The birdcage

I finally finished the quilt that I gave a sneak peek of earlier.  This quilt is made of scraps and nine-patch blocks left over from the quilt I made as a wedding present.

I didn't have enough nine-patch blocks to make anything decent sized, so I decided to slice them up into quarter square triangles and mix them up with the light fabric.  Also, I had never pieced triangles before and scraps seemed like a good place to start.

Really, this quilt is just the result of me playing around with fabric.  Once I had finished the central part, I decided to add the plain narrow border, and then the border of the bird fabric (part of the Nest line by Valori Wells) which was a feature fabric in the original quilt.  I really wanted to use this fabric in large pieces so that the design was shown to its full potential.

Once the top was finished, it sat in my cupboard for over a year before I was ready to quilt it.  This is the first quilt I basted, and the first quilt I started quilting.  I stitched in the ditch around the blocks in the centre of the quilt, and on the diagonal.  Then I had to work out what to do with the border.  I needed to do something straight-line, and decided to quilt straight lines from the inner border to the edge of the quilt, spaced about 1 cm apart.  It took ages, and is the reason why I got a whole other quilt basted and quilted before I finished quilting this one.  The border quilting alone took me about eight hours in front of the machine (not all in one go, obviously).  However, I am really happy with the way it turned out.  Close up, all the quilting lines in the borders make it look a bit like the birds are behind bars - hence the title to this post.

The back looks cool too.  The striped fabric is from Spotlight.  I am quite a fan of stripes for the back of a quilt - is anyone else with me on this?

This quilt is an awkward size, about 50 inches square.  A bit big for a baby quilt, and too small to sleep under.  Nevermind, I will keep it, since it is my first quilting attempt.  Do other people like to keep their "firsts"?  Since this was a keeper quilt, I hand stitched the binding.

The springboard

I have previously mentioned the quilt that I made as a wedding present for my friend (a sneak peek of the quilt I made using some of the scraps and left over nine patch blocks is here).

I didn't think that I had a half decent picture of the quilt anywhere (I finished it somewhat at the last minute and therefore was in a bit of a hurry to wrap it etc. before the wedding).  However, I was happily wrong, and found this snap I took before I wrapped it up.

This was quite an enormous quilt, I wanted to be king-sized and drape down the sides of the bed as well.  I can't remember exactly how big it measured, but I could not lay it flat on my lounge room floor.  I started with the bird fabric that you can just catch a glimpse of, and the beige/grey fabric with the bright blue and green flowers, both from my local local quilt shop.  All the other fabrics were picked to co-ordinate with, and add depth to, those starting fabrics (and also bought from a variety of quilt shops in the local area).

Because this was a wedding present, I wanted to make something that both the bride and groom would like.  I think the use of blues, greens, tans and creams keeps it quite gender neutral, and I knew that my friend (the bride) would love the bright fabrics in this quilt.  A quilt this size was a bit daunting for me to quilt, and I didn't really have time in the end.  Instead, I had it quilted by Sue Burnett, with a quite simple flower motif in each block.

I didn't follow a pattern for this quilt, but I wanted to keep it simple (partly because I didn't have a lot of time, only about 2 or 3 months).  My mantra when making this quilt was "fresh, fresh, fresh".  This was only the second quilt I made, but I found it very satisfying and wanted to know more and make more.

Nearly finished and some favourite fabrics

I am hand-stitching the binding to the back of this quilt, and it is very nearly finished.  You can catch a glimpse of the binding clip in this photo below.

This quilt is made from scraps and left-over blocks from a quilt that I made as a wedding present.  The fabric above (from Valori Wells' Nest line) was the inspiration for all the other fabrics and colours in the original quilt.

The wedding quilt was only the second quilt I made, but I ended up with some fabrics that I think will be long-term favourites - like the blue fabric from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line above.  If I could easily get more of this, I would.  As it is, I do still have some scraps left but mostly binding strips (2.25 inches wide) and squares for the nine patches used in the original quilt.

I also love this herringbone print from Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow line.  I have it in a couple of other colours for other projects but I am tempted just to buy some in each colour just in case.  Will post pictures of the entire quilt when it is finished.

Blue baby rainbow

I wanted to make a fresh, modern, baby quilt for a colleague who is pregnant with her first baby.  I did not want to include novelty fabrics with trucks, cars, or sports references.   Rita's Indian Summer Quilt provided the inspiration.

This quilt uses fabric from a number of ranges.  I love the raindrop fabric on the back and used for the binding which is from Tula Pink's Prince Charming collection.

Also included are a number of other fabrics from Tula Pink's Prince Charming range, some blenders from Riley Blake, a Michael Miller check, one of the Floral Elements fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics, a couple of prints from Valori Wells' Nest collection which I had left over from another quilt, and an indigo japanese quilting cotton.

I cut the fabrics into 8.5 inch long strips ranging in width from 2 inches to 3.5 inches.

  

Simple straight line quilting randomly spaced in a turquoise thread that blends with some fabrics and stands out against others completes the look.