Little Apples quilt for Eva

Little Apples quilt, originally uploaded by stitch-by-stitch.

We finally heard last night that hubster's cousin had a baby girl. Yay! Now I have a recipient for this quilt. I hope she likes it. Not the typical baby girly pink colours. Something a bit different. The backing and binding are from Spotty. I didn't use a pattern. I just chopped into my layer cake, mixed it up and sewed them together :)

Personalised name quilt

Personalised name quilt, originally uploaded by stitch-by-stitch.

Well, I've finally got a baby's name to put on one of my quilts. Welcome to the world, Cooper. I hope you like your new quilt!

Quilt in the making

I'm working on this next. It's a Prints Charming quilt. Instead of screen printing the Bindis, I'm going to use my new skills and machine applique them. Stay tuned...

Deb Louie

I mentioned the other day that I've been at a 3 day machine quilting/applique course at Amitie. The teacher was Deb Louie. Boy, does this woman know her stuff! Not only is she a fountain of knowledge with all things quilty, but she also knows most domestic sewing machines inside and out. You may remember that my hubby bought me a Janome Horizon not long ago? Well, it's been sitting around gathering dust lately. It's been a bit tough getting to it when I've got 2 demanding sons to deal with. It was awesome to dust it off and learn some fabulous things I can do with it. Here are some pics of my learning curve.

I highly recommend going to her class if you can. Even if you have already done freemotion quilting. She has all the magic tips. Those tips fixed every problem I was having with freemotion. Plus the addition of the machine applique, I see myself sewing up a storm with the stash that I've been accumulating!

Quilting

Things have been a bit quiet on the blogging front. Mainly because it's hard to find time to do crafty things, let alone get online and blog about it. For mother's day my hubby paid for a 2 day quilting course at Amitie. Ahhh, 2 days of just doing what I enjoy and talking to like minded ladies. No kids screaming. No house cleaning.

Here's what I've done so far (excuse the evening photo):

Charity quilt

Charity quilt, originally uploaded by stitch-by-stitch.

I've finally finished the quilt I made for a charity auction. It's using the crazy 9 patch tutorial. It's really cute and I think it's gender neutral. I quilted it using loopy loops in honour of the bee fabric and it worked out quite well :)

Top row

Top row, originally uploaded by stitch-by-stitch.

Here is my first row for my Supernova Quilt. What do you think? I had a bit of trouble matching up all of my seams but I'm still proud of it considering I'm a newbie at this sort of piecing. Also the blue stripes and the green/yellow ovals weren't oriented correctly. Shhh :)

Charity quilt

A friend asked me if I'd like to donate to a charity she is organising a Gala Ball for. www.jdrf.org.au/. I of course obliged and was thinking of a quilt using these. Maybe a Crazy 9 patch like my Tickled Pink quilt. It'll be quick and easy and gender neutral.

Cutting cutting cutting

Cutting cutting cutting, originally uploaded by stitch-by-stitch.

This is what I'm up to this Sunday afternoon. Cutting all my fabrics for the Supernova quilt along...now finished and bagged. Next off the list is to piece it all together. Maybe next weekend?

Personalised name quilts

Personalised name quilts, originally uploaded by stitch-by-stitch.

Here are the 2 semi-finished personalised name baby quilts. Just have to add a picture applique and the name of course. They are 2 of 4 quilts I'm making ahead of time. I have loads of people in my life that are pregnant at the moment and these are essentially using scraps or leftovers.

Supernova QAL

I've never participated in a KAL or a QAL before. But I could hardly resist when I saw this one. Although I will have to see what the timeline will be in Freshly Pieced's next post to see if I can manage it with a 6week old and a 3year old demanding my daily attention. Can't wait to see what the requirements are and I hope I can join in. Wanna join me too?

His & Hers Personalised Quilt

I've always wanted to make this quilt coz it was so cute. I have lots of babies due around me within the next 3-6 months so I'm making a few of these in advance. Then all I have to do is applique their name on. I'll be making 2 of each fabric selection. My hubby took the baby out for a coffee while the toddler slept so I managed to cut 4 and piece 2 of these quilts. I've just ordered some Kona solids for the backing. That'll give me a couple of weeks before I start basting and quilting. It might give me time to prepare the binding.

Do you think these are gender neutral or do you think the top one is boy specific?

Dr Seuss quilt / playmat

Yay, I've finally finished Ryder's playmat. He's only 2.5 weeks old and ready for some tummy time. It was a simple design I made on EQ7. It is just 4" squares (finished) sashed with 2" of Kona Turqoise and then 5" of the Dr Seuss characters fabric. I used a double layer of poly batting to maximise squishiness and plain red flannel for the backing for a bit of grip. Then all I did was stitch in the ditch again to try to maximise squishiness.

I think it's a perfect size for my little 2.5 week old Ryder. And I'm in love with the gorgeous bright colours of the Dr Seuss fabric. It's the first quilt I've made using my new Janome Horizon. I've always had trouble with straight line quilting with puckering at the intersections. But I've had no such drama with this lovely machine. I'm also in love with the speed control. It really helps with getting into a rythm of stitching.

