16 January, 2013

Pin stripe baby quilt

I was very excited this morning to be told that I had been accepted to test a baby quilt pattern. I have a 10 week old son and I haven't sewn anything for him yet. Yes, you heard correctly, I have a 10 week old son and I haven't sewn anything for him yet!!

Anyway, once the initial excitement had died down I then realised that I actually had to find some fabric for this quilt. I am thousands of miles and several postal weeks away from the nearest fabric shop and I am sure the pattern designer wants some feedback before then. Whilst the quilt itself is beautfully simple, it does require 5 fabrics that move from light to dark which isn't actually an easy thing to achieve from a random stash. However, this is me we're talking about and of course I have miles and miles of fabric in my stash, although I usually buy layer cakes rather than yardage.


One of my favourite things that I have made is this big quilt which hangs on my kitchen wall


and would you look at this


9 blues that range from denim to light teal.


The fabric is Rural Jardin by French General for Moda - my all time favourite fabric which is now virtually impossible to get hold of. I had the intention of making quite a number of these union flag quilts (and I do make them from time to time) and to do that I bought yardage. So, the fabric in the end became really simple. I picked out the following 5 fabrics from my much-treasured stash. I also need a plain fabric, and co-incidentally I have half a mile of a beautiful clotted cream cotton (top of the picture) which perfectly matches the cream flowers in the middle blue, and then to bind it I will use the lovely rich red which French General are so fantastic at.




I am very happy with this fabric and I think it will work really well with the quilt design. Right, time to put the kettle on and get cutting before the boys wake up!

Pay it Forward project

I am really pleased to be taking part in the Pay It Forward project which is doing the rounds on Facebook. This is where you promise to make something handmade for the first 5 people who comment. They then put the post on their wall agreeing to make something handmade for the first 5 people who comment etc. And something handmade can be anything - even a cup of tea!
I am participating on my profile and my Jo Loves Calico sewing page so that is 10 items altogether. Everyone is getting the same thing and as the recipients haven't received them yet I don't want to spoil their surprise but here's a little teaser!


It has given me the excuse to try out some things that have been milling about in my head for a while. Other than attaching the binding all of the stitching has been free motion and I feel that by the time I got to the quilting I had really improved in technique and definitely improved in confidence!

I'll upload photos of the finished project when they have been received.