Baby season is here

It's baby season again! No, not me, but babies seem to be popping up (out?) all over! Two friends have had/are having babies, so I thought I'd whip something up for each of them.

As I'm so pressed for time these days, simple designs are king. I wanted something striking though, so I googled 'strippy quilt' and found oodles of quilty inspiration. The photo that really kicked me off was on Flickr, from Bubbachic, who had a similar dilemma and lovely scraps!

I went through my stash and found some gorgeous soft pink left over Amy Butler (from 'Marina's Midwest Modern' quilt), which is now snipped and sewn into a top for a pram quiltlet. A friend at work has just had her third girl, and another work friend made a play quilt. I thought one for the pram might be a good idea, especially now winter is really here - it's been cold and raining for two days straight!

(Measures 20 x 30")

I also had some left over Park Slope from the 'Funky Chicks' quilt, which is now doing double duty in a cot quilt. A friend of mine, who I never get to see because she lives so far away, is having a baby - a girl - and I'm just so happy for her. My friend has been dreadfully unlucky in love and has finally found a man who's right for her, so this baby is extra special! I love how this quilt is coming along. I'm going to use a stripey binding in chocolates, pinks and purples, which I think will bring it all together. The baby's due in a couple of weeks.

(Measures 40 x 40")

Both quilts will get the all-over stipple treatment, with the pram quilt to have a built-in foot muff, so I'll 'birth' that one to integrate all the layers. Never done it before, so it should be interesting!

I'm hoping to have both quilts finished by Thursday night in time to take them along for show and tell at the Canberra Quilters meeting this week, alongside the Hungry Caterpillar quilt (see previous post).

And here's one of Romily - wearing my clothes (the hat is now a permanent resident in her dress-up box). She thinks she looks like a grown-up in this outfit!
For long-time readers of my blog, can you believe Romily will be five in just a little over two months? Crikey!

Never has it felt so good to finish!

It's been two years in the making. Drum roll, please...........................................Tristan's Hungry Caterpillar Quilt is finally finished! Woot! (I haven't actually been working on it for two years straight - a baby/non-sleeping toddler kinda got in the way...)
I did a lot of handquilting on this baby - a mixture of quilting and perle thread. The perle was a bugger to quilt with, but I eventually got my needles sorted out and after many evenings of stitching in front of the television, got there in the end. The only downside of using such a thick thread is that it stiffens the quilt - the rest of the quilt is all soft and snuggly. The butterflies are noticeably stiffer - and they warped the 'squareness' of the quilt.
Not that Tristan minds! He just loves it and has spent a good part of today climbing in and out of his bed to go under his new 'covers'. God love him :)And here's a photo of the back - it's cheater flannelette. So warm and snuggly and the perfect colour combination for this quilt. Now I just have to add the label, but since I'm not giving this one away, there's no rush, right?

Since this is such a momentous occasion, Tristan's Hungry Caterpillar Quilt is my entry for this year's Blogger's Quilt Festival

Collaborative Comfort

It's so nice to have a finish. I should outsource block-making much more often! Quilts come together amazingly quickly when you're working together. Here is 'Susan's Stars' bound and finished. I am very happy with the quilt (made by three work friends and me) and was delighted to present it to our colleague Susan, who was recently in a serious car accident. She is still in hospital, and will be for about another two weeks. The quilt will certainly brighten up her bed.
She said it was the first quilt anyone had made for her and was absolutely chuffed. She also confirmed that while she loves making quilts, she doesn't do much machine quilting - therefore she thought mine was fab!

Here's the pieced back - a beautiful stripe from Spotlight, of all places. I might have to go back and get some more - the colours are just fabulous. It didn't quite fit across the width, so I added a 90 degree strip down the middle - quite effective I think.
And one more close-up of the quilting/stars - excuse the folds, I had taken it to show everyone and it got a bit creased in the bag.
I now have five days to make a small challenge quilt for a calendar competition being run by the Canberra Quilters - it'll be no surprise that I'm doing some maverick stars! It may not get made in time, but I'll give it a try :)