It's a boy.....quilt

In December (last) I bought my 6 ft, 13 year old son a queen size bed...he then informed me that the new bed would need a quilt....wish he had told me that before...I might have got him a king single instead!

This request coincide with me borrowing Cherry House's book City Quilts from the club library...and I loved it so much mum bought me a copy of Christmas (clever mother!)

The quilt that caught my eye was the the City Shops (inspired by bar codes) the shades of black, grey and white reminded me that I happened to have in the stash cupboard a bundle of Kona solids that ranged from black through to blue and white, and I thought boy quilt!

Whist the pattern came together beautifully, I must admit that I found it difficult just working with the boy blues and greys, so I had permission to slip in some narrow bands of colour, and then my son decided it needed more colour! Yikes!

The quilt needed to be wider than the pattern in book, so I suggested I make the extra columns in shades of red (yes I have the red Kona bundle too!) and my son says "No Mum that's a warm colour, you need to use a cool colour!) So as you can see I used my green Kona bundle (yes I have a green one...just for a complete record I have one in aqua as well but that's it)...

 And as there is so many fat quarters in a bundle I pieced up 16 of them for the back.

The quilt then took a trip to Denise at Bold Quilting, and I think she has done a great job...the quilting design adding an army camouflage look to the back...which is just right for an army cadet!

What I want to know is, how come my 13 year old knows about cool colours and warm colours? I didn't know until I was in my 30's! Maybe I am slow learner?

I am thinking that now I have used my blue and green Kona bundles that perhaps I should get a yellow one...there is pink too!

P.S My favourite part of this post is that I made my two teenage sons stand on a trampoline in our front yard and hold up the quilt for the photos...there was quite a bit of "Hurry, Mum this is embarrassing" but they still did it...good boys!

Inspired to hand applique!

I am my mother's daughter....I have just enrolled in the Lynette Anderson's Christmas Fun Button Club, this is an 8 month BOM.

So this means I have to get focused on the Scandinavian Christmas which I impulsed purchased for my birthday in January! I have started, I have cut the fabric, and done the templates, even selected the thread!

I just haven't taken a stitch yet...but I am excited about it. I am using a Moda Cross Weave (the green in the background) which is heavier than a normal quilting cotton, but not as coarse as a linen. All that stitchery is a bit scary...but I am just going to have start it...soon!

Introducing my favourite quilter....

It's time to talk about my mum. I mentioned in my profile that she is one of the people that inspires me.

Mum loves reproduction quilts and fabric, but every now and again she breaks out and loves everything else! Which is what I am going to show you today. She currently has two hand piecing projects she is working on at the moment.

The first is this pastel number, using Mrs March's collection "The Thirties", sourced from our favourite local fabric store Dragonfly Fabrics.

The little holes in the paper is where you pin the fabric to the template until it is tacked down. The thing about Mum's piecing is the size of the stitches....yes I know hard to see aren't they!

This will be a lovely quilt!

Now just in case this is all a bit too pastel for you, this next project is a bit of an eye popper, Mum bought this pattern from Material Obsession but is by Flying Fish Kits

Now the close up from behind....see those stitches! For the uninitiated the big stitches are tacking stitches and get removed.

Mum tells me that she used 1.5" squares and has folded them over 1/2" templates....I have so much too aspire to....but I think I am a way off 1/2" hexies! This quilt is going to be a stunner especially with the use of the Japanese Naomi fabrics that are included in the border.

That's all from Mum now, soon we are going to have a look at some of her reproduction quilts she has completed. One of which now belongs to me, yes I am lucky!

All blocks done!

Well I set myself the target of catching up with the blocks this weekend and that's what I did...never mind about the food shopping!

I am just waiting now to see what the block layout is going to look like!

Block a Palozza Quilt a Long

What else have I been busy doing...since January I have been having some fun with following a quilt along that has put together by QuiltDad 

I have been making two blocks a week, I have 11 done, I am a couple behind now but I am planning to catch up this weekend because we will be up to the quilt layout by the end of next week. I am experimenting with Flickr and have added individual block shots there.

The quilt along was originally put together to promote a range of fabric from SweetWater (a Moda designer) Sunkissed is very pretty but I bought way too much fabric in the Christmas sales and thought I should use some of it for this project. It's looking like a girl quilt!

Polka Dot Tree

Remember my scrappy polka dot tree cushion in my second post, well I entered that into the Sew Mama Sew Pillow competition....and it made it into the top 20 out of hundreds of entries across the U.S. Quite funny especially since my photos are still of bad quality!

I am trying out my daughter's camera this time to see if it makes any difference.

Inspired by my afore mentioned success...the local quilting club...Darwin Patchworkers and Quilters...were holding a challenge...to enter club member had to design an A3 size quilt that meets the criteria of "Once in a Lifetime", so I thought another polka dot tree might be called for. This time I thought I would use up some of my selvages to make the background (this is the once in a lifetime part!)

Don't get me wrong...selvage quilts are gorgeous but I have a cupboard full of beautiful fabric that is screaming to be released into a quilt!

I had a bit of fun with this and made 3D leaves using my pinking shears (first time I had used them!) and outlined my visaflexed tree with black thread.

Just got to add the label and then it's all done! I think I might call it...."In FabricLand"

Georgia Tulips

I love red quilts.....I have seen quite a few quilts in blog land inspired by the front cover of the book Georgia Quilts edited by Anita Zaleski Weinraub, and why wouldn't you be inspired by the fabulous colours! I love red!

This quilt was made about two years ago for a local exhibition. I hadn't done any string constructed patchwork, and didn't have enough scraps to start, so I pulled out all my Flea Market Fancy fabrics, and my Kaffe shot cottons and used a stack and slash method to achieve the random arrangement of a string quilt. The shot cottons have lent an old world look to the quilt.

I agonised over the quilting, whether to do traditional cable style, or gridding, but in the end my laziness took over...I didn't want to do any tracing or marking on the quilt, I decided that after outlining the tulips, the quilting would be done using free motion, it was quite fun to do especially the little butterflies!

Sorry about the quality of some of the photos...I am not sure what I am doing wrong...but I hope to find out soon!