! It has been fun to make and I hope it brings her much joy!

I used Sarah Fielke’s From Little things fabric with a little bit of Liberty! It has been long arm quilted with circles/ hearts and binded in the purple/ pink polka dot fabric!

For those of you who visit often, you will know that I love hand quilting. The centre hexagon wasn’t long arm quilted; it allowed me to embroider the babie’s name and surround it with love hearts. I hand quilted with various colours of perle cotton 8! I think it personalizes the quilt a little more!

For the backing I used a fun fabric that I purchased at Ikea some time ago! I think she will enjoy the bright colours and playing with the birds and frogs. Well that’s it from me for this year. I look forward to seeing you all in 2014.

I would like to acknowledge the kindness of the linky party hosts who allow us to share our work and enjoy the creativity of others. I am linking up with Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict , TGIFF @ Gingersnaps Quilts and Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts!

Best wishes to you and your families over the festive season! May 2014 bring you good health, much love, happiness and all that is good!

Till next year………………Marie xxx

Circles, Squares & Flowers

I made this Birthday quilt for my beautiful sister-in-law Paula. I wanted to make something fresh and colorful. I used Bonnie & Camille Vintage Modern Cotton 5″ charm squares with a white 21/2″ sashing. I love using all the geometric prints with the flowers. The used of a multi spot for the outer border brought all the charm square colors together. It was such a happy quilt to make.

For the backing, I used a red circle in a square Aneela Hoey Sherbet Pips fabric . Keeping with the theme , the quilt was longarm quilted with circles.

The quilt was so soft and comfy with a high loft wool batting; just what is needed for the colder weather in the North of Ireland. She was so delighted to receive it. It is just beautiful when you make someone happy. Have a great day or evening where ever you are right now!

Thankyou for stopping by ……Happy Sewing Marie x

Completed Projects – Quarter 2 2013 Finish-A-Long

Hi all,

I am delighted to advise that I have two finishes for the Quarter 2 2013 Finish-A-Long that is being hosted by Leanne “She Can Quilt” . I would like to thank Leanne for hosting the Finish-A-Long which has been a huge motivator for me to finish of my projects. I have loved reading the tutorials, looking at other finishes and checking out the sponsors. Thanks everyone. Below are my projects for completion in Quarter 2 FAL followed by photo’s of my finishes.

1. Wee Village Cushion with appliqued felt and pattern by Wendy Williams. I had a few little houses completed. I needed to prepare the backing, make and embroider the trees and sheep, applique all onto the background fabric of cream linen and grey shot cotton, add some embroidered flowers and sew up the cushion! I progressed from HERE………………>

TO HERE…………..>

I also chose a lime green spot for the backing fabric.

2. Stars in your Eyes Quilt Sarah Feilke pattern and fabric. I was hoping to finish the top and quilt by Q2 and I did! I added borders of black spot and thick yellow strip, selected the quilt backing using Anna Maria Horner’s Receiving line, Garden Party. The quilt was longarm quilted with swirls and binding added. The quilt measures 62″ x 80″ and approximately 2,840 stitches were added by hand to secure the binding. I progressed from HERE……………>