Dr Seuss and EQ7

Here is my EQ7 design slowly coming to fruition. Next I need to cut the sashing and binding.

Heather Ross

Since it's very difficult for me to get in front of the machine these days, both due to exhaustion and because I have a 3 year old, I get to spend my nights in front of the tv searching for inspiration and designing on EQ7.

I bought some Princess and the Pea fabric from a craft show a while ago and really want to use it up. I saw this one by Freshly Pieced and had to make one of my own. I'd already bought a fat quarter pack with complimentary colours and love how they all mix together.

Of course this one won't be made for a while, not until after the baby has arrived and the new machine is on my table :)

New machine and new playmat for baby

Guess what my hubby bought me! Yep, a Janome Horizon 7700. How friggin exciting. Not that I'll get to see it anytime very soon as it's coming down from Queensland. By which time I'll hopefully have brought a new human into the world. But what a nice welcome home, hey?



Of course I've already planned the first thing I want to make with it using EQ7. I need a new playmat for the little one when he arrives. I thought the Dr Seuss fabrics would be ideal. Plus I'll have loads left over to make a quilt at a later date. I think I'll try to cut the fabrics prior to going to hospital...maybe tomorrow...so that they are ready to go once the machine arrives.

Bliss and Kiila

I've finished my Kiila socks. Boy, did the 2nd sock go quickly. I wanted to finish them before being shipped off to hospital to have my baby (I'm 39wks today). I don't know why I hurried though coz I'm still here. I think he's way too comfy in there to make an appearance. Meanwhile I'm too uncomfortable to try these on and take a good shot. So these shots will have to do. I really enjoyed knitting these. I had no idea that socks were such an instant gratification project.

Also, my first quilt finish for 2011. I was just using up some of my Moda Bliss jelly roll I used for this project and had no recipient in mind. Then my friend gave birth to her 3rd baby and it was a girl after 2 boys! Perfect. So being the size of a beached whale, I managed to baste, quilt and bind it all in one day. I wasn't intending to do it in one go but I was on a roll. And I think it'll be perfect because she loves shabby chic.

I used the smallest scraps of the leftover Moda Bliss (I still have lots of full jelly roll strips left!) with white cotton sashing. I used Moda Bliss Flannel in Polka Sweet for the backing and Kona Primrose for the binding. I actually really like using solids for binding. I've done this for the last couple of quilts I've completed. Not only that, but using my colour chart, it's easy to find the exact matching colour. I quilted it with an all over free motion meandering stitch. I really wanted to try a larger pattern than usual and I think it looks great and maintains it's softness.

It's on it's way, Alanna, I hope you love it :)

I've now cast on for Monkey socks using Colinette Jitterbug in Elephant's Daydream.

Kiila and other things

Here are a few things I'm working on at the moment.

Firstly there is my Kiila socks. I'm using Wollmeise 80/20 Twin in WD fuchsia. It's such a rich and vibrant colour. They are a bit full on with the twisted stitches on every row. I've already made a couple of mistakes but I'm not going to show you where :) These are great to knit when I feel like something challenging instead of my mindless Neat Ripple Blanket. The Neat Ripple Blanket is packed and ready to head to the hospital with me for when I have my baby...which, by the way I think has finally engaged. Bring it on!

Secondly, I HAD to make my own version of Anna Maria Horner's Little Luxuries baby receiving blankets. I've used AMH voile in Maybe Sixpence together with Robert Kaufman flannel in Blue Cloud and AMH voile in RiverRock for binding. I've made a second one using AMH voile in Diamond Mine Ink together with Robert Kaufman flannel in White and AMH voile in Water for binding. Making the bias binding has been a bit of a challenge. After researching several websites, I finally understood the instructions. Note to self: Don't use disappearing ink pen to mark the lines as they disappear within 15 minutes! I've only got the binding to go for these.

Thirdly I really wanted to use up the Moda Bliss jelly roll I had leftover from this project. So I got to work on EQ7 to design something. I've never made a pinwheel in my life and these turned out a lot smaller than planned. But they still look cute. I'm binding it using Kona Primrose and Moda Bliss flannel in Polka sweet. I didn't have a recipient in mind for this, but a friend gave birth to a baby girl after 2 sons. I know she loves shabby chic, so I might have to gift it to her. I'm still not sure how I'm going to baste this since I think the baby has decided to! engage itself at 38 weeks. I'm not sure I'm going to finish any of these before the baby comes. Aargh!

Christmas pillow rip off

Christmas pillow rip off, originally uploaded by stitch-by-stitch.

These pillow covers were totally copied from Crazy Mom Quilts. I loved them so much I had to make a pair to match my Christmas stockings. I used only the smallest of scraps except for the binding. Obviously my free motion quilting is a far cry from Crazy Mom Quilts, but I'm getting better at it. One pillow was hand sewn binding. The other was the first time at machine sewn binding. Also a first is the envelope closure. I usually do zip closure. I finish this more than a week after Christmas :)

Matching pillowcase

Here is the matching pillowcase to match the Babushka quilt I made for a work colleague. I hope you like it, Gina!

Gina's response (verbatim): "OH MY GODDDD!!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely love it!!!!!!! That's the best thing I've ever seen!"