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Monday 26 February 2018

Six, Seven, Eight...

Just prior to Christmas 2016, about two and a half months ago, I set myself the challenge of trying to make six baby/cot sized quilts for several women from a Mothers of Pre-Schoolers (MOPS) group that I'm connected with. Several of the women were pregnant with their second children and I had often looked after their first toddler for over a year or so.

I managed to get the first five done and then had a friend ask about a couple of the quilts as she had two nieces due to give birth early in February 2018 too. So we organised for her to have two of the quilts and she gave me some money towards making more quilts - she's a good friend and knows how I love to buy fabric!!

I completed this one which was the sixth in the queue:

Size: 43" by 46"

It was only after I'd passed it to my friend I realised I hadn't taken a final photo with the binding completed, but you get the idea. The blocks were from some fabric with bright coloured cars, but the navy background made the whole look a little darker than I wanted for a child's quilt. So taking the cue from the cars, I surrounded them with the bright orange, green, turquoise and reds, after framing them with either the grey or cream.

Then a couple of friends were having a go at a strip quilt. The sort where you get your backing piece ready, lay the wadding on top and pin those two layers. You then begin from one end of the quilt and sew through all three layers, strip by strip. Sounded like it was worth trying, so I gave it a go.
This is the result:

Or at least this is a section where you can see I had fun letting some animals pop up from time to time. It turned out that a jelly roll I'd had for several years was ideal with its yellows and greens. And of course being a jelly roll it co-ordinated well. A lesson learnt as the beginning of the quilt didn't seem to meld as well as towards the end. No matter, I'm sure a baby/toddler won't care and mum will be OK with it too. 

Size: 45" by 55"

You can see the lines of quilting that develop as you go. I still think I may do a stipple on the front to hold it a little more firmly as I had some sections that were a little larger than just one strip. It is a quick way to create a quilt though. So that was number seven. 

I also had a fat quarter of some cute fabric that also lent itself to choosing bright frames for the blocks. 

So this piece with its farm buildings, trees and windmills found a home with three inch edging/sashing pieces in the form of quarter log cabins and a wide couple of borders.


Again a gentle stipple was fun to go around it. I also made a bit of a challenge for myself getting that brown border to continue in the same direction not just for the border, but also for the binding. It does make the corners a touch thick, but thank goodness for a walking foot to help attach binding!
Since the background of the feature fabric had pale grey in it, I thought this piece with grey and lemon from my stash worked pretty well for the backing. 

Size: 43" square. 

So a win there too, as I am aiming to use up stash as much as possible in preference to having to buy backings. 
There are numbers six, seven and eight, but I have a feeling there could be more of these in the future. Small quits are such a satisfying thing to make as a result is provided quite quickly and you can try such different shapes and blocks for such varied results. 
Well, on to the other half dozen or so projects still calling out to me - they haven't really been forgotten, just on the back burner for a while. 

Until next time,
Lynn

3 comments:

  1. Lynn, these are just darling! So many happy, cute fabrics to make a child's day :) Congrats on all the finishes. The little ones are so fun to make, aren't they?

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  2. Such adorable and happy quilts. Love the sweet little giraffe peeking out. These will be loved!!!

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