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Monday 29 July 2019

Windmills

I bought a 6 pack of some fat quarters recently and it didn't make it into my stash, I saw a very simple pattern that I thought would work well for a baby quilt, so I began with the fat quarters. I did add or substitute one for some fabric from my stash as the fabric was too light to complete the pattern. The turquoise at the top here is the one I added to the quilt rather than a golden tone. It seemed to add balance to the quilt to me.


Windmills are very easy, particularly if you begin with two squares right sides together and sew the quarter inch all around the sides. Then all you need to do is cross cut diagonally as well as vertically and horizontally - that gives 8 half square triangles, making two windmills! All I needed to do then was work out how long I wanted the chunk of fabric to be and add some sashings. 

A friend had also given me some really cute fabric with foxes and other animals to use as backing. So it was on to the free-motion quilting. I thought I'd give swirls a go and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 



And the backing worked really well with the few colours on the front, so that was a win all around. This was always destined to be a baby quilt, it was just a matter of which baby. A friend told me today that her niece is pregnant with her second child, so I'm ahead of the game!


I've even got the top of the two and a half inch squares together, I just need to join the backing and then sandwich it up, then on to more quilting. Just as well I love it!


Until next time,
Lynn

Wednesday 3 July 2019

Baby Squares

When making a quilt from two and half inch squares, (as I'm currently doing) the appeal of 3 inch squares is quite strong it seems. Just that extra half inch - and the fact that a friend had gifted me some strips that size, called my name and I had to make some four patches. Beginning with the brightly coloured squares (second from the edge) I found colours that were either included or co-ordinated well. 

The centre went together quite quickly, then what to put on the border? I auditioned reds, blues, greens and then hit on this one that seems to work, perhaps because it links to the centre green. Since I'm also quilting another quilt that is a bit more intensive in the specific repeated pattern, the simplicity of the orange peel quilting and spineless feathers, which I really enjoy, made this a far easier and quicker finish. 



Here's a close up of some of the bright colours:

And I am so fortunate to have such wonderful friends who share their scraps, or pieces of backing they don't currently have a purpose for. Another friend gave me this cute sheeting that just seemed perfect for this baby/child quilt:

So I guess its on to the other works in progress now - amazing how much fun a small (this one's 45 inch square) quilt can be, very satisfying. I'll get the binding on and pass it on to my friend whose new baby grandson came three weeks early and has spent some time in intensive care.  

Until next time,
Lynn